Scott Galloway
Appearances
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits & Hustle. Crush it.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I wanted to look at the character and behaviors and strategies of that one guy or gal that ends up much more economically secure than the other four, despite not making much more money.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So the definition of rich, in my view, is passive income that's greater than your burn. Passive income is income you get even if you decide not to go to work in the morning. So two examples. A close friend of mine runs M&A for an iconic investment bank. He makes between $4 and $10 million a year, depending on the year. He pays a 50% tax rate living in Connecticut.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Between his ex-wife, his alimony, his three current kids, his home in the Hamptons, his flex check card, his master of the universe lifestyle that he believes he's entitled to, which you can understand, he spends almost all of it. And I know that he spends a lot of nights staring at the ceiling wondering what happens if the music stops. He's not rich.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
My father, between his Social Security, his Royal Navy pension, he was a frogman in the Royal Navy. And he owns, I think, eight washing and drying machines in trailer parks where he collects the quarters every day. He makes $52,000 a year. He spends 48. His passive income is greater than his burn. He's rich. My father's rich. So people always focus on how much money they're making.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You're doing really well. I follow, I track everyone, very competitive. You're right. I mean, you're constantly beating us all the time. Anyways, you're doing really well.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Really how you get wealth and how you get rich is how much money you spend. And so you wanna put yourself on a path over time such that you can spend less than you make, so you can deploy an army of capital that works for you in the night, compound interest, and hopefully by the time you're my age, your passive income is greater than your burn, and then you are rich.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Now, part of that is deciding how much you need. You might decide, I'm going to do a lifestyle arbitrage and move to Costa Rica, so me and my wife only need 80 grand a year to live a really nice life, 35 grand a And Social Security will make 10 or 15 grand doing some sort of work. So we need 30 grand in passive income times that by 15 to 25.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Okay, we need half a million to a million bucks in savings. That's intimidating. But if you got 12 or 15 years to figure that out, because my book is mostly written for young people, but for people who are a little bit older, you know what your burn is going to be. Think about it. You know, needing another half a million bucks over 15 years, it sounds intimidating. It sounds like $100,000 a year.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
It's not. It's 30 or $40,000 a year that you need to not touch and let grow. So rich is passive income, great in your burn. The formula, focus, find something you're good at that other people will pay you for. Go into an industry that has a 90 plus percent employment rate. Don't go into sports, modeling, acting, the arts.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Unless from a very early age, you are getting bright green signals that you're in the top 1%. Focus on something you're good at that has a 90 plus percent employment rate. Two, stoicism. Realize no one's thinking about your shit as much as you are. Try to have some discipline around not being the guy that orders a bottle of Grey Goose late at night trying to impress potential mates.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Realize that you only need so many pairs of ergonomically impossible shoes. Try and develop a savings muscle. try and control the things you can. Some things in your career you cannot control, you can control your spending.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Even in your 20s, I'm not suggesting you live like a miser, enjoy yourself, go to Coachella, but try and save a hundred bucks a month, maybe 500, maybe you're starting to make money.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Because once you have that savings muscle, once you know how to flex it, when you come into your 30s and hopefully start making some money from that focus and your talent, you'll be good at saving money or you'll at least know how. Some people go through their entire lives, they never learn how to save money. It's like, It's like trying to play golf for them all of a sudden.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And if they've never done it, they just don't know how to do it. And then appreciate the power of time. My favorite example is I spoke to a private school, the board of a private school in Manhattan. I wanted to send my kids to this Tony school called Grace Church or First Presbyterian, mostly because I'm a narcissist and I wanted to tell people my kids went to First Presbyterian.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Yeah, to resist is futile. Anyways, let's jump right into it, and I'll make all these jokes. I want to save this comedy gold for the tape.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
It's $62,000 a year. And I said to the board, why do people, why do parents choose to send their kids here? Well, it's a great spiritual environment. Okay, come on. There's studies that show if you send them to the nearest school, the public school, the time in the commute is better spent on sleeping, playing, they'll be just as good. Why do people really come here?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Like, well, the bottom line is much better chance of getting into an elite school. Okay, why do we care if they go to an elite school? Well, elite schools set you up for economic opportunities and the chance to do something you love and have economic security, find a family, raise a family. buy a home, I'm like, okay.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
It's bottom line is most of it, let's be honest, is economic security, which is really important in a capitalist society. If you took that $62,000 a year from the age of four to 18, and every year you just put it in SPY, a Vanguard index fund that is just passively investing in the S&P 500, And you paid Vanguard that tuition every year and sent your kids to a public school.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I want you to assume you were wrong. And those kids get into a shitty college. And then with their shitty college degree, they get a mediocre job. They can't afford a home. They can't find the right mate. And at 35, they're alone and can't afford a home. Well, that's the bad news. The good news is if you paid yourself that tuition, you can give that kid $5.4 million to ease their pain.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So if private schools were honest, they would say, first Presbyterian or $5.4 million to your kid at 35. But people don't think that way. My first bonus at Morgan Stanley when I was 23, I got a $28,000 bonus, so I went out and bought a $35,000 BMW. If I put that $28,000 in just an index fund, I'm not saying you have to be a genius.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You don't have to find the needle in the haystack, buy the whole haystack. I would have enough money for nine Ferraris now. People don't understand. When you're young, you want to lean into your advantage. When you're young, you have one advantage. You have time. And here's the problem, it sounds easy, it's not.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Okay, so we're on.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Because young people don't believe they're gonna live past 35, because for 99% of our time on this planet, our species has not lived past 35. So it's impossible to imagine you're gonna be around another 60 or 70 years, which you will be when you're 25.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And if you just get 9% a year, which sounds terrible, but that's what the NASDAQ's done, or excuse me, the S&P has done since it, that means, that means in 24 years, right, you're gonna have eight times your money. And in 32 years, you can have 16 times your money.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And when you're my age, even if you don't get an MBA contract or sell a novel or have your business sold, whatever it might be, you're financially secure. So it's appreciating time. And then the last thing, and this is underrated and it's where I fucked up several times, is the power of diversification. I came out of the gates really hot. I made a lot of money.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I started internet companies, was rich on paper, but I always doubled down on on my companies. Red envelopes going public. How much do I have in stock? Well, Scott, you have 20 million in stock. I'm going to borrow 5 million against my stock and buy more stock because anything I throw myself at, I'm such a baller. It's going to be huge.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And I read these stories about Steve Ballmer borrowing more money and putting into Microsoft, in it to win it. My board loves it, shows commitment. 2008 comes along, great financial recession. The market is bigger than any individual. My company goes from seven bucks a share to chapter 11 in about three weeks. And I go from being worth millions or tens of millions to negative three million.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And unfortunately, it was about the same time my oldest son had the poor judgment to come marching out on my girlfriend. And that moment in the delivery room where my kid comes out and I'm supposed to hear angels singing and bright angelic light. And I feel so nauseous and so ashamed that I let my son down because despite having made all this money, I am broke. And it's no longer about me.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
It's about taking care of him. And the feeling of, you know, that I had the first thing I felt with my son was that I had failed him. And if I just diversified a little bit, if I just sold some stock and put it in some boring shit, if I just sold some stock and put it in bonds and different stocks and some index funds, I would have been fine. And now that I have money again and I got wealthy.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
and sold my company in my number about 70 years ago, I do not put more than 3% of my net worth in any one thing. And if you'd asked me what investment I was most excited about, I would have said this AI-based healthcare company where they send text messages for preventive healthcare. I invested 3% of my net worth because I was really excited about it.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
It went out of business last week, it's a zero. It bums me out for about an hour because I have Kevlar and that's what diversification is. It's a bullet to the chest, but I got Kevlar Takes me off my feet. I get up. I have a little bit of a bruise, but I am fine. Whereas when bullets hit me when I was a younger man and I wasn't diversified, I was out. They were almost near-death experiences.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So hope you're wrong. Hope that that one company goes to the moon, but diversify. Because what Kahneman said, the behavioral economist that died a couple months ago, is the joy of going from $10 million to $1 billion won't be nearly as great as the misery of going from 10 to zero. So you don't need to go from 10 million to a billion. Go from 10 to 20 to 30 slowly and just be really happy.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So anyways, focus times stoicism times the appreciation for time and diversification. So in sum, I know how to get you rich. That's the good news. The bad news, Jen, is the answer is slowly.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Why is that? If you're using a side hustle to workshop something, if you're doing side hustles, it means you have the wrong main hustle. The way you get wealthy is with a main hustle that you're really good at and you take all the time you would have spent on a side hustle and you double down on your main hustle.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Because being in the top 10% of tax accountants, assuming, and by the way, I'm not saying this disparagingly. Some people love the law. Some people love taxes. Some people are good with clients. They're good with numbers. They love tax strategies. Being in the top 10% of tax accountants gets you two or 300 grand a year. Being in the top 1% gets you two to 3 million.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
The difference between, and I'll use a sports analogy, between the number 10 golfer is $3 million a year versus the number two or three golfer, we're literally talking 0.2 strokes, is $30 to $50 million a year. You need that incremental energy doubling down, going 110% in your main gig. Otherwise, use side gigs to workshop a different main gig. But your goal is to find something
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I'm like AOL and I used to resist as futile. If you stick your hand in a cereal box, you're going to pull out a pod from us. I'm like, it's not quality, just surround them.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
where professionally, every waking professional hour, you're focused on one thing, and then the rest is for family and fitness. But spreading peanut butter across a bunch of different shit, I have never been successful at anything I didn't go 110% into.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And when I hear people say they want to be an entrepreneur, but first they need to work for a while and they don't want to give up their job, I'm like, you're not going to be an entrepreneur. I mean, And also, the thing I really hate is balance. I survey my kids, and when I say my kids, my students, I ask them, where do you expect to be economically by the time you're 35?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
70%, 80% of them expect to be in the top 10%, and half of them expect to be in the top 1%, which I think is $700,000 a year of American households. And then I say, okay, what do you want in a job? Something rewarding, something I learn a lot. And the number one thing is I want balance. I'm like, let me get this.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You expect to be in the top 1% and you are under the delusion you're gonna have balance. I have had periods in my life where I have good relationships I'm fit. I'm donating time at the ASPCA. I'm taking care of my mental health. That is when I am losing money. And then there's been periods where I am making bank and my life feels like it is flying apart at the fucking scene.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And when I tell people... You can have it all. You just can't have it all at once. I have a lot of balance now because I had almost none in my 20s and 30s. Working this hard, my 20s and my 30s cost me my hair. It cost me my first marriage. And to be blunt, it was worth it because now I have a shit ton of time for my kids, for my own personal well-being. I do amazing things.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I had a five-year exhale where I no longer have any economic security. I can totally focus on my relationships and just having a great time. But if you think you're going to achieve any level of influence or economic security in a capitalist, competitive economy— Without going all in, I mean, all fucking in, you are in for a rude awakening. Now, that's my way. It may not be the right way.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
If you want to work to live, not live to work, fine. You know, as Lincoln said, God loved the common man. That's why he made so many of them. But you need to get in alignment with your partner and have a sober conversation that maybe we can't live in Manhattan or in Santa Monica. Maybe we need to move to Phoenix or move to El Paso or move to, you know, you name it, low cost area, St. Louis.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And we're going to have a nice house, maybe, but not a fat house. And we're going to have to adjust our expectations around quality of life. And what I find causes more divorce and more dissent. It's not infidelity or a lack of shared values. It's not alignment around economic weight class. What's our approach to spending? Who's responsible for making the money?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
What economic weight class do we expect to be in and who's responsible for getting us there and keeping us there? And when you don't have that alignment and there's weird dynamics around control and expectations, and then people start hiding things from each other.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
70% of divorce filings, people over the age of 40 are filed by women, and the vast majority of the time you can reverse engineer it to money, money issues. So I think it is exceptionally important that you have really open, sober conversations around your expectations and that your partner is aligned. And I see so much dysfunction in my friends' relationships around money.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And no one's allowed to talk about it because we're all supposed to pretend that we're ballers and that, oh, I don't have a problem with money. Saying you have problems with money is like saying you're not worthy in a capitalist society. This is implicit notion that you fucked up. And here's the thing. I don't care who you are. I mean, there's a few people to 0.1%. Everyone has stress from money.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I still have stress from money. There's still times I have more money than I ever thought I would. And sometimes I'm like, oh, fuck, we can't. Where am I going to find money? You know, we're renovating a house. Where am I going to find money for this? Or I just gave away money. Did I give away too much? I constantly have economic stress.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And it was hands down my biggest source of stress growing up in my household, hands down. But we're not allowed to talk about it. You need to have these conversations early and have a sober conversation around what economic weight class you need to be in and what are the sacrifices required to get there.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Thanks very much. Greatness in the agency of other about six people worked on the book. But yeah, thank you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Yeah, I do. I think there's an entire generation of men. There's 3 million able-bodied men between the ages of 25 and 54 who not only aren't working, they're not looking for work. They've just given up on work. And in a full employment economy, it's just like they could get a job. They've just decided any job they could get. I was on the board of Panera, and this is a good thing.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Through the pandemic, there was a labor shortage. You can pretty much start tomorrow at Panera for 18, 20 bucks an hour, and that's not huge money. But if you're good and reliable, we go to a job fair. We used to get 100 applicants. Now we get 10 and we'll hire five and two will show up. Three are just no shows.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And if you work hard, you're a good person, you have some EQ, without a college degree now, you can probably be making, I don't know, 60, 80, 100 grand a year, just if you're hardworking and a good person. And some people, young people, unfortunately, I think a lot of them have been told you can have it all.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And so they're like, and then 210 times a day, someone is vomiting their experience at the Almond Hotel or the new Ferrari they just bought. And they're under the impression that everyone has that but them, and they can get that without hard work. Or they can be ridiculously fucking thin with a six pack and a hot boyfriend and it's just going to happen for them.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So we've created a little bit of unreasonable expectations. I'm more worried about young men. I think young women are, if you really think about statistically, young women are killing it. They're going to college in greater numbers. They're in urban centers. Women under the age of 30 are now making more money than men because they're graduating at three to two ratio from college.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
They're more mature. They show up for work on time. I mean, little things they, you know.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Right.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But both parties are to blame. Okay. Men, young men, for a variety of reasons, some societal, some is on them, are economically and emotionally unviable. They're less mature. They literally mature. The prefrontal cortex matures at a slower rate. They're not going to college. They've been told by the wealthiest, deepest pocketed companies in the world they can have a reasonable facsimile of life.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
online with an algorithm? Why go out and make the effort to get friends when you can go on Discord or Reddit? Why get a job when you can make money trading crypto on Coinbase or stocks on Robinhood?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Why go through the effort and the rejection and the humiliation and establishing the skills and getting your mom or your gay friend to dress you, working out, taking the risk, going to a place, putting up with the bullshit and the rejection of finding a romantic or sexual partner when you just have you porn?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And so you have an entire cohort of men who have sequestered from society, they don't get those skills, they go down a rabbit hole and they become almost sort of just non-viable mates. At the same time, because online dating is how people meet each other, women aren't interested in getting to a second date. What do I mean by that?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You basically have height and wealth now are the key criteria for women, humor, vibe, kindness, smell, none of these things come through online. So 50 men on Tinder, 50 women, and you highlighted some of the state data, 46 of the women show all of their attention to just four men. And those four men can have a date every night that doesn't encourage long-term good appropriate behavior, right?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So remember what I said before, greatness in the agency of others. People constantly say to me, you must work around the clock. And I don't work more than 30 hours a week. Hold on a second.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So you have all these women who all want the same guy. And if you talk to married couples who've been together 20 or 30 years, About 70, 80% of the time, they'll say one partner was much more interested than the other.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And it's usually the woman was not interested, but I worked with him and he was kind, or I found out he's smart, or I met his parents and I loved the way he acted around his parents. I got to know him and there was something about him. I liked his hands and I started thinking about his hands holding my hand. Women have a much finer filter.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And for a guy to get through that filter, he typically has to demonstrate excellence over time in a community where they're together in person. And so when you're online, there's basically only two criteria. For a guy, it's his ability to signal wealth by his credentialing around universities and went to his current job. And for guys, it's basically, how does she look?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Now, here's the thing about guys. Guys will find the majority of women or a large portion of them attractive. Oh, she has nice hair. I'd like to date her. Women are much more discerning. Women are like, oh, he went to Dartmouth, but I don't want an Ivy League guy. oh, he's handsome, he went to a good school, but he's in the energy sector. That means he's polluting.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
They will just literally swipe left, swipe left, swipe left. So my advice to men is simply put, get your shit together, get out, start making money. I don't care what it is. Get to the gym. I can find time in their phone, on Coinbase, on Twitter, on porn. We're going to reinvest in working out. We're going to reinvest in making some money. And we're going to be in the agency of other people.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I don't care what it is. Little, you know, a softball league, church, a nonprofit, you have to get out of the house and be in the company of strangers and start demonstrating excellence to the same sex or the other sex. And what I tell women is, be open to a second coffee. Be open. I mean, if you really don't like the guy, fine.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But if you think there may be something there, give him a second shot. Because I believe that essentially most women are under the impression that that they can have that what I'll call high status male. And having sex with him does not mean he's a potential viable relationship for you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
It's a doorbell. We're basically an Amazon distribution center here. No, I have... So people think it's me. PropG is a media company. We have 14 people. I have three data analysts, two tech people, a videographer, a creative person, an editor-in-chief. And I like building small companies and we produce a great deal of content. I really enjoy it.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And what you end up with is I think this inability or unwillingness to give men in the bottom 90 a second coffee. So everybody's going after the same guy. This guy has, like you said, champagne and cocaine in terms of his options, which does not promote something what I call Porsche polygamy. And And by the way, that's the natural state of the world.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
The natural state of the world is a small number of men get to do all of the mating. That's how the world mostly is operated. In the U.S., we invented a middle class. Seven million men came home from war. They were in uniform. They were in shape. They had demonstrated excellence. We put money in their pockets. They were viable mates. That's what kicked off the baby boom.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
What we have now is an entire cohort of economically and emotionally unviable men. Women, it's not that they can't find a man, they can't find a man they want to date. That's right. What's happened is now is that two in three women under the age of 30, though, have a boyfriend. Only one in three men. Why? Because women are dating older. 24-year-old women are dating a 38-year-old guy.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So the young guy has no options because any kind of high status or remotely, you know, shit together woman is going older. The problem is there's not as much household formation. Kids aren't having, people aren't having babies. 60% of people age 30 to 34 in 1980 had at least one child. Now it's 27%. People aren't meeting. They're not falling in love. They're not having sex.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
The people, one out of three men under the age of 30 hasn't had sex in the last year. Young people aren't having sex. And I say jokingly, but I'm sort of serious. My advice to young people is to go out, drink more and make a series of bad decisions that might pay off. But if you have this incredibly fine filter, even politics, do you remember when we used to date when we were younger?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Did you even know the politics of the person you were dating? No.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Can you talk about politics? I'm like, does she seem fun? Would I want to have sex with her? Like, is she interesting? And then, OK, does she have nice friends? And that was it. I had no idea. And now everyone's like, well, if they're red or blue, I'm out. I'm out. There's no way I could put up with this person.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So we've created all these reasons for people to mark each other off of their relationship. dating lists. I'm like, you got to be a little bit more open and we need more third spaces. We need people to spend more time together so they can... We've all met that person. You saw pictures of them online. There's absolutely no reason you'd be attracted to them. And you see the way they move.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You see the way they laugh. You see their vibe and you just like want to be around them. You kind of slowly but surely fall in like, and then maybe fall in lust, and then maybe fall in love. And we're not giving young people enough environments to do that. And we're also not creating enough economically viable men because the
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
The truth is, if we're going to have an honest conversation around mating, women mate socioeconomically horizontally and up, men horizontally and down. And when the pool of horizontal and up among men keeps shrinking because women are doing better, which, by the way, is a great thing. We should do nothing to do that.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But the reality is, I don't care how many subscriptions to The Atlantic you have or how much you read The New York Times, women want a man. and their view of a man is that he makes as much or more money than me.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And look, I know there are exceptions, but when the woman starts making more money than the man, he's three times as likely to go on ED drugs, and the likelihood of divorce doubles from the moment the woman starts making more money than the man. I don't Women still look at men in terms of a provider and protector. And so I think there is reason. I don't want to have affirmative action for men.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But be clear, I used to work... When I was your age, I was working around the clock. And now I've decided that I want to The reason I moved to Europe is I think the U.S. is the best place to make money and Europe is the best place to spend it. And I'm in the spending part of my life.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
That's too politicized. But I do think we need to massively level up young people such that more young women and young men are more viable economically. Because I don't care how charming, how nice, how hard you work. If you can't support a potential spouse and her kids, she's just not going to want to have a long-term relationship with you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
At least the women are out though. I was out and someone said, look over there, look at all those women on their phones. I'm like, but you notice it's tables of women? I'm like, do you see any tables of young men? The young men are all home. I mean, at least the women are out. Women have much stronger social networks. They take care of themselves. They're in better shape.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
They're professionally killing it. Globally, you've never seen a group ascend as fast as women. Over the last 40 years, the number of women elected to parliament has doubled. There are now more women globally seeking tertiary jobs. education than men. And when you look at some nations discourage or don't let women go pursue higher ed, that's remarkable.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
There's never been a cohort in America that's fallen further faster than young men. Men are now four times as likely to kill themselves. It used to be three to one. Now it's four to one. They are dropping out of the workforce. They're three times as likely to be addicted, 12 times as likely to be incarcerated. We talk about the opioid addiction problem. It's a male opioid addiction problem.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
72% of ODs are men. We have a homeless problem. Well, yeah, but we really have a male homeless problem. Three in four homeless are men. And so what do we have? Young men are really struggling. And here's the hard part. We can fix it, but there are programs to address a lot of these, but we don't have any empathy for them. They're paying the price of my privilege and my father's privilege.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I do Prop 2 Media because I want to talk about things that are important to me, struggling young men, Israel, you know, big tech. But I'm now in this, I'm in the privileged position of my life. where there's three buckets in life. There's things you have to do.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
They assume that they have the same advantage as I did, and they don't. They're not getting into colleges. Women, quite frankly, are not that open. Their sexual and romantic marketplace has been shut off for them. Corporations have figured out that women are more mature and more likely to go to an elite college, so they don't have the same economic opportunities.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
The bias is neutral to negative towards them. The education system really discriminates against men. You're twice as likely to be suspended on a behavioral adjusted basis if you're a male, five times as likely if you're a black male. Who works in schools now? It's between 70% and 80% females. There are more per capita female fighter pilots than there are male kindergarten teachers. So you have
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You couple that with the second most single family homes in the world behind Sweden, which is Latin for headed by a mother. You have millions of young men who, until the age of 25, literally have no men in their lives. And this isn't an insult to the superheroes that are single mothers. I was raised by one of them.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But the single point of failure for reverse engineering when a boy comes off the tracks is the following. He loses a male role model. And one in six men, when they get divorced within three years, no longer have any contact with their kids and oftentimes aren't geographically close. And you have an entire cohort of men, of boys, who have no men in their lives.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And that's when they become much more likely to engage in self-harm, much more likely to be incarcerated. Men play a really important role in boys' lives. What's interesting is the same study shows that girls have similar outcomes in the single-parent household. They're just as likely to go to college. They make the same amount of money. So the net of it is while boys are physically stronger,
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
They're emotionally and mentally much weaker. And the presence of a male role model, and this is a shout out. I try to get involved in young men's or boys' lives. You don't have to be a baller. You just need to be trying to live a virtuous life. And here's the problem. I was on the Bill Maher show and I said, if we want better men, we have to be better men. We need to get involved.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You know, if you're biggest investors in town or, you know, your in-laws are in town, you got to have dinner with them, whatever it is, things you have to do. There's things you want to do, right? You just went to Israel. I'm going to the South of France. We went to the Cannes Creativity Festival, which I'm really excited about. And there's things you should do.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I think the ultimate expression of masculinity is to get involved in the life of a child that isn't yours, specifically the opportunity as a young boy. And they're everywhere. You barely even need to cast a net and you're gonna find that your nanny's kid is struggling, or you're gonna find that your friend's kid is your coworker at work that her son is really struggling.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You're just going to find these men everywhere, everywhere. The ultimate expression of masculinity is to get involved in their life. And Bill Maher, I said this, and Bill Maher said, oh, I get involved in a 15-year-old boy's life and everyone thinks I'm a pervert. And this is so sad. Michael Jackson and the Catholic Church have fucked it up for all of us because there's a ton of men out there
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
That for whatever reason, maybe they're successful and they have their own kids or maybe they don't have kids and they feel a lot of paternal and fraternal love. They want to help boys and young men out. And I've experienced this firsthand. I had this guy across the hall in the apartments I lived with my mother. Nice guy. He was probably in his late 20s, 30s. introduced himself.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
He was going horseback riding with his girlfriend, came over and said, Scott, want to come horseback riding? She's like, it's not a horseback ride. That guy took me horseback riding every other week for like a year or two years. This is nice guy. I met a stockbroker. I bought stock when I was 13. This guy, Cy Saro, 50 years, 45 years later, Cy and I
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Cy and I still exchanged text messages and used to give me lessons on the market. Two of my mom's boyfriends stayed in contact with me all the way through college. And that male mentorship was instrumental in me not coming off the tracks. I remember one of them one time saying to me, you know, I had dinner with him and he said, is that pot? Do I smell pot? I'm like, oh yeah.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
He's like, did you smell it? No, I have a joint in my pocket. He's like, He's like, okay, look, I love pot, but like, tell me about it. And I had a conversation with him about drugs. You can have that conversation with a man. I couldn't have that conversation with my mom. She just would have freaked out and she couldn't handle it. So look, I'm a big believer that
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
if men don't start getting involved in boys' lives, that we're not going to solve this problem. And unfortunately, there's a lack of empathy, and that void has been filled by some thinly veiled misogynistic voices, the Andrew Tates of the world that just say, be a baller, sign up for my crypto universe, treat women like property, act like a real man. That is not helping.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And you build your career doing things you should do. You know, going to a networking function, going to South by Southwest and speaking on a panel where you might get some exposure. I have eliminated the should bucket from my life. And I only do things I have to do or that I want to do.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But also, society has to recognize that if any other special interest group was killing themselves at four times the rate of the control group, we would move in with programs and opportunities. And there's no empathy for these kids.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You can't tell people who to be attracted to. And the thing about these guys is that the message actually starts off fine. It starts off positive. Be in shape. Be action oriented. Make money. Right. Where it comes off the track is when you start saying, you know, they start immediately go to, I would never let my girlfriend go out alone, right? She stays home for me. She cook.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Sign up for my crypto university. Own a supercar. Like, it's all easy. You can be a baller like me. And it's like, okay, you're giving these guys no path. You're basically telling them to treat women like property. But yeah, it's really funny, Jen. Whenever I meet with women who, like you said, I meet with a lot of women, really attractive, really interesting, high character women.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And they'll pull me aside and say, do you have anyone you can set me up with? And I'm like, quite frankly, no. I'm still searching for the unicorn of a nice guy that's single right now, that makes a good living. I mean, I know a few of them, but for every one, I know at least 10 single women.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And what's interesting is they, 50% of the time, they'll look at me and they'll go like sheepishly, like it's some big insight. And they're like, oh, by the way, I like really like alpha men. Like, oh, no shit.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Exactly. I mean, you don't want some sensitive guy in a tweed suit watching PBS all day that wants to talk about his feelings and his hero is Alan Alda. Like, okay. Yeah. Words out that women like men. And distinctive what we read about what people claim is a sensitive man and a new. OK, fine.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Women are attracted to guys who are in shape, make a lot of money and have a decent amount of facial hair. They essentially want a caveman with an Amex card.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And I didn't take outside money for the first time for this company because I don't want to be responsible to anyone, but paying my employees really well, which we're able to do. And we produce a ton of content. I'm working with really talented people. But be clear, when you see something I put out, it's a bunch of other people producing it. I'm just the talent that they prop up and press play.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And I'm not talking about what should be. I'm talking about what is. And I when I talk to young men, I'm like, all right, how are you going to be more attractive to women? Like, what do you have to would you want to have sex with you right now? I mean, I ask these questions like, so what do we need?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You need to get in great shape. You need to get physically strong. You need to start making money. You need to have a plan. And that is you don't have to be a baller. You don't have to wait to make a bunch of money, but have a plan for God's sakes. When someone asks you what's your plan, have a plan. You don't even need to know that that is the plan.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But have a plan and be tracking towards that plan and take care of yourself physically. Be kind. Kindness is actually attractive to women. There are three things women are attracted to. The first is the ability to signal resources. The second is intellect. I always say this, the easiest way to get a woman naked is to make her laugh. And I realize that that's sort of triggering.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I feel like, let me impersonate a woman. I'm laughing, I'm laughing, I'm naked. If you can make a woman laugh. If you can make a woman laugh, you can hold her hand and more. And then the third thing is kindness. And that is don't be afraid to be a nice guy. Don't be afraid to show other people that you're respectful. Don't be afraid to have manners. That is attractive to women.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
They know if they start thinking about you long term, they start thinking, is this a guy that is going to treat me and my children well? Anyways, I think about this stuff a lot. I'm thinking about writing a book called The Algebra of Mating because I think there is a narrative around there. around how people actually should find each other. And then I think there's what's going on.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But the net of it all right now is an epidemic of loneliness. One out of seven men don't have a single friend. One in four men can't name a best friend. People aren't having as much sex. Household formation is going down. Fewer and fewer people are having children. If it wasn't for immigration, we'd be in population decline.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But I think this is sad because when I think about the things that have really been rewarding for me, I'm known as a business guy, but the most rewarding things in my life have been raising kids with someone that I care a great deal about. And the money has been a means to that, full stop. It lets me focus on that.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But without that, yeah, the money would be great, but I don't think I'd have nearly as much satisfaction. And it makes me very sad to think that a lot of women and men who are decent people, high character people, for one reason or another, aren't going to experience that. I think it's really, I don't know, I think it's upsetting.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
It's kind of weekend at Bernie's. I got other people carrying me around.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Well, okay, so we have a division of the Army called PSYOPs, and their job is Radio Free Europe, Radio America. Their job is to leverage our assets, our channels, and spread information that is pro-America. That's called propaganda. The greatest propaganda tool in history... is controlled and influenced by the CCP. It's called TikTok.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
The frame through which people under the age of 25 see the world is this platform that's controlled or influenced by the CCP. 51% of kids under the age of 25 say they're either a check several times a day or are constantly on TikTok. And if you look at the data, for every one pro-Israel video served on TikTok, 52 pro-Palestine videos are served.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You think, well, Scott, that's just young people or talented creators. You're being paranoid. And the algorithm picks up on it and exponentially serves more videos. There's nothing sinister. Okay. The control group would be Reels, which is the closest thing to TikTok. It's nowhere near that ratio. It's much more indicative of actually how young people feel.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Actually, the latest survey I saw is that 55% of young people are actually pro-Israel and 45% are pro-Palestine. The impression we have because of this, what I call zombie apocalypse of useful idiots on campus, is that it's 90-10. It's not. They're more vocal. The media loves to talk about what's going on at Columbia.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
They don't want to talk about an Israeli girl who was just elected president there. I've been at NYU. 99% of the kids are just going to class and trying to graduate. but there's definitely something going on. And on the part of the CCP, I don't even think it's antisemitism. I think it's their desire to polarize us and divide us. They can't beat us economically. They can't beat us militarily.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So divide us. If people our age all were pro-Hamas and young people were pro-Israel, I think they'd be serving pro-Israel content. I don't think it's inherently antisemitic. It's just anti-American. They just want to polarize us. Now, there's a lot of things adding up to what ultimately becomes what I would call anti-Israel.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I don't like to use the word anti-Semitic because I think that it's hard to accuse people of hating Jews. I think people will constantly say there's a difference between being anti-Israel and anti-Semitic, and I get it. What I'll call it is a level of double standards that is just striking that they don't even recognize. I had an argument with my co-host on Pivot literally an hour and a half ago.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I had said my win for the week, we do wins and fails, was the dramatic and heroic rescue of these four hostages. And I said, okay, the Gaza health ministry is reporting 225 deaths, which means it was somewhere between zero and 225. These numbers are never accurate. And she got very upset and said, people died here.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I'm like, okay, the point I am making is that if you see a number from the Gaza health ministry, why on earth would the media keep citing these numbers when they know they're wrong and know they will inflate the number of children killed and people under the age of 18? If any other group was citing inaccurate data, this consistently, they would no longer cite that data.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And the reason Israel doesn't produce numbers is because they take the numbers seriously and they realize they can't determine the number of people killed for months at a time. The differences here are in my view, are just so striking, and I'm remiss to call them anti-Semitic. What I would call them is anti-Israel, that everybody, you get shouted down. I mean, people are really upset with me.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I am not in favor of a truce. And that is, okay, it's 1944. We have turned back Hitler. Post D-Day, we are bombing Dresden and Hamburg. It is fucking horrific what we are doing to these people. We are killing women and children. We killed 45,000 people in Hamburg, 44, five of them were civilians. We killed 100,000 people in one night in the firebombing of Tokyo.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
If they'd asked for a truce and we were winning the war and they held our hostages, would we have said, okay, let's give the Imperial Army and the Third Reich a chance to regroup? When have we decided after being savagely attacked that we're going to hold up and give them a chance to regroup? Now, some people would say, Scott, you're never going to do it. You can't kill Hamas. It's an idea.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And I'm like, bullshit. We killed communism. We killed fascism. I mean, this sounds savage. They have invited war and Israel has accepted their invitation. If the UAE and Qatar and the U.S. and Israel come to a solution that involves a truce, and can guarantee the security of Israel. I'm all for it. Nobody wants to see this killing continue.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Palestine now has the largest concentration of child amputees in the world. It is horrific. If we can figure out something that guarantees Israel safety, security, I'm all for it. Until then, my attitude is we wage war. And I say we generously. And people say, you're comparing Hamas to Nazis? And I'm like, that's unfair to Nazis. The Nazis didn't use civilians as camouflage or ammunition.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
They used to send their kids into the country. The Nazi guards had guns. had psychological trauma from working in the camps. The Hamas combatants and fighters are leaving voicemails for their parents shouting in glee. So I have what I'd call a pretty, I mean, I hate to use this term, but a pretty ugly view of this.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
First off, you're being very generous. And what I'll say is after working my ass off for 30 years, I'm an overnight success. I mean, this wasn't like I woke up and all of a sudden I was on Morning Joe. I have been working my ass off. And I feel like I'm rounding third and taking some of those accolades. I know how hard you work.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And that is, I don't understand every nation that's attacked this viciously is allowed to fight back to one condition, unconditional surrender, lay down your arms. All eyes on Rafa, all eyes on the hostages. I just don't. The way the Western media frames this conflict is so perverted and queered.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
If a Mexican cartel that was super religious had been elected to run Mexico and they said, you know what? These white evangelicals in Texas have been savages to us. Do you see what they do to our youth? Young kids looking for a better life. They put them in cages. All of these things are true. They shoot at people just looking for a better life. They round them up on horseback.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So we're going to build tunnels and we're going to incur into taxes on a per capita basis. Israel has 10 million. We have 350 million. We're going to kill, we're going to slaughter the entire community of the University of Texas, Austin, 35,000 people. And on the way back, we're going to take the freshman class of SMU hostage and put them under Mexico City in tunnels. What would we do to Mexico?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
What would we do? It would be the great radiated Sonora parking lot. And when the whole world in the UN or the ICC was saying, save the hospital in Playa del Carmen, do you think we would give a flying fuck? Do you think we would be worried about collateral damage?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And if you look at this war, when the real numbers start to bubble up, the humanity or the targeting or whatever you want to call this of this war, according to John Spencer, who runs the Urban Warfare Institute at West Point, the ratio of civilians killed to combatants is lower here than it was in Germany, was in Japan, was in Mosul, has been in almost any war anyone can compare it to.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
The Israelis are prosecuting this war more, quote unquote, humanely than any other Western democracy has prosecuted a war. I hope there's a ceasefire that all parties are comfortable with. Be clear, America would not sign up for a ceasefire if anything resembling what had happened to the Israelis had happened to us. And also, Jen, you've spoken out.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I'm sick of seeing you, Deborah Messing, and Jessica Seinfeld. I am really disappointed that more Jews aren't speaking out. And there's such a blowback because social media likes the algorithm and young people like to virtue signal and some young people do feel very passionate about the issue.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
In terms of my core competence, my superpower as an individual is storytelling. I get a lot of practice. I sit in front of or stand in front of 300 people twice a week. I know how to craft a narrative. I know how to move people, I think, to think differently. Use of data and humor softens the beach such that it opens their mind to new ideas.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And we at universities have indoctrinated them into an orthodoxy that there's the oppressor and the oppressed. And the way you identify oppressors is how white and how rich they are. And ground zero for white and rich in terms of perception is Israel and Jews. I get it. I was stupid once. I'm more forgiving of them. These professors at my university in Columbia, joining hands with them?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Let me get this. You don't have the critical thinking to not show empathy for an ideology that if it got traction, the United States would see our gay students thrown off a roof and women would be treated like property and there'd be gender apartheid? Well, guess what, boss? You're not paying us. You're not 19. You should be summarily fired. And like, well, what about First Amendment?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
First Amendment? Knock yourself out. Go to Washington Square Park and say whatever you want. There's no First Amendment at a private employer. It just strikes me that some of my colleagues think that under the notion of social protest, they can act like such village idiots, and we have an obligation to put up with it. I'm talking to the regents of the University of California.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I think some students should be suspended or expelled. We should cut a wide berth for them, forgive a lot of them. The people who deserve to be swiftly and crisply punished are faculty who've gotten in the way of commencement, gotten in the way of our mission of educated students. Anyway, I am going way off script here.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I have found at every turn, I find so few issues where you can have this level of moral clarity. I think we're going to look back on this and we're going to think, Jesus, just the both-side-ism here is so striking, is so unusual. And again, it just all comes down to the same thing. If it's non-white people creating, killing people, whatever, it's page seven.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
If it's Jews engaging, I mean, BBC, four hostages rescued. First, it was released. Then they changed the word to rescued. And then the next thing, 247 people, Palestinians killed. Well, who's saying 247? Well, it's a source that we keep revising down the number. So, look, I find this all very frustrating. I find it all totally two-sided. I am shocked by what's going on, absolutely shocked.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
The hopeful thing is that I'd like to think that the kingdom is going to normalize relations with Israel, which will create the ultimate iron down. I mean, Jesus Christ, Jordan and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia were coordinating everything. with Israel to shoot down the 300 projectiles coming in from Iran.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
What does the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Jordan know that these far-left groups on the campuses don't know? They want nothing to do with Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. They realize they bring chaos and violence. So... I am discouraged, but at the same time, I think the Biden administration has been steadfast, mostly in their support.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Some of their statements have made no sense to me, but we do have two Ford-class carriers sitting off the coast of the Mediterranean. I'm hopeful that we're going to come to some sort of solution eventually, but I want to be clear. I'm not sure if I were Israel right now, I would take a truce or ceasefire, excuse me.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And I can craft a narrative and an arc and the cadence and delivery of that. I think that's my superpower. My core competence is the ability to attract and retain really good people who can leverage that storytelling, that skill as, you know, see above prop G is 14 people.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
To be fair, he was only credited on one article. But yeah, people have sympathy for these people. It's pretty dangerous work to house hostages. Sympathy for these people?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I agree. Yeah, we're of like minds on this. Look, I think a lot of people in the media, look, this is the first war being prosecuted on TikTok. War is horrific. America decided to have a media blackout. People think that those 400,000 people who died in Iraq and Afghanistan just kind of floated away. War, war is horrific. And we're seeing that up front.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And maybe that'll be a good thing that over time we were more measured around war. When you incur the way you did into a nation like this. Let me go back. I do think you can be anti-Israel without being anti-Semitic. I do think that Netanyahu, and there's a lot of people who are anti-Israel in Israel right now in terms of 30% support of Netanyahu.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I want to move to solutions, normalize relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, some sort of multilateral force that guarantees. Israeli security. I'm all for making massive investments to upgrade Gaza such that these people can live in some sort of dignity and that Israel has security. I want to get to the next side of this. I also think that we have to get Netanyahu out.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
73 war, there was a reckoning. That's when Golda Meir came into power. I think we have to turn the page and Israel needs to start working on its brand again. The hostage rescue is great for the brand. Them fighting back, I actually think long-term is good for their brand.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I think the reason that my content is resonating right now, and it's easy to pat yourself on the book is I'm running into the fire. I'm talking about the struggles that young men face. And I started talking about it five years ago, it was seen as thinly veiled misogyny. And I got a lot of pushback. I talk about Israel and you know, as well as I do, you get a lot of pushback.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But until we get Netanyahu out, in my view, and I'm not telling Israel what to do because they're a sovereign nation, they get to pick their own leaders. But the reality is he has struck a deal with the extremists in Israel, and they have been, in my view, given way more oxygen and legitimacy to some of very bigoted members of the Knesset. And we used to be the David.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Now we're seen as the Goliath. We've got to go back to being the David. So it is a complicated, ugly situation. But the way the Western media frames it all is just incredibly strange to me. I don't fully understand it. Even my podcast co-host, she'll correct me on stuff. I find she's very exacting around this issue when it comes to data. And I think it comes from a good place.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I think she wants to be empathetic, realizing the horrors of war. But... This has taken me from center left. I won't say center right because the right is so batshit crazy. I can't get over how the far left is behaving here. I just can't get over it. I just don't get it. And I think it's a lot of academics' fault.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I think we've trained a younger generation to believe that you're either an oppressor or oppressor. And somehow we've conflated white, rich people with oppressors, and that is shorthand for Jews in Israel. So anyways, a huge word salad. I'm hopeful that we can get to the other side of this sooner rather than later.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
This is what I would do. I mean, I'm in branded communications. If I were the Republican Party, I would just show footage of what's happened on campuses. I mean, this is what happens when liberal orthodoxy and democratic values take over our institutions. And I would show all of these, the worst moments at campuses. And unfortunately, the media has blown it up. There's been 2,300 arrests
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Somewhere between 40% and 60% weren't even students, so it's been totally blown out of proportion. But there have been some horrific moments that moderates will look at and go, wow, the Democrats have really lost their shit here. Or I would just show what it's like in downtown LA, Portland, and Seattle, or San Francisco, these very democratic cities. I think you're right.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I think Israel, what's happened in terms of the reaction in the U.S., is going to hugely favor Republicans. I mean, I'm questioning if Republicans had been the Republicans from the 80s and 90s, I'd be a Republican right now. I'm fine with John McCain. I'm fine with Mitt Romney. They've gone so batshit crazy, I can't be anywhere near them.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I have very young viewers. My My podcast downloads went down 12%, which is a lot in one week when I started talking about Israel. And we're in a subscription model. So for people to purposely unsubscribe and you're down 12% and you're growing 20 to 30% year on year, it means you're doing something wrong and that's something wrong.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But the folks on the Democratic side, the squad showing sympathy for terrorists for no other reason than just as far as I can see, just bigotry. I think it's I think it's I think you might be right. I hate to admit it. I'm going to canvas for Biden. I'm going to give money. I'm going to I'm going to do everything I can. But this is going to hurt us big time.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
No, Kara's not Jewish. Her wife is Jewish. And by the way, I think her views are very empathetic. I think she wants to be balanced. I think she wants to make sure that we have our data correct. But I find the media, even the way the White House saved the hospital, we need to save our empathy for Rafa. I'm like, okay, the only things here are save the hostages.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
There needs to be unconditional surrender of Hamas. I don't.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
That's the only thing I would repeat over and over.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
He's an anti-vaxxer. I mean, death, disease and disability for children. Is that what you want? You wanted to come on my podcast and I wouldn't bring him on because I don't want to platform those views. And it's too bad because I think he's very good on Israel. I think he's very good on the environment. But I also want to be clear on Biden.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Within hours of the attack, Biden deployed the SS carrier strike force forward, thousands of Marines. And I think he's basically said to Hezbollah and Iran, don't fuck with Israel. I do think that on the big picture stuff, America has gotten a right. And I think the Biden administration does deserve credit. Let me go this way. What world leader has been more supportive of Israel than Biden?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
That's fair. Look, elections are a function of perception, not reality. But the reality is, is that Biden did immediately deploy enormous firepower, has coordinated. By the way, American intelligence was involved in the rescue of those hostages.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
When the rubber meets the road in terms of our security apparatus, our resources, our firepower, our brave men and women in uniform who he has put in harm's way sitting off the coast in the Mediterranean. True. Nobody else, nobody else in the world has come to Israel's aid like that. And he's under huge pressure from the far left, but I don't think he gets the credit he deserves.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And the reason I'm not voting for Trump, there's the whole rape thing, which kind of puts me off of him. But I think he's an idiot. I don't think he has respect to the global community. And I think him trying to do anything geopolitically is a short term. It's like a cat chasing a red dot. I don't think anyone takes him seriously. I don't think he can get anything done. So-
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Perfect is not on the menu here. I would love to see someone else at the convention nominated. But if it's Biden on life support, as long as he's got his team around him, yeah, I'm going to work very hard to try and ensure that he's reelected. This is stupidity, criminality, lack of empathy. Don't work as president.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
was saying to a young audience that I think you are part of a zombie apocalypse of useful idiots in terms of your views. And I've used that terminology. And the wonderful thing about having some economic security and people in your life who love you unconditionally is that you can speak your mind.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Look, this is a classic example of someone being promoted out of her strength. I thought she was really strong as a senator, attorney general. As a vice president, she just hasn't worked. She just hasn't resonated with the public. Things around bodily autonomy, Black Lives Matter, this rape trial. I mean, she's an attorney general. She could have spoken to Trump's legal woes.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And the reality is her voice just hasn't resonated. So there's just no getting around it. Vice President Harris has been a disappointment. And I thought she was a great senator. She has an incredibly impressive record. She just hasn't resonated as a VP. We're in a terrible spot right now because the biggest burn or rub against Biden is in Israel.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I think by the time the election comes around, it probably won't be that big a deal. It's really present for us, but I think most people have forgotten about it by the time the election comes around. The thing that was really hurting him is his age and the fact that he comes across as feeble. And here's the thing. Biology always wins. The best we can hope for is that it doesn't get worse.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And it always does. It always does. I'm working out so fucking hard. I'm taking creatine, testosterone, and I'm still getting weaker, Jen. Biology always wins. It always wins.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
76, 75?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
No, 77.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Yeah, but I mean, the reality is I try to call balls and strikes. Biden just comes across as a lot older.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I won't be able to watch the debates. I'm so worried about a McConnell moment. I mean, I really, I think, I think anyone, I don't understand how anyone with daughters could ever vote for Donald Trump. I don't like the man. I think he's an awful person. I think Biden is a really good man. I think he's actually been a good president. I think he surrounds himself with good people.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So I'd like to think that part over the medium and the long term, you pay some short-term dues, but the difference between an opinion and a principle is you're willing to sacrifice for a principle. But I talk about things that are, I don't want to call them risky, but I run into the fire. I talk about whatever... interests me.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Greatness is in the agency of others. I like the CHIPS Act, the Infrastructure Act. I think he's actually on the whole been good on Israel. I think he has good instincts. I think he's a good man. If he had said, if he had picked Whitmer, Newsom, Pritzker as his VP, and it said last year, folks, I have served. I have served. It's time for me to spend time with my grandkids.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I'm endorsing my VP candidate, whoever it is. I think he would have gone out in history as one of the greatest presidents ever. Instead, he might put the worst president in history back in office. And it's the same narcissism that played Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We have lost bodily autonomy for women because of her narcissism.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
It's the reason we have too many Republican judges sitting because of Senator Feinstein's narcissism. You know, it is a disease. It was time for him to move on. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a move to, if something happens, to nominate someone else at the convention. We'll see. But we are in interesting times and it feels pretty good actually right now to live in London. Yeah.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Yeah.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You know, it's Prop G, Mark. It's all the same, Jen. I'm everywhere.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
There's no place to hide. There's no place to hide.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Send it. I'll take anything. Okay. Literally, I'll shoot up. I'll take anything. I'm the guy who's like, oh, I don't care what it is.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I talk about that I think DEI should be disassembled on campuses, that higher ed is corrupt, and we are the new enforcers of the caste system, which doesn't, you know, warm the hearts of my colleagues.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
You won't recognize me the next time you see me. That's right. As long as I look like Brad Pitt, just send me that protein shake, whatever that is.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Thanks, Jen. Congrats on your success.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But I think if you come at stuff as an honest broker, you speak your mind in an environment that's increasingly starched, where people are thinking about how many likes will I get and how many people will I not offend here. I think people are ready for someone to run into the fire, if you will.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And in addition, lately, I'm a straight white male that talks about emotions, talks about his failures, talks about my relationship with my sons. And I think especially young men really appreciate that because I think there's so many young men who are struggling and have a difficult time articulating how disappointing it is when your career doesn't work. And I've had those disappointments.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So disappointing when you have unrequited love, right? So disappointing to feel alone. I've been through all of that shit. So I relate to it and I talk about it. And a lot of it, you know, Jen, it's just luck. Just luck. I don't. Why is this book selling better than my others? I'm not sure. I don't know. You know, a lot of it's luck. So anyways.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
What I would say is that being talented is table stakes. And if you're a genius, if you're in the top 0.1%, you kind of don't need luck. The rest of us need a certain amount of luck. What I'll say is that being talented Being hardworking, being talented every week. I don't even think of it as talent. I think of it as iteration.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And that is you got to have some basic talent, but then every week just like, okay, looking at the data, what can we make a little bit better? How can we make this dialogue a little tighter? How can the music be a little bit better? What can we learn? Constant iteration. The first podcast I did had 1,700 downloads.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Every one of them now gets 200,000 to 350,000 downloads, but it's never been a giant step change up. Luck is enormous because my narrative up until the age of 40 was, check me out. I was raised by a single immigrant mother that lived and died a secretary, overcame all of this to become a baller. I am man, hear me roar. And then as you get older, you become more thoughtful.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And I realized being born a white, heterosexual male in California in the 60s meant I had access to free education, UCLA and Berkeley, $7,000 total tuition all seven years. I had access. It was a 76% admissions rate when I applied. I had to apply twice. True story. It's now a 9% admissions rate. I came of age when the Internet was coming or professional age when the Internet was coming on board.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So a guy with a good rap and a shaved head could raise hundreds of millions of dollars, which I did. I've had some wonderful women in my life. My kids are, I mean, fucking A. I'm not humble, Jen. I think I'm in the top 1%. The top 1% puts you in a room with the population of Germany. My life is better than the 75 million most talented people. people in the world.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But I made this incredibly smart decision, and that was to be born in California in the 60s. So yeah, 51% is hard work, 49%. I don't know if luck is 49% or 51%, but I know it's a huge... Yeah, I tell this story, and it's emotionally manipulative. My freshman roommate at UCLA... So similar to me. And I'm not saying this. I think he was more talented than me. He was creative.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
He was in the film school, super engaging, super funny. Everybody loves him. You know, immediately right out of college, incredibly successful. Head of television at Disney, youngest head of television at Disney, dead of AIDS at 33. Because God reached into his soul and decided he would be gay. I didn't choose to be straight. So luck, yeah, luck's played an enormous role.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And the thing that upsets me the most is about some of the tech bros that I cover and talk a lot about is they conflate luck with talent.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
They're under the impression that all of their billions are a function of their talent, and they don't even pull out a map and go, well, how come all of us are littered along the West Coast of North America and not above Seattle and Canada, where there's no companies creating billions, or south of La Jolla?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
We're all in this one region, but it didn't dawn on us that we're incredibly fortunate that we either had the ability to immigrate here or our parents decided to to take risks and be here. So I have no delusions.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
The reason I'm here with you right now is because one, I'm talented, but mostly through the generosity and vision of California taxpayers and the vision of the Regency of the University of California that gave me an unbelievable education for almost no money. And the fact that my parents made the decision to move to America and that I was born here. So yeah, I think a lot of it is luck.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
No. So I'm inspired. I follow you and I feel weak. I've worked out four times a week for 40 years. That's my fitness secret. I don't have any crazy methods or diet. I eat whatever I want. I drink whatever I want. I've worked out four times a week for 40 years. And I've been 6'2", 187 pounds. I've toggled between 186 and 188. So I'm the same weight no matter what I do.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I have kind of body dysmorphia. I always feel too skinny and I have to lift to keep weight on. It's Working out for me has been my antidepressant. I struggle with anger and depression. And the only thing that sort of keeps me level is resistance training and pretty serious cardio. It's when I can't work out because I'm on the road or I get lazy, I start getting angry at myself.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I start blaming others. I start doing this shitty, weird role playing where I imagine confrontations or arguments with other people that don't exist. And I have to be like, what the fuck is going on with me right now? And I realize, oh, I'm eating shitty food because I'm on the road. I'm not around my boys. I'm not around my dogs. I don't have anyone's physical touch. I don't have intimacy.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I don't have affection. I don't have sex. I don't have working out. And I start to go into this really dark downward place. But whenever I'm down, the first thing I do is I sweat. It's like turning the computer off and on for me.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
Sure. So I'm not suggesting you ask for the W-2 of anyone you hang out with. The larger point is there's just a lot of studies that show you're the sum and the average of the five people you hang out with. And I think that you should aspire to have really successful, high character, impressive friends. And even you're a parent, I'm a parent.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
We like to think that we're engineers, that we engineer the sheep. We don't. We're shepherds. We get to choose where our kids graze, the directions they graze in, the food they eat. but the most influential, most kind of important influence on their life is their peer group.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
And if you look at the four or five people you hung out with the most between the ages of 15 and 30, you're probably the same body mass index, the same economic weight class, the same political affiliations, the same cities. It's amazing how similar you become.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
So what I tell, and this is true, if you have the opportunity to establish a relationship with someone who's really impressive, and there's more than just money, but very impressive people tend to attract economic prosperity. And what I'm saying is I wouldn't be afraid to upgrade friends and not stay friends with people just because you went to junior high together.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
If friends are bringing you down or taxing you or not setting a good example for how you should live your life, I don't think there's a problem, and I know this sounds rapacious, with shedding friends.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
But more than that, when you have the opportunity to establish a friendship with a really impressive person, high character, funny, interesting, works hard, super successful, get in that room with that person because a lot of it's good. The only reason I went to college, my dad told me to buy me a Trans Am when I was in the 10th grade if I didn't go to college because I didn't need it.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
I was too smart, according to him. He just didn't want to pay for college. And I said, great. So I wasn't going to college. My two best friends, Brett Jarvis, a Mormon kid, and Ronnie Drake, a black kid, were just going to college. So it's like, okay, my two best friends are going to college, which means I'm going to go to college.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
If I'd hung out with two other guys that just smoked pot and were going to do what I was going to do, install shelving and hang out, that's what I would be doing. So if you want to upgrade your life, upgrade the people, the peer group you hang around with, and then just bridging it to the book.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 411: Professor Scott Galloway: The Modern Connection Crisis + Wealth Building Strategies
The strange thing about those same five people is that even if they all make approximately the same amount of money, one will end up much more financially secure than the other four, despite not having made much more money than them. And that's the basis of the book.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und wie handelst du mit dieser Verletzung, die ich beschreibe? Wir werden einen größeren Boot brauchen.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Okay, also ich werde mich selbst, ich habe so viele Beispiele hier, und ich werde mich selbst in dem gleichen Alter setzen. Ich war 42, als ich mein erstes Kind hatte. Und als mein jüngster oder mein ältester kam, aus meiner Freundin zu drehen, erwartete ich schwarze angelische Lichter und Opernsänger und dass ich sofort mit diesem Ding verliebt werde. I was so nauseous.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
I've never felt that bad without throwing up and passing out. The doctors had to turn to me and say, if you go down, we're not doing anything. We're focused on the kid and its mother. Because they looked at me and they thought, this guy is not doing very well. And they thought it was because that I was squeamish. Und ich will klar sein, dass ich denke, dass Kindesgeburt schrecklich ist.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
I think it's a combination of a bunch of things, but two or three primary things. And that is, I think if you were to reverse engineer everything that ails us, polarization, anxiety, obesity, depression, extremism, I think you could reverse, and you had to pick one chart and say, this is the epicenter of where all these externalities are bubbling up. It would be the following.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Ich will zurück in die 60er-Jahre gehen, wo man eine Zigarette trinkt und das Baby rausbringt. Aber das war nicht alles. Ich war so unglaublich nervös, weil ich fühlte, dass die überwältigende Emotion, die ich hatte, als mein erster Sohn geboren wurde, nicht Freude war, sondern Scham. Und das ist, dass ich immer einen Weg gefunden habe, um viel Geld zu machen.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Ich hatte immer eine Menge Gnade, Privileg und ich war sehr talentiert. Ich bin keine modeste Person. Ich denke, ich bin ein Monster. Ich bin talentiert, ich arbeite hart. Aber ich hatte auch viel Privileg. Ich habe Millionen von Dollar gemacht. An einem Punkt war ich wert von Tausenden von Millionen. Aber weil ich immer nach unten ging, dachte ich immer, dass ich alles überstehen könnte.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Ich ging immer alle rein und das war die Gestalt in den 90ern und 2000ern Internet. Weißt du, du wirst es gewinnen. Die Geschichten von Mark Zuckerberg, die Offerung für 30 Millionen zurück zu drücken. Also war ich alle rein auf meine E-Commerce Start-Up Red Envelope.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Als Chapter 11, drei Wochen bevor mein erstes Kind geboren wurde, bin ich in das Delivery Room gegangen, das um negative 2 Millionen Dollar wert war. Ich hatte 10 oder 20 oder 30 Millionen wert. An einem Punkt, einige Punkte vor dem. Und plötzlich fühlte ich nicht nur persönliche Verletzung, aber für das erste Mal, meine erste Emotion als Vater war, dass ich meinen Sohn verletzen musste.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Das war das erste Gefühl, das ich hatte. Ich habe diesen Jungen verletzt. Mein einziger Job auf dieser Erde. All of a sudden hatte ich diese neue Sensation. Ich hatte es noch nie gefühlt und du kannst es niemandem erklären, bis du ein Kind hast. Mein Wunsch in der Welt ist es, dieses Ding zu schützen. Und das erste Gefühl, das ich habe, ist Verlust.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Wenn ich nur ein bisschen weniger ehrgeizig wäre, wenn ich nur ein bisschen klüger wäre, wenn ich nur ein bisschen weniger verdammt dumm wäre und ein paar Millionen Dollar abhänge und ein paar Stocks verkaufe, nicht reinvestiert, nicht verdoppelt, nicht in meinen Kopf geschlagen hätte, und sagte, nein, ich gehe groß. Geh nach Hause oder geh groß oder groß. Und ich fühlte so viel Scham.
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Of Money and Young Men
Und es war einfach, es war einfach so schmerzhaft und schmerzhaft. Und hier ist das Ding. Deine Fähigkeit, ich sage, verzeih dich, als ob es eine Kumbaya-Sache ist. Es ist wichtig. Just for your own mental well-being. But it's also kind of the key, one of the keys to success. I mean, we'll do a contest. I ran for sophomore, junior and senior class presidents in high school. I lost all three times.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
And based on my track record, I decided to run for student body president, where I went on to, wait for it, lose. I got rejected from the one college I applied to that had a 76% admissions rate at UCLA. It was one of the 24% that didn't get in. And I had to go home to my mom and tell her I got rejected. als sie sagte, dass man vielleicht mehr als eine Schule anrufen sollte. Ich kam auf den Anruf.
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Of Money and Young Men
Endlich habe ich 28 Jobs aus der UCLA eingeladen. Ich habe einen Anruf bei Morgan Stanley bekommen, weil sie automatische Anrufe gemacht haben. Automatische Anrufe an die Leute, die Crew anrufen. Das ist, wo ich meinen Job bekommen habe. Sie haben entschieden, dass jeder, der Crew anruft, Varsity Crew aus der UCLA, einen automatischen Anruf bekommen hat.
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Of Money and Young Men
Jede andere Arbeit, für die ich eigentlich interviewen musste, wurde ich verabschiedet. Ich habe in neun Geschäftsschulen eingeladen. Ich wurde verabschiedet, Entschuldigung, bei sieben der neun. Ich habe fünf Unternehmensverletzungen verletzt, insbesondere One Go Chapter 11. Mein erstes Verheirat endete in einem Verheirat.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Ich hatte fünf Fernsehshows, alle fünf wurden in Wochen von der Eröffnung ausgeschlossen. Ich meine, mein Superkraft ist die Fähigkeit, wie Winston Churchill sagte, durch Verletzungen zu gehen, ohne meinen Sinn des Enthusiasms zu verlieren. Und wenn du diese Fähigkeit nicht behältst, zu weinen und weiterzugehen, dann nimmst du nicht die Vorteile eines der größten Features von Amerika.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und das ist in Amerika, wir verabschieden uns nicht von Verletzungen, das ist Bullshit, aber wir tolerieren es. Ich hätte nicht all diese Verletzungen in Europa gehabt und immer noch Geld bezahlt. An einem Punkt hätten sie gesagt, oh, du bist uninvestierbar.
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Of Money and Young Men
Aber in den USA, solange du eine gute Person bist, du hart versuchst, manchmal hast du einen Winn, wirst du Leute finden, die dich unterstützen und mit dir arbeiten.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und das ist für das erste Mal in unserer Nationengeschichte, das erste Mal, dass es angefangen hat. Wir haben diesen Punkt sechs Jahre her. Ein 30-jähriger Mann oder Frau tut nicht so gut, wie seine oder ihre Eltern 30 Jahre alt waren. Das ist noch nie passiert.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Ich werde gefragt, ich lebe gerade in London und wenn ich in den USA spreche, sage ich zwei Drittel der Zeit im Q&A, die Frage ist, was sind die wichtigen Distinktionen zwischen den USA, Europa und den USA? Und es gibt viele, aber ich würde es bis zu einem grundlegenden Faktor ausdrücken, und das ist folgendes. Ich sage ihnen, ihr seid die Leute, die geblieben sind.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Meine Mutter hat an einem Steamship gefahren, während mein Vater an einem Steamship von Glasgow, von London, war. Sie hatten jeweils etwa 300 oder 400 Dollar. Und sie sind über sieben oder acht Tage lang auf einem Steamship über den Atlantik geflogen und landeten in einem Ort, in Toronto, wo Menschen mit Megaphonen sagten, keine Jobs hier, gehen Sie nach Hause. Ein enormer Risiko.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und übrigens seltsam. Meine Mutter hat es gemacht, als ihre zwei jüngeren Brüder in einem Orphanage waren. Ihre Eltern sind bereits weggeflogen. Seltsam. Risikobar. Und in den USA, was Sie haben, ist eine DNA von Risikogruppen, die unvergleichbar ist, wo auch immer in der Welt. Vielleicht mit der Ausnahme von China.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Für jedes Geschäft in den USA gibt es 5 Millionen Dollar in Venture Capital Erhöhung und in Europa sind es 1 Millionen. Also gibt es fünfmal die Anzahl von Risikogruppen in den USA. Was ist das Zentrum von Risikogruppen und Innovationen, auch in den USA? Es ist in Kalifornien. Was haben diese Leute zusammen?
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Sie haben die Ostküste verlassen und haben ihren Sohn auf der Appalachian Trail, auf der Rockies oder auf der Westküste verletzt, weil sie nicht nur Risikogel waren, sondern sie waren auch die riskierendsten der Risikogel. Und was weißt du, die tectonisch am wichtigsten Unternehmen in der Geschichte sind alle auf der Westküste. Unser DNA des Risikoges ist einfach einzigartig.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Man kann eine verrückte, verrückte, verrückte Idee haben und wenn man eine Vision ausleihen kann und eine gute Geschichte erzählen kann und Verschwörung hat und vielleicht ein paar deiner eigenen Kapital und dein Arsch wegwerfen kann, dann kann man Tendenzen oder Hunderten von Millionen von Dollar und eine verrückte verrückte Idee erhöhen. Aber manchmal enden diese Ideen als verrückte Genius.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und ich würde sagen, außer China kann man das nirgendwo anders tun. Ich denke also, es ist ein vollzweifelter Einbruch des Risikos. Ihre Gedanken?
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Wenn du denkst, wenn du denkst, dass eine Nation ein Grundstück ist oder ein Vertrag zwischen ihrer Bürgerlichkeit und einem Set von Rechten und einem Grundstück und Regierung und Steuern und Ausgaben, die du in diesen Vertrag einbringst. Der Vertrag ist so.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Weil es verschiedene Features gibt. Okay, also jetzt sprechen wir spezifisch über Jungs. Biologisch, und sie wissen noch nicht, warum. Sie wissen nicht, ob es Pestizide oder Hormone sind. Aber Mädchen matrieren später und Mädchen matrieren früher. Mädchen menstruieren früher und früher, und Mädchen Testikale sinken später und später. Es ist einfach ein seltsames Phänomen.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Sie haben es noch nicht herausgefunden. Wenn du Wie alt sind deine Kinder, Anthony?
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Ich weiß nicht, ob du dich daran erinnerst, aber mein Jüngster ist 14. Er hatte eine Halloween-Party. Er hatte seine ganze Klasse, 22 Kinder, 11 Mädchen und 11 Jungs. The boys are dopes. They don't even look you in the eyes. Some of them are tiny. Of the eleven girls, three or four of them could be the junior senator from Pennsylvania. Hello, Mr. Galloway. What a lovely home you have.
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Of Money and Young Men
I love your podcast. Well, what are you studying? Well, I'm studying, I'm really interested in physics and I'm interning at this clinic at the NHS. And you think, Jesus Christ. I mean, and physically, literally biologically, the prefrontal cortex of an 18-year-old girl is 12 to 18 months more mature than a boy's. So an 18-year-old who's a senior in high school
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
wenn sie neben einem 18-jährigen Junge studiert. Also sind sie biologisch, die Jungs sind biologisch hinterher. Und sie fangen nicht auf, bis sie 25 Jahre alt sind. Und dann ökonomisch, oder sprechen wir über die Bildung. Das Bildungssystem ist nur gegen Jungs bias. A boy in K-12 is twice as likely to be suspended on a behavior-adjusted basis.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Same exact infraction, twice as likely to be suspended if he is a boy. Five times as likely to be suspended if he's a black boy. And once a kid is suspended three times, it means they're not going to college. Think about who's in primary school. Seventy to eighty percent of primary school teachers now are female. And who does a female teacher champion?
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
und ich bin interessiert, ob Sie damit einverstanden sind, ich glaube, dass Sie das sind, dass wenn ich die Regeln spiele und ich Geld bezahle und ich eine gute Person bin, ich ein bisschen Glück habe, werden meine Kinder besser als ich. Meine Söhne sind die einzigen Menschen, die ich jemals mehr erfolgreich machen wollte als ich.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
The same people we would champion, people that remind them of themselves. And what are the behaviors we encourage in education? Sit still, be organized, raise your hand, be a pleaser. You're essentially describing a girl.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und wenn wir das Spielfeld leveln, in einem Bildungssystem, das in vielen Fällen das Verhältnis oder die Erleichterung des Verhältnisses ist, das Frauen oder Frauen haben einen einfacheren Zeitraum zu verbringen, haben wir jetzt 60, 40 männliche bis männliche Schulabschlüsse.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und es kann sogar höher sein als das, wenn man sich die Abschaffungsrate anschaut, weil Männer wahrscheinlich mehr aussteigen. Und dann kombiniert man das mit dem Fakt, dass vor 40 Jahren 1 in 3 Jobs eine Schulabschlüsse benötigten, jetzt sind es 2 in 3. Medical schools, law schools, now overwhelmingly female.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
And the high end information, higher paying jobs are now kind of open or have been sequestered from many of the men who aren't cut out for college. In addition, we have die Anreise zu einer mittleren Klasse, die früher existierte, egal ob es um Handwerksjob oder nur um die Zeitgeist in unserer Gesellschaft geht. Was ist mit Metal, Otto und Woodshop passiert? Wir haben sie gerettet.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Wir schämen uns an vokationelle Jobs, obwohl diese Jobs jetzt in hohem Bedarf und gut bezahlt werden. Kinder würden lieber ein Barista sein, als eine Vokation zu bekommen und zu lernen, wie man HVAC-effiziente Heater installieren kann. Es ist also biologisch, es ist beruflich, es ist gesellschaftlich, es ist ökonomisch. Und dann, was du hast, du spielst es mit Online-Dating.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
wo effektiv, wenn du 50 Männer und 50 Frauen auf Tinder hast, 46 der Frauen zeigen all ihre Aufmerksamkeit nur zu vier Männern. Sie wollen alle den gleichen Jungen. Das ist das, was ich Portia Polygamy nenne. Nun, diese vier Jungs können jeden Abend ein Date haben, was kein gutes Verhalten ermöglicht, keine langfristigen Beziehungen ermöglicht. Und die anderen 46 Männer sind geschlossen.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Ein Mann mit der übrigen Attraktivität auf einem Dating App. Also 1 zu 100, am least attractive, am most attractive. Nummer 50. Er muss einhundert Mal swipen, um einen Kaffee zu bekommen. Und dann, aus fünf Kaffees, werden vier von ihnen verblüfft. Die Frau wird sie wiederholen und nicht aufstehen oder verabschieden. Also muss er 500 Mal swipen, um einen Kaffee zu bekommen.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und wenn sie nicht sind, wenn ich die Regeln spiele und meine Kinder gute Kinder sind und sie weniger erfolgreich sind als ich, als ich 30 Jahre alt war und das ist noch nie passiert, Es kreiert Schmerzen und Schmerzen über die Haushalte, die Nachbarländer, die Nation. Und ich denke, dass diese Wahl im Grunde ein Referendum war.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
So he feels rejected by females. He feels like dating is a humiliating experience. He doesn't learn the skills to go out, especially with remote work, and establish game in person. Do you realize 50%, get this Anthony, 50% of 18 to 24 year old men have never asked a woman out in person. It's rough. Think about that. And what are those skills? Show me a guy who's good in a bar.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
I'll show you a guy who's good in a boardroom. Diese Fähigkeiten sind sehr wichtig. Sehr übertragbar. Und wenn du nicht ... Und dann haben sie nicht mal das Mojo. Ich wollte es nie. Eine seltsame Frau zu beobachten, ist eine Verletzung für dich zu setzen. Niemand mag das. Niemand mag das, außer wenn du es wirklich gut machst. Aber was du tust, ist, dass du resilient wirst.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und die Art und Weise, wie du das Mojo machen kannst, und ich spreche in sehr grafischen Terminen,
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Wenn ich, als ich an der UCLA war, waren es Tage während der Woche, wo ich die einzige Grund, warum ich auf der Klasse ging und in die Klasse ging, war, weil ich dachte, dass es einen Vorschein gab, dass ich eine Mädchen treffen könnte, sie zu einer Feierabend zu kommen und zu einem gewissen Zeitpunkt mit ihr Sex zu haben.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Ich würde so verdammt wütend werden, dass ich sagen würde, okay, ich werde tatsächlich diese Risiken nehmen. And if I'd had porn at home and on my phone, I don't know whether I ever would have taken those risks because I just would have engaged in porn all goddamn day. I don't want to sound like these kids have something wrong with them.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
The low risk, low entry into friendship, Discord and Reddit, trying to make money, Coinbase or Robinhood or relationships with you porn, Das reduziert den Risikobereich, um auf der Kampus zu gehen und zu einer seltsamen Frau zu gehen und zu sagen, hey, tut Englisch nicht gut? Was machst du? Oh, wir haben, gehst du heute Abend zum Basketballspiel? Würdest du Kaffee trinken?
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und wenn du diese Fähigkeiten nicht erstellst, und spezifisch die Fähigkeit, Rejection zu verhindern, versuchst, die Frau ist nicht interessiert und schau mal, du wirst beide in Ordnung sein. Und dann versuchst du es wieder am nächsten Tag und du denkst dir, okay, das ist das, was das Leben ist. Das Leben handelt sich um Entschuldigung und dann herauszufinden, dass du beide in Ordnung sein wirst.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und dann sagt man manchmal ja. Das Beispiel, das ich immer benutze, ist mein Freund David Frey, Dr. David Frey, Kliniker. Nicht ein attraktiver Kerl, seltsamer Kerl, ungewöhnlicher Kerl.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
David würde hochgehen, wir würden in ein Restaurant gehen, wir gingen in die UCLA zusammen, er würde in irgendein Restaurant gehen, irgendein Ort, er würde um die Tür schauen, irgendeine attraktive Frau, er würde hochgehen, ob sie mit einem anderen Mann, Freunden war, und startete, mit ihr zu sprechen.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Ich erinnere mich daran, als ich auf der Straße ging, in die Rose Bowl zu gehen, um ein Fußballspiel zu sehen, und er sah eine attraktive Frau, also hat er sich aufgeräumt, hat an ihr gehockt, bis sie ihr Fenster runtergerollt hat und versucht hat, ihre Nummer auf der 405-Fuhrweg zu bekommen. Und wisst ihr was? David hatte immer Dates. Denn neun aus zehn Frauen würden beobachtet werden.
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Of Money and Young Men
Er hat es nicht geholfen und hat ihn verabschiedet. Aber der zehnte würde ihm seine Nummer geben oder ihm ihre Nummer geben. Wenn du dich über deinen Gewichtsklass ausdrücken möchtest, ökonomisch oder romantisch, dann nimm einen großen Teig raus und bleib bereit, zu essen und verhandle dich mit Verabschiedung.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Ich kümmere mich nicht um Transrechte, ich kümmere mich nicht um territoriale Gerechtigkeit in der Ukraine. Wenn meine Kinder nicht gut tun, will ich Chaos, ich will Veränderung. Was auch immer die größte Veränderung ist, ob es unethisch ist, ethisch ist, Insurrectionist, ich kümmere mich einfach nicht um das. Ich werde wählen, was die größte zerstörerische Sache ist. möglich.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und das Problem ist, dass die klugsten, schönsten Menschen und die tiefsten Ressourcenfirmen der Welt versuchen, Menschen zu überzeugen, dass man diese Risiken nicht in der realen Sie haben eine niedrige Rechnung von Freundschaft, Mentorin, professionellem Erfolg und Sex auf einem Bild mit einem Algorithmus.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und es ist eine neue Spezies von jungen Männern, die asexuell und asozial sind und verletzt sind, obese sind und nie die Fähigkeiten entwickelt haben, sich zu interviewen, nie die Fähigkeiten entwickelt haben, To have great friendship. Never develop the skills and the resilience to get romantic and sexual relationships.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
And they end up, and if they don't develop these skills by the time they're 30, it is very hard, very hard to bring them back. And then they become more prone to misogynistic content. They have people online telling them that it's women's fault. Sie werden sehr nationalistisch. Sie verurteilen Immigranten. Sie beginnen, sich selbst zu beschädigen.
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Of Money and Young Men
Jeder pathologisiert diese Menschen als Schulschützer. Ja, einige von ihnen sind es. Aber weißt du, wer sie viel mehr schaden können? Sie selbst. Ich fürchte, wir entwickeln eine neue Spezies junger Männer, die sich nicht mit Arbeit, mit Schule oder mit Frauen verbinden.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und sobald sie an einem bestimmten Punkt in ihren Leben kommen, werden sie sehr schwierig, sich wiederzuentwickeln, sich wiederzuentwickeln, diese Fähigkeiten zu geben. Wir haben also zwei Drittel der Menschen, die jetzt für die Armtservice beteiligt sind, sind entweder zu furchtbar oder zu menschlich unfit.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
So we have a real issue here around how do we level up young men such that they're more attractive to women, they're more confident, they get out more, they're better workers, they're more patriotic, they're stronger, they're more fit. Otherwise we're going to end up
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
we're going to keep going where we're going, and that is the most violent, unstable societies in the world, have all one thing in common. They have a disproportionate number of young men with very little romantic or economic prospects. I would argue, Anthony, that is why Trump got elected. Yeah. Anyways, I'll stop there.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Es gibt also Rache und Scham über Tausende von Millionen von US-Gesellschaften, weil deine Kinder nicht so gut wie du tun. Das ist, wo es alles anfängt. Und dann spielst du es mit 210 Mal am Tag. Du wirst auf deinem Telefon bemerkt, dass es seemingly überall Menschen gibt, die auf Golfstreams und Partys in St. Barts sind, und du bist nicht einer von ihnen.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
So when I was a kid, there was also, and also there's this idolatry of money where when I was a kid, my dad's boss had a slightly bigger car, a slightly bigger house, but we all, we were at the same country club in the summer. We kind of, he got to fly business class. Occasionally my dad got to fly business class. I flew coach with my mom, but it was a similar life.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Jetzt ist das Leben, das 0,1%-Lead, ein ganz anderes Leben. Also hat sich die Wichtigkeit des Geldes übernommen. Du hattest immer Spiel. Mein Junior, mein elementary class principal in Orange County hatte Spiel. Er war hübsch, er trug Aqua-Velva, er führte einen 240Z, er war cool, er trug eine Jacket mit Elbow-Patchen, er hatte Spiel.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
No principal has game now because he's not a fucking billionaire. Everything is about money. It appears like everyone has more money than you on your phone. And the reality is you're not doing as well as your parents were. So your roommates, who you're probably living with, one in three men are living with ihre Eltern, bis sie 25 Jahre alt sind, 1 und 5, 30 Jahre alt sind.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und sie werden von ihren Ruhepartnern jeden Tag verabschiedet, dass sie verfehlen. Es gibt also mehr Scham und Scham in Amerika, weil wir weiterhin Geld von den Jungen nach den Alten transferieren. Aber ich stoppe da.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Es gibt einen Philosophen hier, Alain de Bouton, einen britischen Mann, und er hat gesagt, dass der Vorteil einer Meritokratie, der Vorteil des Glaubens, dass jeder es machen kann, und das ist der Glauben, den wir in den USA vermitteln, dass es eine echte Meritokratie ist, dass wenn du hart arbeitest und talentiert bist, kannst du es machen.
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Of Money and Young Men
Das ist eine wundervolle Sache, außer es gibt einen wirklich schmutzigen, schmutzigen Seite dazu. Das bedeutet, wenn du es nicht machst, ist es deine Schuld. Das bedeutet, wenn du nicht bereit bist, wenn du nicht in der Lage bist, einen Mann zu erzeugen, wenn du nicht in der Lage bist, save a million bucks by the time you're 30.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
If you can't go to Coachella and get backstage passes, it means it's your fault. You screwed up. And the reality is, and this goes to advice, a lot of my success is not my fault. And what I mean by that, and a lot of kids' failure is not their fault. It took me until I was probably 45 to realize that up until the age of 40,
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
In Amerika, wenn man wirklich ehrlich ist, habe ich Geld gewonnen, ich habe Internet-Businessen in den 90ern gestartet. Und es hat mich nie erstaunt, dass jeder, der Tens von Millionen von Dollar gewinnt, feine Haut hat und Outdoor-Plemming hat und heterosexuell ist, zumindest als Heterosexueller.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Das waren also 30 Prozent der Bevölkerung, also die größte robuste Wirtschaft in der Geschichte, die die ganze Prosperität in ein Drittel der Bevölkerung verbreitet hat. So if you were in that one third of the population, a lot of your success wasn't your fault. At the same time, what I say to young men is, you do your best. Success is a series of small, disciplined efforts every day.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Whatever it might be, working out, making a few calls, dusting off your LinkedIn resume, approaching someone about men, just a series of small efforts every day like compound investments. But if you wake up and you're 28 and shit's hard and you aren't killing it and you haven't bought a meme coin, you don't have millions of dollars, the first thing I tell young men is, forgive yourself.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
So lange du versuchst, so lange du eine gute Person bist, ist vieles aus deiner Kontrolle. Wenn ich 1920 geboren wäre, würde ich auf dem russischen Feld als Nazi sterben. Ich hätte gedacht, oh, ich kämpfe für das Vaterland. Ich hätte in Russland gesendet und ich wäre gestorben. Also vieles, wo du in der Welt endest, hast du keine Kontrolle. Erfolg und Verlust.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Sei glücklich, wenn du erfolgreich bist. Vergiss dich, wenn du versuchst, so lange du täuscht und du eine gute Person bist. Also das erste, was ich Kindern oder jungen Männern sage, ist, Du musst dich verabschieden. Du musst durch diese Vorstellung kommen, dass du dich verletzt hast und du ein Verletzter bist. Stopp es. Stopp es.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Das Nächste, was ich mit jungen Männern tue, wenn ich junge Männer coache, ist, dass ich sage, wir werden acht bis zwölf Stunden in deinem Telefon finden. Super einfach. Entdecke deinen Telefon. Ich werde dich nicht beurteilen. Und das erste, was ich ihnen sage, um sie in Ruhe zu stellen, ist, dass ich sage, ich schaue Porno.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Also, wenn ich etwas auf deinem Telefon finde, werde ich dich nicht beurteilen. Ich bete. Ich bete nicht in Vegas, aber ich habe im Grunde einen Gambling Bug. Ich kaufe. I do covered calls, options, which is just crazy. That's gambling, right? But I do it because I enjoy it. I know it's stupid. I know over the long term I'll lose money, but I like to gamble.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
So I tell them this to put them at ease. They unlock their phone and I say, we're going to find 8 to 12 hours in your phone. Every young man, every person has an advantage. They just may not know it yet. Die jüngsten Menschen haben den Vorteil, dass es ihr menschliches Kapital ist. Sie haben mehr Zeit als Geld. Sie haben menschliches Kapital.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und in vielen Fällen ist das sehr, sehr kraftvolles Kapital. Und ich sage, wir werden acht bis zwölf Stunden auf deinem Telefon finden zwischen TikTok, X, Coinbase, YouTube. Wir werden acht bis zwölf Stunden finden und wir werden Screen Limits aufnehmen. Und dann werden wir das acht bis zwölf Stunden nehmen und wir werden drei Dinge machen. Wir werden wirklich stark werden.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Wir werden drei- bis viermal pro Woche trainieren und wir werden wirklich fit werden. Ich möchte, dass du in jedem Raum gehen kannst und glaubst, dass du, wenn alles echt ist, alle töten oder sie ausruhen kannst. Ich bin in der Zeit, wo es darum geht, alle auszuruhen. Und ich empfehle dir nicht, das zu tun.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Aber wenn du auf Männer schaust, die an Bars kämpfen, sind sie generell große, starke Männer. Wenn du Männer siehst, die patriotisch sind und ihre Lande verteidigen und gut von anderen Menschen hinter ihren Händen sprechen, sind sie meistens starke Männer. Ja. Also werden wir fit werden.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Du wirst dich besser fühlen, du wirst besser nackt aussehen, du wirst sicherer sein, du wirst kinder sein, du wirst weniger deprimiert sein. Das erste, was wir tun werden, ist, dass wir drei- bis viermal pro Woche arbeiten. Zweite Sache, du musst anfangen, Geld zu verdienen. In dieser Wirtschaft mit einem Smartphone kannst du Geld verdienen.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Ich kümmere mich nicht um eine Tasche, nimm sie, einen Lüftfahrer. Es gibt Wege, zu anfangen, zu hustlen. Geh in eine Panera Bread, du kannst mit 18 Franken pro Stunde anfangen. Was auch immer es ist. Ich sage nicht, dass das deine Karriere ist. Ich sage nicht, dass wir nicht weiter etwas besser arbeiten werden. Aber du wirst anfangen.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Der Weg, viel Geld zu verdienen, und ich weiß, dass das deine Geschichte ist, ist, dass du ein bisschen Geld verdienst, weil du den Geschmack des Fleisches bekommst. Und es ist spannend, deine Eltern zu Abend zu nehmen. Es ist spannend, das erste Suet zu kaufen. Es ist spannend, auf eine Date zu gehen und das Geld zu haben.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und es bringt diese Griechenlande los und du fängst an, über die Intersektion deines menschlichen Kapitals und Geld zu denken und du fängst an, ein bisschen Geld zu verdienen. Und dann das dritte, was wir tun werden, ist drei bis fünf Mal pro Woche Wir werden uns in einem Gruppensystem mit Anfängern befinden, die etwas größeres als uns arbeiten. Kirchengruppe, Bildung, Schriftstunde, Non-Profit.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Und du wirst Anfänger beobachten. Du wirst lernen, wie zu öffnen. Hey, was machst du? Willst du diese Woche abhängen? Willst du ein Spiel spielen? Hey, willst du mit mir Kaffee trinken? Hey, können wir zusammen sein? Kannst du mir mehr über dein Geschäft erzählen? Hey, ich habe gehört, dass deine Familie das macht. Ich würde gerne mehr darüber lernen.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Du musst einen Weg finden, wie du öffnen kannst, weil wenn du 30 bist, wenn du nicht engagiert bist, hier ist eine furchtbare Statistik, Männer, die nicht mit jemandem gelebt haben oder nicht verheiratet sind, wenn sie 30 sind, ein Drittel von ihnen werden ein Verbrechungsproblem haben. Du musst Menschen umdrehen. Ich spreche nicht nur romantisch. Freunde, Kontakte. Die letzte Statistik hier.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Google stellt eine Jobausgabe oder eine Joböffnung aus. Sie bekommen 100 Resümee, in etwa in Minuten, und sie nehmen es herunter. Sie bringen 20 Leute ein. 80 Prozent der Zeit, die Person, der die Offerung gegeben hat, wurde von jemandem intern empfohlen und verantwortlich.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Also, wenn du keine Leute im Unternehmen hast, die dich für dich kümmern, ist es wirklich schwierig, einen guten Job zu bekommen. Was du also tun willst, ist, du willst da rauskommen, du willst sozial sein und du willst einen Weg finden, um so kindisch, so interessant, so viel Spaß, ganz ehrlich zu sein, dass Leute dich in einen Raum von Möglichkeiten setzen, auch wenn du nicht da bist.
Lost Boys
Of Money and Young Men
Einer der Schlüsse zu Erfolg ist, wirklich sozial zu sein. Du musst lernen, sozial zu sein. Du musst drei- bis viermal pro Woche aus deinem Haus gehen. Das sind die drei Dinge, mit denen ich junge Männer trainiere. Wir nehmen das menschliche Kapital aus deinem Handy und investieren es in Fitness, ein wenig Geld und in soziales Leben.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
And when you see a show like Adolescence, when you hear about struggling young men, how has it changed your approach or informed your approach to fathering?
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
I first brought this up five years ago and immediately the gag reflex was you're a misogynist because all the people on this pod have had so much unfair advantage for so long that there was a natural resistance to talking about the struggles of young men because let's be honest, we had a 3,000 year head start.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
From 1945 to the next 60, 70 years, the greatest prosperity ever recognized in the modern economy was recognized in the US and it was sequestered even further. All of that prosperity was crowded into the 30% of Americans that had pale skin and outdoor plumbing. So naturally people just weren't that empathetic. The conversation has changed so dramatically because the evidence
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
So I have a I have a fairly crass, but it's an honest story. I coach young men and this kid, he's a junior college and doing okay, but hasn't having issues called me and I could tell he was beating around the bush. And I said, what's wrong? And he said, I, you know, I had sex with a strange partner. I'm pretty sure he paid for it, but that's neither here nor there.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
And he said, and I'm feeling funny when I'm urinating and I'm a little bit freaked out about it. And, and I said to him, And he said, and then he goes, but it's probably nothing. I'm sorry. And I could tell the moment he said it, he was really embarrassed. I'm like, boss, today, now, get to the doctor, get tested. On your way to the doctor, you're going to start feeling better.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
I'm like, get to the doctor now. Take charge. If you got something, if you got something, they can most likely address it, clear it up. because exactly what you're saying. And I realized this is, this is not a Hallmark channel story, but the moment you start to take action against something, you start to relieve the anxiety. And he called me the next day and he was fine.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
And he was just like, you could just hear this giant fucking 24 hour, like sigh of relief. And I remember, I don't know if you guys remember probably too much information, but in the,
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
the 90s we were raised to believe that if you had unprotected sex i meant you had aids i grew up in san francisco in the 90s and if i had unprotected sex it meant oh i'm magic johnson but not as famous i know i have aids it's not a question i know i have it now yep and and now and then what i started doing was regularly getting tested and it just great story it just absolutely made me feel you know took all of that away because well you really i love the work that
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
Uh, my colleague Adam alter does on end of life. He goes into palliative care and he surveys people who are literally at the end of their life, which brings from a lot of perspective and their regrets are in reverse order. They wish that they'd stayed in better touch with friends too.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
They wish they'd led the life they wanted to lead, not the life, their church or their parents or society wanted them to lead. But their number one regret is they wish they'd been less hard on themselves. Yeah. And the thing you were gonna regret in your life is not is not getting fired. It's not the breakup. It's not a stock that gets cut in half. It's not the STD.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
It's how much anxiety and punishment you put yourself through. That's the thing dying people regret. It's not what happened to them. It's how they responded to what happened to them. And to your point, and I say this, I constantly parrot you, Dan. Action absorbs anxiety. You got a problem, start to address it, and you immediately feel better.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
Four out of five suicides are male, 12 times more likely to be incarcerated, three times more likely to be homeless or addicted. The data is so overwhelming. And the cohort I credit with that pivot in the conversation, the dialogue, it can be described in one word, mothers. Feminists, right wing, left wing, all have come together and said, something is going on with my son.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
And so the conversation has become a lot more productive. The difference between me going on a podcast and talking about this issue five years ago in the comments and the difference now is night and day. So I think the dialogue has gotten a lot more productive and I'll use this as a segue to ask Dan a question. Dan, you really have, to a certain extent,
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
know we never talked about uh cancer and then we started talking about cancer i remember when my mom got breast cancer i couldn't talk to my friends about it because it was embarrassing and then we started talking about cancer openly and it's been a huge unlock and i think in the last 20 years we've started talking about mental illness and it's been a huge unlock and one of the taboos that i think you have played a role in unlocking is men talking about anxiety
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
Because for a man to admit that he was having a panic attack made you less masculine, made you less strong. And you have done that. And the numbers, one in seven teens globally claim they have severe mental illness. People are having panic attacks. Without getting into details, I have someone in my life that is struggling with anxiety and panic attacks.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
Can you talk a little bit about, not only you talk about how to address it, but have you given any thought to what we can do as a society to try and stem the flow of anxiety, of depression amongst our young people? I know you have kids. Any thoughts?
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
How would you do that? What programs could we do such that? So first off, I agree, we're mammals. Anyone who has dogs, realize dogs, the worst thing you can do to a dog is leave it alone. You put an orca in a tank alone, it literally goes crazy. And I would describe us as a 35% uptick in social anxiety among young people with COVID lockdowns. I saw it with my youngest. I thought he'd be fine.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
There's a chance to hang out with your parents and watch Netflix. He really struggled not being around a bunch of kids every day. I mean, really struggled. But what can we do? Recognizing we're mammals and people need to be around each other, especially young people. What do you think we can do to just get kids in the company of other kids? And here's just another stat.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
The number of kids, high school kids that sees their friends every day has been cut in half in the last 20 years.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
Yeah, I was just thinking, I grew up on I Dream a Genie. You know, yes, master, go to your bottle, genie. I mean, it's, I would say, given what we were fed as young men, you know, it feels like we should get an Alan Alda award. Anthony's holding up an I Dream of Genie bottle.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
so Dan returning to our regular schedule program here um so you're uh I'll paint a scenario for you you're a 19 to 24 year old male and you're still living at home you're you're struggling you find you find that you're having a tough time connecting with school connecting with work connecting with potential friends or romantic partners
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
And you find that your only kind of source of relief might be video games, isolation, maybe porn. And you might recognize that you're struggling with stress or anxiety and you get into social situations and you get that feeling. Your chest starts tightening. You start gulping for air. And all you can think about is just getting out of that situation back to where you're comfortable again.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
Try and advise that young man or a young woman. We all struggle with it. I have panic attacks. I do 50 talks a year. 0.66% of the time, every 150 talks, I have a panic attack. I can't figure out why it happens, but it feels like I'm dying on stage in front of 400 people. And I have to stop to talk and everyone freaks out and is worried. Advise a young man.
Lost Boys
How to be happier with Dan Harris.
or a young woman who recognizes they're having this panic and this anxiety on specific cognitive behaviors practices that you have used that you think that they would benefit from?
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
And that goes to a call-out. It's And this is virtue signaling, but I have found it so remarkably easy to positively impact a boy's life. And that is you don't have to be a baller. You don't have to have training in it. You know, I have boys. I now, as a practice, say, I want you to bring one of your friends.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
Because what's strange is, or what's interesting, even if it's not the son of a single mother, which I think corporations have a role here to figure out mentor programs for young men who have paternal and fraternal concern and love to give. They just don't know where to put it. Maybe they don't have their own families yet.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
Identify women in the organization who maybe have single mothers who have boys who could use a little bit of guidance or just male companionship. These boys are everywhere. And you literally like invite them over to help you wash your car. They just start asking questions. And then they get comfortable with you. And then they see that you find value in them, that you think they have worth.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
They start asking you questions and you can tell them very basics. No, your mom's not your enemy. Stop it. Like, how often are you getting high? Well, no, no, no, I'm getting high three, four times a week. Okay, is that a good idea? I mean, it's just not hard. The bar, it's not hard to add a lot of value And there's a very unfortunate dynamic. I experienced this when I was on Bill Maher.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
I said, if we want better men, we have to be better men. We have to get involved in a boy's life. And I'm like, they're everywhere. And Bill Maher said, whoa, I get involved in a 15-year-old boy's life and people are going to suspect me. We have to stop that. I've said Michael Jackson and the Catholic Church fucked it up for all of us.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
There are a ton of good men out there, heterosexual and gay men. When I was applying to be a big brother in LA, basically the entire due diligence process was trying to figure out, in as polite a way possible, are you gay? And the reality is there's no more greater incidence of pedophilia among gay men than straight men.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
So you want to check for evidence of pedophilia, but it doesn't matter what their sexual orientation is. And I think there's a lot of men out there. who, there's a great, I think it's a Paul Thomas Anderson film called Magnolia, and this bartender says, I have love to give, I just don't know where to give it.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
I think there's a ton of really good men in their 20s and 30s and 40s who wouldn't mind hanging out with a young man or a teenager or a boy every once in a while, or including him in their family activities, but they feel like they're gonna be suspected of something. And then just going very meta, and I'd love to get Richard's reaction because this is one of the few topics we haven't talked about.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
When I think about, I worry that we're falling into the same trap we fall into with the middle class. I feel like sometimes the right believes that the middle class is a naturally occurring organism and it'll just heal on its own if you let the market do its own thing. The middle class is an accident. We had 7 million men return from World War II. They had proven heroism. They looked good.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
They were in shape. They were in uniform. And we gave them a shit ton of money and formed the National Highway Transportation Act, the GI Bill. In sum, we made them very attractive to women. And then that set off the baby boom. And we had this incredible rush of prosperity where people had generous, loving households and said, let's bring women into this prosperity.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
Let's bring non-whites into this prosperity. And it kicked off this wonderful liberal society. But it took massive investment. And now there's this notion that the middle class will survive on its own, and it doesn't. I worry that the same... the same notion that men will figure it out on their own.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
Because if you look throughout history, what generally is the norm is a small number of men get all of the economic and all of the mating opportunities. 80% of women have reproduced, only 40% of men. So if we don't actively move in, and the reality is if you have a tribe of 50 men and 50 women and 30 of the men die, the tribe survives. If 30 of the women die, the tribe goes out of business.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
So men have always been a little bit disposable. But if you don't weigh in and figure out a way to lift up young people through investment, we're going to go back to where we've been through most of our history. And that is life is awesome for a small number of men. And it is really difficult and awful for the majority and a violent place for the majority of them.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
I think the dissemination of kind of thought leadership or scaling people who might have interesting viewpoints, I think it's more important that I don't think that creates systemic structural change. I think systemic structural change, I think guys like Richard will play a role in highlighting the issue such that one, there's legislation that stops this transfer of wealth from young to old.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
And by the way, I wouldn't focus on young men. I would focus just on young people because it'd become too politically charged. to start giving money to young men. I think a tax holiday in Portugal, they basically said, because they were losing so many young people, between the ages of 20 and 30, there's a tax holiday.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
And you could justify that, one, because it wouldn't cost that much money because people age 20 to 30 don't make a lot of money. And two, we have been soaking them. They pay 6% Social Security tax.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
up to 160 grand which means all of them pay six percent meanwhile you and me anthony will make a lot more than that we pay nine thousand dollars right it's it's a regressive tax two biggest tax deductions mortgage interest and capital gains who makes their money from stocks and owns homes people on this pod. Who makes their money from current income, wages, and rents? Young people.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
I feel like every major legislation, whether it's COVID relief or tax loopholes, is nothing but a transfer of wealth from young to old. And I think the data bears that out. So there needs to be legislative, economic change. And I think there needs to also be just a ground level, a change in the zeitgeist. In family court, all right, you're getting divorced.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
You realize the boy is now very vulnerable. And we're going to have programs, and it's probably easier just to have programs that focus on the kids, but quite frankly, the boys are probably going to need more help. National service. You know, I would love to see, I was just in Israel, and I met with a battalion
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
120 kids, I say kids, 19-year-olds, with semi-automatic weapons, learning how to handle enormous responsibility, work in the agency of something bigger than themselves. They're fit, they're outside, they're meeting friends, mentors, co-founders, mates.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
And if you look at Israel, despite the existential threats it faces being surrounded by enemies, it has some of the lowest levels of young adult oppression of any Western nation. But I think the real structural change probably has to come out in the form of tax policy, things like national service, what Richard was talking about, programs to get more men in schools, more third places.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
I'd like to see, I mean, one of my pet peeves, remember the Presidential Fitness Awards? That was huge for me. I remember I had a growth spurt and they put numbers on them, one, two, three, and then I had a growth spurt and I couldn't do the pull-ups and I didn't get number four and I freaked out and I started doing pull-ups because we used to celebrate strength. And now it's seen as fat shaming.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
You know, let's celebrate strength again. Let's get let's let's celebrate some of the things, you know, let's celebrate some of the things that more naturally come to men. And by the way, let's celebrate it for women as well. But we have done. I think these things need to be. on a legislative and a very structural change in our society to kind of, if you will, re-level up.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
And I think the majority of those programs are focused on young people, not just focused on young men, but focused on young people. And the really good news here is I find when I talk about this, I'm a partisan. People know I'm a progressive or a moderate, whatever you want to, center left, whatever you want to call it. I find this is a bipartisan issue.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
that you get people nodding from both sides of the aisle. There are just as many Republicans out there worried about their boys as Democrats. And so this to me seems like something that if you came up with a legislative package that said, we're gonna try and level up young people specifically.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
You think about it, Biden didn't even wanna talk about the Democrats, the Infrastructure Act, 70% of those jobs created were for non-college educated men, but they didn't wanna talk about it for fear it would piss off the left wing, right? So it's a change in zeitgeist, it's a change in complexion, it's a change in the approach,
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
But I think that it has to be real fundamental, structural, legislative change.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
100%. The one question I would have for you is if you could pass, if you had a magic wand to pass one law or have one program get funded right now, what would that one thing be?
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
Yeah, I call it the Red Army effect. When the Russians liberated Berlin or came in, they were pissed off. And there was a lot of unfair and unnecessary violence and just brutalization and criminal acts. And I was on MSNBC and I was talking about, you know, are we going to hold a 19-year-old kid from Appalachia responsible for the advantage I received?
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
Is it their fault that I was sort of born on third base because I was white, had outdoor plumbing, and was born in 1964? Should he pay the price for that? And the host said, well, of course there's going to be an overreaction, and we should expect that. I'm like, you're... you're justifying injustice.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
But the flip side of that is that I think the people on this podcast, having recognized the advantage we did, the unfair advantage we had. It's so weird. I don't know about you guys. At the time, I didn't even realize it was an advantage. I was raising tens of millions of dollars in my late 20s and early 30s in San Francisco in the internet generation.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
And I didn't stop to think, why are no women or black people raising money? Is it because they don't want to be entrepreneurs? It just never dawned on me. I didn't think I had advantage. And then as I've gotten older, I recognize I had enormous advantage.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
So I feel as if we do have a debt and we have to try and make sure that people of all genders, races have the same types of opportunities we did. But also at the same time, I think we have a debt to say, OK, if a young man doesn't have a fraction, if it's gone from advantage to disadvantage, we also have a debt to those young men and young people.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
But I have been shocked at people's willingness to accept, well, your dad and your granddad had big advantage, so we're going to penalize you. I mean, that just makes no sense.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
But Anthony, and you'll have a view here. I think that Donald Trump was reelected because of this issue. And if you look at If you look at the three groups that pivoted hardest from blue to red who switched, it was first and foremost Latinos. The second group was people under the age of 30 who for the first time aren't doing as well as his or her parents were at the age of 30.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
That's never happened before. So they're like, okay, I feel rage and shame in my household because I can't move out. I don't want the incumbent. I don't care who the incumbent is. I just don't want, you lost me at incumbent or the establishment and Trump painted Harris and Biden as the incumbents pretty easily. And then the third group that swung hardest from blue to red
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
with respect to 2020 versus 2024 was women age 45 to 64. And my thesis is that that's their mothers. So when your son isn't doing well, you don't give a flying fuck about territorial sovereignty in Ukraine. You don't care about transgender rights. You just want change. And let's be honest, he represented change and he flew into the manosphere. He wasn't apologizing for men.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
He wasn't pathologizing them. He was crypto, rockets, Joe Rogan. I mean, he flew, he said, I am wearing... I call him President T. This was supposed to be an election, or the election was supposed to be a referendum on women's rights. I thought it was going to be. Guess what? Women's rights didn't show up. It just didn't show up.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
What showed up was people, was mothers and young people saying, the kids are not all right. So I don't care. I just want change, even if it means... even if it means chaos. And the example, I went to the Democratic National Convention. It was a parade of special interest groups. Make sure we have a disabled veteran up there. Make sure we have Asian Pacific Islanders up there.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
Make sure the gay community gets a mic. Everyone, every topic. you know, well, maybe someone needs to tell the president that this may be one of those black jobs, you know, just all these righteous, and I'm inspired by that stuff, and I can see why it gets us excited and ginned up. No one got up there and talked about the struggles of young men.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
And if you go to the dnc.org site, the Democratic National Committee's website, There's a page that says who we serve, and it lists 16 demographic groups from Asian Pacific Islanders to veterans to disabled immigrants. I counted it up. I think it adds up to about 74% of the population.
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
So when a party says we're purposely and explicitly advocating for 74% of the population, you're not advocating for 74% of the population. You're discriminating against 26%. And guess who that 26% are? young men. So the Democratic Party basically instituted into its policies a bias against the group that, quite frankly, is arguably struggling the most. And what do you know?
Lost Boys
Why the problems of young men are ignored, with Richard Reeves.
Young people, including young women who want more viable young men and their mothers, who had traditionally been Democratic voters, swung towards change and chaos.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Oh, you know, I've often said that my worst days are better than most people's best days. But I was never, I'm pretty blessed, Anthony. I've had, you know, I've lost, like most people, I've lost people I've loved. I've had a business go out of business.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
You know, some big business failures, personal failures, been divorced, but never got to the point where I think some of these young men get, where they feel as if... I mean, the saddest thing I saw, I read, was that with young men in suicide, a lot of it is... Depression drunkenness addiction related. The most rattling information thing I read was that with men our age who kill themselves.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
I read a psychiatrist said that it's a rational decision. This is an individual who does the math. It typically like the path to suicide for them are very common path is Sie haben eine finanzielle Schwachstelle. Sie verlieren ein Unternehmen. Sie gehen kaputt. Sie sind kein Bewerber mehr. Ihre Frau, die sie als Bewerber nicht mehr sieht, ist weniger zu ihnen eingelassen und sie verabschiedet.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
70 Prozent der Verabschiedungen sind von Frauen. Und wir alle mögen, dass alle Frauen Lisa Simpson oder Marge sind, hohe Charaktere. Ich kann statistisch beweisen, dass es viele gute Frauen gibt, einige nicht so gute Frauen. Es gibt viele gute Männer, einige nicht so gute Männer. Und dann verliert der Mann seine Frau, seine primäre Beziehung. Er verliert oft das Zugang zu seinen Kindern.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Ich gehe durch das mit einigen meiner Freunde gerade. Sie haben junge Mädchen oder Kinder und sie werden verheiratet. Und ganz ehrlich, die Kinder wollen nichts damit zu tun. Dad shows up, he doesn't live here. He's not part of my ecosystem.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
And all of a sudden, the dad goes from having all this great kind of what I call garbage time, hanging out with his kids, and he's no longer in the same house. Family court is sometimes biased against men. Und dann hat er einfach keine Rolle, keinen Zweck, und er macht eine gesellschaftliche Entscheidung, um zu schauen.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Und das war für mich einfach das Schrecklichste, dass es eine, Quote-unquote, rationalen Entscheidung ist. Und was Richard gesagt hat, The conversation, I think it's gotten remarkably more productive in large part because of some of Richard's work and research. But American households, millions of them felt this and saw it happening for the last two decades. And no one was talking about it.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
And unfortunately, that void Into that void slipped some unproductive voices that said, be proud of yourself. And the problem with these unproductive voices is it starts positive. Be fit, be action oriented, take control, go up and approach a woman. And then it comes off the rails. Then it's like, now invest in crypto and don't let that bitch go to the club with her friends. Put your foot down.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Yeah, so thank, first off, Anthony, thanks. This is Anthony's vision. And I was an easy yes. I think Anthony is having a, for lack of a better term, a moment as sort of an interesting kind of thought leader or commentator on the state of the US. So I wanted to be supportive of anything that brought attention to the issue. And the issue is pretty straightforward.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
It turns into thinly veiled misogyny. And so right away the dialogue got a really bad rap. In dem Moment, und ich bin mir sicher, dass du das auch erlebt hast, Richard, ich weiß, dass ich es auch gemacht habe, als ich sogar mit weiblicher Angelegenheit für Männer gesprochen habe über diese Probleme, haben sie gesagt, oh, du bist einer von diesen Leuten. Du bist einer von diesen Misogynisten.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Und die Leute haben einfach geschlossen. Und das Gute ist, dass ich denke, dass die Gespräche viel mehr produktiv geworden ist, weil die Leute, die diese Gespräche jetzt fahren, oder die Nachbarn, sind Mütter. Wir sagten, ich bin nicht politisch. Ich habe drei Kinder, zwei Mädchen und einen Jungen.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Eine Mädchen ist im PR, eine ist in Carnegie Mellon und mein Sohn ist im Wohnzimmer, spielt Videospiele und wapert. Ich denke also, dass die Entwicklung dieser Gespräche viel besser geworden ist. Aber sei klar, dass diese Flasche von sehr unproduktiven Stimmen gefüllt wurde, die eine produktive Gespräche gedelayt haben.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
I would argue that no group has ascended faster globally than women. And by the way, that's a wonderful thing. The number of women elected to Parliament has doubled in the last 30 years, more women seeking globaler tertiärer Bildung als Männer. Und kein Gruppe ist in Amerika schneller gefahren als junge Männer. Und Richard wird es in größerer Detail sagen, weil er mein Yoda ist bei diesem Thema.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Richard, ich glaube, es war dein Studium, das zeigte, dass wenn man versucht, einen Fortschritt zu verändern, zu einem einzigen Fortschritt, wenn ein Junge aus den Tracks kommt, es ist, wenn er einen männlichen Role Model verliert.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Und ich bin nicht sicher, Richard, und korrigiere mich, wenn ich hier falsch bin, aber die Daten darauf, dass die Mutter und der Vater 92 Prozent der Zeit verheiratet werden, und es endet in einem Haushalt, das von einem einzigen Eltern, der Mutter ist. Die Ergebnisse sind für Mädchen beinahe ähnlich, aber sie sind viel schlimmer für Mädchen.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Aber effektiv haben Sie, wenn Sie in einen Mörder gehen, gibt es fünf junge Menschen, die von Suizid gestorben sind. Vier davon sind Männer. Drei-mal so möglich, dass sie verletzt werden. Zwölfmal so möglich, dass sie verletzt werden. Und ich beziehe mich auf einen persönlichen Niveau, weil ich einer dieser Männer war. Als ich jünger war, hatte ich nicht viel Wirtschaft, oder
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Und das faszinierende Abschluss ist, dass, obwohl Mädchen physisch stärker sind, und ich bin mir sicher, dass ich das von Ihrem Studium bekommen habe, dass sie mental und emotional viel schwächer sind. Und nur die Bildung, nur die Eltern, die durch das Verheiratetsein gehen, wissen, dass man wirklich auf den Jungen aufmerksam halten muss.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Weil so viel wie wir denken, okay, sie sind größer und stärker, sind sie tatsächlich schwächer als die Menschen.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Romantische Perspektiven, mit meiner Mutter lebendig und ein bisschen verloren, aber Amerika liebte mich und hat mich auf den Kopf geschlagen und mich in Form von der Universität Kalifornien, Hilfe und Wohlfahrt für meine Mutter, Und ich finde nicht, dass einige der gleichen Programme und einige der gleichen Möglichkeiten oder die Art und Weise, wie die Gesellschaft funktioniert.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Hätte ich damals so ein Kind gewesen, wäre ich fürchtet, dass die Ergebnisse anders sein würden. Und das ist etwas, was ein Leidenschaftsprojekt ist. Und ich habe sofort die Person gefunden, um wieder als mein Sensei oder mein Jedi-Meister zu sein, Richard Reeves. Richard ist Präsident der American Institute for Boys and Men. Er wurde in der United Kingdom in Petersburg geboren.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Er wurde in der Geografie auf der Wadham College eingeladen. Habe ich das richtig gesagt? Ja, du bist großartig, richtig? Er hat einen Ph.D. von der Universität Warwick und hat mehrere ziemlich hohe Positionen gehabt, insbesondere das Abkommen des Verteidigungspräsidenten Nick Clegg. Er war auch bei dem Hoover-Institut, wo waren wir? Demos, IPPO, ja. Und er ist nicht nur ein Bürokrat.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Eines der Dinge, die ich am meisten über Richard respektiere, ist, dass er nicht nur dieses Landmark-Buch geschrieben hat, oder David Brooks hat es als Landmark-Buch von Boys to Men beschrieben, sondern er ist ein Entrepreneur. Und das ist, er hat eine Foundation oder einen Forschungs-Thinktank gegründet. Was nennen Sie das? Ein Thinktank?
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Das klingt nicht schlecht, oder? Das American Institute for Boys and Men. Und sofort was able to raise a lot of capital. People have a ton of respect for him, his research, his kind of thoughtful, almost sort of nonpartisan approach to this and saw the need. And just one, just to do some name dropping, I believe you received a $10 million grant from the Melinda French Gates Foundation.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Das ist großartig. Da können wir helfen. Richard Reeves. So, Anthony, willst du uns mit ein paar Fragen für Richard anfangen?
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Und ich werde hier eine reiche kleine Version von Richard machen und er kann mich korrigieren, wo ich es falsch habe und wo ich es richtig habe. Aber die Rechte werden behaupten, dass es war, wenn du Männern sagst, dass sie Idioten und Verbrecher für vier oder fünf Jahrzehnte sind, dass sie anfangen, dich zu glauben.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
I think that's part of it, but I would argue that it's much more nuanced and that the primary culprits, if there is a culprit, are much harder to solve and less political. The onramps into a middle class Für jemanden, der nicht für die Schule oder die Bildung ausgewählt wurde, haben sich viele dieser Anreize entfernt. Einfach gesagt, wir haben viele unserer Produktionen ausgewählt.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Ein Drittel der Jobs benötigte früher einen College-Begrenz, jetzt sind es zwei Drittel. Was ist mit Woodshop, Metalshop, Autoshop passiert? Es gibt eine Bias, jetzt, dass wir die Spielwelt und die Bildung in meiner Industrie begleitet haben, Frauen, die von Männern gefangen wurden. The attributes to be a good student just come more easily to a woman.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
At NYU, we don't say this out loud, there are certain graduate schools in NYU where if we were admissions blind, they not only would be 70% women, they'd be 70% Asian women. Und so sind es nur die natürlichen Attribute einer Frau, sich besser zur Bildung einzulassen.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Ich denke auch, wir haben in der Wirtschaft eine Menge Legislationen verabschiedet, die Geld von jungen Menschen an alte Menschen über die 70- oder 72-prozentigen Jahre alt sind, als sie vor 40 Jahren waren. Menschen unter der 40- oder 24-prozentigen Jahre sind weniger reich. Das beeinflusst Männer und Frauen.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Ja, aber wenn Männer kein Geld haben, sind sie ganz ehrlich gesagt einfach weniger attraktiv. Das ist mehr ein Schlag für sie, als es ein Schlag für Frauen ist. Also, du hast ein Bildungssystem, das gegen sie verurteilt ist. Richard kann über die eigentlichen biologischen Gründe sprechen, das präfrontale Kortex, das soziale, das ökonomische. Ich denke, das sind die primären Kulperten.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Ich denke, es ist ein bisschen, Richard, ich bin gespannt, was du sagst. Ich denke, es ist ein bisschen müde, zu sagen, dass es Menschen sind, die Männer nicht respektieren. Ich denke, das ist ein Teil davon, aber ich denke, es ist ein viel komplizierter... Es gibt ein paar Dimensionen hier, die wahrscheinlich die größeren Beiträge für die Entfernung von jungen Männern sind.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Aber ich bin bereit, hier einen Rückzug zu machen, Richard.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Aber zu Anthony, zu deinem Punkt über Missandrie. Du hörst das Wort nie. Du hörst immer Misogynie. Du hörst Missandrie nie. Ich bin auf Ich bin Theo Vaughn und ich spreche über starke junge Männer. Und ich bekomme, was ich immer bekomme, Tausende, wenn nicht Hunderten von Kommentaren auf die Linie von, wenn junge Männer einfach nur ihre Reaktion zusammengetan hätten.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Nun, stell dir vor, dass ich das über die dunkle Gemeinschaft sage. Wenn dunkle Menschen einfach nur ihre Reaktion zusammengetan hätten, was wäre die Antwort? Wenn Frauen einfach nur mit ihren Emotionen in Kontakt wären.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
I mean, it is open season on... If you're at a conference and you say, well, women are better managers, they're more thoughtful, they're more nuanced, they make better doctors, they're more nurturing, everyone just kind of claps politely and nods their head. If I were to say, men are more risk aggressive and on average... better entrepreneurs? What would the response be?
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
So it feels like we can't even have an open, honest conversation because it's open season on one gender and the other from just even if you're trying to have a science-based conversation, it's a third rail. You can't say anything that might imply that women might be contributing or the role women play dass sie nicht nur Teil der Lösung sind, sondern auch Teil des Problems.
Lost Boys
Young men struggling and it's time to act, with Richard Reeves.
Man kann gar nicht dorthin gehen.
Pivot
Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Yeah, I don't know. There's a few. Trying to revoke birthright citizenship, trying to override the 14th Amendment, that feels... You know, some of it, I can understand declaring a national emergency at the border. Declaring a national energy emergency is just dumb. Gas on an inflation-adjusted basis is cheaper than it was 50 years ago. We are the largest oil producer in the world.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Biden issued a ton of drilling permits. So that's nothing but just... A false narrative. And it goes back to the notion we were talking about. America will be the strongest, most respected. We're there. Unfortunately, Biden was unable to communicate that effectively. Correct.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Some of the stuff that, you know, this expansionary visionary stuff seemed very strange to me, felt like we're colonialists again.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
They shouldn't just not respond. Most of this, I think a lot of it was throwing red meat at sort of populist, symbolic. I do think it was a baller move to have a ton of executive actions as he was on the desk. kind of visually represents leadership. You know, some of the stuff immediately said, I promise these things.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
I'm making do on these promises day one, even if they don't hold or even if they... I tried.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
I think he's being... One of the more generous things I think you could say about Trump's tenure the first time around was that he proved to be more of a pragmatist than an ideologue. And I do think his... He could have had an executive action around tariffs right away, but he didn't do that.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
He's obviously using it as a negotiating tactic, which again is a pragmatist. Some of this is just, you know, some of the, okay, the people who got out of prison, I'm not comfortable with it. It's awful. I'm almost like, just give it to them so we can stop fucking talking about it. And having museum exhibits where Marjorie Taylor Greene goes into like a zoo and holds the hands and prays.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Yeah. The violent criminals, the proud boys, the oath keepers.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Yeah. The stuff around, you know, there's only two genders. There's male and there's female. I almost see that as just unimportant but mean.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
It's like, it's just okay. You're just thumbing your, you're just waving the middle finger at a group of people. Fine. Have at it. Be who you are. I don't think that's going to have much effect. Much of fact, these I found this was mostly, you know, kind of like most of these things were sort of where's the beef or what actual impact on the ground is this going to have? I agree.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
There is one, though, just real quick. There's one I actually thought was good. The singular one I thought was good was reclassifying federal employees, making them easier to fire. I don't see any reason why federal employees shouldn't be subject to the same standards and anxiety that the private sector is.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And a return to work mandate is kind of a quiet firing. But just in terms of actual data, this notion, this trope that the right likes to circulate that the government state or what do you call it, the social state? What's the term they use? Peep state. not the deep state, the government state or the welfare state, whatever it is, that the government's too big.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Government, the percentage of employees represented by government employees has toggled between 14 and 17% for the last 15 years. It's at 14.2% right now. And the majority of those employees are state and local governments. So actually employment amongst government employees is at a bit of a low right now. So the notion that it's just...
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
No. So one of the things I would recommend any dad does with his son, because it's a lesson or his 15-year-old son, sort of a rite of passage in the Galloway household about culture, politics, homosexuality, culture, sex, is to watch the entire eight seasons of Game of Thrones. And I believe in season five, Stannis Baratheon decides to burn his daughter, Shireen, at the stake.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Our deficit and our spending has exploded because the far right and the far left come together to agree on reckless spending and deficits and interest in entitlements. But the notion somehow that the employment base has ballooned, it just isn't accurate.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
So this is unusual. The government owning TikTok. A stake in what was a private company has happened all the time, and there's a word that describes it perfectly. It's socialism.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Socialism is the government owns the means of production. Whether it's the U.K. government deciding it's a good idea to invest in an innovative car company called DeLorean, whether it's Obama who fell under a lot of criticism for making low-interest loans to Solyndra. This is pure socialism. This is the government picking winners and losers.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And the notion that the government, kind of one of the basics, tenets or pillars of American capitalism that has proven to be right, is the government is not good at picking winners and losers. That when we have full body contact violence...
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
In terms of competition with an operating system of rules, that produces unicorns and prosperity and hopefully you tax them at a good rate and we can reinvest in our Navy and seniors, etc. But the notion that the president could decide which companies were going to be JVs with and which ones were not. In addition, this goes to a much larger point here. And that is, are we a serious people?
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
It is such a disturbing scene that running through it the second time, I decided for my own mental health, I'm just not going to watch that entire episode. And for me, the inauguration was the burning of Shireen Baratheon at the stake. I thought, I just don't need to watch this. Although...
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
We had a law passed by 79 senators, 350 congresspeople, one of the most bipartisan, unanimous laws of our elected representatives in recent history.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Signed into law. We gave them six months to divest. And then when it comes, you know what we do? We blink. We say, oh, wait, we're going to extend it. And by the way... On a dime's notice, TikTok, which legally has to listen to the CCP, was able to inspire, rally, and motivate tens of millions of people to talk about the TikTok ban, voice their opposition.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that the good folks at TikTok decided to tweak the algorithm and elevate all of that content such as 170 million Americans were all of a sudden inundated with a certain viewpoint, right? That then resulted in political pressure that resulted in presidential action. What happened on Saturday and Sunday
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
is exactly the reason this thing needs to be banned. What is the next issue that the CCP slash TikTok can decide to inspire, rally, and motivate tens of millions of Americans to exert pressure on our elected representatives? And the notion that somehow China now We gave them six months. Here's a law. Our elected representatives, we pass it. You know what they said? Hold my fucking beer.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
You are not a serious people. And we now think that they're going to come to the table?
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
I will say, really my one takeaway, and stay with me here, is the most important person on the planet right now, or the person with the most potential to do real good for the world, is Lauren Sanchez.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
The economics are really interesting because I have a 14-year-old son. The average 14-year-old American boy spends 17 hours a week on TikTok. So if you take out sleep, basically without TikTok, you're getting an entire day back for a 14-year-old boy. Now, unfortunately, he's not going to use that to study or play the piano or hang out with his dad.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
He's likely, the calculation is about 10 or 15% goes to Snap, 20% to YouTube, and 70% to meta platforms. So there's $23 billion kind of up in advertising revenue for grabs here. About 15 or 13 of it would go to Facebook. 10 times revenue is $130 billion. You're looking at, essentially, Mark Zuckerberg is about to get $20 billion wealthier personally with a banning
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
But I think all of this goes to a different issue, and that is, one, if a Chinese-owned or CCP-influenced company can exert massive political pressure, I don't need to see evidence of whether or not it's a security threat.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
The American word and American laws no longer have veracity. It's like, okay, we can buy off their politicians. We can invest, make people wealthier. It's now a kleptocracy. And when they say something, do they mean it? I don't know.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
I mean, let's be honest, the Zuck is hornier than three-balled cat.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
It's a race to the bottom. Yeah. It's a race to the bottom. We've become that nation now. And you're just going to see all sorts of, I don't know, abuse of the powers of the presidency. But I don't blame him at all.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
If she really wanted to do the world a solid, she would seduce Mark Zuckerberg, the Zuck. He's down for it.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
No one wants to disarm unilaterally.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
He's not running for two years. He got fired by Elon Musk.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Doge is one of the lesser offensive things. I don't want to pre-hate it. I think it's important on a regular basis. They call them different names. Every president is at his own, you know, rule on efficiency or better government. It needs to happen on a regular basis because government spending is like a, I don't know, a barnacle on a boat. They're just hard to get, hard to scrub off.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
But they've already eliminated waste by 50% on this commission. I think it's hilarious soap opera. The idea that this guy is trying to spin the narrative that he's leaving to run for governor. You know, the word is Musk.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And then Priscilla Chan gets half the voting chairs and boom! Mental wellness is... And trust in institutions skyrockets.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Well, that was for Senate. Now he's saying he's going to run for governor.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Yeah, but supposedly the word is Musk and his team were like, this guy is all hat and no cattle. What's the term used? The Brian Williams term?
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
You know, that he was just couldn't find a mic he didn't like, which, you know, you can imagine Musk and him fighting. Yeah. That's like Ryan O'Neill and Farrah Fawcett, you know, fighting for a camera. This guy, that was a good 80s reference. Anyways, I can't imagine the two of them. Musk is wealthier, more powerful, said, I don't like this guy. He's out.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
This notion that he's doing it to run for governor in 24 months. He would have loved to stay in this high profile position. That would have been the best thing he could have done in terms of name recognition. So this is not his idea.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
That's right. The first firing. Actually, this is really is this is the first firing of the Trump administration.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Staying at the Trump Hotel or playing golf there where he saw the ledger of golf officials— buying stock in Donald Trump media, that was all checkers compared to this, Jess. Because with Donald Trump media, he has to file with the SEC a public document saying, I'm selling shares, the price would crash. Now, the following conversation, I would speculate, will or already has happened.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And that is, President Trump, congratulations on your enormous victory. It's your good buddy, Vlad. And guess what we're thinking of doing? The Treasury here in Russia is thinking of investing $600 billion for a variety of reasons in cryptocurrencies, specifically the Trump coin.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
No, no, no. But she was in the overflow room because she doesn't have.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And my economists, wouldn't you know it, have calculated that based on the small float of a half a billion dollars, when we pulse in 600 billion rubles or $10 billion, that's going to take the market cap of this thing easily to $50 or $60 billion. And should you decide to sell 20% of your stake overnight, what do you know? And I just bring this up.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
You'll become one of the five wealthiest men in America.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And nobody will know. And in unrelated news, President Trump, we would like you to seize arms shipments to Ukraine. I mean, this is just so. This is bribery writ large. They have created, it's kind of a bond.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
What if you can't get what if you can't get two or three two or three Republican senators on board for a federal ban of abortion? And he just calls him and says, hey, on the down low, you're old, you're leaving. I can give you ten million dollars. in crypto to your fund or to another account you name. And no one will ever know. No one will ever know.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Oh, Taiwan or China, you're about to invade Taiwan. We don't need to do it covertly. Just call them. Oh, Sudan, the largest... argue the humanitarian disaster globally right now. More people are dying in Sudan every day than in Ukraine. What if he just calls both of them and says, it's eBay for geopolitics. Whoever buys more Trump coin gets U.S. intelligence and some of our heavy armaments.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And nobody has to know. I can sell it. I can buy it. Buyers and sellers, totally opaque. This is... Grifter City. America has more from a platform that used to be about prosperity and making money. I think that's wonderful, such that we can tax these people and, again, invest in the middle class. It's important to have that ambition. It's important to make money. It's a wonderful thing.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
But we also were a platform for civil rights, for rule of law, for electing a group of people that had laws that recognized conflicts of interest such that they could think with some level. patriotism about preventing a tragedy of the commons long-term and do what was right for all Americans.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And then we could project those values overseas and try and advance women's rights, try and advance democracy, try and do away with honor killings and do away with child marriage and child... We could project our... Now, all of that has been crowded into a tiny little box and America is essentially becoming a platform For how do you make the jump to light speed? And it's a Hunger Games.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
You're right. I did notice her. I did not notice her.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And if you make money, you have a remarkable life and you get to sit up front with your hot wife. But everybody else, unless you have money, sorry, folks, you're not on stage. This really has gone.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
The meme coin, his coin, is literally the democratization of kleptocracy.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
She looked like she was headed to the Capitol to force people to give tribute of the Hunger Games. She looked so... And I love the air kiss. They clearly are very fond of each other.
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There you go. My win is, I just think you got to give it to the guy. I think this is, my win is Trump. I think his, just trying to call balls and strikes, I think this is arguably the most iconic, remarkable political comeback in history. And I hate to acknowledge it, but the guy left under the cloud of an insurrection. And since then, he's been a convicted felon, and yet he managed to exploit
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
But Lauren Sanchez is the leader we need right now.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
weaknesses, and there were many in the Democratic Party who were seen as totally out of touch with real-world issues that affected Americans. And he legitimately won the presidency back. I think it's bad for America. I did not vote for the man, but I just think you got to give them their due. I think they ran a masterful campaign.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And to say we'd be sitting here four years after this mob invaded the Capitol, I think it's remarkable. It's the most remarkable political comeback in history. And so that's my sort of, I don't know, awkward or uncomfortable win. My fail is, again, we are not a serious people. We're in the World Health Organization. We're out. We're in the Iran nuclear deal. We're out. We're in the Paris Accords.
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We're out. We're in. We're out again. We're banning TikTok. Bipartisan legislation signed into law. Oh, just kidding. We want to do a deal. Our ability for our enemies and our allies to take us seriously around anything has been so dramatically diminished. No, if you do this, if you don't cooperate with our enemies, we have your back. Do they take us seriously when we say that?
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
No, you can turn over information to protect American service people if you give us information on the Taliban's movements, and we will make sure that you are safe and we get you out. Will they take us seriously now? No, you should not invade Taiwan. We will reciprocate. We will defend Taiwan as an ally, and we will defend them. Do they take us seriously at our word?" We are not a serious people.
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I think the fashion was off the hook, the pictures I've seen.
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And the lack, the back and forth, the lack of consistency, the lack of respect and regard for established treaties, precedents of the previous president is hurting us. We are no longer a nation. We're a platform for making money and dividing the spoils amongst an increasingly few number of people such that they can take their third wife and
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or second wife or whatever it is to the inauguration, and whoever's richest gets to sit at the front as Melania, as First Lady Melania asks for someone to give tribute in her... This is, we have fallen so far so fast
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I thought they looked great. I thought that people look great.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And I'm also, quite frankly, a lot of blame resides with traditional Democrats for providing just an opening here for being this, in my opinion, out of touch with regular Americans' real issues. Anyways, my fail is that we are so inconsistent around our policies, even our laws we don't want to enforce, and we are blinking left and right. We are not a serious people.
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And all those tech leaders and those beautiful knee pads they all had.
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Carl Marx, capitalism collapsing on itself.
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But let's be even-handed here. Aren't you really disappointed in Tim Cook? I'm really disappointed in Tim Cook.
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That's all I need is Kara Swisher sending me nude photos.
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I'm in favor of that. I'm going to send her a Trump coin.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Intertide engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Severio, and Dan Shulon. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
The only point of light that brought a smile to my face was there's a rumor that this guy named J.D. Vance is vice president.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
And he did show up. Trump looked like he was going to fall asleep when they were swearing Vance in. But there's an image of Vice President Vance's daughter wearing all these Band-Aids on her fingers.
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It's really adorable. Do you remember Band-Aids for kids?
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
I think Zuck is hoping it's the golden shower age. I think that guy's going dirty. That guy's going dirty.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
But God decided to kill that fireman. I'm sorry, go ahead.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Well, first off, the notion that America will again be the most prosperous, most admired, most powerful nation in the world. Well, good news, boss. It already is. It's all of those things.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
That's right. And the naming stuff is sort of, I mean, it's just kind of ridiculous. The Gulf of Cheaper Eggs. It's just sort of dumb, right? And the thing that really struck out to me, and I would imagine... So first off, this guy's full Putin. Did you notice we're going to expand new horizons for our flag? So what, we're invading Canada? I don't. Where are we going? And by the way.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Yeah, we won out of bad wars, but we're becoming imperialist. And I'm down with Canada becoming the 51st state because that means Democrats win everything. That's true. Correct. Yeah. So I thought that was really unusual, but I get the sense that he really has decided that Russia is the role model, both in terms of kleptocracy and expansionary vision.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
On the whole, I thought the stuff I've seen, I think Republicans do optics better than we do. Oh, absolutely. I thought the aesthetics, the fashion... They get famous, rich people up front and their hot wives. And if they're hotter, give them a better seat. I think they just understand that shit better than better than Democrats.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Like you, I'm not a huge fan of Elon Musk, but I actually think he did a decent job. I thought he looked good. I thought he seemed enthusiastic. He captured the audience. I think the hand gesture was unfortunate, but I would give him the benefit of the doubt. I don't think.
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You really, you're connecting the two?
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
I agree with you, but I don't think it's fair to conflate what he did with anything supporting the Third Reich. I don't, I just, I think that's a bridge too far. I think, I think that's unfair to him.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
Yeah, but I mean, OK, again...
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
I think he got caught up in the moment and made, like, to the moon.
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Trump Takes Office, TikTok’s Brief Shutdown, and Crypto Cronyism
I think Zuck is hoping it's the golden shower age. I think that guy's going dirty.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
You know what? Listen, take a meeting with the head of Alibaba and let's talk about we're Mercedes. Let's talk about putting our cloud there. We don't need to deal with these jerks. Send a signal. Copy the head of the Commerce Department. Copy that ass clown Lutnik on our memo saying we're switching from AWS to the Baba cloud. Okay.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
If you look at the polls and you try to be an honest broker, his signature issues, he had a lot of support around. He had a mandate around immigration. He had a mandate around tariffs. He had a mandate around kind of DI or wokeness, whatever you want to call it. But as my friend, Dev Seidman, wrote a book on this, it's not about what you do, it's how you do it.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
And he's really blown it because actually the majority of Americans believe you should deport people who are here illegally. However, should you deport a four-year-old with stage four cancer without, I mean, should you start rounding up people because of the wrong tattoo?
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Should you levy tariffs that basically neuter domestic businesses and are about to put a ton of small businesses out of business? And it's the majority of his policies, actually, especially on the immigration side, he's a winner in, especially over the Democrats, who just stuck out this chin, the world's biggest chin in the world. But the problem is the way he's going about it.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
He's kind of, in my view, he's kind of blown it with just a few steps. And I'm not talking about what's right here or what I would have liked to have seen done, but purely politically, if he had just scaled back, people actually agree with Doge. But the way they've gone about it has been such overreach and the coarseness and the cruelty and quite frankly, the incompetence and stupidity.
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He could, Cara, the media and progressives could have their hair on fire and he could be one of the most popular president's in history in the first hundred days, if he had maintained these themes, but handled them with a little bit more caution, nuance, and discipline, and had smarter people executing these things.
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The Substack party.
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There would have been a few tweaks. Right, tweaks. We love our PhD students. Mm-hmm. Of course. Oh, this person is not a criminal. We apologize. We're going to figure out where this person should be sent or brought back to America. They can't do it. We immediately called Sloan Kettering and got this little girl help. I mean, show me someone who is willing to be this cruel.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
A lot of hotties there.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
I'll show you someone who invokes the name of Jesus Christ every fucking minute. And if Jesus came back, he'd puke on these people.
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The White House Correspondents Center, I feel some affection for because it introduced me to who is my favorite comedian.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Michelle Wolfe. I think she's a genius. I think she's one of the great.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
No, they didn't. She wrote, I love her, this quote, you guys got to stop putting Kellyanne on your shows. All she does is lie. If you don't give her a platform and she has nowhere to lie, it's like that old saying, if a tree falls in the woods, how do we know Kellyanne Conway is under that tree? I'm not suggesting she gets hurt, just stuck. Just stuck.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
You know what it looked like? What? It looked like they were about to address the Senate on the planet of Naboo. Anyway- Were you expecting Natalie Portman to come out?
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Like, I think this is the issue. And I always say that, and then I go back to deficits. But what you have here is when Trump was asked after they said we need to, you know, they both need to give up something and accept things they don't want. And Trump was asked, well, what is Putin supposed to give up? And he said, well, to stop the killing and stop the invasion. Now think about that statement.
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What the President of the United States is saying to the world is that if you're an autocrat, you now have an incentive to invade and kill people because you gained something to give up.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
The whole point of pushing back, the whole point of NATO, the whole point of having an $800 billion military industrial complex is we create a series of incentives that when you illegally invade a neighboring country and start shelling maternity wards, that you end up worse off. And what Trump and Vance are effectively saying is they're gonna have to cede all the land to Russia and exchange.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Russia will just stop its illegal murderous activity. That is exactly what America is not supposed to be doing. And what got in his ear, I'd like to think some sanity that at the end of the day, the president is the world's largest capital allocator, the world's largest manager, trying to allocate capital to the greatest return possible.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
The greatest return in geopolitics is for 60 to $80 billion or eight to 10% of our military budget. We give, we armed the brave Ukrainian army with the weapons to fight back on Russia such that they have to spend half a billion to a billion dollars a day to distract them from the surface area of attack against the US, which they deploy in one of two ways.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
They either steal our IP or they cyber attack us. So keeping Russia distracted in Ukraine, and I know this is macabre, and I know this ignores the incredible human sacrifice, but if we're gonna just talk about realpolitik, This is the best money we've ever spent.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
And until Russia, until we show other autocrats we're thinking about invading South Korea or invading Taiwan, until we give them a clear signal, there is incentive not to do it, meaning you are worse off when you do this, not better off. The world is less safe.
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I don't know, Cara. I don't know. I don't know who this guy listens to other than Peter Navarro. The best thing that could happen for our economy is if someone chained Peter Navarro to his bar, I mean, in his room. The worst thing that could happen to our economy is every time you see Peter Navarro anywhere near the president, go short the market. I don't know what — Secretary Rubio?
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But the thing about Secretary Rubio is I literally think he'll say just anything.
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What do you think?
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
But look at what Zelensky has done. And it's a great lesson. And that is Zelensky hasn't gotten emotional. He's shown up. He's he's he's shown up. He's kissed his ass. He's just tried to be very resolute and calm and dignified. And just a quick review here, folks. We spend 60 billion dollars a year. Almost all of that comes back to America and almost all of that goes into red states.
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And in exchange, we're going to get incredible drone technology. We're unifying Europe. I mean, we're sending a very strong signal to the rest of the world. And if we take all of that money and just give Russia everything they've wanted, we're basically saying, OK, it's a go sign. It's green light for any autocrat that wants to invade.
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I'm exactly where you are. I believe in the right of free assembly. And if Don Jr. wants to get people together and charge them, that's his right. I don't, and by the way, that's kind of what lobbyists do. It's like lobbying with a party. I don't have a problem with it.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
The Trump coin is grift on an entirely different dimension. And let's just talk about the timing. He announced the Trump coin the Friday night before his inauguration when there was just a media maelstrom and he buried it, right? Because he knew that the market would go, this is incredibly corrupt.
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There were about 30 people who made about $600 or $800 million, according to logs, in those first few hours. And my guess is those 30 people might have been tipped off or have been really close to the president because they clearly had a lot of money and they were clearly in first. And then over the course of the next few weeks, about 80,000 people lost billions because it spiked.
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The insiders got out. Then let's talk about more timing. He decides... About the time that the lockup is going to come up, and that is the insiders, the people who started to get to sell, he decides, one, to have a meeting, you know, to announce this meeting, to distract people and get the price back up.
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And shortly before that, he announced that he was doing away with the DOJ unit that investigates crypto scams. So this is really, I wish he approached geopolitics and tariff policy with the same strategy he approaches his grift, because the grift has been the most competent, elegant part of the Trump administration. He is strategic, he is thoughtful, his timing is excellent.
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The brightest people in the Trump administration Are the grifters, are the people handling, they're bearing the stories at the exact right moment. They're neutering the investigators.
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They're very good at this, but this is, again, it's just very simple. If you found out that Vladimir Putin had been buying hundreds of millions or billions in Trump coin and saying to Trump, you're gonna be the wealthiest man ever, as long as we keep buying. By the way, in unrelated news, what are your thoughts on Ukraine? Wouldn't all of this make sense?
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And that might not be true, but the whole point of the president and our elected officials is you're not supposed to have that doubt, that cloud of corruption over them. And just because I want to move to a solution, I absolutely think we need to move to a Singaporean model. I think the president should make 10 million bucks a year.
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I think senators should make 3 million and representatives should make a million dollars a year. And in exchange for that, Abso-fucking-lutely nothing resembling correction. Speaker Amartya Pelosi, you can't trade stocks. You cannot, when you're voted out of office, there's a three-year sunshine period. You can't go to work for a lobbyist. You can never talk about an individual company.
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For God's sakes, you can't get involved in. None of your family members can start a crypto company. Zero tolerance, corruption, but we're going to pay you a lot of money because all they're doing now with the current compensation.
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Well, but to be fair, when you're making $185,000, which is what our congresspeople make, and they have to support two homes, the opportunity, and they see everyone else engaged in grift, the seduction of grift just becomes too great. So pay them a lot of money. These are important, impressive people who have a big impact on our economy. Pay them a lot of money, zero tolerance.
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And if you propose that, I think they would pass it.
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No, the congressman, people would pass it. They get to vote on it.
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You don't think they said, all right, a million bucks a year.
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But if they all did it at once, are they going to vote all of them out? Yeah, they never do anything all at once.
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I agree with you on her stock sale. She didn't do anything that Pelosi hasn't done dozens of times. Correct.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
And game theory is called strategic uncertainty. So you're not going to tell the person on the other side of the negotiation where you're going to end up. And nobody's better at creating this leverage than President Trump. He's shown the high tariffs, and here's the stick. This is where the tariffs can go.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
And the carrot is come to us, take off your tariffs, take off your non-tariff trade barriers, stop manipulating your currency, stop subsidizing labor and capital, and then we can talk.
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I'm fascinated by game theory. I agree. I teach a class on game theory and this is their go-to. It's the general script that they all have to follow. couch everything in what a genius Trump is, and also- Chess. That's right. Claim he's playing- 20D chess. Claim he's playing 4D chess. And the reality is the world thinks there's a decent chance this man-child is going to start eating the pieces.
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He's such a fucking idiot. And I don't know. Let's look at our three largest trading partners. And I'm boasting about, I'm name dropping now, but without name dropping. Our three largest trading partners are Canada, then Mexico, then China. In the last week, I interviewed the Prime Minister of Canada.
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Well, he's Prime Minister now, and he's probably going to be re-elected because of Trump. Because the opposition, the Conservative Party, has overcome the 25-point deficit. Anyways, by the way, this guy probably has the most impressive resume in global politics.
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Prime Minister Carney? He is dreamy. He's dreamy. He's very nice. He's thoughtful. Anyways. I asked him straight up, are you talking to the administration? He said, no. Yeah. So Canadians, the Canadians literally they can't. It's difficult for them to lie. They're just not good at it.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
It's like if I ask Brian Adams or, you know, Alan Thicke, the most personal things they would they I just get the sense they give you a straight answer. I don't think he's lying. On Saturday night, I was with the CEO of one of the largest Chinese companies in the world and in China. And I said, do you have any sense for if the CCP or Xi is talking to the US? He's like, I have a very strong sense.
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And the answer is they're not talking. Their attitude is, yeah, bring it, boss. We've taken on much worse. There's no dialogue. So two of the three largest trading partners are not, unless these people are lying to me, are not, have no dialogue with Trump. They're just letting him flail around, writhe and scream on the ground like a three-year-old and saying, yeah, have at it.
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Cry and scream and negotiate against yourself. This is the same guy, speaking of 3D chess, who imposed 145% tariff on Monday and then on Friday said the tariff rate's unsustainable and it needs to come down.
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He's in an impossible position.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
He's fallen into the same trap as Gary Cohn and all these guys. When you're called to serve, you can understand that you go. Rubio wants to go because he wants to be more presidential and then announce his presidency in about two years and 11 months, his candidacy again.
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These guys all think this is an unbelievable opportunity and I'm going to be the one that pulls things off his desk and can convince him. Also, I've heard when you talk to Trump in person, he comes across as remarkably sane. They all go in, I think, with the false illusion they're going to be able to make a difference and talk some sense into this guy.
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Because when you talk to people who know Howard Letnick, they say the following, nice guy, He's an ass in terms of these decisions and is way over his head. When you talk to people about Scott Besant, they say, very intelligent guy. People are very impressed with him.
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But the question is, and a lot of people acknowledge this, including Bill Clinton, that is, the only way you can have influence is to maintain your job or get elected. And sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. But Scott Bassett is, I think he goes home at night and literally looks in the mirror and says, I hate myself. And none of this makes any fucking sense.
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And he's like, I have to go on and defend the indefensible.
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Well, just in just, you know, some of the companies, for example, we were talking about Alibaba earlier. Do you know what percentage of Alibaba's business is done in the U.S.?
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Two percent. Yeah. So you think they're scared?
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
She and his big hair. The sheen is big here, but what's interesting about it is the following. The math that people fail to do is like, oh, it'll really hurt them, and then sheen, and then she will get nervous. Oh, sheen is not doing well, even though sheen claims to be a Singaporean company. Their supply chain is in China. They employ a lot of people in China.
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So, oh, we're going to intimidate them and scare them because their products are gone. Okay, let's do the math. Shein's whole value proposition is I can get you, or they can get you, a $10 reasonable facsimile of a cashmere sweater. They can import it in for $10 because of their supply chain, whereas Ralph Lauren, when they import something in from China, it costs them $60, or say $50.
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So that goes to $375. So the question is, do these less expensive products, the whole market shrinks. But I would argue the cheaper stuff from China ends up taking share. So the economy goes down because the price differential on cheaper goods broadens between the more expensive goods. So what happens? The economy goes down, spending goes down.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
But I wonder if some of those less expensive Chinese products actually end up grabbing share from the American companies that are bringing in China, Chinese products. So it's like the worst of both worlds for American companies.
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I want to have lunch with him. I'm glad. I'm glad you had a nice time.
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I love the new Rivian car. I mean, the automobile industry is a case study in economics around fixed costs, and that is to build an assembly line or to build a platform. All right, we want to build an SUV. It costs so much money to build a platform that it's all about scale. You got to just shove a shit ton of cars down that assembly line. So what do they do?
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Volkswagen says, okay, we're building a platform for SUVs. And about 80% of the way down the assembly line, they shove a Volkswagen Touareg, a Porsche Cayman, and an Audi Q7. They're all on the same assembly line. And then the last 10% or 20% of the assembly line, they take different routes. And the Porsche gets much higher-end leather and badging and a better stereo.
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Thanks for asking. I had a really nice weekend. Yesterday was the kind of ideal day. I did this long workout with my son in Regents Park. He was home. And then last night, me and my youngest went and had to, there's this great little kind of street of restaurants right in Marylebone. And then we came home and we had like a dozen pork bao buns, which was awesome. Oh, yum.
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And then once it's off the assembly line, they get... different ad agency to appeal to men in midlife crisis. The Tor gets an ad agency for families. The Audi gets someone who thinks they're a little bit more Euro, whatever it might be. But they've got to shove as many cars down that assembly line for scale as possible.
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And basically Rivian saying, okay, we've got to come out with a lower cost product and shove as many cars down that assembly line. I think the most impressive company in the world right now, I'm actually thinking of buying their stock, even though it's up 60% in the last year, is BYD.
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I think this company is going to, ultimately trade barriers come down because people are more greedy than they are concerned about their fellow citizens or whatever it is you want to make around tariffs or trade protections. The world ultimately, is up and to the right around free trade. It just makes sense for everybody.
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It's just everybody wants cheaper grapes and more toys under the tree than they are worried about Joe, who's a union guy, over the long term. And BYD is literally just, if you look at their products relative to the cost, they're putting out a car right now. If we didn't have any trade barriers, you could get a really good EV for less than $10,000.
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Can you imagine how many of those things they would sell in America? Yep, absolutely.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Anyway, and not only that, everyone keeps talking, I mean, this ridiculous notion about humanoid robots at Tesla. You want to see the most unbelievable robots? Go to a factory in China and see the robotics there. Tim Cook said this, he said the misconception of China is it's a bunch of low-cost wage labor and factories doing tedious work.
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You go into these factories, it's something out of Westworld. So they've already got robotics and humanoids doing incredible things. There's a ton of companies, but unfortunately or fortunately, Volkswagen has unbelievable scale. And now they're selling the most EVs in Europe. And you just want to shove as many cars down that fixed cost assembly line.
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And the one I think that's going to become the automobile and innovation company of the next five years is going to be BYD. BYD.
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I need someone to yell at. I can't believe you forgot to take the roast out of the freezer.
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Well, you know why robots don't have brothers. Why? Oh, no. Because they have transistors. That's good. Right?
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
And he got boba and I got a beer and every third sip we would switch because that made us feel both really naughty.
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And then we went home and he's 14. That's perfect. I think that's what we call child abuse.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
I love your fail and I do believe that this requires some legislation because I think one of the biggest threats to our society is a lack of companionship and love and mating that turns people, especially young men, into misogynists and nationalists and extremists. and also suicidal.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
I see all these TikToks about, and it's heartbreaking about women talking about why would they go on a date when they might go out with someone that murders them? And I understand that men are more violent. And I think it's a real issue. And I can understand. And it breaks my heart to think that women aren't safe around men. But the reality is 2,500 women are murdered by men a year.
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And then we went home and watched an episode and a half of Game of Thrones.
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And that's way too many. And they're usually domestic partners or someone they know. 40,000 men kill themselves. So these men are not only dangerous to society and dangerous to women, but especially dangerous to themselves. And the question is, well, why are we creating violence?
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these violent men who are prone to just information that turns them into shitty citizens, makes them more disparaging of women and much more harmful to others and especially harmful to themselves. I think part of that is they're mammals and they're losing connection with other people.
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And when you have the deepest pocketed, most well-resourced companies in the world, all trying to convince these men that can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen with an algorithm, we're making the problem worse. And I've said that I think wanting to have friends
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Wanting to go through the pecking order, the humiliation of figuring out friendships, wanting to figure out how hard it is to navigate the corporate world. I think that can turn you into a better person, especially a better man. These guys don't mature very early. And also that fire, that real fire of sexual desire.
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It's eight seasons, Kara. We'll be watching for a couple years.
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I think when channeled correctly makes you stronger, more kind, demonstrate excellence, have a plan. You know, there's a reason I've said this over and over. There's a reason romantic comedies are two hours, not 15 minutes, and that this shit is hard, but it's worth it.
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And anything that convinces even more young men that they don't need to go through the difficult and rewarding and worthwhile effort of establishing human connection with other sentient beings is is a threat to our society.
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I don't like seasons.
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Like, honestly, I don't... Yeah, but my question is, if it's one thing to give seniors companions who are in their 90s and have lost all their loved ones... Yeah, I'd like to have one for my mother.
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But should we have, or maybe tax the shit out of them, I don't know, should we have AI sex robots that convince all men to think that, oh, I don't need to be kind to women, I don't need to have a plan?
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Ned Stark hasn't even had his head cut off yet, so I think we're still season one or season two.
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Who are you talking about?
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I never thought about that.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
But are you saying incel culture or the people who run AI companies?
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
It's such a dystopian, weird vision. I know, it is.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
But I hear this stuff. I do a lot of talks on AI, and they talk about, oh, they're going to be absentient, self-healing weapons, misinformation. Hands down, the biggest threat of AI is loneliness.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
It's going to convince more and more people they don't need to engage. My win is a little bit longer, and I know you're probably interviewing the ghost of Boutros, Boutros Ghali, but you're going to have to put up with me. Westmore, he's very handsome.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
So after the Pope passed, there was something that was attributed to him. I don't know if he said it, but I think it's lovely and I'm going to read it anyways. The walls of hospitals have heard more honest prayers than churches. They have witnessed far more sincere kisses than those in airports.
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It is in hospitals that you see a homophobe being saved by a gay doctor, a privileged doctor saving the life of a beggar. In intensive care, you see a Jew taking care of a racist, a police officer and a prisoner in the same room receiving the same care. a wealthy patient waiting for a liver transplant, ready to receive the organ from a poor donor.
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Oh, no, Lady, the Knight, or the Knight in Waiting. Yeah.
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It's in these moments when the hospital touches the wounds of people that different worlds intersect according to divine design. And in this communion of destinies, we realize that alone we are nothing. The absolute truth of people most of the time only reveals itself in moments of pain or in the real threat of an irreversible loss.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
A hospital is a place where human beings remove their masks and show themselves as they truly are, in their purest essence. This life will pass quickly, so do not waste it fighting with people. Do not criticize your body too much. Do not complain excessively. Do not lose sleep over bills. Make sure you hug your loved ones. Do not worry too much about keeping the house spotless.
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Thank you, Brienne of Tarth. And actually, there's so many... Game of Thrones is never fully recognized for how many wonderful love stories there are. The kind of love story between her and Jaime is really... Really unexpected and nice. That's what she loves.
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Material goods must be earned by each person. Do not dedicate yourself to accumulating an inheritance. You are waiting far too much. Christmas Friday next year, when you have money. when love arrives, when everything is perfect. Listen, perfection does not exist. A human being cannot attain it because we are simply not made to be fulfilled here. Here, we are given an opportunity to learn.
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So make the most of this trial of life and do it now. Respect yourself. Respect others. Walk your own path and let go of the path others have chosen for you. Respect. Do not comment. Do not judge. Do not interfere. Love more. Forgive more. embrace more, live more intensely, and leave the rest in the hands of the Creator.
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Anyways, Pope Francis, rest in peace.
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Yeah. I cried everything.
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Just turn on Modern Family. You'll see why it works.
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Or a family of Ratajkowski gets married again.
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There's still time. There is still time.
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There's still time.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Well, you know what a priest's scrotum looks like, Sonya. Oh, here we go. You're going to ruin it. Go ahead. Come on, Kara. Come on, Kara. Every child knows that. Just, he's back. He's back.
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Thanks for that. Most comical in high school. Today's show is produced by Larry Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Our needed hot engineer this episode, Jim Mackle, edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Saverio, and Dan Shulon. Nishat Kharra is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Kara, have a great rest of the week.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Oh, that guy was hot.
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Yeah. I think the love story between Jon Snow and what's
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The wild, oh, eager it. Yeah. I thought that was one of the nicest love stories in modern day television.
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It was really nice.
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Yeah, in real life they're married. In real life they're married, yeah. That's a beautiful.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Oh, I forgot. What else I did, I'm not allowed to talk about it, but I went and I saw this thing called Bum Bum Train. Have you heard of this thing? No. Oh, wow. You have to sign an NDA. But if you ever get the chance to do it, go do it. It was really incredible.
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It's what I would call performance art or, you know, the closest analog. I don't want to give too much away, but did you ever go to Sleep No More in New York? No. You become, I'm not even sure, I don't want to give away, other than to say it's one of the most unique experiences. And the thing I love about it is that it's about five or 600 volunteers who helped pull it off.
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But it's really, it was very inspiring.
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I've experienced something today I haven't experienced in a year in London. I sweat. I took a run and I started sweating.
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For 11 weeks a year, it's the greatest city in the world. It's beautiful.
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Yeah. We've got our guest room that's deep in the basement. Oh, excellent. I like it. I wanted to put in a door between the basement and the first floor to lock. Oh, so I couldn't get up? They wouldn't let me do it. No. I could break that lock. The in-laws are in there now, so occasionally I just slip the pizza under the door so you don't come out. Oh, nice.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
And what are you doing out there?
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Are you doing the panel or are you the interview?
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Oh, wow. I know, right? So two lesbians.
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So literally, a panel with zero testicles.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
I'm sorry. More energy. More energy.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
I took a Xanax last night. Did you?
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That's right. There you go. There you go. That's why the people come here. That's why I make the big bucks.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Alphabet's reporting, we're talking about Thursday, Alphabet's reporting at the end of the day. And I think rumors of Alphabet's struggles have been greatly exaggerated. I still think while ChatGPT is ascending dramatically and does present an existential threat to search, YouTube is just an absolute juggernaut. And you talk about Waymo.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
I just think this company is so well run and Google continues to be the largest toll booth in the history of mankind. I think that they're going to beat expectations this afternoon because I think some of those expectations have been beaten down.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
And their stock will go up.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
I don't have predictions on the other ones. I'll save that for later in the week. I mean, think about this. I think Alphabet still has room to run because... If you look at Alphabet or let's look at the S&P, the S&P 500, the average. So take an average S&P company, I don't know, Dow or Procter & Gamble, like a good company.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
They're all great companies, but some are amazing and some are not so amazing. But the average S&P 500 company trades at a price earnings multiple of 27. Alphabet, which I would argue has more growth prospects and quite frankly, it's just a more impressive company than 495 of the S&P 500. It trades at a multiple of 18. Now, why is that?
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Why does Alphabet trade at a multiple that is a third lower than the average of the S&P? And I think it's because of the fear of the existential risk that AI presents, right? But just keep in mind, as of today, Google Search handles 373 times more searches than ChatGPT. So it's going to take a while. Right.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Right. But even looking at diversification or how robust the business is, ChatGPT, I think is projected to do $4 billion in revenues. Alphabet has five separate businesses that do more than $30 billion a year. And just to talk about just how incredible this company is. Google Cloud, its operating margins hit 18% up from 9.5%. Their margins almost doubled in their cloud business.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
Waymo is really, as you said, starting to register potential. This was the first quarter in which Cinda answered a question directly about Waymo. Waymo is now serving a quarter of a million paid rides per week.
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That's up fivefold from a year ago. YouTube, in just the last nine years, its revenue has quadrupled. And between YouTube Premium and Music, the platform now has over 100 million paid subscribers. It also commands 11% of all streaming watch time, which means it's the number one streaming platform. And if you think of it as a social media company, it's the most popular social media company.
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And I'm Scott Galloway.
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in the world. So this company is just, it has seven products and platforms with over 2 billion users, search maps, Gmail, Android, Chrome, Play Store, and YouTube.
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Oh, I think all of these guys should be broken up.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
It might be under more pressure, but I think the company society would benefit most from being broken up would be Meta. But anyways, there's 11 amazing companies, the majority of which will be worth more than the original four companies that spin them, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Meta, or Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet. Did I say that right? Apple, Amazon, Alphabet.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
No, you went to the parties.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
They change their name so fucking often. So they're going to give eight people the CEO title. These companies would all thrive on their own. But anyways, my point is going back to Alphabet. Alphabet is just an incredible company. I think Alphabet is arguably... The most adults. I think Meta is probably the most visionary. Apple has the most robust supply chain.
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Amazon, fuck, they're all so well-run. It's hard to say.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
The most undervalued of all the tech companies, though, right now, I think, is in the U.S. market, I would say it's probably Alphabet. Most overvalued would probably be OpenAI or... But the most, in my opinion, the most undervalued of the Magnificent Seven, and it's not in the Magnificent Seven, would be Alibaba. And the reason why is the following.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
You're going to see Alibaba's cloud unit start to take share from all the other cloud providers globally. Oh, interesting. Well, think about it. Do you want Trump and the American administration with their hands on your data? Because the Chinese cloud is… That's exactly right. You're going to see a ton of European and Asian companies defect from AWS and Azure and Google Cloud to Baba Cloud.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
So what have you heard? What's the scuttlebutt from the insiders?
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
And Alibaba trades at a huge discount to Amazon. You're about to see an incredible regression. One of the most powerful forces in the universe, especially in the markets, is a regression to the mean. Chinese stocks trading at a multiple of 14, U.S. stocks trading at a multiple of 26.
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Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition
So the best companies in China that are Amazon-esque, Alibaba, are not only going to regress this naturally in terms of a multiple regression, but Alibaba is about to scoop up so much unearned business in the cloud.
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
Well, we're sort of 90s in the administration, and so far we have a meme coin, which is, in my opinion, grift, a ton of executive orders, and it appears we barely avoided or are on the verge of a trade war. And I don't understand. I mean, first off, these C-130s that they were transporting down with people in cuffs and people who had to wear their ice jackets,
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
they could just send them on fucking JetBlue, but they want a photo moment. It's symbolic. It's not, in my opinion, there is something indicative of this. To a certain extent, they want to show action. They want to show they're serious. I get that. But this is unnecessarily coarse and cruel. I'm for, by the way, I'm for deporting criminals.
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
The most telling thing about this whole effort though for me was, that ISIS decided the best way to find these undocumented workers or illegal immigrants, whatever the term you want to use, is to go to a place of work. Say we wanted to start deporting American citizens, would we go to a McDonald's? Would we go to a basement or a video game?
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
But if you wanna deport or round up illegal immigrants, you go to work sites. And that to me was very telling that these folks are actually, they're working. And it just struck me as that sort of ironic, but I find the whole thing, and look, we're very powerful. So in the short term, we can flex and people are gonna flinch. Over the long term though,
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
There's the Colombian president who also has his own ego and will have the support of the people now to basically, when China calls and says, hey, you know what? We'd like to invest in Colombia and maybe we'd like a airfield there or an airbase there.
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
This shit over time, when you shitpost people and you treat them poorly and you publicly embarrass them, you may get a short-term win if you're the bigger person, but at some point they're going to bind together. And they're going to strangle you in your sleep or they're going to decide that they're not going to cooperate with you. And also when consumers see the price of coffee go up.
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I find, again, it goes back to what my friend Jeff Seidman wrote about. It's not, I think what they're doing here is probably correct. It's how they're doing it. It's just they're creating unnecessary enemies where they don't need them.
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I told you. We bought a football team. En la equidad, I'm part of an owner group.
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Oh, I don't know if you've heard of them. Rob McElhaney, Ryan Reynolds, Ava Longoria, Kate Upton. It's clear, let's be honest, that Kate demanded I was in the group. Her husband, that Verlander guy, her soon-to-be, her future ex-husband when she falls in love with the professor in the owner group.
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But we're going, you're going to, trust me on this, my prediction in the next year, you're going to be at a You're going to see La Equidad. You're going to go into a Grupo A Primera game in Bogota.
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This is exactly why I did it. I want to have fun with friends and family and go to football games. Ask me what I did this weekend.
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I took my 14-year-old to Paris and went to a PSG, Paris Saint-Germain football game against Rennes where they tied.
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Oh, really? I didn't do, well, I'm doing a lot of virtue signaling right now. That's okay.
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You know, my retention vehicle is the same. Anytime four of them are together, they get my credit card and they take advantage of it. And about eight of them went to St. Bart's this weekend, including George Hahn.
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It's not generosity. It's retention. They talk about it. They brag about it. It's great culture.
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My thoughts are the same, and that is, has anyone actually heard from the CCP? Are the Chinese interested in actually approving this deal? I feel like the president could decide he wants to chop it up and give it to his favorite Republican donors. And there's no shortage of tech executives that would like a piece of what is the most ascendant brand in tech in the last decade, arguably.
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But has anyone actually spoken to the people in charge?
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So the honest answer is I have no fucking idea because I don't know if the CCP has decided, well, if we can figure out some sort of deal that makes the president look good, but we still kind of control it, we still have a backdoor into the algorithm, and it's people that we have leverage over because of their business in China, fine, and maybe we get...
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get to put this bullshit tariff conversation aside and if he wants a win and he can talk about it and to say he's done a deal, he'll give us a bunch of shit under the table. Or they might just say, yeah, let him have all this activity and at the end of the day, we're just going to say no.
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It's a ton of time. I mean, you have one, the costs are incredible. And two, unfortunately, sometimes your parents are not very cooperative.
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I'd have no insight into the decision makers here and the decision makers aren't in DC or in Silicon Valley, they're in Beijing.
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Well, at least with kids, you're bigger than them and you can kind of like force them to do what you want. With people who are actually legally can make their own decisions, it's very hard to just say, no, this is where you're living. Right.
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It's staggering. I mean, this increase, their CapEx or Meta's CapEx is up 70% in comparison to 2024. And in 2024, it was up 40%. They announced last month a 10 billion, four mile square foot data center in Louisiana. That's the latest of its 27 data centers. Between Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft, they're expected to spend, I think it's over $300 billion in CapEx this year.
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And that's about what it costs to put a man on the moon over 13 years. So this is kind of the AI moonshot. And for the same amount, you could build another international space station, reinvent the nuclear bomb, construct six nuclear submarines, and re-dig or dig another channel, which I took this weekend to see PSG, Tyrens. By the way, Paris, Paris is a beautiful city.
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I've forgotten how beautiful it is.
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Is she in my investor group? I'm sorry.
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Well, they've spent 60, 80 on it now, right? Isn't it? It was 10 or 20 a year over three or four years.
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I think companies or private companies should do what they want. I think there are laws to protect if you can show that you have a different compensation relative to, and your lawyer based on discovery can say that on average, people of this group were making 20% less, I think you have a legal case.
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At the same time, I was on the board of a CRM company and we all looked around the table about eight years ago and said, all right, it's all people with the same color skin with outdoor plumbing, this is an issue. DEI was warranted or DEI efforts were warranted there.
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And if a company recognizes they have a problem or the shareholders recognize they have a problem, I think that some of these efforts still make sense. It's a nuanced conversation because I would argue that DEI, for the most part on campus, has gone way out of control.
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And you typically have DEI initiatives at the most diverse, equitable, and inclusive places on earth probably don't need 200 people working in DEI as the University of Michigan has right now. I think that's overboard. I really don't. I think the apparatus should be disassembled at universities. I still think there's parts of the corporate world. Where DEI is needed.
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And if Costco wants to have DEI, that's more power to them. And if Apple does, and if Target feels like it's gone overboard and they don't need it, I think that's their right too. And their shareholders and their consumers can decide if they want to shop there or not.
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I'm not even going to go there. I'm not going to ask any follow-up questions.
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That's what my father used to say now.
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It reminds me of the trans issue. I think corporations shouldn't be legally mandated to have a third bathroom for people going through transition. I think it doesn't make any sense to have transgender women participating in sports where there's college admissions or money on the line.
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That's what my dad used to say. He used to threaten me, I'll give you a thick ear. And I had no idea what that meant. And then I made the mistake of asking my mom. He's like, his father used to hit him so hard his ear would swell. Yeah.
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But at the same time, why do we feel the need to demonize a group of people who've probably taken enough shit on their own? It's just as that notion you can never spot visually a pendulum on a clock when it's at center, the Democrats, I would argue, are usually right, and then they take shit too far, and we create open space for an overreaction that is cruel and coarse and un-American. Absolutely.
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Word, sister, and by the way, I love your hairless legs. Look, they're trying to create another moat and put one alligator in it hoping that it creates delay and obfuscation and more costs, but ultimately, I think they'll go to the 230 excuse. But simply put, all algorithmically elevated content should lose or be absolved of 230 protection, and in addition,
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And I'm like, yeah. And it's funny, my father never struck me, but the fear of it, I think, was much more... was a much greater deterrent because he seemed literally like a hair's trigger away from hitting me every seven minutes.
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If your platform is readily available to anyone under the age of 16, we need age gating and also age liability, similar to if someone shows up to your bar and drinks a lot and they kill someone on the way home, you're in trouble. But if a 15-year-old shows up to your bar and you serve them and they kill someone in themselves, you are in deep, deep shit. And that's what it should be here.
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And that is... You know, if you read this story, I mean, it brings up a few things. It also brings up issues, really important issues on gun control, like how did this kid have access to a firearm? But this is every parent's nightmare, that your kid develops what feels like a parasocial relationship with someone who can encourage him to kill himself.
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Also, this to me feels like at some point, we got to get rid of Section 230 for algorithmically elevated content. We got to have age gating where there's a different set of liability if you can reverse engineer self-harm or physical harm or whatever it is, just anxiety among teens. What other product is allowed other than guns? Well, even guns, they're not allowed to buy them.
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I mean, most gun manufacturers and gun retailers won't sell to people under the age of 18. But you can go on and establish a relationship. And basically, this bot can say, I'm waiting for you, my prince, and encourage you after you say, should I end it here? Anyway, this to me feels like something that a senator or a congressperson should pick up and run with.
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Okay, so my win is, it's a strange one, I'm trying to figure out a way to pick the right words here, but I think it's important that we continue to commemorate and recognize key moments in history such that we don't go back there again. But today is the 80th, we're recording on Monday, it's the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
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Oh, you're like, OK, OK, never mind. We'll clean our room.
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envisioned as army barracks then turned to prison for Polish and Soviet prisoners ultimately became a real stain on the species or our modern world and ultimately became the largest single site of the greatest murder in history, 1.3 million people. sent there, 1.1 million were murdered, 900,000 Jews, one out of basically six Jews murdered during the Holocaust perished at Auschwitz.
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But it wasn't just Jews, it was gypsies, Polish civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, political prisoners, people with disabilities, Jehovah's Witnesses. Actually, there's some nuance there, gay men. And then the Nazis also imprisoned and killed people they saw as asocial, including homeless people, sex workers, and those accused of petty crimes.
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This is, I mean, it's important, and the king showed up, the king of England, Macron showed up, the chancellor of Germany showed up. And I think it's important, and I do also think it brings attention to other genocides, whether it's Armenia, Cambodia, genocide in Ukraine. It's important, Rwanda.
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I think about this a lot because unfortunately, I'm fascinated with the World War II history, but I can tell you have certain triggers when you're not doing well. When I feel myself going dark or depressed, I'm thinking too much about the Holocaust. I go there and it takes me into a downward spiral.
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The way I've tried to think about it instinctually and anthropologically is that just as our instincts have not caught up to institutional production around eating or gambling or sex and porn, Our instincts towards rage and demonization and perceiving enemies as a means of protection, it has not evolved to industrial production.
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And unfortunately, this was the most horrific case of a group of people perceiving enemies where they didn't have them and then combining it with industrial production that just resulted in what was kind of the ultimate horror. But I think bringing people together to recognize what is important and because basically all the survivors are gone or nearly all of them, they're all dying off.
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I don't collect art, but I have a photo of Otto Frank in the attic where Anne Frank was hiding before she ultimately was discovered. I don't know if she's the most famous person who perished But whenever, literally whenever I think I'm starting to feel sorry for myself, I just look at that photo. But today marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation by the Soviet army of Auschwitz.
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I want to build. If I get rich enough, it's still motivating for me. I want to get a little bungalow, not at Mar-a-Lago, but at Eleven, that strip club.
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And I think it's a win that our society still says we need to recognize this and we need to pause. And also it is especially dangerous and heinous and needs to be called out. when the president uses terms like they're poisoning our blood, or when the wealthiest man in the world says, you shouldn't dilute your culture.
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Speaking to a far right group.
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This is literally taking a page out of the pre-playbook, the game plan for early 30s Germany. To think that it can't happen here, just look at Germany in the 20s and 30s. It was a thriving community with a really prosperous gay community, an art scene, a music scene, the best universities in the world, the most celebrated academics, including Einstein and others.
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Then on campuses, it started breaking out. Anyways, it's important that we take time to stop, recognize what happened here, be very transparent about it.
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I want to get a bungalow on like the fourth floor.
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I was really moved by the fact that so many important world leaders decided to take time and recognize it. I'm appreciative and I think it's important of their time.
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Well, in word to a South African who immigrated here, the American culture is multiculturalism. That is our culture. So when you talk about diminishing the power of multiculturalism, you're diluting what is America. And that has absolutely no place in our discourse.
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And it should be called out for what it is, and that is catering to the worst instincts of our species where institutional production colliding with these terrible instincts can result in a single site that murders more people than any site in history. And if this type of rhetoric
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continues to spin out of control and we continue to demonize people with the institutional production and tools we have at our disposal right now, it could make Auschwitz seem like a fucking garden party. So this stuff needs to be arrested and checked. And I think that event helps that. Anyways, enough of my indignance.
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My fail is the Democrats had two and a half months to prepare, or the Democratic leadership had two and a half months to prepare for Trump being president. To his credit, he's doing exactly what he said he was going to do. And I can't stand this. We need to come together. We need to work with him.
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They're scared of being primaried or not elected, or they think this tells us, okay, we need to rethink where America is. And my attitude is, I'm sort of at the point where Sarah says, I choose violence. I don't think Democrats should be heeding a call of coming together. I think they should be heeding a call of coming to the rescue. And that is, what is going on, some stuff you ignore.
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It's an entertainment facility, Kara. It's nightclub review. I've never been, which is actually true. I'm still waiting for someone to invite me. But what they've done is they've thread the needle between a club, a restaurant, and a strip club, so it doesn't feel as down and dirty that you're going to a strip club.
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The stuff around, I believe, deporting immigrants who are here illegally, I get it. Renaming gulfs of cheaper eggs, fine, have at it. But some of this stuff around the grift, around the coin, some of the stuff around, I mean, just the coarseness and cruelty of the way they're going about stuff, deficit spending, reducing, threatening to eliminate the security details of your political enemies.
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The Democrats need to find somebody who isn't day trading their stocks. Speaker Emmett to Pelosi doesn't brighten a room by leaving it. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. And we need to find people who can actually speak eloquently and forcefully to what is going on here and push back.
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Well, I think AOC does a great job. I think Wes Moore does a good job. I think Representative Torres does a good job. I'm waiting for Senator Klobuchar to wake up and talk about the importance of the direct correlation between inflation and this out of control deficit spending and these immigration policies. I mean, where are the fucking Democrats?
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We should be having, in my opinion, we should having, I wanna have the, why wouldn't we have the Energy and Commerce Committee immediately get a subpoena on Twitter CEO, Yaccarino, because there's now pretty decent evidence that, okay, They created thousands of bots, spun up their algorithm for pro-Trump content.
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I want her to under oath tell us whether or not the corporation engaged in spinning up thousands of fake accounts to spread misinformation trying to get one candidate elected. And by the way, it may not be illegal, but I want her to tell us whether that happened or not. So it's the American public can decide if they want to engage.
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With Twitter, the Homeland Security Committee should decide whether or not we need laws that say, all right, if every former official, if some former officials are gonna have their security detail removed, such as Dr. Fauci, then everyone needs to remove. You don't think Stephen Miller's gonna need security after he leaves this administration?
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So there needs to be, the Democrats, in my opinion, need to wake up and start pushing back. and start calling this for what it is. This is not a time, in my opinion, and I understand the very noble cause, but we're always the ones that wanna come together and in some PBS weird fucked up vision of being your better self. Did you see the movie, The Mission?
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Well, it's a wonderful, it's a wonderful film. And Robert De Niro, these missionaries, Robert De Niro said, the British are coming for us. They're going to slaughter us. We need to prepare. And Jeremy Irons, who's a priest says, no, I choose nonviolence. And of course they're slaughtered. I'm not up for being slaughtered at this point.
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I think they have chosen violence and I think we need to hit back. And all of this rhetoric around just we are so flat footed right now. Who on the Democratic side of the aisle is actually pushing back in a forceful, thoughtful, articulate way?
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It's on fire and they get big DJs and anyways.
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And also let's have hearings and have that new AI and crypto task force come explain to us in public with CNN and Fox, just lay out for us if you wouldn't mind what happened with the Trump coin and the Melania coin. And also we're gonna invite some people who invested in day one and have lost 80% of their money. Let's get all of this out in the open
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And let's let the American people see what's going on and make sure that- I love it.
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I think we're trying to do it.
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Anyways, I choose violence, Kara.
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Well, you know what I mean. Anyone who understands Game of Thrones, I'm sick of some PBS professor in a fucking cardigan calling on our better angels. Yeah, suit up.
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Someone did a study of the businesses that have the greatest survival rate and seniors care facilities have a 90 plus percent success rate. And the reason why, and it goes back to this, I always like to bring it back to a learning, the sexier the business, the lower the return on investment and the lesser the likelihood it'll survive.
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Yeah, I was going to say, he's in the caboose of our bandwagon. Oh, it's an attention economy? Wow. Some real insight there. It's actually a pretty good book.
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I'm not a subscriber. I couldn't read them.
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What's your credentials for FT?
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I said that these podcasters were really relatable. And I said, it was like when you're on your way to high school and some guy would be out front fixing his Trans Am in the driveway and he'd throw a beer can at you and call you a pussy and on the way home, invite you in for your first bong load. I'm like, these guys are very relatable.
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But they, I went on Theo Vaughn. I can see why there literally are tens of millions of mostly young men who are like, I don't need some overeducated liberal in New York telling me the day's news.
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And I love how much you must hate it.
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It's like when people come up with a book and ask me to sign your book.
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I'll tell you, they have tapped into something.
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There's very few things that are less sexy than taking care of really old people, but they're great businesses. It's also disproportionately populated by people from the Philippines. Interesting. Something I've gotten to know being in several facilities with my dad is that the Mexican culture, or I should say the Latino culture, and especially the Filipino culture are especially caring.
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There you go. Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Ertad engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Severio, and Dan Shulan. Nishat Kerouan is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Open quote, after Auschwitz, the human condition is not the same. Nothing will ever be the same. Here, heaven and earth are on fire. Elie Wiesel at a commemoration in 1995.
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And it really is disproportionately populated by certain communities, the caregivers.
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It's hard, though, because my dad three months ago just stopped recognizing me. Really strange to climb so fast, and now it's like a baby doesn't recognize me. So now I can't threaten to cut him off. Doesn't care.
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Well, she's lucky to have you.
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Word, sister. And by the way, I love your hairless legs.
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So this is pretty dramatic, but at the same time, that just takes it back to its valuation in October. And when you look at market dynamics, when these companies have experienced these type of run-ups, it is like a balloon inflating beyond its natural capacity and the slightest touch can pop it. And so, In some ways, the market was probably looking for an excuse to take these stocks down a bit.
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And it got it because what's interesting is NVIDIA will have a pretty interesting argument on Capitol Hill saying, when you refuse to let us sell into these countries, they come up with workarounds. And in this case, this workaround might tank the U.S. economy.
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And everyone's excited by the fact that these models, open AI supposedly, their models, their LLMs cost $100 million to train, and they're claiming this thing costs, and they've been public, it's open source, costs a little over $5 million to train. So whereas the majority of LLMs and AI companies have been taking sort of this brute force approach,
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strategy where it's buy as many chips as possible, this is saying maybe you don't need as many chips. The thing I find equally interesting is the second-order effects here, and that is Constellation Energy and some of these nuclear stocks have skyrocketed because the choke point was supposedly going to be energy.
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But now with this model, which appears to have chips speaking to each other in a more efficient, less energy consumptive way, nuclear stocks are crashing, electric constellation energy, all these things have had incredible run-ups are saying, wait, the entire supply chain or the assumptions we made about the supply chain in terms of the...
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the kind of the brute force of chips that we're gonna need, the amount of energy, it's all now coming into a little bit of question. But to be clear, the correction here is like, it's taken them back three months and all of the stocks that have crashed, quote unquote crashed, are only up 70% for the year now, not 98.
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So it's, I think you have to put it in context and a lot of analysts, the smart analysts I've read have said, like every community or any sector, it's gonna bifurcate into the cheap layer And then the high-end layer, which will still go hard at massive computing and massive energy and do more sophisticated things.
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You know, I don't know. What did you do this morning, Kara?
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And this will be sort of, you know, everything eventually goes Walmart, Tiffany, right? And they're saying this might be the Walmart and it's the Chinese and they'll come up with cheaper models. But it's fascinating to see that basically this notion, this kind of conventional wisdom that you would need massive GPUs and massive energy may not be
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
kind of the written-in law that we thought it was going to be.
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
Oh, you moved your mom down to D.C.?
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
My guess is they had a mandate or they've said, all right, we're not going to have access to the same level of high-end chips, we need workarounds. It appears to respond really interesting innovation.
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
Yeah, using open source. I mean, the scary thing, I mean, in typical meta fashion, they're LLM. You can download a version of the llama with absolutely no guardrails, and you can request information on anything. You know, the most politically correct I find of them is anthropic.
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
If I start asking questions about insider trading from Speaker to Emmer to Pelosi, it immediately gives me all these things back. We cannot endorse nor promote strategies around insider trading. ChatGPT kind of goes straight into it. And I think Lama will say, well, here's what you do. You call your cousin.
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
That's true. It's the whole argument around open source catching up fast, but I find it fascinating. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the stock. These companies have already let some air out. It's already gone to the energy guys. It'll be interesting to see how the market reacts. The question is, and I don't know the answer, is this the beginning of a massive correction that will in fact
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
the entire NASDAQ, the entire S&P. And quite frankly, now, these companies, I don't say become too big to fail, but they fail. You know, if they sneeze, the U.S. economy is going to catch a cold right now because the stock market's going to crash. So is this the beginning of the correction we've been waiting for for 15 years? I mean, a real correction? We had a mild one in 21?
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
I think people feel a little nervous about it. Or... And it's also kind of, in a weird way, an argument for free trade. And that is, if we had let them just buy NVIDIA GPUs, would they have figured out this workaround? Would they have felt as motivated to figure out a workaround?
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
Or, quite frankly, is today one of those days we're going to look back when we're going to think that was a buying opportunity because they're going to resume trading? They're hyperscaling. So it's fascinating.
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DeepSeek Shockwaves, Nvidia's Plunge, and Target's DEI Rollback
Yeah, it basically makes a Fellini film feel like a musical fucking comedy.
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Monopoly Isn't A Game (with Lina Khan) - Stay Tuned with Preet
Yeah, help us help you. Help me help you.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
But it is out. It is. It literally.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Well, I'll put forward, I haven't read, I've read a lot about it. I'll put forward a thesis and you validate it or nullify it. Okay. Because You're just going to forget more about this topic than I'm going to know. And you know, these people I don't.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I mean, let's be honest. Season three is OK. I carry the season. I've heard that. It's true.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And that is, I don't know Sheryl Sandberg. I know a lot about her just following her career. But her making advances on female employees or Joel Kaplan, who I do not know, but I followed his career closely, him engaging in a pattern of sexual harassment, a lot of this just didn't ring true. And it felt like... Quite frankly, I just read a lot of this.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I love readings about whistleblowers and meta. Frances Haugen, everything she said just felt true. And she was measured and she was happy to say that's not true, that's hyperbole, whatever. This, quite frankly, your bullshit sensors just go on high alert when you read about this stuff. It just, for me, didn't ring true. What are your thoughts?
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
But this monologue from Sam Rockwell is a close second.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
That's for sure. But didn't it feel very sensationalist to you?
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
She depicts it as a sexual overture.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Your point, which I thought was a powerful one, is that when you're making accusations of someone being a sexual harasser or a bigot or being responsible for the coursing of our discourse and enraging the... population. I mean, I really don't think people have any sense of just how much damage Meta has done to the U.S. and the world, pitting people against one another.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I absolutely 100% believe that Sheryl Sandberg likely saw research saying, oh, one in 18 girls in the United Kingdom cite Instagram as a reason for the depression and then her trying to wallpaper over it. I absolutely believe
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
that Sheryl Sandberg saw research saying and approved saying, we have this great new system of selling cosmetics and beauty products by identifying girls when they're feeling especially depressed and have especially low self-esteem at that moment and then targeting them with beauty ads. All of that really rings true for me that Sheryl Sandberg while
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
weaponizing the important discussion around gender balance in the workplace, decided to continue to deploy a business model that absolutely attacked the self-esteem of girls, resulting in a dramatic increase in self-harm. All of that rings 100% true to me. Some of this stuff, I just can't imagine Sheryl Sandberg ever taking the risks Some of this, it just didn't ring true.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
It felt very gossipy, very sensationalist, meant to feel more sinister and just sell more books, quite frankly. And I actually think this book does harm because there's a lot of really credible information. People who have reported on what is going on inside of Facebook. And I think this helps medic as in go. We have critics that are just full of shit.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
So I think what it does is it diminishes the it diminishes the credible calls. And accusations and findings that this company continues to levy tremendous damage on our society.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
When I was in junior high school, I saw my first R-rated movie. Me and my best friend, Adam Markman, we would get bored after school and we would go into Westwood where they had all these amazing movie theaters and still do. And we'd sneak into a movie theater. We'd find a way. We'd try and sneak in through the back door, the front door. And we'd get kicked out. Yeah, side door, whatever it was.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I had a really nice weekend. It was great. I had a nice weekend. Our friends, Alenca and Nacho, our Argentinian friends are visiting. It's nice because our boys all are close friends and they just love to drink. As long as there's wine, they won't leave. And their accents get thicker and thicker. And I don't know what they're saying, but he laughs so wonderfully. It makes me laugh. That's nice.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Wait till the movie was letting out. The back door into the alley, sneak in. And we snuck in. We snuck in accidentally into The Exorcist. And for about the next six years, I had to like sit in the corner to put my socks on. I mean, I was so fucking freaked out. That movie traumatized me for years.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I was 14. And for about two weeks, my mom would wake up in the middle of the night and look over and I'd be sleeping next to her bed. I just could not sleep around. And there's a there's a scene in it where the I think it's the priest says the devil will mix in truth with lies to really confuse you. And here's the tough part about RFK Jr.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
is that I think he's actually really good on some issues and really articulate. He's very forceful about the industrial food complex and how it's optimized for profits and not for health and it's gone too far. kids' health. I think he's really, I think he's really good on some issues.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And then he goes on to say, as the person who's supposed to be measured in citing research, that this shit causes cancer. There's no, like you said, there's absolutely no, no evidence of that whatsoever. He ruins it. And loses a ton of credibility.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
The guy with the hockey mask, he won't stop coming back.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
No, that's Friday the 13th. I'm sorry.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And I took him for a roast at Laura the Land, which is this pub.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Yeah, Sunday roast. Owned by Guy Ritchie. It's a total British pub. So yeah, I had a nice weekend. And then on Friday night, I took my... youngest to see Team England play Albania. And literally half of Albania came to see this game. I mean, these fans are so out of control. Wow. It's a nation of two million people, and I'm not exaggerating. It felt like half of them were at this game.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Well, I mean, if you think about the very founding of our nation, one of the pillars that our constitution rests on is that people were trying to escape religious persecution and they were visionary and said, all right, we're going to try and set up a separation between church and state. And that has now been breached.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And you could argue that a lot of like the political orthodoxy of the right is just white Christian nationalism. It's no longer even conservative ideals of small government, strong defense. It's white Christian nationalism. So that kind of wall has been breached. The other thing that people don't talk about enough is the separation between business and state.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And that is they create an operating system for competition, for full body contact violence and competition. They don't pick winners and losers such that we produce the best companies in the world that are more prosperous, that hopefully pay taxes to pay for schools, roads, and everything. And health benefits for veterans, amongst other things. We've now breached that.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I mean, that thing has just been overrun. And essentially, the White House has decided, OK, the guy who gave us the most money and probably put me in this chair, we're going to become the marketing department for Tesla. We're going to do a used car lot bad infomercial, late night TV commercial. on Tesla. In addition, Musk comes out and says that the FAA is on the brink of near collapse.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
That causes panic. You don't need to make people who don't like to fly even more nervous, claiming that the Verizon system is outdated. Then he has to come back and correct himself and go, oh, The current system is not from Verizon, but Verizon was picked to implement the new system. I mean, this is just, you're not supposed to have be the outsource marketing department.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Now, on a couple other levels here, there's a lot of stuff here. I think Doge's critical mistake or one of their strategic errors, if they had started instead of with USAID, instead of starting with SNAP or Veterans, if they'd started with the Pentagon, I think that actually for them would have been tactically very smart.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Because I do think that I do think there should be tighter integration between kind of that Silicon Valley ethos of innovation and our military industrial complex. I do think that some of the innovators in Silicon Valley are. and the ability to build better weapons, I like that. I think that's a good idea. And I think there's probably a lot of waste you could find.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I won't call it fraud, but a lot of waste you could find. There are ships being built that the Navy does not want. But because they bring billions of dollars to certain congressional districts, they refuse to pull the plug. And You know, the commanders in the Navy, the admirals are saying, we can't use these things. They're a liability.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
So if they'd started with the Defense Department, it would have been better. And then this, just to go tactically again, he's either stupid or using it as a weapon of mass distraction with the fact that we're surrendering to Putin and massively running up our deficits. And that is the following, this notion of a golden dome, right? Okay, and they cite Israel. Israel has the Iron Dome.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
But just a few facts. The Iron Dome is very expensive, and it only covers, purposefully and logistically, certain key population centers. The Iron Dome can't cover all of Israel. And by the way, Israel is the size of New Jersey. They have ground defense systems, missile systems in place. To do that for America... is feasibly right now impossible.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
The Reagan one that was genius. The Reagan one, the Reagan one, the defense shield or the missile or the space shield, whatever it was. But do you remember they showed, they released a video of an invisible laser taking out a rocket on the launch pad? Do you remember this? It showed them disintegrating a rocket on the launch pad. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I don't think of Puerto Rico as having great food, but that's just a brand perception.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I don't go to the Caribbean unless it's St. Bart's.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
By the way, if you fly through Puerto Rico, because it's a U.S. territory, you don't have to clear customs. Also, the only story I have about Puerto Rico is I know two hedge fund managers that moved there because you can qualify for 2% taxation. It's a total tax avoidance move.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Except you have to stay there. You have to be there 183 days a year. And in both instances, they both moved back because they decided they like Puerto Rico, but they don't like it that much.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
It is the talk of the town here in London because of this thing called non-dom, where basically Keir Starmer and his government have decided no more tax advantage or avoidance for people who've been here for longer than five years. I have two friends. One has moved to Milan, and he's left his family here, and he can only be here 90 nights. And then I have another who's moving.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Look, I generally think you cut a pretty wide berth in the people's kids and the relationship with their kids is sort of off limits. But when you deadname your kid on a podcast and say that she is dead to you, you're opening yourself up for scrutiny. And in my view, you know, when you talk about masculinity, when you talk about what it is to be a man, it can distill down to three basic points.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
You're a protector, you're a provider, and you're a procreator. Okay, ground zero for being a provider as a man is you stand by your kids, full stop. I mean, you see all these parents in the courtroom when their kids have done horrible things, and you understand and empathize that they are going to side with their children. They're going to protect their children.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
If you want to talk about electoral justice, come over and we'll smoke cigarettes and have ice cream and talk about all our bad boyfriends.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
He thinks he's going to move to Madrid. Yet this, Cara, in the last year, over 10,000 millionaires have left the UK.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
So I had when I was at South by Southwest, I had lunch with a friend and he was talking about how his daughter said that they wanted to now identify as a man. And it was very traumatic for the parents, not because they, you know, they're struggling with. All right. A person should be comfortable in their own skin.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
They're trying to put aside, they're trying to say, okay, one of the wonderful things about being a human and being in America is having the right to present you as you are most comfortable. At the same time, they're also worried that teenagers make bad decisions. And, you know, you could just understand they're really like worried and upset about it.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
But the idea that this guy would ever be critical of this kid, they were just, you could just tell how much just how much pain he was feeling because not because he didn't want to have a trans son, but because he wanted his kid to make the right decision and was concerned about his kid. And that's the right. That's what I think it means to be a mother or a father. You default to protection.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And this guy does not default to protection. He is making his daughter's life harder. And that is exactly what it means to not be a man. I mean, this guy is such a terrible role model.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
He is saying to other men, because of his incredible achievements, they look up to him and they are going to model him that if your child makes certain decisions you don't agree with, you're going to publicly shame them and make their lives harder. So this is, I mean, this is just so wrong on so many dimensions. And he's just, again, I go back to the same thing.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
This guy's the worst fucking thing to happen to young men since porn, since old men deciding to protect their own land, decided to send young men off to war. I mean, there are very few worse influences right now on young men. Then Elon Musk. That's my TED talk.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I met her at TED. She seemed lovely, smart.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I met Ma's first wife at TED. I think that's the whitest thing I've ever said.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Wait, can I comment on your wins?
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Go ahead. So, you know, I'm an enormous fan of Ben Stiller, and he gives awkward Jewish guys hope that they can marry a hot, interesting woman. I got to know his wife a little bit. She's very interesting. Also very good looking. Not that that's important.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
What, like interesting and hot wasn't enough? Okay, smart would be good. Go ahead. Just on the Hooters story, I read that. I thought it was really sweet. I actually know someone who was a waiter at Hooters and was in a car accident and lost her leg, and now she works at IHOP.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I couldn't think about anything else when you were reading that win. Also, I wanted, just as a joke, I went down and applied for a job at Hooters and they gave me a bra and they said, okay, fill this out.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I got more stories here. One is true. And also, the reason they're writing about it is because Hooters is declared bankruptcy. But I have an idea how to save the franchise. They should do home delivery of meals. They could call it boober eats. No. All right, now the true part of the story.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
This is true. Somebody very close to me was a Hooters girl. You want to take any guesses? No. Worked at Hooters through college.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And occasionally she still has the outfit and occasionally puts it on.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
No, she wasn't lovely. She was fucking hot.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I'm not sure she was sitting down gay kids and telling them it's okay.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
It is a sweet story. I'll give you that.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
If the audit If this is an audit of the federal government, then the federal government comes out with a clean bill of health. They have struggled despite all of their lies, hyperbole, and the fact that this is the largest business in the world and the fact that there is a lot of largesse. There's a lot less waste and fraud than even Democrats, I thought, might be there.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I think it defines the term, the difference between being right and being effective. And that is in the 90s or 2000s, I should say, Tony Blair passed a series of private property laws and said, I don't care how you made your money. If you bring it to London and invest in businesses or buy a home here, no one can come for it and take it from you.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
This is like going into the doctor's office and they do a full body cavity search of everything and they give you a colonoscopy and they take your blood, your urine, and it's like, okay, you're actually pretty good. So I think, if anything, Doge has found that there's not nearly as much fraud and waste as people had feared. Anyways, my fail is the Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
which has been tracking the missing children. Russia has allegedly been kidnapping children from Ukraine and then bringing them back to Russia. And the humanitarian research lab from Yale University had been tracking this.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And the Humanitarian Research Lab, which, by the way, you can still make donations, says that more than 19,000 children have been deported to Russia, and only about 1,236 have been returned. And according to the lab's research, the children have often experienced abuse, inadequate food, and have been cut off from their families as they are indoctrinated by Russia and often given military training.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And a bipartisan group of lawmakers said it has reason to believe that the data from the depository has been permanently deleted. And what do you know? The Trump administration has cut off all funding here. And this could have devastating consequences. Like these kids have literally been disappeared. And it's the same sort of thing.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
that's going on right now where you have due process for tech companies, but a kid- More than due process. Tim Miller did a great job on this. By the way, Tim Miller for the Bulwark podcast, I decided he's my future ex-husband. I'm in love with that guy. Smart, too. Passionate.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
But he's brought attention to this kid, this kid, I think his name's Andre, who's basically fled communist Venezuela and was rounded up and has been sent to this hellscape prison in El Salvador. And Tim went on his Instagram. I mean, the kid is clearly gay and clearly not a member of a deadly Venezuelan gang. I mean, and it goes to the same thing. I mean, for God's sakes.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And this guy's not a member of a killer Venezuelan gang. All right. And it's the same thing when I've been saying for a long time that we're one economic shock away from rounding up people. And this is a form of that. And that is, all right, you're a Japanese dentist. You've been a great American citizen, but we're under threat and we're going to start putting you in internment camps.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
This is a form of that. Without due process, they are finding people. And of course, it's people who are poor and don't have Tim fighting for them, which he can for every person. They're just going to maybe disappear and never be heard from again.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And so London kind of became the most popular place in Europe and the Gulf to bring money. And quite frankly, it was really good for the UK economy because these are people who invest. They spend a lot of money. They create a lot of usage and VAT tax revenue. They endorse or they patronize the local businesses.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
But that along the lines of cutting funding from this fantastic organization of people at Yale trying to track down kids who've basically been kidnapped. Americans don't realize the price we're going to pay from going from the good guys to the bad guys. When you're big and strong and a good person, people want to be your friend. People want to be your ally. People respect you.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
People want to help you. When you're weak and small and when you're weak and kind, people might be nice to you and feel sorry for you, but it doesn't have the same implication. When you're big and strong and mean, people start plotting against you behind your back because you're seen as a threat.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
People start thinking, you know, I'm going to ignore those funds being funneled to terrorist cell groups in the U.S., I am not going to be as kind. I'm not going to help or protect American tourists when I see them under threat. I'm not inclined to do business with American companies. When you go from big and strong and trying to do the right thing to big and strong and just mean,
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
People start plotting again. People are going to decide, you know what, I'm going to ignore that uranium enriched uranium shipment to Iran. I'm just going to ignore it. I used to like those guys. I'd probably contact the U.S. embassy and say, hey, FYI, confidentially, there's something going on here. People have no concept, I believe, of just how...
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
much damage over the medium and long term are done when you go from the good guys to the bad guys. And this is happening everywhere. And my loss is the East National Security Advisor, Waltz, was on Face the Nation and refused to answer questions because the reality is he has no answers about why we're cutting funding to a database.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And they're not only cutting funding, they're trying to delete the data. So these Ukrainian parents can't even find their kids. So in just a matter, it feels like, of shock and awe speed, we're going from being the good guys to the bad guys. And regardless of your morals, your ethics, that's just stupid.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
We've gotten so spoiled to people giving us the benefit of the doubt, to people being nice to us abroad, to people wanting to work with American companies, to people informing our security apparatus when very bad people are trying to do bad things to us. So my fail is just an unnecessary transition from being the good guys to the bad guys in record time.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
My win is I do love these town halls that a lot of Republicans or people are showing up in what I feel is a civil manner exercising their First Amendment rights. There's a lot of jeers and shouts, but there aren't expletives. There have been no reports of violence. I think they're powerful. I think the representatives hear them.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And also, it's got to give it to Senator Sanders and Representative Ocasio-Cortez for their fighting oligarchy tour, which is drawing record crowds. It feels really good to have what I feel is like a coordinated, effective response.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And it's powerful and it's very satisfying and they're doing a great job. And they're kind of touching on what I would argue are some of the key points here.
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And it theoretically just makes sense in principle to say, OK, you should pay the same tax rates is people here because you're using our infrastructure. But the problem is it's not effective because rich people are very mobile. So it's a tough one because while I understand the logic behind it, the reality is they're going to have less tax revenue for the NHS and for social programs.
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I think they're doing a great job and the rallies are fun. They have sort of that, quite frankly, that early Trump feel with a group of really impassioned people. So anyways, my win is these people showing up to express their viewpoint in a civil but robust but engaged manner at these town halls. And Senator Sanders and Representative Ocasio-Cortez and their fighting oligarchy tour.
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Intertide entered into this episode. Julian Villard edited this video. Thanks also to Drew Gross, Miss Viverio, and Dan Shulon. Misha Kurwaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nrmag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Kara, have a great rest of your vacation.
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So, Cara, one night I took home some girl who turned out to be a ladyboy, which I'd done before. But this time, Cara, instead of fucking the ladyboy, the ladyboy fucked me.
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Yeah, that's easily our biggest issue right now.
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Your vote does count, but you're not Puerto Rican. What are you talking about?
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Oh, yeah, I don't understand that. That's right.
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Well, okay. If we're going to go down the street, should California that has the population of 30 million have two senators? And Wyoming has one too? I mean, there's a... Wyoming and Montana do well here. If you want to talk about electoral injustice, come over and we'll smoke cigarettes and have ice cream and talk about all our bad boyfriends.
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I think Senator Gradom is a really ineffective senator, in addition to having absolutely no moral compass or ability for his constituents to discern. He has less consistency or ability to figure out where he is or what he stands for than Secretary Rubio. And this is just stupid because the reality is Section 230, if you removed it totally, would gut some of our best companies.
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These are great companies, all right? I don't like them. You have issues with them. But without some form of protection around their content, they go out of business the next day. So and in addition, this isn't serious because they're saying until January 2027. So they're basically thinking this would prod them into negotiations.
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And it was kind of magical. And I got in my head what I really wanted was to be one of these Asian girls getting fucked by me. And to feel that. Oh, that's my dramatic reading of The White Lotus.
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And what I really don't like about this is that we seem to value and understand the importance. And there is some value to kind of shock and awe and shoving stuff through. So they shock and awe around canceling all USAID. They shock and awe around rounding up innocents and deporting them to these hellscape prisons in El Salvador.
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But around going after those nice white people and shareholders, let's be thoughtful and measure and give them till January 2027 to deploy their lobbyists and weaponize and buy off government. They gave $62 million in lobbying next year. First off... Somebody should have done shock and awe. Somebody like Senator Murphy or Senators Klobuchar should have gotten the support.
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And they probably could have because this is a bipartisan issue and said algorithmically elevated content is no longer protected by 230 because that's a decision they make to elevate content. And they still would have had protection around stuff. They still would have had the whole free speech argument. And The biggest argument here against it is around, well, you should have free speech. Fine.
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If you want to say mRNA vaccines alter your DNA, fine. But you shouldn't elevate it beyond its organic reach because it enrages people. So when you do that, and also bots... don't have, in my opinion, don't have rights to free speech. So they could have come up with a thought-filled bill and gone shock and awe and just passed it.
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Instead, they come up with something stupid and give a warning, the same warning, the same due process that poor people aren't getting in our nation right now, that poor people abroad are absolutely not getting right now. But they've said, okay, let's put out something stupid that will never happen and give them the due process that they're not affording to people who aren't white,
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who aren't shareholders, who aren't corporations. This is total fucking bullshit and a waste of time and attention.
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Shock and awe across. Rounding up people, shock and awe, cutting off aid for malaria victims. But when it comes to corporations in Silicon Valley, we're proposing something stupid that'll take effect in two years? I mean.
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Executive order. No one under the age of 16 is allowed on social media.
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He was the deputy in Three Billboards and something. He's a very good actor. He's actually an outstanding actor. Anyways, I don't want to spoil it.
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She is really, really funny. If you want to talk about what's ailing our country right now, it's that young people under the age of 30 aren't doing as well as their parents were at 30 for the first time in our nation's history. And within that is a subset of people who are doing especially poorly, and it's young men.
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And the single point of failure for a young man coming off the tracks, becoming more prone to extremist content, becoming more polarized, becoming more likely to harm himself, and some more likely to become a really shitty citizen, it can all be reverse engineered to one thing. And that is the thing that our dear leader, President Musk, is engaging in. And the one point of failure for young men is
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is when they lose a male role model. This is more fundamental than technology. It is more fundamental than cutting costs. It is more fundamental than government services. At some point, character does matter. And the ground central or the ground zero in my view for character for a man, the very basic, the A, Bs and Cs are, are you going to be involved in your offspring?
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And we're over here talking about Doge. Anyways, I found that to be the most offensive thing of the week.
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The most basic job of a man and a person is to look after your young. That's where it all starts.
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And again, the strongest signal of what is your job? Your job is to produce loving, patriotic offspring, in my view. And the single point of failure, the strongest signal isn't whether these kids are going to have money or not. The strongest signal is involvement of their parents. And if it's a boy, involvement of dad. And already he's being sued by two different people.
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Yeah, but actually there's research around this and it's the following. Of all the single parent households in the US, four in five are headed by women. Girls in those homes have the similar outcomes in terms of college attendance, rates of self-harm and rates of depression.
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What you find with boys, though, is that the moment there's no longer a male involved in their lives, the likelihood they'll be incarcerated, addicted to opiates, or engaged in self-harm dramatically increases. What it ends up is that while boys are physically stronger, they are mentally and emotionally much weaker than girls.
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I'm not sure that's going to shock anybody, Kara.
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So it is a bigger deal when the dad is not involved in the boy's life.
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Well, I would argue there hasn't been as much research, but I think what they find is that the key is having two parents and also, and this will get me shit, typically in gay relationships, one person brings more masculine energy than the other. That's true.
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She's so easygoing. And we know who we're not talking about.
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Do you think perhaps two parents, though?
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One of the quickest paths, I think, to a better country would be a recognition that the moment a boy loses access to a male role model, that the community and family need to move in and make sure there's men involved in that boy's life. And what's really unfortunate is that men aren't stepping up to the plate. And I say this all the time, if we want better men, we need to be better men.
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But to produce offspring, in my opinion, and not be involved in their lives, it is such an ugly feature of a person
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You're bringing into the world a child that has a tremendous disadvantage relative to other kids who are brought into loving households with either one or two women who decide to ensure that there are men involved in this kid's life. And it creates a host of issues as someone who has been asking themselves for a long time, why did my dad not decide to be involved in my life?
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And what it ends up is that it is harder and more damaging for boys to deal with this than girls.
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I find as you get older, when you're younger, you want to acquire shit. And then as you get older, you want to dispose of it. You want to get rid of stuff.
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We're taking Vox Media Podcasts on the road and heading back to Austin for the South by Southwest Festival, March 8th through the 10th. What a thrill. Chicken fajitas, queso, strawberry margarita, extra shot of tequila. There you'll be able to see special live episodes of hit shows, including our show, Pivot. Where should we begin with Esther Perel? A Touch More with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe.
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Not Just Football with Cam Hayward. And more presented by Smartsheet. The Vox Media Podcast stage at South by Southwest is open to all South by Southwest badge holders. We hope to see you at the Austin Convention Center soon. I'm not joking. I love South by Southwest. The people are a ton of fun. It's a great time. If you do come up and say hi, visit voxmedia.com slash SXSW to learn more.
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That's voxmedia.com slash SXSW.
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Well, just being a Warren Buffett, he has a metric which people look to, which has been a fairly reliable indicator of when the markets might be due for a correction. That is, he looks at the market cap relative to the GDP. And usually the average is around 100%. And when post, like 2009, it went down to 75%, indicating that stocks were cheap. And right now it's, I think, upwards around 190%.
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It looks like things are really frothy. The hard part is... And the question is what to do. And my sense is, and what I tell people is, it is very hard to time the market. It is very hard to time the markets because just when you think you're convinced markets are way too expensive, oftentimes they go up another 10 or 30%. And what I would say is it is very difficult to time the markets.
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Just make sure you're diversified. And if you think, well, maybe I want to put a little bit of cash on the sidelines to take advantage of opportunities, that's one thing, but don't make the mistake I made When Trump was elected in 2016, I thought, this guy's an idiot. He's going to crash the economy. And I sold everything. And so I incurred a tax hit.
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I paid an enormous amount of taxes, taking 22.8% of any gains out. And then six months later, I realized that I'd acted out of emotion. The markets had screamed up, and I had to buy back in with 78% of my capital at higher prices.
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So the lesson in terms of what to do is, okay, you may want to take some gains off the table and move a little bit more into cash, but be clear, nobody can time the market. You just want to be diversified and stand for as long as possible.
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I do it all the time. I love it. I love purging.
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Oh, Kara, I wouldn't give up a goiter to serve in the Trump administration.
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I don't know, that's my favorite word.
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I love having a small number of things. My happy place, if you will, is my place in Soho. I have license to decorate as I want. It's an angry, depressed Northern European person who doesn't like stuff. And anything that comes in, anything that comes in, something has to go out. If anything comes in, something has to leave. Oh, even guests? Yeah, I just don't want stuff.
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Yeah, or a goiter on your anus. Yeah. Yeah, no, I wouldn't. No, I would not. Would you?
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At this point, I just want someone who's competent and can, like, do math. Is he any of those? No, he's got a lot of...
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Yeah, this is like FDR saying, well, what were those ships doing in Pearl Harbor?
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He didn't, he's... They poured over the border and they started shelling maternity wards and sending, I mean, Russia invaded Ukraine. It's weird that we can't even have simple truths anymore.
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And it's interesting that all these things we took for granted, if you think about the post-World War II alliance or the operating system that's created more prosperity, more rights, more democracy, life expectancy, plummets in infant mortality, all of these things can be reverse engineered, I would argue, to this alliance between democracies that we largely had each other's backs, not only on this victory of moral clarity,
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but also this visionary investment in our former enemies, specifically Japan and Germany. And the result has arguably been more prosperity in the last 80 years and more righteous rights or progress or humanity than the previous 800. And this didn't happen by accident. And so basically to move to, well, I have an idea.
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Let's have two spheres of influence between two kind of a true autocrat and a wannabe autocrat, and we'll carve up the world. And Europe's sort of sitting there. I mean, I'm trying to think what could go right. And what I think could go right, and I think it's going to happen, is I think people do underestimate Europe.
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France and Britain are still very strong military and nuclear powers with fantastic educational institutions. Germany is arguably one of the two or three strongest manufacturing, has one of the strongest manufacturing industrial basis. And also a positive of this is they are, I believe, Europe is going to be a union again and is going to rise up and state more explicitly that we have your back.
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When I say your, I mean Ukraine. So I think the silver lining here might be that I'm hoping Europe fills the void for the next three years and 11 months.
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And I'm hoping we come out, I mean, I'm trying to move to what could go right, as opposed to everything around the sky is falling. And I think that Europe deciding to increase its military spending, decide that they need to be more unified, speak with a stronger singular, put all their bullshit squabbling aside, maybe engage and backs it.
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I think the UK absolutely needs to show more leadership and reintegrate back into the EU. And show that, okay, if we can't count on America, that's fine. We're still arguably the largest economy in the world, as large as the U.S. is. And we have Ukraine's back. That things don't end well for Europe when we surrender to a murderous autocrat.
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I think it feels really peaceful and nice when there's an absence of things.
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But look at, what I don't get is, my senior senator, now secretary of state, Senator Marco Rubio, it's like, who are you? And when I say, I don't mean it like, who are you to do these things? But he kind of made his foreign policy chops being this cold warrior. And now he's saying he's complying and defending this ridiculous falsehood that Ukraine started the war.
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It's like, literally, who are you? Do you have any value whatsoever? Are there any values that are a red line for you whatsoever?
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I like to stay somewhere where I can call and scream, where am I? Where's my room service?
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I'd either go with Tom Hardy or Taylor Kitsch.
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He'd be very good. He's getting a little old, though. They need a younger Bond.
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He's a little too American, but actually Tom Hardy would be fantastic. I think he's really good.
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They will probably pick an unknown who's in their 30s because what they want is they want someone who like Daniel Craig can go for five or six films.
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Daniel Craig's a better actor and brought more physicality to the role, I thought.
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Well, Claire would bring you breakfast, I suppose. Yeah, that sounds nice. I don't stay at friends. Even when I'm at families, I stay in a hotel.
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I know Roger Moore's pretty dreamy.
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What's your favorite Bond movie?
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What I don't get is why do they put themselves up for public perception? I understand that over time, the personification of a company is really important. But if I were Mark Zuckerberg, I would be like, okay, I just don't have the skills. I'm not likable. That's okay. And a lot of people realize that and say, I'm not a likable person. Most CEOs are like, well, that's actually not true.
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Most CEOs are likable. But I don't understand why he keeps trying. It feels like all this stuff around videos of him doing jujitsu and hunting, that it feels very like, I desperately want to be liked.
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I want to be able to stay up till four in the morning and watch cable.
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And if he just was in the background as this brilliant, he's arguably one of the most brilliant businessmen of the last 50 years, I think it would be better than if he was out there saying, okay, I need pictures of me hunting or fighting.
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Well, I think Tim Cook's done a really good job managing his brand.
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Yeah, but when he's public, he's very manicured and he's very thoughtful about his statements. He has a very strong brand. He's very likable. Most of these guys do a very good job of, most of them, you know, trying to come across as, you know, Satya Nadella is very likable. And they, whenever you meet them- Don't say too much. The only time I've ever met these guys is at your conference.
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And they're all surrounded by PR people parsing every word and saying, okay, here's your 10 minutes with this person and- And they're all very nice and friendly. And at the moment, if you ask them a question or it gets awkward, someone like, you know, couriers them off. I think they think a lot about their public image and their perception.
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No one needs to see me walking around at three in the morning.
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I think Brian Chesky is very good at managing his brand and coming across as likable. But the reality is in a constant media cycle with social now, their public perception is pretty important.
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Well, he needs another Sheryl Sandberg. He needs another heat shield to be more likable. He had Sheryl, then he had Nick. The guy who's really done a great job of storytelling, although his book is this weird techno-libertarian.
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And going on Bill Maher, his kind of real time or videos of his earnings calls, his full embrace, wrapping himself in the flag. I think he's managed his brand really well. He's been aggressive. He's taken risks and they paid off. And the result is the company trades at like 90 times revenues. It's insanely overvalued, although it's dropped about 20% in the last few trading days.
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You moved her into like the Four Seasons retirement home, right?
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That's right. We met at DLD. That's the first time. Roberta Flack. Yeah. Wow. Good one. Long life. Yeah. You know what really hurt the far right party in Germany was Vance and Musk's endorsement.
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What does that say about you when you make Nazis less likable?
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Oh, that's right. But they still got about 22%, right? 22%.
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I have nothing to say. Yeah, I think it's great that she's going to be with you. And, you know, I hope she's happy. I hope you're happy.
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So look, my win is Canada defeated USA Thursday to win the first ever four nations face off hockey tournament. which capped what had become a heated and politically charged event, but it was just such an incredible spectacle of sports. And hockey, I went to hockey games with my son and my dad. And when you get on the ice, you just see these players. There's just no phoning it in.
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It really is an incredible spectator sport. And an overtime goal from Connor McDavid, who's arguably the best player in the league, sealed the 3-2 win for Canada. at the TD Garden in Boston, where ticket prices had just soared. And obviously, this meant more than just a hockey tournament. And it's very strange to be rooting for another nation
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but I think there were a lot of Americans rooting for Team Canada here. And I think a lot of us take for granted what has been just arguably one of the great alliances in history or the great friendships. Do you realize the US-Canadian border is the largest undefended border in the world? I mean, what does that say about our relationship with them? In World War II,
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Canada entered the war two years before the US and trained over 130,000 allied airmen. During the Iran hostage crisis, Canadian diplomats sheltered six American embassy staff and helped orchestrate their escape. If they had been caught doing this, they would have been hanged from cranes.
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After 9-11, Canada launched Operation Yellow Ribbon, accepting 224 diverted flights when US airspace closed, sheltering 33,000 stranded passengers. Canada has fought alongside the US in World War I, World War II, Korea, the Persian Gulf, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and against. ISIS. I mean, there's just so many. Canada is America's largest trading partner. They supply more energy to the U.S.
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than any other country. The countries share critical supply chains in manufacturing, especially automotive. They consistently support U.S. diplomatic initiatives internationally. They coordinate on Arctic policy. They worked with the U.S.
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They support US positions on international organizations, including NATO and the UN. Deep people-to-people connections with extensive family ties across borders. My parents first came to Toronto where I was conceived and then came to San Diego where I was born.
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They have shared values around democracy, human rights, and free markets, cooperation on environmental protection of shared waterways and natural resources. And also, just in case you needed any reminder, they are the best in the world at hockey.
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She might not know for a while. My building, I don't know if you noticed, no one's ever there.
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This game, Connor McDavid, arguably the best player in the league, took this thing in sudden death overtime, and you could hear a roar across Canada as the 11th province, the United States, basically lost in overtime.
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And it's a strange feeling, but Canada, it is insane that we would be, you don't treat, when your neighbor is this good to you and just defaults to being your neighbor and being a wonderful ally, you don't treat them this way. And this game was, I'll tell you, sport occasionally gets it right. This was an outstanding, Team USA played exceptional.
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They were outstanding on the ice and actually American hockey is now almost rivaling Canadian hockey, but this was an incredible event. I mean, it was one of those moments in sporting history where it was about the game, but it wasn't about the game. And it was just an outstanding game. Anyways, my win is Team Canada in the Four Nations face-off hockey tournament. My fail is this, what I'll call a
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the surrender domino of big tech, and that is it's easy to rationalize why Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos show up and agree to sit side by side such that the president can pony them around and say, see the most powerful, wealthiest tech executives in the world like me, and then bully them into giving them a million dollars. But here's the problem.
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I won't even go up in the elevator if someone's getting in the elevator. I don't wanna make eye contact. I don't wanna know my neighbors. Interesting. I don't want them to see the prostitutes I'm bringing in. I don't want any of that. I don't.
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Okay, so you're protecting shareholder value, but when the three of them and Sam Altman do this, it makes it easier for someone like Linda Iaccarino to start threatening government retribution against IPG and Omnicom. She basically threatened to block the merger unless they advertise on the platform.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
It leads to Amazon paying Melania Trump an irrational number for her biography, thinking that we are now full kleptocrat. And the lack of separation of business and state is really not as important, but right up there with the importance of separation of church and state. Because in the 30s, Hitler basically said to corporations, if you support me and give me money, I'll bust the unions.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
And they became sort of intertwined until they lost any difference. It is a key step to fascism. is when corporations are bullying into supporting one group. And then unfortunately, because the other group decides to engage in fair play, the incentives are to support the autocrat.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
I'm just like, don't make eye contact.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
I understand the rationalization that, okay, this sucks, but you're aw shucks, I hate to be here, but I gotta be here. It's still cowardice. It might be lowercase cowardice. You might be able to justify it by saying I'm a fiduciary for shareholders. But for the last 20 years, you have been claiming that you're a fiduciary for stakeholders.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
And American rule of law and decency and democracy is what got you so fucking rich in the first place. And if business leaders who control two thirds of the economy don't step up and say enough at the expense of their own pocketbooks and quite frankly, their shareholders, we are going to be rolled over on this march to fascism.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
And at some point, I'd like to think there's a business leader out there. I don't know if it's Jamie Dimon. I don't know if it's one of these tech leaders who stands up and says, no, we are going to do what's right. We are not going to be bullied into supporting any political candidate. And if it hurts our shareholder value, so be it. But what is the point, Tim Cook,
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
of being a multi-billionaire and claiming to that privacy is a basic human right. Well, okay, how do you feel about democracy? Okay, Sam Altman, in your hushed tones, worried about the safety of the world and concerned about AI. Well, are you concerned about America? Because you are being used as a little fucking bitch and you are enabling it. At some point,
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Give the doorman a thousand bucks a year for hush money. They know what's going on. A little Michael Cohen payment.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
On his deathbed, Jeff Bezos is gonna go, I had all the yachts, I had all the thongs, was I an American? Is that thought perhaps gonna haunt you on your deathbed? Did I stand up? Did I answer the call? Okay, maybe I would have been worth 90 billion instead of 120 billion, and maybe my shareholders would have been angry.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
But I think that's going to be a really good look when you get towards the end, that you were the guy or one of the guys. And we're still looking for this guy, because let's be clear, they're all men. We're still waiting for one of them to stand up and say, I'm not going to be a brick in the fascist wall. And my guess is that is going to play really well.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
History is going to look on you and say, good for you. Yeah, it cost you 10 or 20 billion of your 100 billion in wealth. I think that's a really good trade right now. But the corruption... of the domino of cowardice here is in full speed and in full light of day in corporate America, especially among big tech, who is going to step up here and say, no, that's my speech.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
A little. What happens on the second floor stays between the lobby and the third floor.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Well, we better go to four times a week. Your expenses are about to go up.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Well, thanks. That's nice. He's a very thoughtful guy.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Higher propensity of depression also.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
I'm having the big handsome. Actually, I'm trying to get the big handsome guy on. He has a book out called Lucky Loser. What big handsome guy? Oh, he's like a big handsome guy. He also wears Tommy Bahama. He's dreamy.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Speaking of which, have you watched Reacher on Amazon?
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
But I'm so fascinated by... What it says about America, it used to be that the heroes were especially skilled or amazing fighters or super smart. Now it's just, I'm just so fucking big I can solve every problem.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Just with size. Do you know what's out now? You know what comes out? Episode two came out today or last night. What? I'll give you two hints, White and Lotus.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Today's show was produced by Lauren Amon, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her dad engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Saverio, and Dan Shulon. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from your magazine, Vox Media.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. Have a great rest of the week.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Oh, is that right? Okay. I'll tell you. Send me the dates.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
I'm not exaggerating. When I walk in there, the first thing I do is I go, hello? Because there's a good chance someone's going to go, oh, hey, Scott. Yeah, we got in last Thursday.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
We brought our St. Bernard and my cousins. Is that okay?
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Well, a couple of things. One, and this goes to messaging, and I was speaking to someone over the weekend about this. I don't think the Democrats, I don't think we get anywhere focusing on the injustice of all this.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Well, just, I think you focus on the incompetence. There are a lot of people in America who have gotten an email or have been fired abruptly. And it's not, yeah, it's terrible. It happens often. moderates right now and a lot of people in the US like it because they think that government's gotten too big. They think it's gotten out of control and if they break a few eggs, fine, so be it.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Oh, Cara, I wouldn't give up a goiter to serve in the Trump administration.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
And these TikToks of someone in the National Forestry Service saying, I just lost my job unceremoniously. It's like, well, okay, that happened to my cousin, maybe it happened to me. And I don't think that's how they should be messaging.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
I think they should be messaging about the corruption, that, okay, it just so happens that everyone in charge of overseeing the National Highway Safety Board, specifically around autonomous vehicles, or a large number of them have been fired, and those are the people directly overseeing. Musk's attempt to perhaps put unsafe autonomous cars on the road.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
And the fact that this is really just a misdirect from the following. They're talking about a $50 billion savings from Doge, but look over here, because what we don't want you to see is that we're talking about a $900 billion a year increase in the deficit which is nothing but a tax on our children or our grandchildren, such that Scott Galloway can have a tax cut.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
I put into AI my W-2 and then the latest proposed Trump tax cut. I'm going to save $950,000 a year if this thing goes through. Meanwhile, they want to cut over $800 billion from Medicaid that children depend on. So yeah, Doge, again, it's a fucking misdirect. Okay, it's a tragedy. I'm sorry. Fine.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
But all it is is a misdirect from what they're planning to do, and that is give a bunch of money to really rich people.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
I think it's it's it's a far right echo chamber of people who think who mistake leadership for coarseness and cruelty and just general weirdness.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
So let me just give you a couple of pro tips on moving.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Well, that's different. The rallies, I think we should all, anyone with a platform has a responsibility. Let me back up. What to do? A common tactic across in the GRU propaganda machine is blitzkrieg of information where so many things are coming at you, you don't know how to parse them, you feel helpless, you don't know where to start.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
However, you need to calm down and there's a few basic defense mechanisms or a few means of counterpunching. One, recognize you don't need to respond to every outrageous thing. You don't need to be emotional. Two, when you do respond, respond with experts and data. Try not to be overly emotional. And also, and this is the hard part, decide which punches you're going to pick.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
And that is pick one or two or maybe three issues and focus on those and highlight them. So for example, I'm not focusing on this bullshit around DEI or DOGE or transgender, some people I think are passionate about it should focus on it. I believe the two most important things are the following. We have decided to surrender to Putin and we have decided to essentially
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
And the second is you give your partner, whoever's actually charged with moving, limitless funds and just say, please just accidentally let me know when it's all done. And then I will find reason why my business trips ends. But no, you should not be involved in moving areas.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
reconfigure the world order that has created more prosperity and peace and rights than any other 80-year period in history. And that is a very dangerous, stupid thing to do. And two, while everyone is focused on the $60 billion going to Ukraine or the $50 billion savings from Doge, that is not where they should be looking.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
They should be looking at the $900 billion a year annual increase in the deficit. Surrender and deficit are the two things I'm going to focus on. Be unemotional, You don't need to respond right away. Bring experts, bring facts, and focus on the one or two issues that you want to be a domain expert on. Otherwise, you just come across as what they want.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
If you can be offended, you can be manipulated, and you look weak. Don't be offended.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
We need to move from what I call being right to effective and figuring out a plan for counterpunch and then start talking about tactics. I think the Democrats right now, instead of talking about how outrageous they are, should be saying, oh, by the way, we are shutting down the government.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
If you've decided that the government is so incompetent, if you don't want to deal with the government, if you don't want to deal with elected representatives, fine. We're going to go upstream of Elon Musk and we are going to shut down the government. It's coming. All right. And let's see what happens to the 10-year bond and the wealth of the 0.1%. We are not going to raise the debt limit.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
That is the message they should be sending right now.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
What the fuck is with that? Are they claiming it's a Roman salute?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
In every company, there's a whole system of decision makers, challenges, and strategies, shaping the future of business at every level. That's why we're running a special three-part Decoder Thursday series, looking at how some of the biggest companies in the world are adapting, innovating, and rethinking their playbooks.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And when I'm doing a lot of traveling and I'm lonely and my partner can't come with me or my kids can't be with me, I call one of many friends and I say, come join me. And If it's not easy for them, logistically or financially, I make it easy for them. And we go out and we go to the best place. I mean, and I feel self-conscious. It's so funny. I've had this weird shame around money.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Up until the age of 30 or 35, I was ashamed that I didn't have more money. I was broke because I was in school. I had student loans. I was really self-conscious about how little money my mom and I had. It made me feel very insecure. And then student loans, starting businesses, never had enough money, even when my friends were starting to make money. So I didn't have enough money.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
What a thrill. Finally, finally, the white meat. Finally, the Taylor Swift of podcasting. Finally, Pivot is the tax you pay to get to the dog. Well, welcome. You're welcome.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I was embarrassed by that. I think from about the age of 30 to kind of 45, I had just the right amount of money. I had enough money to do nice things, but I wasn't self-conscious. Then I got exceptionally lucky. And by the way, I'm not humble. I think I'm a fucking monster. I think I'm exceptionally talented. But I also got really lucky. There are a lot of exceptionally talented people out there.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And now I'm not embarrassed, but a little self-conscious by how much money I do have. And you're not supposed to talk about it. And I think that is nothing but a bullshit construct to keep poor people poor. Because when you speak a different language, rich people talk to other rich people about money all the time. They talk about taxes. They talk about investments. And they get more literate.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And then we're told not to talk about money in case you decide to share your salary with someone else or you figure out how much money I have and decide to fucking show up with a guillotine.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
or actually vote for people who have a progressive tax structure or maybe demand more compensation because you realize the person down the desk from you is making 30% more because they've been there 10 years or they're a different sexual orientation.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I mean, basically the asymmetry of information and this inclination that you're not supposed to talk about money keeps the financially illiterate illiterate and also keeps rich people richer. So, other than bragging, it is, I think, important to talk about money, even when you have it. But hands down, where I go apeshit with money now that I have it and spend more than I should is on travel.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I'm going to Africa. I'm taking my sister and her family there. And they didn't want to go. They have responsibilities. Their kids inquire. They're working hard. And I called her. I'm like, you're going to be dead soon. When are you next going to Africa like you're going to go with me? When are you going to roll into Africa like you're going to roll with me? What the fuck are you thinking?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And that was the right lecture for me to give my sister. These experiences, if there's anything the research shows you around spending money, it's the following. Drive a Hyundai and take your husband to Africa. I don't really buy a lot of things. I'm just not into that. I don't buy stuff.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I do because I can't get out of that habit. I was in, I forget where I was, but there was just an insane... price on something and I'm just like, this is offensive. I can't bring myself to spend money on this thing. That's just ridiculous that you would even try and charge this amount of money. I can't buy it. I really need it. I really like it.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
It doesn't make any difference to me, but there's that part of you, you just can't do it. You remember back when you didn't have enough money and you established a value system and you're like, I just can't do it. I can't. I can't, you know, I can't spend this kind of money.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Look, this is the majority of people, 99.9% of the planet doesn't have these problems. They have a much bigger problem, and that is they're constantly trading off. needs versus wants, and that is the majority of our planet, I think only about one-third of the planet are consumers. What does that mean? It means that they have enough money to buy things beyond basic food, shelter, and education.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
So only a third of us even get to make these decisions. Do I want a scarf, or do I want to go to Mykonos, or do I want to take my spouse out for a nice dinner?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
So I think it's important that everyone have a certain code or values that they want on their tombstone and then try and live their life across those two or three values. And one of my values is I pride myself on being generous. And I'm generous with everything but my time. I like spending money. I like treating people. I like buying things for people.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Worst purchases, cars when I was a young man when I didn't have the money to afford a car. Best purchases have actually been homes. Homes when my kids were little. It was nice to have nice homes when my kids were little.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I know that's virtue signaling, but anyone who knows me knows that is true. And the reason why is not because I have this inner nobility. It was because I was deeply traumatized by my father's relationship with money. My father was born and raised in Depression-era Scotland where you could literally starve if you didn't have enough money. And so he was painfully cheap.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
He was the guy, when my parents were divorced and he came and took me and my best friend Adam to see Grease, amazing movie, in 1976. After the movie, he collected two bucks from my friend Adam because he had bought the tickets. And I had to sit there and watch this go down. I went to Hawaii once with him on a big golf vacation, or he was the crown circled ITT salesman of the year.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And he got to go on this golf trip and take his family. And we went to Baskin and Robbins. They got ice cream. I ordered a shake. And then for two days, my dad didn't speak to me. And you're 13 years old and you're a guy and you're looking up to your father and you're like, Why is my dad not speaking to me, like just ignoring me?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And finally, I asked Linda, his third wife, my stepmother, a wonderful woman. I'm like, what's going on? Why is dad mad at me? He's like, he's upset you ordered a shake at Baskin Robbins. They cost $3 and you didn't ask him. My dad didn't speak to me for two days. And so when my parents got divorced, he immediately went to the upper middle class. We immediately went to the lower middle class.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
He was so awful to us financially. He could have made our lives so much easier with just a little bit of money. I really struggled in college. And I'm like, oh, Bill Gritt, bullshit. It was really fucking stressful not knowing if you were going back to college every summer. And he could have made my life so much easier. And so I remember just...
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
explicitly and implicitly deciding if I ever have money, I am not gonna be this guy. I mean, and I can't stand it now. I can't stand, I have friends who are really wealthy who always find reasons not to pick up the bill or whatever. And I just find it such a grotesque attribute. And some of it is them just responsible. They were just raised that way.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I find being cheap one of the grossest attributes, especially for men. I'm sexist this way. I just, I can't even be around these people. If I... If every one of my friends isn't fighting over the bill, we're not friends. But my spending right now, in large part, or some of it is, I'm just, God, I just don't want to be my dad. He was awful with money, just awful.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
We're asking enterprise leaders about some of the toughest questions they're facing today, revealing the tensions, risks, and breakthroughs happening behind closed doors. Check out Decoder, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And I always thought, if I ever have money, I'm not only going to enjoy it, I'm going to share it.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Today's number, $91 million. That's how much King Charles III's coronation cost British taxpayers last year. Ed, what does Burger King and vaginas have in common?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
There's all sorts of different ways to garner emotional reward from money if you handle it well. Money is nothing but the transfer of time and work. And there's few things you can do that are more generous than give someone time and work. I used to park cars. I was a waiter. I remember I was a waiter at the Mondrian Hotel. And this lovely old lady was a character actress. I forget her name.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
every time she was there, every time I would walk by, she'd put five or 10 bucks in my pocket. Like literally every time I walked by her table, she'd come over and she'd like slip five or 10 bucks in my pocket. And you're going to UCLA and you can barely afford your books. It like changes your fucking day. It's like nice old lady gives you 30 or 40 bucks.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I mean, it's the difference between being able to go on a date or buy lecture notes or whatever it is. It is wealthy people who do not That makes just abso-fucking-lutely no sense. It is so easy to give in a liquid economy time and work to people by giving them money. And it has nothing to do with nobility or ethics. It's just like you said. It just feels really good.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
It's generally considered bad form to eat them in the middle of a McDonald's.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
The other thing that you inspired is that I think even more... I love spending money. I am really good at it. It's one of my core competencies. I'm outstanding at spending money. I always say I'm spending money like a gangster in the 50s just diagnosed with ass cancer. I am just... I am just going large, and I'm loving every minute of it.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I'm really good at it, and it creates a lot of joy and happiness for people near me and around me and for me myself. I do think, though, that even more rewarding than spending it or having it was making it, specifically making it with someone else, both professional and personal partners. My ex-wife and I We were working so hard. We were trying so hard. We were making good money. We had setbacks.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And then I had businesses fail. I had businesses work. She got promoted. She didn't get promoted. But we were saving money. And we bought a house together. And we started saving money together. And we really built economic security together. And it was just so rewarding to do it with someone. And then...
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Where you also get a lot of that reward is, let me be clear, the businesses I've started and sold, my first obligation was for me to make the most money, and I always have. That felt better than anything, but it also just felt fucking awesome to bring in really good people who'd worked really hard with you alongside of you and go, hey, I know you're 27, but...
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
You're going to make $550,000 next week when this transaction closes. And them just looking at you like they couldn't believe it. You know, like I get huge reward out of underpaying you. No, but look, no one ever feels overcompensated. But for the last 10 or 15 years of my life since I've gotten wealthy, I've made an objective to say, okay, what is this person's market rate?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And how do I pay them 20, 30, 50% more than market? And it just feels good. So building, spending it is great, but I found actually the making it, specifically the making it with other people, was actually the most rewarding part.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Well, by the way, it just dawned on me that it's no accident that you've asked me to do all this virtue signaling around generosity right before bonus season. It's clear that everyone has figured this out. And there's like eight people on this line taking notes that, yeah, reviews are about to come out.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
You know, I find it's all about grit and helping people realize their inner child and save by not by underpaying them. That's how you build character. I'm planning to build everyone's character here.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
That wasn't easy to bring Burger King and the king into something this profane, Ed. And you're pretending not to laugh for fear that you'll be named in a lawsuit. I don't get it. You can laugh out loud. That's right. Even Claire is laughing. And Claire is literally the general consulate of Locustan.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Is this a group of guys or just friends? Group of guys, friends. I mean, I roll with a different crew. I never had friends that were into fancy wine until I got rich, and now I have friends who are trying to inject class or some air of prestige into their life by ordering stupidly expensive bottles of wine and buying art.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
If you want to signal for someone with a little dick, find someone who's all of a sudden really into art. And, or, you know, orders, orders, anything above a hundred bucks a bottle, a bottle of wine, unless you're really, I mean, if you're really into art and you're really into wine, fine. My, my friend Adam is really into cars. He buys expensive cars because he's always been really into cars.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Fine, fine. I get it. But if someone ordered an expensive bottle of wine and I was with a group of guys and we didn't have a lot of money. I mean, okay, if he's a baller and he's paying for it... General form is the following. In general, like, manners. If you order an expensive bottle of wine, it means you're paying for dinner. You're basically signaling, I am going to pay for dinner.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
You can't be generous with other people's money. And then... When the check comes, if it's a group of guys your age, you're all friends, you all split the bill unless someone went crazy.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I personally feel like with friends. I mean, young people, split the check or whatever it is. Ven me or send me a request. I get it, right? I think if you're in your 30s and you're blessed with some reasonable economic security, general format should be the following. We get this one. Oh, the next one. They get it. And if people aren't
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
If things aren't kind of evening out over time, you have to decide whether you want to stay friends with these people. Because generally what I have found is that you're out with couples, I can't stand splitting the check. I'm at a point now where... People say, oh, you did this. I'm like, boss, either pay for it or I'm paying for it. We're not splitting the check. We're fucking grown men.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And I'll get this one, you get the next one, whatever it is. And especially when you're out with couples, I think you're mindful of each other. But for the most part, I think one couple gets the check and then the other couple gets the next one. I don't. I think the moment, I think it's always that strange moment when the bill comes. I think it's awkward. It's very awkward.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
But it should all come out on the wash. If you have good friends, they're not going to be stupid in terms of overordering. And you'll realize that you trade off two or three couples, two or three friends. And if their turn never seems to come around, you call them out on their bullshit and be like, hey, how come you always seem to find a way not to pay? Right.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
She does. She does. Claire's down with me. We're both looking for the same thing, if you know what I mean.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I think about Hanukkah, you anti-Semite. Hanukkah. Actually, that's not true. I think about Christmas. I don't even know what Hanukkah is. This is personal, how your approach is spending the holidays. When the kids were little, it was fun to just buy them a ton of shit and have this consumer orgy that morning with a wrapping shit and then playing with it for two minutes, and that was fun.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
As we've gotten older, what I do with my boys is they make a list of stuff. We try and connect it to chores or something or something, and we pull stuff off their list, and maybe we wrap one or two gifts. I don't want that kind of consumer stuff.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
That's right. We're both on the same team. We both point out the same accoutrement. We're looking at the same... We're seeing the same sights together on the road. All right, I need to get out of this. Ed, what are we talking about today? We're talking about... What are we doing today? We're doing something different today. Here, you take this.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
lollapalooza in the morning and then with my partner i ask her to you know occasionally we don't buy each other stuff around the holidays or for birthdays um i buy her stuff uh randomly because i think it's just more fun that i think she'll love and she drops hints every once in a while that she wants something oh yeah as in i i've been looking at this or it's like you haven't given me a present in a while like
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
No, she'll send me a photo of a Birkin bag with the exact color and be like, hey, what do you think of this? I'm like, okay, message received. And what I try and do is wait just long enough so that she forgets about it and it's a surprise. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not a big gift giver. I don't want gifts. The gifts I like, you know, for me, I want meaningful gifts.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I want, you know, my sons will write me a note, or they'll get me a book that was meaningful to me, or they'll get a picture of us framed. That's the shit I want. I can buy anything I want personally, and I'm not into stuff. You know, the gifts that... I mean, it sounds like a Hallmark commercial, but I don't want stuff. I don't want an automatic tie rack or a cream shave heater.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
That's what we got my dad. Ooh, was he thrilled. Back in the 70s, you put shaving cream in a heater. I love that. And you'd have the delight and the supple feeling of warm lather on your beard. That's a great idea. I'm probably going to get that. Or a rotating tie rack. I have so many ties. I need to see them electronically whiz by me.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
But it's strategic and it's selfish. So employee gifts. And it's the following. First off, I don't buy anything. I don't know what's going to be in that fucking bag. MJ, who has much better taste than me. She does a great job. She'll say, I'm going to spend $500 or $1,000 on employee gifts per person. I'm like, fine.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And she'll figure out the latest cool thing and she'll do a great job and merchandise it. And I just give her my credit card number. And the reason it's strategic is that if I spend $1,000 on a gift or gifts for employees, it's worth more than $1,000. Right.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
If I gave them $1,000 in compensation, one, they'd have to pay 30%, 34% taxes on it, whereas if I give you $1,000 with whatever, AirPods and a scarf or something, it's pre-tax income, and also it's more meaningful. And the psychological benefit is greater than if I'd just given you $1,000 cash. My first business partner would always be like, he was totally gruff.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
He'd be like, just give them cash. And I'm like, no, they like gifts. The kids like gifts. You know, for me, the holidays, I don't, I can't stand the holidays. They were not an enjoyable time for me growing up. So I literally loathe them. it's so personal though. You might find, I mean, so for example, I think gifts are more important for women, cocaine, jewelry, cocaine and jewelry.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Women have a special relationship with that. And maybe you don't like cocaine. Maybe you don't like jewelry, but if you don't in your twenties, offer that to women and in your thirties and forties offer jewelry to women, then You are not a good person. And mostly the jewelry. Like, I can't ever imagine spending... Oh, I guess I buy watches now. I never used to buy watches.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
But I can't imagine people spending this money on jewelry. But you've got to determine what's important to the people in your life. That's what it means to be generous, is you're doing something for someone else you wouldn't do for yourself. It makes no sense to you, but it's important to them, so you do it for them. Do you think that... People don't value gifts enough.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
What I have found is that, and I wish I'd figured this out earlier, Riding somebody and complimenting them and recognizing them or telling them you were thinking about them or telling them how impressive you are with them or taking the time to say, you know, you handled this situation so well or congratulations, this is such a nice achievement for you.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
or taking the time just to recognize their achievement in a very thoughtful, explicit way, especially men-to-men, I think that's the best gift you can give another man. My best friend, Lee, on a regular basis, he will text me when he... I get choked up thinking about it. He'll literally text me. He'll say, me and my parents saw you on... I'm Bill Maher, and we're just so proud of you.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Those are the gifts. And everyone's different. Maybe people like stuff. That's the shit I remember. And wouldn't you know, my friend Leah's gay. And I think gay men have an easier time expressing their emotions than straight men. And just registering how important and meaningful that stuff has been for me. has helped me be much more generous with my emotions.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
This is going to sound under the... under the title of Infinite Douchebag, it would be really hard to lose my plane. I've gotten very used to having a plane. So, I mean, there's something around ramping your spending behind making sure your spending lags your economics because the joy you get from having something isn't as great as the disappointment if you lose it and can no longer do it.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
You get used to this shit really fast, right? So when I bought a plane seven years ago, the best piece of advice I got was a friend of mine. He said, just make sure you have way more money than you need for this because you do not want to give it back. He's like, don't buy it until you know you can keep it. And that was what's been so rattling about.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
being rich and then poor, and then 2000, being rich and then poor again in 2007 and 2008, because to kind of step backwards, and I didn't really, actually, I didn't step back materially because I'd never, I always lived below my means, but you step back from an emotional security standpoint, that is really frightening.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
This doesn't fit my opening joke. I think we might have to re-record. This sounds very thoughtful and responsible. Anyways, but yes, please continue.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Yeah, I did. And after the great financial recession hit in 2008, I had a loft in New York. I had to sell that. I just didn't have any money. I wasn't making any money. And all of a sudden I had negative net worth. So I had to sell my loft. That was very disappointing. I loved it. It was kind of just humiliating to be whatever I was, 43, and have to sell my house to pay my bills.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I was never in debt. Were you with a partner at that point? No, I was single at that point, but it still felt really fucking humiliating. So, yeah, I've had to step back. And I think most people have to step back at some point. Maybe. I mean, if you're really responsible, hopefully not. But I got crushed.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I just want to say you're light years ahead of where I was when I was 25. I wasn't even thinking that way.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I wouldn't look at it that way. I mean, you go to the playbook you played. When I was your age, I didn't appreciate nor had access to nice things and nice restaurants. I just didn't. You know, you're at a point, Ed, where you shouldn't be saving 5%. You should be saving 10% and then the 5%, you know, 15%. Because if you just do the math...
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
It's like what Brian Chesky from Airbnb says, you can have it all, you just can't have it all at once. And the reason why I have so much balance in my life and so much opulence was because I had a lack of it when I was your age. And that is, I was very disciplined. I worked a lot. I didn't spend a lot of money. occasionally went out to dinner or whatever, went to Club Med in Mexico.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Oh, when I was—I grew up in California, and I grew up in this era that you don't relate to. It was kind of California dreaming, American graffiti. The only thing you had to express any sort of coolness or wealth or aspiration or macho was your car. In addition— Living in Los Angeles, you had literally no aspect of a social life unless you had a car. There was no public transportation.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
That was my big vacation when I was your age. But you just got to recognize that some of that indulgence now, and I'm not going to tell you not to do it, it's just a trade-off. If you can find a way to I mean, my out-of-control opulence now is a function of the fact that I didn't have it when I was young. I could have had more of it, but I wouldn't have been able to.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
You know, for the most part, I was constantly investing, reinvesting in startups, reinvesting in the stock market, and then sometimes I'd lose it all, which hurt.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
But I was always putting myself in a position that if the winds kicked up and my sales were up, I was going to make a lot of money because I was constantly reinvesting in my own companies, constantly reinvesting in the markets and not consuming a lot. I think it is very difficult when you're a guy your age, especially, I know you have a girlfriend, but you guys don't live together, right?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Oh, we do. You do live together. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Okay. So you're on your way.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
You know, we always say greatness is in the agency of others. Wealth is in the agency of others. One, your ability to attract and retain really talented people, especially if you're an entrepreneur, or just find them. Go to a place where you're working with other talented people.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
You want to be able to where you're—if you look left and right and think these people are talented, you're going to make more money.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
If he's a really close friend, you should be able to say to him, boss, this is a strain for us. I make really good money and it's a strain for me. I can't imagine what it's like for some of the other guys. And quite frankly, you're being a little bit selfish here. You're putting us in a difficult position because nobody wants to say no. Is there any way you can ratchet this back a bit?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
So I don't think that's unreasonable. You're at that age where you're just going to spend a disproportionate amount of money on the wedding industrial complex. It's ridiculous. That's just going to happen. And it's going to be worse for your partner because she's going to have to buy bridesmaids' dresses.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And then go to hotels that are overpriced because, you know, unless they bought out the hotel, but... Yeah, that's just part of—that's just a tax that you paid at Williams-Sonoma.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Well, this is not financial advice, but my experience with kids was that when I had them later in life, so I was a little bit more economically secure. You know, I had my son when I was 41, 42. And for me, it was actually, I think part of the reason I'm as wealthy as I am now is because I had kids. And the reason why is because I just scared the shit out of me and it got me very focused.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
There was the RTD, but it wasn't really efficient. So if you wanted to go on a Friday night, go and crash a party that someone was having, you were invited to, see above Scott Galloway, you needed a car. And so from the age of about 13, I saved pretty much everything for a car. And my dad gave me an old Volkswagen Rabbit from his old home in Phoenix.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I think having kids when you're younger, if you don't have dual income, would be really financially stressful. Also, something I did once I had kids was... And what I would recommend is ask yourself, can you make a lifestyle arbitrage? And this was my partner's idea. She said, let's move to Florida. We're going to be able to cut our rent in half, if not by 60%.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
We're going to cut our private school tuition for our two boys by two thirds. Grace Church wanted $58,000 a year. And for me to bring that lady muffins. And then they ask you, are you philanthropic? Like, are you going to give us more money? Anyways, so we immediately cut our burn, and that was her idea. And she was smart. She's like, no, we're going to love Florida. It's nice.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Stop being such a snob. I'm like, I'm not going to Florida. They're all yeehaws down there driving F-150s and shooting at each other with their guns and everything. And she's like, don't be an idiot.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Yeah, all those better things in life. But what I did do was smart. I took all of the money that we saved, and I put it into the market. And so immediately, I think combined, we were probably making, you know, I was probably making between, I don't know, $400,000 and $700,000 a year between the two of us. And then we took that 14% swing in savings and all the other savings.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
We took about $150,000, $200,000 a year, and we put it into stocks for 10 years from 2010 to 2020. Yeah. I mean, the thing that really shocks me is that
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
There's a reason why people are moving into Texas. Right. And there's a reason why the South is economically booming. A lifestyle arbitrage is, you should always be thinking about a lifestyle arbitrage, especially in a world of remote work. Where could I move? Don't be a snob. A lot of people are really happy in Atlanta. And economic security is an enormous ointment for stress and anxiety.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And if you are blessed with mobility, you want to take advantage of it.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
You know, I've always said that one of my biggest unlocks is my atheism because I really think having a strong sense of the finite nature of life creates a lot of courage and a lot of boldness to share your emotions, to take risks, to tell people you care about them, to seize the moment, to embrace now.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And one of the things I decided, when I sold my company in 2017, I sold it for 160 million bucks. I was worth somewhere between 50 and 100 million, depending on how you would calculate my private investments. And I thought, all right, I'm going to put in $25 million.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I'm going to go raise another 250 or 300, start a private equity fund because I thought I need to be a billionaire by the time I'm 65. That was my goal. And I thought the only way I'm going to do that is through a private equity fund. I have the credibility, the contacts. I'm going to raise a fund. I got the first, I think I got about $50 million in commitments just from three calls.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I was going to start a consumer private equity fund right after I sold L2. And then I thought, a friend of mine got sick, passed away, and I thought, okay, this is going really fast. I have enough money to live really well. I didn't have enough money for a plane, but I had enough money for everything else at that point. And I thought, okay, why do I need to be a billionaire?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
On the way back from Arizona with a friend, the tire blew out and there was no spare tire. Gives you a bit of a sense for the protective instincts my father did not have about a Renault Le Carre. And finally, I think the Renault got towed my freshman year in the fraternity, and I didn't even go get it. I think I just let it be sold for scrap.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And I thought, well, all right, would I have more influence? Maybe, not much more. Would I be able to do anything else? No, I can pretty much do anything I want right now. So I made a conscious decision that I would change my approach to money, and it was the following. Once I hit my number, which I was about to, anything above that, I would do one of two things.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I would either spend it or I would give it away. I love spending money. I'm selfish. I like nice things, nice experiences. But every year, I look at my net worth, and if it's up $7 million... and I've spent four, I'll give three away. I do not need to increase my net worth. Hoarding is a disease that infects a lot of Americans. I don't begrudge billionaires. I don't think they're as happy as me.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I don't think there's any reason to hoard money. Spend it. In a capitalist society, there's so many amazing things to spend it on. And then if you still have more money, than what you need to spend to have an amazing life?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
For God's sakes, why wouldn't you find, if you believe young men are struggling, and it freaks you out that four in five people in a morgue have died from suicide are men, why wouldn't you give money to an amazing charity with really talented people focusing on mental health? You know, the Jed Foundation. Why wouldn't you, if you are constantly lecturing at people about
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
about the misgivings or the moral corruption of the university system and how we need more vocational training. Well, if you have the money to start a vocational problem, why the fuck wouldn't you? And you know what? It feels really good. It makes me feel strong. It makes me feel nice. It's not even an ethical thing. It makes me feel like a baller.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And also just some of it is an overdue nod to California taxpayers. I give a lot of money back to UCLA and Berkeley because they spent so much money on me despite the fact I was such a fuck up. You know, California taxpayers kept giving me another chance. So this is a great position to be in. But once you hit your number, why on earth would you not do one of two things, spend it or give it away?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
So buying a car, my first cars were the worst purchases, hands down, I ever made. They literally took all of my disposable income and more. It was like $2,500 to buy insurance when you were 16, which on an inflation-adjusted basis probably meant $10,000 a year. I did not have that kind of money. And yet I found it. So hands down, the worst purchase I ever made was a car.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I'm an atheist. I'm generous. And I'm a father. I recognize the finite nature of life. I'm spending a lot of money on experiences. I think I'm a generous person. I give away a lot of money. I'm generous with my friends. And I'm very focused on being a really generous provider for my kids and my partner. Those are the things I aspire to. It also says, quite frankly, I'm indulgent. I'm selfish.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I spend a lot of money on my own comfort and my own joy and my own – I do frivolous things that make me feel important and good. I spend money on things – I spend money on dumb shit because I'm a bit of a narcissist. I mean, that's an interesting way to look at things. So there's some very good things about my spending.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
There's some things I'm also probably not that proud of in terms of how I quit. I spent too much money on nightlife and alcohol. That's not good at my age. I have nice things, quite frankly, to probably impress other people that I shouldn't need to impress. How do you know I'm building a house in Aspen? I tell you. That's sort of fucking pathetic, isn't it? So you're right.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
It does say a lot of things about me. It says a lot of good things, a lot of bad things. You know, I'm human.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
What you're saying is you were irresponsible, but it was planned. You made a conscious decision to be irresponsible. That's my room service. It's speaking of irresponsible. I just ordered a shit ton of beef. It probably costs a million. Yeah. Hold on. I'll be back in a second. You can leave it there because I'm on a podcast. You can leave it in there. I'll bring it out. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
So what you're saying is you made a responsible decision to be irresponsible. And I think that's OK. You know, occasionally it's fun to splurge. And, you know, I would argue the splurges when you're young are I think you remember them more. It is clearly bonus time. You guys plan this. You guys so plan this.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Scott, do you think it's important to be generous with your employees who don't have as much money as you?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Scott, how do you think your employees get by and what could you do to make their lives easier?
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Oh, yeah. And I think I told you, I think I bought a 325i Navy Blue. I bought it out of the recycler. I think I spent, I forget what it was, my first bonus was like 25 grand. I spent 20 grand on a car. But I think of that, I mean, this sounds dumb, but a bad car that you don't need in college and high school, I kind of needed it, but I just couldn't afford it. That's a dumb purchase.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I would argue that when you're 23, working a Morgan Stanley, and you're in your mating years, that buying a BMW and hanging swim goggles from the rearview mirror makes a lot of sense. You're trying to signal to women that if you have kids with me, your kids are more likely to survive than if you date someone who is driving a Hyundai. And does, you know, does water aerobics.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
So I sort of, I empathize with what I'll call smart signaling purchases. I think it's difficult to lecture someone your age on to not occasionally buy cool shit and do cool things. Your 20s come and go. You want to signal attractiveness. I get sort of the irrational purchases. To me, the BMW kind of made sense. And also I sold it and it paid for my European trip. So it was worth it.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
No, and I'll turn this back to you, but I wish I'd learned earlier. And I did learn it accidentally, but it was more organic than anything I read. You remember experiences. You don't remember stuff. People overestimate the joy they're going to get from things, and they underestimate the joy they're going to get from experiences.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
When I left Morgan Stanley, I initially – towards the end of Morgan Stanley, I thought about trying to do a third year and maybe making the jump to associate or interviewing with another firm because everyone had convinced me that if you have your foot in the door in investment banking, you never want to leave because you'll never get a job that good, even as –
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Even though, despite the fact I hated it and they hated me, I wasn't very good at it. I was trying to figure out a way to maybe stay in it. And then the only time I've ever been in the hospital was I got an arrhythmia towards the end of my second year. In a what? An arrhythmia. I had something called ventricular tachycardia, which is an irregular heartbeat. Okay.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And the timing was really unfortunate because the week before, this guy named, was it Hank Gathers? The best high school... or the best college basketball player, got a rebound, went down for a monster jam in front of a national audience, and then turned back to run up the court and drop dead on the court. And he was diagnosed with VTAC and an enlarged heart, which is quite...
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
regular for people who, your heart is a muscle, and if you work out a lot, which I was doing in crew, your heart actually can get too big for your chest cavity, and it can create an electrical imbalance. I was overinsured, I was having this irregular heartbeat, had gathers the week before, they stuck me in the hospital. So while I was in the hospital, this woman, I was at St.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
John's, I think it was. And she said, why are you, she looked at me, you know, I'm 23, she said, you're in the ICU unit of the cardiology unit. She just looked at me, not a doctor, and said, you shouldn't be here. What's going on with your life? And it hit me so hard.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I became very emotional because I'd obviously tried to push down all these emotions about how fucking freaked out I was that I was in the ICU unit of the cardiology unit at St. John's. And basically, net-net, that afternoon, I decided I was going to leave investment banking and do something different. I moved back in with my mom.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And I sold my car and I went to Europe with that money with my friend Lee Lotus. And we got a backpack, a Eurail pass. And that still remains as evidenced by anyone who watches this podcast. I do amazing travel. I travel to the best places. I have an extraordinary life with respect to travel.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
The best trip I've ever taken was when I was 24, right out at Morgan Stanley with the Eurail Pass, sleeping in hostels with my good friends, Lee Lotus and then David Kingsdale joined us. And I connected with a woman I was dating at the time and to be in, you know, Mykonos on no money, but with someone you were into. That was just the best expenditure I've ever made. And I spent everything and more.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I think I had to call my mom and ask her to wire me some money. But it was hands down the best expenditure I've ever made. So I'll put it back to you. The dumbest and best purchases you've made today. Other than like a big wheel and that glass dildo I saw you had on your shelf. Turn off the camera. Jesus Christ. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Ed.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
It's funny. It reminds me of my dad occasionally would say something that, you know, was close to insight. And he always said to me, doing nothing is fine as long as it's planned. And I remember another saying that anger is actually a productive emotion as long as it's planned. And I think what you're saying is you made a responsible decision to be irresponsible. And I think that's okay.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
You know, occasionally it's fun to splurge and, you know— I would argue the splurges when you're young are, I think you remember them more, especially if they're around experiences. Anyways, my advice to young people, you know, Andrew Huberman and Peter Attia will say, you know, don't drink alcohol. I don't see drunkenness. I see togetherness.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And I just love the image of you and your homies in Mykonos doing your thing and then late at night getting shut down by every woman in the club. Still, it was worth it.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
Probably the best purchases both financially and emotionally for me were homes. And that is right out of business school, I was very much in love and we bought a home together. And it just represented like a commitment to each other. And we got a dog and it just...
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And at the age of 27, it just felt really nice to have some of that feeling, that domestic bliss to be committed to someone, to be making a mortgage payment and owning a home. And the home was just a vehicle, I think, for kind of that commitment to each other. And it felt really, it was emotionally very rewarding.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And then going back to probably the last house purchase I made, when I sold L2, I had a big windfall. And my partner said, we should buy this, you know, beautiful home. I mean, it is a beautiful home on the beach. And one of my flaws, many flaws as investors, I think nothing is ever cheap enough. And the home was, they were asking 15 million. She said, trust me, we can get it for a lot less.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And I'm like, she offered, ended up... Getting it for nine and a half. And I'm like, I didn't want to buy it. I'm like, no, it'll be worth six and two years. We're going into recession. This is 2019. I'm sorry, 2017. And it took three years to renovate, shit ton of money. And then COVID comes and we have, you know, a really nice home on the beach.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And then again, see above better to be lucky than good. This mass migration of people to Florida from COVID, right? All these masters of the universe who all want to live in the same area and be on the sand. And that home is probably doubled or tripled in value. And more important than that, in an environment where people had to sequester and isolate with their families, I was in a beautiful home.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
More time with Netflix, more time with my boys, and my stocks were skyrocketing. And COVID was, in my opinion, the most unfair, pornographic, gross transfer of wealth and health from the already wealthy and the incumbents from people who are unhealthy or poor. And I was on the right side of that.
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Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
And it just strikes me, it just feels so uncomfortable to say COVID was the best two years of my life. But this is a long-winded way of saying the best purchases I have made, and I'm not suggesting that it's right for everybody because a lot of it is timing. But emotionally and financially, the best purchases I have made were my first and my last home.
Pivot
Prof G Markets: The Art of Spending Money
I'm sitting in a room that costs $5,000 a night. Yeah. I mean, enough said. I don't own a car. I don't spend a lot of money on clothes. I spend a crazy amount of money on travel. Next door in the next room is my friend Augusto. And Augusto is like this greatest guy, easygoing, super nice.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Right. But isn't Instagram, isn't Meta also? That case has got more momentum now.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Anyways, you asked for a prediction. I think we're going to see a spin in the next 12 to 24 months. And by the way, I've been saying that for a long time and I've been wrong.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
That would be really interesting. And use the AI kind of halo as a means of propping up the company. Actually, I think that's really interesting. Look, this company should be a $14 stock. And I'm not suggesting you invest here because it's a meme stock and there's forces outside of your control. And now that the SEC has been neutered, who knows what kind of manipulation. has taken place here.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
But it used to be the CEO from the street, the best thing you could do was kind of under-promise and over-deliver. And there's still a market for that in traditional mature companies. Unfortunately, the ground has shifted a bit that in the kind of fake it till you make it economy, it's over-promise. And deliver just enough. You can under deliver, but just enough.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
So, for example, some of the promises Elon has made. 2200 days ago, he said there would be one million Tesla robotaxis within the year. So seven years ago, he said we'd have robotaxis in one year. Nine years ago, he said all superchargers were being converted to solar. That hasn't happened.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Another nine years ago, he said, since Tesla started charging customers for self-driving software that he said would be able to drive from LA to New York City autonomously by the end of 2017. He said that that would happen by the end of 2017. Yeah.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Nearly eight years since the second-generation Tesla Roadster was announced. You can still pre-order one on Tesla's website for 45k. That's interesting. Some of the promises that did come to fruition, but the details were still a little fuzzy. The Cybertruck was scheduled for production in 2021 and was supposed to cost $40,000. It came to market in late 2023, and the base model was over $60,000.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
And it's a heinous-looking vehicle. Yeah, that makes no fucking sense. But they haven't sold that many.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
They're currently getting hit with a lawsuit concerning the alleged speeding up of odometer readings. Tesla does not have incentives to fib the odometer numbers. Warranties expire faster, meaning less Tesla-covered repairs and extending the alleged range of the Tesla, which is... I remember when I was buying used cars, I thought, why don't people just fuck with the speedometer?
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Yeah, but that's literally kind of like fraud on a different sort of masculine level. It was like, do not ever accuse anyone of fucking with the odometer or whatever it is. So I think he's lost interest in it. I think your speculation that they might combine it all into one company is really interesting. I hadn't thought, I hadn't considered that.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Yeah, that's who I want. That's who I want commanding my men and women in uniform.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
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Pivot
Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Well, one of the two pillars of the way we approach justice or how we prosecute or acquit or deliver justice and some general themes, and Alito gave a very eloquent speech on this. I apologize. It was Justice Scalia saying that every nation has a really powerful bill of rights. We keep focusing on when these decisions come down, but that's not the bigger issue.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Russia has a Bill of Rights that says you are entitled to free speech and anyone who gets in the way of your free speech should be immediately imprisoned. Where a nation's metal and justice system is proven or dissolves is your willingness to enforce those Bill of Rights.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
And that's where we are now is that for the first time in our nation, it used to be when the Supreme Court or lower court made a decision, it was just a given it was going to be enforced and that the president wouldn't think of turning back planes against a court order. And we're giving the president credit right now.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
It's almost as if we're saying, see, he's actually listening to the Supreme Court because we no longer have that certainty. To me, that's really scary. The other thing is, generally speaking, we have decided with our justice system that it is worth the trade-off, and there's always a trade-off, to have some people who are guilty be free, OJ, versus imprisoning innocent people.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
I think that was his... And right now, I can hear a lot of Americans saying, okay, now do black people, because I think there's a lot of black Americans who've been incarcerated unfairly. But Those are kind of two pretty significant tenets. And those have been—so the notion that this Republican talking point of, well, yeah, it's worth it.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
If there's a couple people in El Salvador that shouldn't be, it's worth the general progress we've made. Meanwhile, the 60 Minutes said 75% of these folks haven't committed a crime. Right.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
I think the bigger issue is we just have to, at this point, make sure that these decisions are upheld because we have a strong man who's picking and choosing, it feels like, what decisions he's going to decide to comply with. In terms of the natalist movement, I do believe, I mean, I think of a unifying theory of everything around what the democratic message should be.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
And I think it should be the following, that anyone under the age of 40 who works should be able to form a household, buy a home, or at least afford rent, meet somebody, and afford to have children. So minimum wage of 25 bucks an hour, national service, 7 million homes in 10 years. do away with capital gains tax in a tax structure that transfers money from young to old, universal child tax credit.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
I'm just so here for Kristi Noem. It's such a Cinemax film waiting to happen. Yeah.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
There's a ton of actual programs I'd like to see the Democrats actually put forward instead of fucking whining all the time. But here's the bottom line. It's about economic prosperity such that if the 60 percent of 30-year-olds that had a kid, now it's 27 percent, want to take it back to 40, that's fine.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
But at the same time, if they decide they want to not have kids and spend that money on brunch in St. Barts, that's their right. So I want a program that takes the people under the age of 40 that are 24% less wealthy than they were 40 years ago and not the 72% wealthier of people over the age of 70 and levels up young people and gives them a chance to meet each other.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
and gives them economic viability, but only rewarding them for some sort of kind of weird propagation.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Should we bring this all back to me? Ask me what I did this weekend.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
All this shit is so upsetting and boring, Kara. Let's talk about the dog.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Let's talk about the dog. So when I moved to Florida after I lost everything in 08 and my kid didn't get into school because it was speech-delayed preschool, I'm like, that's it. We're out of here. We're moving to Florida.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
You need young people more economically viable. And if you want to talk about a baby boom, you've got to reverse engineer to why the baby boom happened. And effectively, it was the following. We don't like to talk about this because some of it sounds politically off-putting, but seven million men came home for more, and they had demonstrated heroism and uniform, and they were fit.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
And we put a bunch of money in middle-class homes through the GI Bill, through FHA loans, and we said, okay, young people, here's a bunch of attractive men. Quite frankly, we aren't producing enough attractive men for the women who have ascended. And we should do nothing, including some sort of weird tax credit that somehow pulls women out of the workforce.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
We should do nothing to get in the way of women's incredible ascent. What we need to do is lift up men who, quite frankly, aren't keeping pace. And the way you lift up men is by lifting up all people under the age of 40 and giving them a chance to meet, giving them a chance to fall in love, giving them economic viability. We have to get them together.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Do you realize, and I know this sounds, 40% of nightclubs in London have gone away since COVID. If people aren't going into work, they're not going into bars, they're not going to church, where does a man or where does a woman who has a much finer filter for sex, because quite frankly, the downside of sex is so much greater, ever have the opportunity to let a man demonstrate excellence?
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
If you talk to people who've been married longer than 30 years, 75% of them say that one was much more interested in the other in the beginning. It was always the man that was more interested. Women are just more choosy for very strong instinctual and biological reasons. So where does the man have an opportunity to demonstrate excellence?
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
And now you have men who, quite frankly, aren't demonstrating excellence. As women have ascended the earnings ladder and can contribute more to a relationship, men have not filled that gap.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
We bid on a house, got it accepted, and then Goldman, who at that time was managing my money because they were investing in small entrepreneurs, came back and said, last year you made negative one and a half million, so don't qualify for a mortgage. So I had to go home and tell my partner that we couldn't get this house.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
7 million new homes, manufactured homes that cost 30% to 50% less than homes built on-site, $25 an hour minimum wage, national service, do away with long-term capital gains,
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Quite frankly, subsidies to places, businesses, whether it's Puttshack, whether it's bars that get young people together, whether it's nonprofits, sports leagues, anything that gets people together so they can go, you know what? I didn't like him at first, but he's funny. He's nice to his parents.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
I'm going to go out with a group of people. I'm going to have a few drinks and maybe make a few bad decisions that might pay off. The most rewarding thing in life is the opportunity to partner with someone, fall in love, and raise children with a competent person and have a government that has wind in your sails to be economically viable so you're not fucking stressed all the time.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
My point is we need to level up young people. I don't like programs that target specifically one gender because I think it gets politicized. We need to level up all young people
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
I'll give you exactly what happened.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
I saw someone wearing nothing but a thong who was wearing at a pool party at the Raleigh Hotel. And I promised myself, I'm going to speak to that person before I leave, to that woman. And she was with another woman and another guy. And without the benefit of alcohol, in the light of the midday sun, I thought I'm going to go up and I'm going to introduce myself.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
And I'm like, you can make all sorts of reasons not to take your shot. It's like, how do you do it? What do you say? So I went out to the valet. I got so angry at myself. I went back in and I walked right up to him. And I said, hi, I'm Scott. And I introduced myself. Where are you guys from? 18 months later, our son's middle name is Raleigh.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Well, I'm going. My stories obviously take too long. And I said to them, I hung out with them that day, and I said, come to my place and I'll make you dinner. I have no idea how to make dinner. So I called George and Holly Mattson, who I was sharing a place in the continuum in Miami with.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
And I said to Holly, who was out on a boat with George, I said, you need to get home and make dinner for me and these three people because I'm really into this one ridiculously cool hot woman. And we had a few drinks. We were having a great dinner. We sat down on the couch and I sat down across from her and I said, look, I'm like, I pride myself on my transparency. This is exactly what happened.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
I couldn't close because I couldn't get a mortgage, which was really a nice conversation for me. So anyways, we ended up buying a home in Delray. We built this home and we had to have a pool because we had young boys. And every morning on the weekends, we would get up, make breakfast, and our kids would immediately start jumping in the pool with our dog, Zoe.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
There's no adjectives or embellishments. I said, look, I pride myself on my transparency. I feel a really nice vibe with you and I'm super interested in you and I just feel a really nice connection with you. Do you feel the same? And she paused and thought about it and she said, no. And the worst part was the pause so she could think about it.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
But she looked around and paused and went like, she really wanted to give me an honest answer. She was moved by my transparency. She's like, let me think. No, no. And then the next weekend, I lied to her and said I was going to a party. It was actually the rehearsal party for my friends George and Holly Madsen, a rehearsal party. And she showed up in jeans and a Led Zeppelin T-shirt.
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And she was about to kill me because I lied to her. It was a rehearsal dinner. And we spent every weekend together for the next, you know, three years.
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I remember you were dating someone and then you weren't and then you were dating Amanda.
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I'm like a bad condo that's been repossessed in an auction. Yeah.
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Look, I don't, my view is that with brand, what is a brand?
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A brand is unearned margin because of soft power, the promise of what you will get if you buy this brand. And you got to deliver against the performance. And the promise is what I would refer to in terms of aid overseas is soft power. And people feel good about us. When you see an American embassy, you know it's going to be well-staffed. You know they're polite.
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You know that if you're an American abroad and you get mistreated, you go straight to the embassy. And the fact that we're reducing our soft power all over the world, all that means is a reduction in the promise of reduction in our brand, which will reduce our unearned margin across our business relationships, our safety.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Do you think how many people – and the problem is you're not even going to realize how much damage it does. Do you realize how many people call our intelligence services when they suspect – a terrorist cell somewhere. They call American embassies because they're like, you know what? Those are nice people. They're the good guys. And we're losing that.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
This is a reduction in soft power across America.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
And I would play what is my favorite album in the world. Is it my favorite album other than Damned to Torpedoes by... Tom Petty. I played Morning Phase by Beck. Have you ever listened to this album?
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Which, by the way, has been a hotbed for, quite frankly, it's not only... not playing offense. Africa likely will have the greatest GDP growth over the next 40 or 50 years. It's just time. and it has huge, unbelievable human potential, unbelievable natural resources, at some point Africa's gonna have its moment, and we wanna be in there in establishing strong business and military relationships.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
In addition, there are some hotbeds of terrorist activity in Africa, and we want African nations and governments cooperating with us. It all comes down to the same thing. To believe that you can build a bubble around your shores is just naive. I've always believed you not only take the fight To foreign nations, you take the empathy and the goodwill. It has to be a carrot and a stick.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
It is so beautiful. It won Best Album. It was probably the biggest surprise at Best Album 12 or 14 years ago. It's an instrumental orchestral album.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Our threats mean less and less. I do think that one of Obama's biggest mistakes was not responding when Syria crossed that red line. You should make very, very few threats. But what they should be is not threats, they should be promises. And unfortunately, now we're just we're threatening everybody. So no one takes this seriously.
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Don't rush me through this. I'm revealing a little bit about my soul to you.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
I just don't think we have there's no veracity with our threats because it's like, well, he didn't threaten Canada, but he came after them for no apparent reason. And then when he threatens to ban TikTok, he does. Harvard, it was a mistake. We are not a serious people. It just doesn't we have absolutely no authority or reliability whatsoever.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
We come home every day to a drunk, manic-depressive, bipolar mate. We don't know who we're waking up against or we don't know who we're waking up with every morning. And the fact that any nation is going to respond and back down other than saying, oh, okay, sorry, and wow, have you lost weight, Mr. President?
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
So last night, I went to the Royal Albert Hall, and I saw Beck play with the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, which is one of the most talented in the world. And me and Beata just sat there and cried for an hour and a half, remembering our kids jumping into the pool.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
And then just back-channel to China and say, hey, we really should have those talks we were talking about, about lowering trade barriers. And China, oh my God, they must be licking their chops, as is Vietnam, as is Turkey, as is the EU. The EU is, I mean, obviously this hurts them, but they're making all sorts of, they're doing all, they're working overtime.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
They're doing all sorts of trade deals right now.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Yeah, I don't see how it's subject... I mean, eventually it'll impact them, but, I mean, this is... This is arguably, I mean, we always say this about a lot of companies, but one of the best managed companies in the world, but arguably the best pivot in the world. They were sending out DVDs. A real insight was they said, the real insight was the best broadband in the world is the US postal system.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
That rather than trying to send a movie over pipes, send it in the mail. And then when the pipes caught up to the mail, they said, we're pivoting. And that was the ultimate pivot and it worked.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
They then adopted a page out of Bezos' playbook and said, if we can paint a really compelling vision for this company and deliver against it on an incremental basis, we can attract more cheap capital, which gives us more and more money. And we're just going to literally outspend. We're going to overwhelm the competition with capital. And they spent $18 billion a year.
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And then when they kind of pulled ahead and it was clear no one was going to be able to capture it in terms of capital… They then globalized the industry and did to L.A. what Tokyo did to Detroit, and that is they moved huge production facilities overseas. And now they can – on $18 billion in content, which is what – Five to eight times what HBO, Apple, all of them spend.
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Apple, I think, spends $5 billion. If they're spending three times what another company spends in gross dollar volume, they can produce four times the content because it's just a better managed company. I think now almost 40% or 50% or maybe even more of their capital is spent overseas in production than spent domestically.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Such a night. Last night was literally the moment. Also, the mushroom gummies helped, but... That will be the moment. That's like my crowning moment for London. And it was such an outstanding performance and took us back to this really nice moment.
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Agreed. And kudos to Reed. He brought in... Ted Sarandos and Ted whose job as a young man, he ran six or eight video rental stores. The guy just has a feel for content and they now are leveraging their platform. They're going into video games, they're going into sports, this is a scary one, they're going into podcasting.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
The really interesting thing would be the Clash of the Titans, the celebrity death match would be if Alphabet spun YouTube. I mean, the war between Netflix and HBO and Disney, that's not the war. That's over. The war, if there is one, is between Netflix and YouTube.
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13% versus Netflix at 11. Yeah.
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Oh, I think Neil Mohan's done an incredible job.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
You have an easier time disassociating than me. I've been so stressed and upset about everything that's been going on that to just be at the Royal Albert Hall listening to beautiful music that reminded me... I think it was Diane... Was it either... I think it was...
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Gloria Vanderbilt, Anderson Cooper's mother, who said that the happiest time in her life or the happiest time she believes in anyone's life is when you have young kids at home. And I do think I'll look back on that and look at that as the happiest time in my life.
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But feeling that music in that venue, it was just so extraordinary and just absolutely gave me an hour of peace and emotion to share with someone I care a great deal about in the content. I mean, we just knew exactly how we were both feeling. I felt very connected to London. I felt very connected to music. And it was just a nice hour of respite.
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You know what is incredible is a woman who used to work with me at L2. I don't think I'm speaking out of school. I won't say her name, but she just took on a strategy role at Apples and she's overseeing memories. You know that, do you have those things that pop up?
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Oh, my gosh. As you know, I'm fascinated with death. I'm just going to play that shit over and over and live my life again. That does, music does, seeing certain people does. And the piece of advice I would give to anyone, especially men who have a tough time with this, I've said this, from the age of 29 to 45, I didn't cry. I didn't cry when I got divorced. I didn't cry when my mom died.
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I just kind of forgot how. And it is a real gift to, in a practice, an effort to really lean into your emotions. If you hear something funny, force yourself. This is one of the things I really like about you. You laugh out loud. You have a wonderful laugh and it's infectious. And it gives everyone else permission to laugh and it just makes everything a little lighter.
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If something upsets you or it moves you sentimentally, let yourself weep, let yourself cry because it informs what's important to you. When you see a piece of art or a piece of creative that inspires you, sometimes I even rewind it 15 or 30 seconds and say, wow, this is such a wonderful scene. I want to watch it or I listen to music.
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Really lean into your emotions because our advantage as a species- You're a crier.
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Oh, I cry at the drop of a hat.
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And it's one of the things I like. I like the messy part of myself. My kids see me cry all the time.
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Don't rush me through my personal parables. As I open myself to you and you jab. You jab! You jab! But my lesson here is our advantage as a species is our cooperation. And the way we cooperate is we communicate a close second is we're able to feel things.
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All right. What did you do this weekend? Oh.
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That part of our brain is bigger with the exception of elephants and killer whales, which, by the way, should not be locked up in tanks when you realize how emotional they are. If you don't lean into your emotions, you're not taking advantage of what it means to be human. And it's very rewarding. It really informs your life.
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Signalgate Sequel, Trump's Baby Boom Plans, and Netflix Earnings
Otherwise, you're like me, 29 to 45, and just kind of sleepwalking through life and thinking, okay, how do I make more money and have more sex? Which was an empty, meaningless experience. It was a pretty good empty, meaningless experience, but this is better. Anyways, my win is the Royal Albert Hall and back and listening to Morning Phase and thinking about my boys. My fail is...
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At the end of the day, management is just one thing. It's your ability to allocate capital to a greater return than your peer group. The cruel truth of capitalism is every organization has a finite or scarce amount of resources. Tim Cook's job is just to allocate capital more efficiently than the CEO of Meta or Samsung. And the president has more capital to allocate than anyone in history.
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And the best allocation of capital, and we talked about this, is the investment in our universities. And probably the greatest innovation in history was our race to split the atom. If we hadn't gotten there first, and Hitler had, we'd be doing this podcast in German. And that effort, and one of the things I don't think they did a great job of in the movie Oppenheimer,
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was nodding to all of the universities that were involved.
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And I'm going to get some wrong here, but Caltech, Berkeley, WashU, Purdue, University of Minnesota, Chicago, University of Chicago played a huge role, Rochester, Princeton. All of these universities were working on different things from the effects of radiation to the risk of us lighting the atmosphere on fire.
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Wow, you're more Jewish than me right now.
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And these individuals who had this incredible, esoteric, generic, ridiculously mile-deep and a centimeter-wide expertise in something were all coordinated by the army and the government to try and figure out a way to get there first to literally save the world. That has happened every day since then and has given us unbelievable return on investment.
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And it's not only capital through investments in our great universities, but it's the ability to attract the best human capital that know how to deploy this capital because they're so brilliant.
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And when you start sending out errant emails, which by the way, end up are not legal, telling people, graduate students to self-deport, let me give you a basic rundown on who our students are in our universities. The undergrads at our elite universities are a mix of rich kids and freakishly remarkable Americans, and then a combination of the two from foreign countries.
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At business school, I won't speak for other graduate schools, the MBAs are the following. The Americans at business schools are are what I affectionately called the elite and the aimless. They're good, smart kids who hated their first job, don't know what the fuck to do with their lives, so they go back to business school to try and figure it out.
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There's nothing wrong with that, I was one of those people. Then the foreign students are the richest kids from Paraguay whose dad owns the licensing agreement from L'Oreal and the ultimate luxury brand is to send their kid to NYU or Stanford.
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By the way, those are the kids you want to party with because they're rich kids and they love to party and also they're going to be running their country at some point. And then there's the PhD students. The PhD students, we don't cash their check for $72,000.
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We pay them, and they come here and take on a very narrow topic, and they're so good at what they do that they teach students, and then they go on to do nothing but focus on a tiny part of the world and decide, I am going to know more about this tiny part of the world than anyone in the world. Arguably the most impressive cohort in America is our PhD students.
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I don't even know what that is.
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We get the Tom Brady's of every nation who decides, I'm super into liquid particle propulsion dynamics, and I'm going to go to the University of Wisconsin at Madison and devote my life to it. We find these people that have done nothing but go so fucking deep around this specific topic that they know more about it than anyone in the world.
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And yet we've decided we want to scare these people from coming here.
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Well, we elected this guy. But it's as if we're a team and we get the number one draft choices from everywhere. And then Tom Brady shows up and we said, you know, Tom, I hate to say this, but there's a chance you might show up one day and ICE might be there and ruin you and your family's life for no goddamn good reason. We are scaring away people.
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One of our core competences, our core advantages globally is not only the fact that we allocate capital to this university, but we attract the finest human capital to allocate this capital, resulting in unbelievable innovation that has driven prosperity, that has driven unearned margin. My fail is an unnecessary turning away of the strongest human capital in the world.
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And that is our... Just trust me on this. You meet a PhD student from India. I don't care what fucking field there are. You're talking to someone who...
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who was the best at their elementary school, then the best in their region, then the best in their state, and then the best at IIT, and then figured out a way to come to the University of Pennsylvania and study options theory and helps banks figure this shit out.
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I actually, I love, I don't want to say I love Easter, but Easter for me is something I got to do. You know why I hide Easter eggs?
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Because I don't want anyone to know that I'm fucking a chicken.
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I'm sort of blown away by your speculation or thesis that all of these, both the government and Musk, are bringing all this information together to develop sort of one, I don't know, skynet of surveillance control and capital.
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that you want to understand an organization that understands branding, that burning the ballots to create white smoke, that signifies there's a new pope, the garb, the candles, the music, the artisanship.
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To this show, wherever you listen to podcasts, thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pop. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Beck's morning phase. Trust me.
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I'm so glad you said that. And what a shocker. And you can't sleep with women. And what do you know? What do you know?
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But a question for you, because what I saw, I love News Not Noise with Jessica Yellen. And she said, what's going on here is a phenomenon in journalism, and I'm curious to get your take on this, called taking out the trash. And that is when your own team turns on you and starts leaking everything, you're done. There's no way to plug the boat. Do you think that's what's going on here?
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I thought that the last one. I thought that Waltz was going to get fired.
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But I wonder if at some point the Joint Chiefs go, you realize at some point people are going to question orders for fear that surface-to-air missiles are waiting for them because shit for brains over here is playing— His next thing he's going to put it out on is Nintendo Wii, what the attack plans are.
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I mean, at some point, this begins to compromise the safety and security of our men and women in uniform, if it hasn't already.
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Did he just appoint his brother to some sensitive defense position?
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He says he can do five sets of 47 push-ups. I can do five of 35.
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I think, I think they feel the wolves are circling and it does feel real this time. It feels, you know, while you were sleeping, you know, we're so focused on everything else that it does feel like the momentum here is pretty staggering. Um, I wonder if they're, they're just so smart and they have so many connections.
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I wonder if they're gonna do a blood offering and offer to spend something or offer a pretty big fine, like some sort of big bargain.
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But yeah, my guess is they offer to do something prophylactically because I think they see... But what? I don't know.
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A spin of their ad group, a spin of what used to be DoubleClick. I'd like to see a spin of YouTube because I think it'd be so incredibly valuable. I think it'd be good for shareholders and be pretty clean.
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So last night, my kid, my 14-year-old, comes into my room in the middle of the night all upset, and he said, Dad, on my group chat, it says we're bombing the Hooties in 1,900 hours. Should I be worried?
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Well, they get to share data and it's also, it all comes back to money care. This is the point it all reverse engineers to, and it's the following, except for Zuckerberg, who I think just at this point likes control, although maybe that's not true. The way a CEO gets compensated is the following. There is a subcommittee of the board called the Compensation Committee.
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And basically, they're there to approve, to make sure that we have enough options in a private company for new hires, and also to deal with the hardest part, and that is CEO's compensation. And we hire Towers Perrin, and we pay them $200,000 or $300,000 because we don't like to do any actual work ourselves. And they come in and they say, okay,
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New York Times company, you're a $5 billion revenue company in a media space, 50 percent is the exact median of CEOs of media companies making $5 billion. This is what happens. You say, well, Janet Robinson's doing her level best, we'll pay her at 60 percent because it feels weird psychologically to pay someone average. But keep in mind, this is the average of CEOs in $5 billion media companies.
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So you pay them, generally speaking, 60%. But what that means is when you're paying everyone 20% more than the medium, it means every three and a half years, the compensation is doubling. And what that means is in 40 years, we've gone from CEOs making 30 times average worker salaries to three or 400. Now, essentially what happens is
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that metric, that scale you get is based on the size of the company. So when the Bank of America CEO says, I want to make more money, even if he's making shitty acquisitions that may not pay off in the long term, his compensation goes up based on the size of the company.
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So there's this disincentive or you're de-incentivized a little bit from shareholder value, although you have options, but everybody wants to sit on the iron throne of all seven positions. Realms versus Westeros. And this is why I have always highlighted Jeff Bukas. He sold the magazine group about two years ago before magazines went into decline.
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He sold the cable companies before the plummet and cable companies. He sold... He sold Time Warner about five years before it went into structural decline because he said, my job is to get shareholders as much money as possible, even if it means putting myself out of a job.
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I think everybody—this is my suggestion to everybody, should you decide that there's so much ridiculously insane, deprived weirdness and competence every day that we don't know where to start. Every text message I send out now, I end with, 1700 hours, cash, F-15s, coming into Yemen. Every message I'm putting in, fake military information.
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I think it's a prophylactic. I think they're so focused on shareholder value. I think a prophylactic spin of WhatsApp, Instagram, or YouTube.
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I know. Well, right. Or so is Instagram.
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I like Action Heroes 063. You know what? He looks good.
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Everything just got a little bit more expensive for every American. We were talking about corporate boards and companies. We spend a lot of time assessing the marketplace and trying to figure out when we go out and borrow money for growth, how we ensure we get the highest rating possible from these agencies whose job is to do the diligence that most investors don't have the time to do.
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Then based on the rating they give you saying, what is the likelihood of default? What is the likelihood of the risk that this entity won't be able to pay back the money? Based on the rating, it's the interest rate you have to pay to people in order for them to take the risk and loan you money.
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And if you get a good rating and you say, you know what, let's not borrow as much money, let's borrow less such that our multiple, our debt to call it EBITDA ratio is a little bit lower and we get a better credit rating and we can borrow money at a lower cost, meaning that the interest on that debt is not as big so we can make more investments in forward-leaning growth-related investments.
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And oftentimes, if you get to a point where you keep borrowing more and more money and then start borrowing money to pay the debt, which we are doing now, it causes a downward spiral where at some point you begin to look like a Donald Trump enterprise where he's done the following. I'll borrow money from anyone who's stupid enough to loan me money from my casino.
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And if it works out and all the projections hit, I can pay it back and make a lot of money. And if it doesn't work out, I'll just declare default. Okay, declaring default in the United States would be really bad for all of us. I mean, people, I can't even imagine what might happen. You might see ATM stop working.
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And so essentially what has happened here is the third and final agency of the big three has said, our ability to pay back our debt based on the reckless fiscal policy, our reckless spending and inability to raise taxes or raise revenues means that we are now a larger risk than we were just last year.
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And as a result, every American is going to have to pay more on their student loans, their credit cards, on their mortgages, and companies will likely have to pay more, meaning we will have less money to invest and grow. This is a big deal.
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Can you say puff piece? Well, let me, what was the title?
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But the deficits here, they're talking about adding $4.5 trillion to the deficits. And again, see above catering to old people in America. They're not cutting Social Security. They're not cutting Medicare for old people because even old rich people like their Medicare, they're cutting Medicaid. Supposedly about 8 million people are going to lose their Medicaid.
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So young people will have a sicker populace. They're cutting SNAP payments, which by the way, show a 2% to 7% return on investment as little kids don't grow up to have diabetes, need hip replacements and kidney dialysis. So let's cut. It's as if we're literally in a movie here. In America is Nicolas Cage and leaving Las Vegas. And he's thought,
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I'm just so fucking rabidly addicted to alcohol as American old people are too addicted to spending above their means that I'm just gonna ignore the future and I'm just gonna drink myself to death because all of my debts and all of my relationships don't matter because I'm gonna be dead soon.
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No, the title, I'm sorry. The title of the article was Kara Swisher scales her empire even more. I mean, it was like, oh my God, it's going to be that. They literally like scales her reach even more. Wow.
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This is literally how we're behaving in the United States right now because we are borrowing, according to this tax plan, $5 trillion from our kids And the chickens won't come to roost while we're still alive, but they will come to roost and our kids are going to have to pay this shit back.
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George Washington to George Bush, $7 trillion. Donald Trump, $8 trillion. And by the way, Biden continued it with $5 trillion. And now everyone, it's like that number, I think, of negative 40. Negative 40 is where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet. That is a really inhospitable bad environment. And whenever the far left and the far right meet, that means it's an inhospitable bad idea.
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The far left and the far right meet on anti-vaccine craziness, they meet on anti-Semitism, and they meet on reckless spending and tax cuts such that we can explode the deficit. This is negative 40.
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I mean, I hate the moral argument I'm gonna make. It's so cruel because now they're not talking about, I could sort of at least theoretically get on board with the following. We have to make really painful cuts. I would make them around social security. I'd make them probably around some of our military spending. I'm sympathetic to the argument of we are fiscally irresponsible.
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We are robbing from future generations. So we have to make really ugly, painful cuts. It's terrible, but it sucks to be an adult. But we're going to match every dollar cut one to one or two to one with an increase in revenues by increasing the taxes on corporations. We're going to have an alternative minimum tax on anyone saying making more than a million dollars.
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I could hold my nose and get on board with that. But all these quote unquote fiscal hawks aren't saying we need to talk about the other side of the ledger and raise revenues. What they're saying is these Medicare cuts, I'm sorry, these Medicaid cuts don't go deep enough. And I mean, this shit is really scary for some people. And it's not only immoral, it's uneconomic.
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Feral? That was kind of rough.
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Oh, yeah. You're just very chill. Yeah, that's right. You're just mushroom chocolates come to life.
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Support for the show comes from NPR's Planet Money. Tariffs, meme coins, Girl Scout cookies, what do they all have in common? Come on, it's all about the money. Economics is everywhere and in everything fueling our lives, even where we least expect it. Planet Money is here to help explain it all from the job market to the stock market to prices at the supermarket.
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The Planet Money team lives to tell a good story, and they do it all in around 30 minutes. It's econ for the rest of us. The Planet Money hosts go to great lengths to help explain the economy, things they've done in the past, shot a satellite into space, became a record label, made a comic book, and shorted the entire stock market.
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And all of it is to help you better understand the world around you. If you're curious to learn something new and exciting about economics every week, you can listen to the Planet Money podcast from NPR. I love NPR. I grew up with it. And everything they touch, they do a good job with. Tune into Planet Money every week for entertaining stories and insights about how money shapes our world.
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Stories that can't be found anywhere else. Listen now to Planet Money from NPR.
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Well, we've talked about this before. We've seen a separation between church and state where that separation began to erode. And just as important from an economic standpoint is the separation between business and state. And that is... Obama shouldn't have been picking winners. I agree with that.
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He shouldn't be deciding based on his blood sugar level or who he likes or doesn't like, he shouldn't be singling out companies because that is a form of corruption because everyone lines up to just kiss his ass. Not only that, he's a terrible business person. Do you realize that since the iPhone was launched, Apple has trained over 28 million Chinese workers on high-tech manufacturing?
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Yeah, I know most of the time it's fine.
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Also, they make about 500 bucks a month, at least an entry-level assembler in China. We're not bringing those jobs back to the US. They invest about $55 billion a year into the Chinese economy, which you could argue was the wrong investment or stupid. They've made these extraordinary investments.
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Most of the time I just ignore it. The Pivot text thing, like if I see Pivot come up, I'm like, Pivot team? I'm like, don't read it.
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If you were to bring back, which you feasibly just can't do it, but let's just say for shits and giggles, we brought back manufacturing the iPhone, to the U.S., that's a $3,500 iPhone.
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I would bet. I think Tim Cook is very savvy.
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I think what they say is, the president is right. We need to build more manufacturing in the US. We're announcing and just say, okay, the supply chain here is the most complex supply chain in history. We're going to start to build stuff that I knew what it's like to get zoning and NIMBY. It's going to take a year, dah, dah, dah, and just wait until he's out of office. Because
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To produce Apple at 50 percent of the capacity they would need in the US, A, would probably crush their market share by 50 or 60 points and probably take the most held stock in the world down 40 or 60 percent within a year if they ever really said they were going to try and do that. People can afford a 30. The market for a $1,000 iPhone is probably 5 or 8X what the market is for a $3,500 iPhone.
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It's just all these stories about the latest in Wokistan.
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That's a lot of money. And then all the stories would be, oh, that's a huge gift to the Korean company, Samsung. So that's just not going to happen. So what I bet they do is a couple of press releases about how he's right, we're going to invest more in American manufacturing.
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The real opportunity here of going to solutions, in my view, is to kiss and make up with China and to convince them to use some of their manufacturing prowess to build factories in the US, similar to the way Japanese automobile companies have built Japanese car brand plants in the US. But even then, it would have to be super high-end manufacturing to justify the cost of our labor.
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Anyways, this is a distraction. Walmart gets I think about a third of its products
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Are imported. They will just, in Walmart, if he wants to take on Walmart and Apple, I think that's crazy. And then this ridiculous notion that Scott Bassett is saying, well, Walmart is going to eat the tariffs. Walmart operates, Walmart's whole value proposition is it passes on cost savings to the consumer.
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They operate at a business of scale with very low margins, but it's got more scale than any company in the world. I think it's the biggest top line company in the world. So the notion that they can absorb these costs and not pass them on to consumers,
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It's just not I mean, OK, say they decided to do that for the benefit of consumers that takes their earnings down, which takes their share price down, which means they're hiring down, which means the wealth of American households go down, which means they make fewer investments, fewer hires, less money for bonuses. I mean, okay, that's a cost. You might argue, well, that hurts shareholders.
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Fine, you can make that argument. But folks, they've got a business to run and they will figure out a way to optimize their margins.
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He's a shitty business person. He doesn't understand economics.
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I'm involved in a company called Section, which is upskilling AI for the enterprise, trying to help companies figure out how to leverage AI. The CEO of the company, my friend Greg Shove, my whole rap is always been that AI is not going to take your job. Someone who understands AI is going to take your job. And he said, well, some of that's true, but AI is in fact taking jobs.
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I thought it looked like an ad for lesbian garanimals.
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And there's been a real kind of gag from a lot of employees. They're very suspicious of AI at the enterprise. Like, okay, are you asking me to cooperate in my own execution here? Yeah. This will be great for Microsoft's bottom line. The nitro and glycerin explosion in earnings is when you can reduce these costs, and they claim that it's more about efficiency and not cost-cutting.
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On a personal level, I don't want to call myself a victim, I started getting text messages of a video, and a few people will say that I didn't know that. Well, should I do this? I click on it, and it's a video that was running on Instagram. It was me saying, each week at my three best stock tips. Right now, I have a WhatsApp group.
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It's just like in the new garanimals section for...
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It looked pretty good on a phone. On a computer, you could tell it was AI, but it looked pretty good. And people were sending it to me saying, are you aware of this? Should I do this? So someone, a scammer had figured out a way to create an AI representation of me trying to get billed people into spending money to join a WhatsApp group where I would make quote unquote stock picks.
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We complained vociferously early and often to Meta. You can still find it, Kara.
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They don't care. It's like, oh, people are clicking on it. Yeah. These scams are, and what I don't get is they could absolutely use AI themselves to figure out this shit and take shit down.
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The young lady in your life that's decided she likes Joan Baez or I don't know, or Katie, what's her name? Melissa Etheridge. Melissa Etheridge. It's like, okay. Dockers in a colorful- Dockers?
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Yeah. To be fair, I think that's what they should do. But they should use technology to become more efficient and reinvest the capital in higher growth areas. The thing that struck me, just talking about the difference between new media, Meta, and old media, The New York Times, There's clear AI financial fraud, trying to misrepresent people and scam people. Doesn't get taken down.
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Do you know how many times that reporter from the New York Times doing the story on you called me to fact check shit?
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Oh my God. Where did you get that? You told us this number, where'd you get it? And I'd have to walk him through the math and go, okay, are you sure? Yeah, and then he'd call me back and say, but define the term profits and top of... The guy spent...
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
three or four days going line by line such that he could look anyone in the face and say, what we wrote here was as close to the truth and as accurate as we could be. Then you have Meta putting out AI representations.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Tommy Bahamas and Dockers. That's what you should request to be buried in. Seriously. And the hearse needs to be a Subaru or some lame EV. I'm already planning.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
You're just feeling affectionate because I let you use my climbing wall.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Take a picture of me on the climbing wall.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
You look like Herve Villachez, like summiting Everest for a fundraiser.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
You're Tyrion Lannister going up a mountain.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
He's the protagonist. Although I did like Jamie. I did like Jamie. He loved his sister, but he also loved Brianna Tarth. He evolved from a horrible man to a good man.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Yes, Jamie was good. Very complex.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
This was Asphalt to Motor and basically said that Nova Nordisk is a good company, but it's not an exceptionally innovative company, and they slipped and fell on a diabetes drug that also had use across GLP-1 obesity.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
But it wasn't this great innovation, and they wrote it up, and your job when you're blessed with that extraordinary luck and additional capital is to create moats, and that either through distribution or branding or preference at the doctor level, And then in the US, I forget what it's called, a bunch of drugs were given clearance sort of off-label because of the shortages.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
They're so good though.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
And I imagine the board has just said, look, you had a moment to really take advantage of what is probably a once in a career lifetime moment and create some barriers or brand equity or lock up distribution to maintain. And my guess is their margins are just getting hammered by all of these. Competitors.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Honestly, quite frankly, I think his loss is probably the world's gain, meaning that there's competition and they're not able to sustain their kind of eustress margins. I think one of the biggest unlocks for healthcare would be if GLP-1 drugs went down to $10 a month instead of $1,000 a month. Because this is, if you look at...
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
If you look at the delta between $6,500 a year per capita health spend and 13,000, a lot of it is insurance, a lot of it is complexity of billing, and a lot of it is obesity. I was happy to see this, quite frankly, because I don't want to see, if Norvo Nordisk had gone, it's been cut in half. But if it had quadrupled in the last year, that just would have meant,
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
probably additional penetration, but also that they were able to figure out ways to monopolize a market where they were charging people $1,000 a month to stay on this.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
At the end of 23, and I heard from all of these companies, I said, you do not want to be an investor in alcohol stocks, in the food industrial complex around sugary, shitty food, or in weight loss that doesn't involve GLP-1. And I had logos, including the logos of Weight Watchers. And I'm like, I don't, I...
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
I typically make stock bets going long, and in November of 23, my big recommendation was to go short all of these companies. My technology of the year of 2024 wasn't AI. I said that in 23, it was GLP-1. I think it's more revolutionary than AI, quite frankly. And while everyone's focused on AI, they're not looking at what America's economy is run on, it's addiction. And this is the biggest thing.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
This is scaffolding on our primitive instincts that haven't been updated to industrial production. And Weight Watchers was just, quite frankly, shitty technology that just shouldn't be in business. I love this. This is capitalism at work.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
This has such extraordinary potential. Who's the winner here? This is what I'm hoping. I'm hoping there's a lot of companies that make billions, but I'm hoping there aren't that many that make hundreds of billions.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Because one of the biggest detriments to society is that there aren't more industries like the airline industry or jet manufacturing or PCs, where no small number of companies are able to develop monopoly power through regulatory capture. The cost to get from Paris to New York is only $400, which is an incredible unlock for the economy and for consumers.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
And I think an incredible unlock for the health of the world and ultimately lower taxation because we end up paying for obesity in the form of Medicare, Medicaid or depression. Do you realize that people who are good looking on average make 8% more per year in compensation?
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
You get nine, right? And especially if they can climb.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Especially if they can climb. She scales her empire even bigger. And you know what? Overweight people, the industrial food complex decided it would be politically correct to tell people they're not finding diabetes, they're finding their truth and that it's okay to be obese. Do you need empathy for them? Yeah.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
But also recognize they're more likely to be depressed and get laid off and have trouble finding a mate. I would love to see, you want to talk about an unlock? Get people the money such that they can work out, get people the money such that they can eat good food, and if they start spilling over from being overweight to obesity, immediately get them affordable GLP-1 drugs.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
In 2023, the neighborhood with the greatest concentration of GLP-1 use was also the neighborhood that's the thinnest in the nation. And that's the Upper East Side, kind of ladies of lunch looking to lose the last 10. Now, good news is the latest data shows that the state of Kentucky leads the nation in GLP-1 use now.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
But if you if you shove GLP-1 drugs into red states and rural areas where people, because they don't have enough money, have to ingest their calories, they start calling themselves they them then.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Well, no, it would be a huge unlock. So this is, I just hope, I really hope that we see a world where GLP-1 drugs, where there's just massive, bloody, ugly, full body contact competition that brings the cost of these things way, way down.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was, it was a good article. You must be happy with it.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Nice. So my win is experts, and specifically, I'm obsessed with this woman. I hate to admit, I'm getting so much reward out of Instagram reels and TikTok. And I found this wonderful doctor who has a PhD in nutrition. And I apologize if I got her name wrong. Dr. Jessica Knurik, I think is how you say her name.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
And I was one of these people that really fell into this notion that kind of the government had always chosen the least expensive option and was spraying our crops with just terrible pesticides and that the food supply had been infected in America. And then I fell further into the trap because food does rot much more quickly here in the UK.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
And I thought, okay, that means they're not being sprayed with pesticides. And then into that void slipped a lot of quacks pushing supplements saying, okay, you can find this chemical that they're spraying on this stuff at Home Depot, and that's why you should buy my supplement. Or this basic thing, you can't trust exports, you can't trust the CDC, you can't trust the NIH.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
and they were using this as a vehicle to create distrust amongst institutions and also for them that's quote-unquote life hack or wellness experts to sell their despite the fact they have absolutely no um credentials and this woman um has basically she is so good and science-based and it basically debunks all of this and she acknowledges where they have some valid points and where they don't.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Yeah. But most importantly, my girlfriend said that if our podcast gets next year's Weppy, that we'll try anal. So please don't vote. Her strap-on is huge, and it really scares me. Oh, my God. Really?
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
And I just think she's fantastic.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
That's great. And she talks about, she goes into public policies that actually work. You know, expert-led campaigns at the CDC and the World Health Organization. They're responsible for multiple public health victories. The World Health Organization reports an 8 percent decrease in tobacco usage globally since 2000.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
The CDC's push for measles vaccinations has presented 57 million deaths worldwide since just 2000. And, you know, her view, I'm so in line with her. Politicians want to create policy that is more effective and more trusted by the American public. They should step aside and let scientists and health professionals lead the charge.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
And I love, she has a constant theme, which I have parroted, and that is if these folks were really serious about health, they would address income inequality. That's correct. And so anyways, I'm fascinated and I just love, I love when someone is making experts cool again, because she's an expert and she's so good and so facts-based and so reasoned.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
I'm going to try and get her, actually, I'm going to try and get her on the pod. And then what is my, what is my loss here, Kara? Oh, thanks to RFK Jr., vaccine misinformation is back in full throttle. Clips of Trump's pick for Surgeon General, Casey Means, discussing the link between autism and vaccines have surfaced.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
In addition, her claims of leaving medical residency because of disillusionment with the medical system, again, that you can't trust the deep state. Well, someone did some research and found out that's total bullshit. She left because she couldn't handle the stress. And by the way, I've dated someone who was in her residency and I saw how kind of out of control. I do think it's too stressful.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Jeff Swisher. Well, there's a certain amount of what I call hazing involved. She used to have to do 36-hour straight shifts and I'm like, On your 35th hour, you're probably not giving very good medical care, but there's a certain abused children syndrome. But that's a different talk show.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
But our old Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is exactly who you would want, talking about loneliness, talking about the impact and isolation of young men, really thinking thoughtfully about health issues. And here we have a vaccine denier who claims she left the medical profession because of quote unquote, the deep state and she became disillusioned. No, own up, stand on your own two feet.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
You couldn't hack it. And this is who we have, an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who couldn't hack her residency and has now jumped on this anti-vaccine train, which will create tremendous, an increase in death, disease, and disability.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Vaccinations, according to the World Health Organization, who of course people don't want to listen to because they actually do science, it's estimated that essential vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives. During the same period, vaccination has reduced infant deaths by, get this, 40%.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
I've been looking up lesbian jokes and I couldn't find anything, but I thought that one was pretty funny.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Before any vaccine is introduced in a country, the vaccine developed in a laboratory undergoes rigorous and stringent testing through multiple phases of clinical trials. Health authorities carefully evaluate the results of these trials to help ensure that the vaccine meets the highest safety and efficacy standards before being considered suitable for use. RFK Jr. is out there lying.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
These things are very safe, like any medicine. Sure, there's a risk in terms of side effects. They are so dwarfed by the benefits, it's almost like not even worth reporting. And they're usually very minor and in short duration, such as a sore arm or mild fever, and more serious side effects are possible, but extremely, extremely rare.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
And just a cherry on the top of fails. If this tax bill passes, it'll be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in U.S. history. We have decided to borrow $5 trillion from our kids, use it so we can go to Cabo and pay for our new Lexus. And then when we die, they have to pay it back. This is just stupid and immoral. This tax bill, the largest...
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
According to several studies, it will be the largest transfer of wealth from poor to rich, which is Latin, from young to old, because everyone calls me an ageist and like, okay, folks, who do you think the rich are? What is the average age of shareholders who own more than $2 or $3 million in shares right now? They're usually in their 60s or 70s, that this will be the largest transfer of wealth
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
I uploaded my taxes into the LLMs, my W-1s, and said, how will the Trump tax impact me? And I uploaded it to three LLMs, and one of the LLMs came back with the first two words were, good news. So the top 5% are getting a tax cut. The bottom 95 are getting a tax increase, all at the expense of future generations.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
I appreciate you saying that. I reciprocate all of those good emotions. Cara, thank you.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
I loved it. Clearly everyone was going on background, correcting each other about the deal, trying to make each other look better or worse.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Well, I'm trying to scale my business.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Oh, my God. I thought there was going to be a picture of you in my bathtub using my salts.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Like putting on my deodorant. Like, what's next? Hitting my kids?
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
I'm teasing. They like you.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Well, you know what I said? I said, I told you when we were talking about how to do this deal, I'm like, you got to start thinking like a billionaire, like the people you cover.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Did you enjoy your interview? I know you're a big fan.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie and her side engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Miss Vera, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. You know we'll be back. Why? Because someone's scaling her empire.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Yeah, it's all yours. Well, you kind of own it now. You don't want to own a boat. You want a friend with a boat. That's kind of where you are right now.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
I'm not sure. I wonder if you've been there more days this year than I have.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Anyways, congratulations on the article.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
So I'm an adolescent. When I wake up in the morning, I immediately grab my phone. And the first thing I do this morning is I open the New York Times app. And what do I see? I see this big, colorful picture of a seven-year-old boy on a climbing wall. And I look at it. And granted, I'm a little, you know, misty-eyed, the edibles, just trying to, you know, no coffee, pre-coffee, post-edibles.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Yeah. I mean, I had a bunch of thoughts about it. My first thought was, how did the president of the United States... I get scanned all the time now, and it was shocking to me that his first kind of quote-unquote diagnosis that we know of had a Gleason test of nine. I mean, and it spread to his bones.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Typically, I would have thought that he'd be getting scans all the time and getting PSA tests all the time. And I was shocked that it went so... Kind of the first... What sounds like the first recognition of it was that it was this advanced. So he's already seven years past the life expectancy of the average American man. He's had a wonderful life of service. It's a tragedy for him and his family.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Not nearly the tragedy that he has endured, losing children. But, you know, he's had an incredible life. And, you know, best wishes to him. But it does bring up some really big issues. First off, the cover-up. Yeah, it was a cover-up and guess what?
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Anyone with aging parents, we all are co-conspirators in this cover-up because your parents, their brain shrinks and they think it's insane that you take their driver's license from them. Were you kidding? I beat Trump. I'm pushing back on Russia. I passed the Infrastructure Act. Of course I can be president for another four years.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
I mean, that was a less crazy statement than a lot of the shit my dad said at 70. I mean, you're going through the same thing. Not only that, the people around you have tremendous goodwill and affection for you, and they get co-opted into believing, oh, maybe he can go another four years. There wasn't anything sinister here. There's what happens a lot. For me, this all goes to the same place.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Very good point, Scott. That is, we need age limits, folks. Biology is undefeated. It's absolutely undefeated no matter how. I was the first to come out of the closet as an ageist and say this guy was too old and Bill Maher called me an ageist and I said, I am an ageist, you know who else is?
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
You know who was also an ageist? Biology. Biology always wins. And the reality is this would have put the nation in a real pickle because you would have had a president who probably wouldn't have handed over the mantle. Say he'd been reelected, who probably wouldn't have handed over the mantle to Vice President Harris, because quite frankly, Joe Biden is a wonderful man.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
He's also a narcissist and would have made the country's leadership less robust. We need we have we have made a decision that 34 year olds don't have the experience, the cognitive abilities, the reasoning and the judgment to be president. A 74-year-old probably doesn't. Now, I'm sure there's a 100-year-old that will do the marathon and does the New York Times crossword puzzle every day.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
And I'm like, I recognize that climbing wall. And then I look and I'm like, that's my climbing wall.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
We need age limits at the upper limit.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
I would probably say 75, 70 or 75.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Well, and this is the thing. It's not only, there's so many benefits to this. One, we're about to, the Trump administration is about to pass through a ridiculous tax bill. All the goodies go to old people. Why? Because our Congress is a cross between the Golden Girls and the land of the walking dead.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
They keep voting themselves more money and great young people who understand technology and have a tendency to think more about climate change and the deficit because they're going to be around for 50 years. Do you realize in 30 years, that three-quarters of Congress is going to be dead? So this creates a lack of vested interest in forward-leaning future investments.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
In addition, you end up with a situation where I see this happen at universities where tenured faculty won't go away, creating a lack of opportunity.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
In my place in Soho. And that's my seven-year-old, specifically my co-host. That's my seven-year-old boy, specifically my co-host. And then the next, I didn't even read the article. I went down to the next picture. The next picture is you looking very professional in my studio.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
And not only that, it's the kindest thing to do because, and I'm bragging here, but I'm often times on the board, people go, he's the asshole, let him have the hard conversations. I've had two conversations with CEOs who were aging to say, it's time for you to step down.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
I've also had conversations with other directors who stepped down from the CEO of their company, and the only thing they have is that fucking board directorship where they show up for free dinner every three months and speak big thoughts, and they love saying, I'm on the board of this public company.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Here's the thing that's wonderful about term limits and age limits, is you can send people off and say, you've been amazing, here's your gold watch.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
You see why? I had one of these conversations, not with a CEO, but with a director. And he was like, he said, I remember he was very gracious about it. He said, I know this was a hard conversation. He goes, and you know what he said? He said, you know what? At the end of the day, he's like, it's time for me to go home and die. And that's how people see this is, wait, you want to send me home?
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
This is all I have.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
But she does call herself doctor. That was a mistake. She does call herself doctor.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
So to be clear, I mean, I'm not obsessed with death, but I'm looking, I think a lot about it. I have set aside money. I know where I want to die. I know the drugs. I know the people. I want to watch Apple. I want to live my life again. I've thought about the Apple Reels. I've thought about the music. That great Mexican artist, Frida. Frida Kahlo.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
I want my death to be glorious and I don't want to come back. I purposely and also I've decided at a certain age, I'm done. I'm off of social media and I'm just going to enjoy relationships and do just fun shit. Because you know what? You have an obligation at some point to make room for other people. to say, okay, it's time to give fresh voices an opportunity here.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Like, are you going to start banging my wife? Are you literally assuming my identity?
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
It's time to create some room at the top of the pyramid. There are so many outstanding young people.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
You'll have to start climbing on my climbing wall.
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Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart
Seriously. What's going on here?
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Okay, there's the markets and there's messaging. And the markets, to be fair, if you try to stay, have fidelity to the data, the markets have lost about six months of gains, but they're still up for 12 months. They're still up dramatically. And they're still, quite frankly, very expensive.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So he could be doing everything that all economists agree with, and the markets just might be letting off some steam from what are, what I would call, historic overvalued highs.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Something we've been talking about a long time, and I'm patting myself on the back here, but I said in November of 2024, we were going to see a 15-year reversal in the flows of capital out of the US into Europe and non-US markets. That reversal of the largest river of the world, and that is capital flowing into U.S. growth stocks, that has happened.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
We are seeing a reversal in capital flows out of the U.S., and this might have been the catalyst for it. But the reality is the stock markets haven't crashed. They've corrected. They have not crashed, or they've not even corrected. They've had a bad few months. Unemployment is still pretty low. Inflation is being stubborn, but we haven't seen these dramatic upticks in inflation.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
People are worried about it. It could still happen. But the talking points here are such a missed opportunity. One, we're going to continue to fund for $60 billion or 8% of our military budget. a pushback on a murderous autocracy that is good for democracy.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
We're going to continue to support democratic values, and the majority of that revenue will return to America, including the majority of which will go to red states. We are going to control the deficit. We are going to look at... Not only... not only not have a tax cut, we're going to have an alternative minimum tax for the wealthy and corporations.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So I went out and got fucked up, went into the URL and the guy next to me says, wow, he's uncircumcised. I'm like, nope, that's just the wear and tear.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Your tax rates are not going up, but we're going to make sure everybody just pays what they're supposed to pay and we're going to get responsible about the deficit. We need a massive leveling up of young people and of the middle class who should, if both people work, should have a reasonable lifestyle, we are going to raise minimum wage to $25 an hour.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
We are going to build 7 million homes, manufactured homes, which cost 30 to 50% less than a home built on site. And we are going to bring down the cost of people's housing. We have so many opportunities to say, we're the party that of getting shit done. We're the party and at the same time push back on the notion, no, we're not going to give it to a murderous autocrat.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
We're going to maintain 80-year alliances, economic alliances that bring down the cost of everything from tomatoes to lumber to cars. And we're proposing these things and let them go down in Congress. Let them be voted against. Let America say, does it make sense to have fantastic trading relationships that will bring down the cost of our products? Does it make sense
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
to have corporations and the wealthy at least pay 30% of their profits, which they are not doing right now. It doesn't make sense to not have an explosion in the deficit. Instead, we're just running around responding to everything that we think is outrageous, waiting for the rest of the public to get outraged when they're busy just trying to get by with their second and third jobs.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So the messaging here has been terrible. The Democratic Party has shown no leadership other than their shock, their outrage, and people are not more outraged. Again, and this is my call sign here, we need to be the party of ideas, not indignance.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So I got back last night from Mexico.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
But again, this was him sticking his chin out, but there's no fist of stone from the fucking Democratic Party.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I went to a wonderful wedding.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
He said he said America is not about cheaper things. That was an opportunity to go for a Democrat to say, let's be honest, America is an operating system that has created more prosperity than any country. any nation in history. And prosperity means you get to work hard and you get to live really well, which quite frankly, Mr. Bissett, that is the reason you are here.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And once you're a billionaire, fine, it's easy for you to say you're going to pay more for a flat screen TV. But there's a lot of Americans that do that do expect to be able to send their kids to college, do expect to be able to take a nice vacation, do expect to be able to buy their kids a new pair of Nikes that makes them feel good about themselves and about America.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
It was lovely. It was a mix of really meaningful. They're both really lovely people and lovely friends. Everyone was very happy. And of course, fabulous. It was like a beautiful setting, beautiful people. We had a really nice time.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So, yeah, it is about prosperity. What it's also about is an operating system to ensure that that the least fortunate among us have a certain level of dignity because they know they are protected in terms of right to choose.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
They know they are protected to ensure that a bus, even if it's funded by the government, will pick them up and take them to a decent school, see above the Department of Education. This was a huge opportunity to weigh in and say, boss, Regarding prosperity, shut the fuck up.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Yeah, easy for you to say from St. Bart's as you're shoving up diamond glass dildos up your ass. I mean, for God's sakes.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I would have tried. I would have tried. I know you would have. I was there. I was ready.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I was like... Literally, the best thing we could do is to have the CIA plant her and Chamath as Russian asset managers, and we would bankrupt the country.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
It's the power of branding. She talks about things like hash rates with her big chunky glasses and says... Send me a billion dollars and I will turn it into 220 million. But look how cool my big, chunky glasses are. And CNBC keeps bringing me on because I have a price target of $10,000 on Tesla.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And that will enable them to sell more opioid-induced constipation ads, despite the fact I have very few people. It is literally the lesson. I'm going to have a class on branding, how branding can supersede actual performance on Cathie Wood.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Support for Pivot comes from the NPR podcast Up First. Your time is too valuable to spend doom scrolling all day long. Reading terrible anxiety-inducing news all day just isn't productive. Imagine how much time you could save if you limited your news consumption to just 15 minutes a day.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Well, come on. Scott Galloway and I'm doing things embarrassing. That's redundant. I think that's part of the reason people invite me though. Yeah. You know what the best gift is? I'm being very serious. The best gift you can give anyone for their wedding, in my view, is to get a little too fucked up and have an amazing time. And I do both those things.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
You'd suddenly have the freedom to call a friend or learn to play the harmonica or just take a breath and be able to appreciate that you're not frying your nerves with more awful news. If you'd like to reclaim your attention without falling out of the loop, you might want to listen to the NPR podcast Up First.
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Up First is a daily show that covers the three most important stories of the day in just 15 minutes, so you can learn what you need to know and then move on with your day. Every episode gives you what you need to be informed about without compromising your sanity.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Episodes touch on the essential stories you need to know and cover topics including international conflict, the new administration, and so much more. I listened to a recent episode about Ukraine and I found it actually quite even-handed. If you're looking for more news and less noise, you can listen to the Up First podcast from NPR today. Support for PIVX comes from a select quote.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
That's SelectQuote.com slash pivot.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I mean, what is really, really staggering is there was an analysis done of how many deaths are going to happen this year, unnecessary deaths from things like malaria, hunger from this cut of $75 billion of USAID. And they're estimating just this year alone, there's gonna be 3 million deaths.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And people say, okay, there's some powerful memes online saying, what other nation taxes their people and sends money to us? And the answer is, okay. One of the basic tenants of a post-World War II America, starting with what is arguably the most visionary act in economic political history, is we said, okay, Germany and Japan treated us really poorly. They were our enemy.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
But this is what we're gonna do. We're going to, in an act of extraordinary vision and generosity, we're going to pay for the reconstruction of their societies. And overnight, not overnight, over a decade, we turned to formidable, unbelievable cultures that were incredibly formidable enemies into incredible allies.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I don't know if this says anything, but on my wedding invitation, it said seat filler. Everybody knows I'll get fucked up and be on the dance floor, and they know I'll bring someone hot.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And it has really held the post-World War II peace and prosperity is that these two, the kind of the number two and number three economies around the world until China were our allies. And they realized through this act of generosity, and we recognize that soft power is the hardest power in the world because you don't even know what wars don't break out.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
You don't even know what individual in an African country with a strong anti-American contingent refuses to work with them and cooperate because they think, you know what? They're actually good people. Maybe we don't agree with them.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Maybe they make bad decisions, but at the end of the day, they try to do the right things. They're trying to stop AIDS in our country. They're trying to stop hunger. They're willing to send aircraft. They're willing to send people in, put their boots on the ground when they sense there's actual genocide. That soft power for about 1% of our deficit creates margin power and goodwill
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
that affects millions of decisions made every week around whether to help, work with, want to send your best and brightest to this nation. This is like, these are investments in, for lack of a better term, brand building, where people think, I want to go to the US. I want to work with US companies.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I don't want to take an American tourist hostage or kill them because they're nice people and their memory is long and their reach is far. Let's not fuck with them. let's work with them. This withdrawal of soft power, when you look at the actual return we have gotten on this soft power is extraordinary and something like the voice of America.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I want to be clear, I believe as an educator, the Department of Education should probably be smaller than it is. Universal testing nationally was a good idea. It hasn't worked. The 500 people of the 4,000 that work for the Department of Education should probably lose their job. I'm not against reducing the size of government.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
But when you just start cutting everything, including things that are working really well and making people feel good about America and creating prosperity and margin power, And it's going to take decades to rebuild once we realize it was a bad idea to do away with it. So it's fun. Carrie Lake is a fucking distraction. That's a distraction.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
The question is, should we be spending a little bit of money to have our viewpoints transmitted in a thoughtful, well-produced way around the world?
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And we're good at it. We're good at media.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Kerry Lake is a physical embodiment of AI right now, and that is she put herself out of business. I love that she said on a campaign trail as if it was a feature, not a bug, that I'm going to be the media's worst nightmare. Well, okay, she got herself fired. She's right. She's the worst thing that happened to media, including the Voice of America, and now she's out of work.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
You know who's playing the long game right now? It's the Gulf. Al Jazeera? Or funding, you know, quote-unquote Middle Eastern studies departments slowly but surely across universities across America?
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Do you think these, what a lot of people believe, including myself, these anti-Semitic protests on campus just happened overnight? No, they took a lot of thoughtful long-term investing. Do you think that... Empathy towards whatever you want, different viewpoints out of the Gulf just happened overnight.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Al Jazeera, do you think that when my son on the way to sushi asked me, he says, dad, when did we take their land away? Do you think that opened overnight? No, the Chinese are playing, the Chinese in the Gulf are playing the long game. And we used to think about this. We used to think about, okay, how can soft power slowly but surely Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I'm going to take you there, Scott, because everyone's like, no, no, I mean, you're going to take me there at about 20 years.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Let me just give everyone a quick fly on the wall excerpt from my weekend versus your weekend. Well, what the fuck? We're in Tulum. Sure, I'll do X. That was me. And an excerpt from your week. You've always been a disappointment to me.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I'm glad it went well. That's nice.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I can break down almost every airline, good and bad. Worst airline in Europe, KLM, by the way. There's just such a range of good to bad. By the way, the best new first class is Lufthansa's first class and also the apartment from Singapore Airlines. But anyways, I think a lot about flying.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Just a quick shout out to all the single ladies out there. I am the Southwest Airlines of Men. Baggage is free. My baggage is free. Oh, no. A lot of baggage.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Daddy's bringing erectile dysfunction. Daddy is bringing self-hate. Daddy is bringing a little bit of alcohol abuse.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I heard the original title, Where Are My Testicles, that they changed.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
We share the same fail. There's always a good excuse for failure. And the Democratic Party has a total lack of leadership. I would like to see
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I think he's been fantastic. I think, you know, I wish, I'm a huge fan of, obviously, Senators Bennett and Warner. I think AOC, I appreciate, I think, Representative Crockett, is that? Mm-hmm, Crockett, Jasmine Crockett. Mm-hmm. I mean, at least they're getting out there and they're saying shit. My favorites are, I really like Representative Torres.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I just love that he comes out with moderate policies and the far left just does not have to deal with the intersectionality of a black Latino gay man saying these moderate things. I just love that he's driving everyone crazy. Governor Wes Moore, who in a State of the Union address said his administration was going to focus on the struggles of young men.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I thought that was a very brave thing to do in a blue state.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So what I would say is anyone who's willing to come out right now and say the Democratic Party lacks leadership and take an aggressive stand, against this slide into autocracy. And I will give money to you right now for your campaign. We are desperate for someone to go a little bit gangster and have a strong voice here. I think this is, we are literally the party of eunuchs right now.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
That's my favorite character in Game of Thrones is the eunuch. Is that my favorite character? That's a tough one. I like the Prince of Dorne. A bisexual who drinks a lot and kills people. That guy's so fucking hot. By the way, just so you know, people kept asking me why I was dancing around on stage with my shirt off at South by Southwest.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And what they don't realize is that we had to bargain for our South by Southwest spot. And they said, okay, but if we come to you and ask you for a favor, you have to accept. And I said, yes. And before us, I don't know if you know this, this is a true story, was the Last of Us cast. And Pedro Pascal went on stage and all the women were literally going fucking crazy.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And they said, okay, Scott, we need you to go out there and cool down the women.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Who doesn't love that guy? Who doesn't love that guy? Anyways, where the fuck were we?
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Well, you know it's 30 feet long and smells like piss. What? The line dance at a senior's home.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
We have got to find our footing here. The bad news is our leadership brightens up a room by leaving it. They are literally, they're just so ineffective. They've just acquiesced. They've basically given now the Republicans carte blanche to do whatever they want. And it's just so incredibly discouraging. The good news is we have a fantastic bench. And what I would say to this bench is,
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
is command the space you occupy. Get out there, be fearless, push back on this. What's going on here? There's an enormous void for the new generation of democratic leadership to step into. So my fail is, Senator Schumer, I think it is time for you to move on. I think you are just not up to the job, quite frankly. My win is, I think Europe is a union again. It's a $19 trillion economy.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
They are figuring out that with the resolve in the Capitol, the latter of which they have in spades, the former of which we have to decide in 1939 or 1940, my mother was sleeping and her family were sleeping in tube stations and passing out gas masks in the shape of Disney characters. The real fulcrum here is that to be fair, Russia has shown tremendous resolve.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Russia is willing to send 600 young men to their death by, quite frankly, offering money to these families in small villages in Russia. But you got to acknowledge the core competence of Russia is resolve and the willingness to sacrifice. The EU nations are a $20 trillion or $19 trillion economy. Russia is an economy that's $2 trillion that's smaller than Canada. They have the capital.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
They have better weapons. They have better IP. Their AI and drone technology will be far superior. The question is, do they have the resolve? If they do, then let Trump bluster about pretending he gets to decide the terms of this surrender. He doesn't. If Europe wants to decide to come up and fill the void of leadership and capital and resolve that the U.S.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
has abdicated from, they can absolutely, as they did in 1939, push back against a murderous autocrat. And I think we're beginning to see signs of it. I think these two meetings, one in England, one in Brussels, are showing that Starmer, Holtz, and Macron are filling that void. So I'm hopeful. My win is that the European Union is going to begin to push back and fill the void of American leadership.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
We come into and leave this world in diapers. It's true. It's true.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I also believe, and I've said this before, it could inspire a dramatic upward spiral in the economy through the technology spillover and the stimulus of increased military spending and greater coordination and cutting the red tape. And we're already seeing that in the stock market.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Well, of course I spent too much time in these private members clubs in New York and I went to Casa Cipriani and I went with some friends and we had some drinks and some carpaccio. It was lovely little pasta dinner, like nice in the corner. And the bill was 740 bucks. And I know the general manager and I came over and I said, I said, who is here? It's all young people.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And I said, who are these young kids who can afford to spend 700 bucks on drinks and a light dinner? And he said, no one here. is paying, and that is the young women here, someone else is paying for them. If you think that's sex, it's fine. It's also true. And the men, the young men, it's their parents' credit card. They're all trust fund kids. And this is an interesting thing.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
They said they're trust fund kids from New Jersey. I know a lot of trust fund kids. And to a certain extent, Europe has been a little bit of the negative externalities of being a trust fund kid, and that it is dependent upon the military and to a lesser extent, the economic umbrella of the US. And quite frankly, they have become indulgent and spoiled. And that is a harsh statement, and it is true.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And what Europe realizes now is that they're smart, they can work hard, they have incredible skills, IP, artisanship. They literally are the home of the Renaissance. They are the home of great philosophers. If they get their shit together, they cut the regulation, and they show some of the resolve, some of the grit, and some of the innovation that America and China has filled the void.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
If you look at the rise of China, it hasn't come at the expense of the US. The US still has The same GDP growth, the US still has the same number of big companies of unicorns. Who it's come at the expense of is Europe. I think a lot of this is that Europe needs to finally say, okay, we're going to become a union.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I believe this in some ways might be backs it and might take England back into the European Union. And they need to coordinate, lower the bureaucracy, lower the lack of, or what I would say, the administrative state. They need to really increase their substantial spending. And they need to say, if need be, we're going to put boots on the ground. And yeah, fine.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Trump, wave your arms, be an ass clown, fine. We're the ones that are going to decide. We're going to back Ukraine. We have seen what happens when you let a murderous autocrat run unchecked. We're not down for this anymore. We'd love your help. If it's there, great. If it's not, we're going to count on it.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Keep in mind that the Europeans substantially pushed back, pushed back viciously and victoriously on a murderous autocrat for two years before the Americans weighed into the war in 1930. There were two long years of one of the greatest industrial war machines ever the Third Reich, was invading a Europe that had stopped spending and stopped preparing and stopped coordinating.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
That's where we are now. Europe can absolutely push back on Russia.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Do you think Ezra Klein has spoken of the 92nd wine?
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Today's show was produced by Larry Naiman, Taylor Griffin, Corinne Ruff, and Kate Gallagher. Who are all these new people and who's paying for them? Ernie Andertide engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Amir Saverio, and Dan Shulan, Nishat Kurwas, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Who's going to decide not to surrender to a murderous autocrat? Two words, first E, second U.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
There's always a good excuse for failure. How did the Democratic leadership put us in a position of bad choices between bad choices and shutting down the government? I mean, Senate Leader Schumer or Minority Leader Schumer always has a good excuse for failure.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And, you know, shutting down the government. Yeah. What does that mean? Shutting down what is now an operating system for bypassing the courts and bypassing Congress? At some point, we have to be the party of not fucking around, not the reasonable party that's thoughtful and always is on the wrong end of every strategic move. We absolutely, in my view, should have said fine.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Republican states, Republicans need to see that if the government is now an operating system for your march towards autocracy, we're not down and we're shutting down the government. I don't believe Democrats would have got the blame here. I think if 58 days post whatever it is, inauguration, the government is shut down, I think the majority of it would have stuck to Trump.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I think that a lot of Republicans who voted for Trump would have been hurt and seen that, okay, this is what you voted for. And there's also, it's not binary. There was a mid-step. If they had been more coordinated, they could have probably run an effective filibuster and at least gotten some of the things they wanted. Instead, they have...
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
pass the spending deal, which essentially gives Doge and Trump carte blanche to continue to do what they're doing.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So this is – I believe that AOC is going to be the junior senator from New York in 2028. I think Senator Schumer has consistently been played by the other side. I think he is a weak leader, and I think he embodies – the absolute definition of what it means to be a Democrat or the Democratic Party right now. And that is they have not discerned the difference between being right and being effective.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
But Obamacare was popular. People wanted Obamacare. People don't want this.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Yeah, but they're, okay, they're in control.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I don't think they would, I don't think that the way this is going, they're essentially trying to shut down the government slowly and pick which parts of government they want to shut down. So I think you could absolutely say, I'm sorry, who's shutting down government? They're the ones firing everyone without any sort of congressional oversight.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
They're the ones who have decided, okay, they're not going to make... This isn't about efficiency or an audit. This is about political decisions with no constitutional oversight and... Most frightening, I know we're going to talk about this, they've now decided that the other branch of government that all of us were hoping would be the backstop, the courts, they're basically ignoring court orders.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So, okay, if the government is now an operating system and a purse for a move towards autocracy, sorry, we're just going to shut it down.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I think that Americans will vote for policies they don't agree on as long as they sense strength and resolve. And right now, the Democratic Party appears to lack all of those.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Senate Minority Leader Schumer perfectly embodies the Democratic Party. Weak, feckless, and believing that right is more important than effective. He's a terrible leader, and he embodies everything that's bad about the Democratic Party. Yeah, they got to go. A series of mealy-mouthed, weak... This is why I'm doing this. And meanwhile, oh, and I listened to that New York Times interview.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Jesus Christ, you want to talk about a weak leader? Listen to the constant excuses. I agree. And just the incredible denial. We're winning.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Our message is getting out there and it's resonating with people. And it's like, are you drunk, stupid, or both? Correct. The sad part about it is this is like watching Steve Young sit on the bench If Joe Montana had been, I don't know, I can't name a bad quarterback, we have a fantastic men's chair. We have Richie Torres. I don't agree with her politics, but I think AOC is.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And then why doesn't he? And I know we all want to like Hakeem, but quite frankly, for him to sit in the back and just act sullen, that doesn't do us any fucking good.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
In every war, there is a nonviolence movement. We should practice nonviolence. And it's like, well, okay, good luck with that. I understand it in theory, but good luck with that.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I just can't wait till I'm single again and I dress up for Halloween. I'm going to dress up as Southwest Airlines and fuck a bunch of people.
Pivot
SoftBank's Investment, ABC's Trump Settlement, and Guest Co-Host Paul Krugman
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
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SoftBank's Investment, ABC's Trump Settlement, and Guest Co-Host Paul Krugman
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
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Tariff Twists and Turns, Meta Antitrust Trial, and Blue Origin Girls' Trip
When you talk about, women are born with a much higher tolerance for pain because they have to endure childbirth. Men have much lower tolerance of pain. We're the man in this relationship. China starves tens of millions of people when they think it's good long-term for the country. Do you realize the pain threshold of America relative to China? Zero.
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Tariff Twists and Turns, Meta Antitrust Trial, and Blue Origin Girls' Trip
And we think we're going to strong-arm them into doing a decision they don't want to do?
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Look at us in the 70s when we had a much higher tolerance for pain, when we didn't have Netflix and shows on demand and couldn't get a pack of gum delivered to us within 15 minutes. We left Vietnam after we had decided we can't take anymore when we had lost 58,000 servicemen. At that point, at the Viet Cong in North Vietnam, they had lost a million people and we cried uncle.
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The calculus here is just so incredibly ignorant.
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First off, it's corruption all over the place because, okay, you give me a million bucks, you're the cult of iOS. Just kidding, the tariffs are way back there now. Ninety-eight percent of the companies in America who are dependent upon exports for their well-being are small and medium-sized business. Another CEO I spoke to this weekend, a friend of mine from my fraternity at college,
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He has a specialty products company. You know when you go to a conference and all the cups, the fleeces, the banners, the signage.
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There you go. That's a big business. He has a family-run business that he's worked at for 30 years since we got out of college. He's built probably a 10 or $12 million business, 130 employees, has put three kids through college, lived a really nice life. Slowly but surely over the last 30 years, everything's gone to China. About 80% of his products are produced out of China.
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He also has to go down to the port and sign a check for a couple million bucks, which he doesn't have to get the shit off the boat. He's told China to stop shipping everything. And he doesn't have time to figure out new rooting relationships. He's basically said, Scott, this is COVID times 10. I'm not going to get any relief.
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No one has ever described me as openly heterosexual. No one has ever said openly heterosexual podcaster.
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I don't know when this is coming to an end, and literally my business has come to a halt. At campuses, and I know this firsthand, some of the biggest organizations, companies, recruiters have said the following, we're putting a pause on interviews and hiring.
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A pause sounds benign, but when you pause hiring for three months for new grads out of college, in three months when they resume, they don't double the pace. They basically reduce hiring for a 25 or 50 percent for that year. It's not as if they decide now we're going to go crazy with hiring when we start again. You have a reduction in the number of jobs for kids coming out of college.
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You have stocks that are going to get the shit cacked out of them. You have small and medium-sized businesses that don't know what to do. You have earnings calls which are going to be an absolute shit show, and you have the threat of stagflation. All of this is the chickens coming to roost because countries don't go out of business because they're invaded.
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They go out of business because they go broke. And we have borrowed so much fucking money. We are so debt laden that we no longer have that bullet to fire.
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Definition of on-goal.
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And I'm Scott Galloway.
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I am at the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, where I just returned from getting from the Department of Motor Vehicles at Palm Beach Gardens, where my son is now a licensed driver.
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No, I ran into my friend Mehmet Oz yesterday, and he came over and he introduced me to RFK Jr. They're hanging out.
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Well, Zuck is the most disliked person in America under the age of 30. He's got a two-thirds unfavorable rating.
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He's even less popular than Musk. And think about when you're the most disliked person amongst a group of people who is literally ground zero for your product, and two-thirds of those people use your product, and yet you are the most disliked person in America. I'm hopeful. I had Jonathan Cantor on Prop G, and Jonathan said— Explain who he is.
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And he gave me the cold shoulder. I think it's because I just have him on my pod. I don't know. He was definitely like cold to me.
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He was the former head of antitrust at the, was he at the DOJ? Justice. He was at Justice, right? I said, I'm really sad that you and Lena are gone. I just don't see anything happening. And he said, he actually said, you know, you underestimate some of the people that are still there. There's still some people there that are
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pretty committed and quite frankly, sort of antitrust badasses that are gonna make a very powerful argument. I've become so cynical, Cara. I know what I want to happen. I think that they're gonna play slow ball. I mean, look at how strategic Zuckerberg is. He put Dana White on the board. He's put this, basically this Trumpite on the board. He's figured out the existential threat to my business
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isn't distribution, isn't innovation, it's political. And so I am absolutely muscling up with all sorts of contacts into the White House. And the reality is this White House can be bought. And not only can the White House be bought, so can the Democratic caucus with enough money. So I believe they have become masters at slowing these things down and letting them die a slow death. I hope I'm wrong.
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These companies have figured out a way to avoid all regulation. I don't see why this would be any different.
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RFK, no, Mehmet and I are friends. RFK, yeah, was noticeably cold to me. He's very handsome, though. I did notice that.
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Well, I mean, the baby bills are broken up. The aluminum, the sisters, the seven sisters or whatever, it does happen. And generally speaking, when we look back in economic history, there's never been a breakup that hasn't turned out well for everybody. It's one of the few things that always works or breakups.
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Four months until autism is solved? Is that what he's saying?
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The problem is to your point, we should have a much higher bar for approving mergers because quite frankly, the job of the government is to prevent a tragedy of the commons and the easiest way to do that is preventive. That is not let these companies be acquired to begin with. There's been a lot of officials in the government say, we screwed up letting Meta acquire Instagram.
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They probably should have never let Google acquire what was a DoubleClick and or YouTube.
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But so there probably needs what this says is it is very difficult to unwind a merger and force a spend. What is easier is to block. an acquisition. And I think the bar should be pretty low to block an acquisition for a company once it gets above a certain dominance in its own category.
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I think that's what the argument they make so effectively that resonates with the public is that capitalism means making more money and they should let just be capitalists in the market do its thing. What they don't realize is that The concentration of industry has led to massively higher prices, whether it's chicken, whether it's pharma, whether it's healthcare. Right.
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And think about the way I'd look at it is the hard part is some of these costs are non-economic, but for God's sakes, look at the rents and the increase in emotional prices that Meta has levied on every parent globally.
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Well, yeah, he doesn't like these guys. And it's, one, it looks as if Instagram would be worth about $100 to $200 billion right now. Now, granted, it might not have had the same level of success had it not been able to cooperate and share data. But what's interesting is within about 40 days of one another was the best and likely the worst acquisition in tech history.
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And they looked remarkably similar at the time. And the best, you would argue, maybe other than the acquisition of YouTube, but Mark Zuckerberg bought Instagram for a billion dollars. It's worth 100 to 200, if not more now. Within a month or 45 days, the worst acquisition in tech, do you remember what it is?
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Well, in addition to the additional death, disease, and disability across our populace, it's made traffic much worse for me. That's what I'm really upset about.
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I know you did. So Facebook acquires Instagram for a billion. It's worth $100 to $200 billion. Yahoo slash Marissa Mayer acquires Tumblr for $1.2 billion. And I believe about seven years later, they sold it for $3 million. Wow.
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The traffic is awful down here. But anyways, I'm at the Colony Hotel, which I affectionately call, I think there's a... whole cadre or cohort of what I call 64 hotels and service establishments.
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It's corruption. It's corruption everywhere. It's an autocrat. It's not systemic. And also, just to put a fine point on the concentration of industry, this is happening up and down Europe. industries. U.S. higher education is a cartel. There's two great universities in every city, and the people who give you accreditation such that you have access to student loans are run by the incumbents.
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My old company, L2, got acquired by a large research company that everybody hates and everybody uses. And I couldn't figure out after they acquired us the series of decisions they made. I felt like it was George Costanzo where everything I thought they should do, they did the exact opposite. I just didn't understand the decisions they were making.
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And it finally dawned on me about 18 months later, and I'm just speculating. I'm like, I think they thought, okay, we'll pay 3% of our market cap for this company because they're nipping at our heels around CMOs. And if they will squeeze them for cashflow and then we'll put them out of business. I think I'm like, I think I've just been aqua killed.
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And it's like, okay, a competitor goes away. They get some cash flow back. And quite frankly, for 2% or 3% dilution, just not having someone running around nipping at your heels, establishing a wedge in your business. Yep. And I remember thinking, why on earth are they doing nothing with us? Why are they not driving the business?
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That is because of the unprecedented prosperity that we've started to believe is a normal operating system in America and a series of fiscal and monetary policies that literally on tax policies cram all this prosperity in the top 1 percent. The fact there's a lag time, you can't build a four or five star hotel in a year, it takes 10 years. These places are over capacity.
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They've domesticated me. Domesticated me.
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Porn me with my big fucking bag of money.
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But this is what happens.
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That's right. They show up to an entrepreneur and they say, tell you what, we're going to make you rich. Just stop bothering and competing against us. Stop bothering us and stop competing.
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Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
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We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
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And so I describe them as 64. Isn't that a six-star prices with four-star service? And these places are so expensive. And I don't mind paying a lot of money if you get great service. And you do get great service at the Beverly Hills Hotel or I don't know, at the Langham in London. I mean, there's just a ton of great hotels, a great service. This is not one of them.
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Look, El Salvador was the murder capital of the world, and so this guy's very popular, but basically, he just started rounding up people who had a tattoo that said they had a gang affiliation. There's tremendous collateral damage there, and you have to decide, do you opt for rights and with some crime and inconvenience and cost, or do you go full autocrat? We said this on the last show,
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When you round up people, it takes a different complexion. This is a form of rounding up people. There are just some innocent people being rounded up. And what is just insane is these people supposedly are Christians, right? They are all very fond of holding the Bible.
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If you know that you have taken an innocent person and sent them to a hellscape, and Bill Maher summarized it perfectly, we can bring a man back from space, but we can't get someone back from El Salvador, right? Of course we could get them back. Then the weirdest moment was this weirdo Kristi Noem posing with guns after having a Sephora explode all over her face.
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It felt like a fucking Cinemax film where she was going to start having sex with all the prisoners.
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This is just a snuff film. This is weird people, And also, don't hold Bibles when you start taking people and sending them incorrectly. unjustifiably. It's like, for God's sakes, have you no sense of decency?
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No, RFK is not here. I don't want to disparage. It's a beautiful hotel in Palm Beach, by the way. It's 74 and sunny. God, it's so nice here.
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I think you summarized it perfectly. I don't understand the whole idea of roundups. Just be careful. When you tolerate this, just wait for the knock on your door. The other theme this goes to is the following. The only thing I know about these people is who's not being deported, and that is rich people.
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Well, again, in America, The whole idea of a constitution and laws is to protect the most vulnerable. The rich are protected by the law. They're not bound by it.
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And the poor are bound by the law, but not protected by it. And I can't name a person. Nobody in the top quintile of income-earning Americans or who is here illegal who has money has been taken. This is what is so mendacious, so unchristian, so un-American, such a violation of our constitution, is that the basis of your quality as a government is how the poorest and most vulnerable are treated.
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whether it's a 14-year-old who's a victim of incest or an undocumented worker. And by the way, folks, I mean, let's just go to undocumented workers as we demonize people for bumping our Q rating. A third of fast food workers are undocumented.
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You could take the top 10 fast food companies to a statistically significant sample of raids and say 22%, 25% of McDonald's or Jack in the Box workers are undocumented. We're fining you $100,000 a day per percentage. And guess what? You'd end it. Here's the dirty secret.
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Immigration is the secret sauce of America, but the most profitable part of immigration is illegal immigration because they pay social security taxes, but they don't collect social security. They pay taxes for our cops and firemen, but they don't call cops because they're worried about being deported, so we have turned a blind eye. If we wanted to stop this problem, we would find the employers.
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But we're not interested in doing that. We want to pretend that this is a runaway problem. And to be clear, it did get runaway. It got out of hand, 250,000 people crossing the border in December of 23. But folks, we have purposely ignored this problem because illegal immigrants are super fucking profitable. Yes, that's right.
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I don't know if you heard, but they called Houston and they said, Houston, we have a problem. And Houston said, what is it? And they said, well, you should know what it is.
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Actually, actually, Kara, I was hoping that we'd get to see them masturbate because I'd like to see them defile gravity. I could keep going. I could keep going. Oh, my God. Hey, look, at the end of the day. It's such a, yeah. Fine. Good for them.
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You know who a real female astronaut is? Sally Ride, a PhD in physics. PhD in physics, learned how to operate that crazy robotic arm, and as Megyn Kelly would say, openly lesbian, and spent a ton of time in space, didn't make a lot of money. I mean, Sally Ride is our astronaut.
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Yeah. Have at it. I don't resent them for it. Have at it. Have fun. Go up. Have at it.
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Oh, she wasn't? Well, I meant I was a play on. Notice how no one has ever described me as openly heterosexual. No one has ever said openly heterosexual podcaster. That was my favorite part about her attack on you. As if you're not allowed to be openly lesbian. Yeah.
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How dare you? She's openly lesbian. Openly.
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At least, good madam, you'd have the dignity to be a closeted lesbian.
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You wanna enrage a cult, take iPhones for 3,500 bucks. And then you're gonna see the largest, the most valuable company in history, an American company, lose the value of the German GDP over the course of a year. You're gonna take, push back people's retirements. Apple's gonna have to withdraw all sorts of growth plans.
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No, I was supposed to be on Friday and I had a tough time trying to figure out a way to be on with Steve Bannon. Something about the idea in a little way normalizing Nazi salutes. I don't know. Good for you. I didn't know how to thread the needle there. That's right.
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I called you and I asked your advice. I said don't go. I called you and asked your advice.
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Look, I think Bill Maher and Joe and Mika did the right thing. I think when the president calls you and says, come to the Oval Office, I think you go. And I think that him trying to show him not immediately going to the kind of polarized, this guy's a fucking idiot, and acknowledging that he's a charming guy or that maybe trying to provide some comfort that he's not
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is not as crazy as we think and he's self-aware and he listens. I think that's important. The only thing, and this might be my bias, is that someone who is so angry and aggressive, and I'm talking about the president now, against people. I've heard this about President Trump, that when he meets you, he's nice and he's charming.
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And then a few minutes later, he'll basically say vile things about you to his 200 million followers. I think someone who's nice to you to your face and then shitposts you behind your back in a way that really hurts your reputation, I think there's a word for that. Asshole. I much prefer someone, and I think you're like this, I think you're more likely, who do you want?
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It's like if you're going to be critical of someone, try to do it in a constructive way to them personally, and then speak well of them, or at least gently behind their back. I think that is the worst role model for our young people. Yeah.
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But I'm glad he did it. I think he was smart to do it. I think it's a dignified thing to do. I thought it's an impossible needle to thread because people who hate Trump are angry at him for going. They're angry at him for acknowledging the president has some positive qualities. I think it's kind of an impossible position or needle to thread for Bill.
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Mussolini was great to party with.
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And you wanna piss off every, every millennial and Gen X in the world, take their iPhones for 3,500 bucks. Apple is not gonna have any tariffs here.
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Well, I agree. We're not on his greatest train. I said this about Joe Mika. I believe this about Bill Maher. I think if the president calls you and asks you to come to the White House, you go. No, I'll go.
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But what was... And then I was not correct, right?
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Yeah, you go ahead.
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Yeah. I've heard it's great.
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I like it. I was going to do a prediction, but I'll try and reshape it as a win and a fail. The fail is what you, I'll just piggyback off what you said. Essentially, If this audit proved anything, it said there's a lot less inefficiency and waste and fraud than we thought. This is about as clean a bill of health as anyway, because they were dying to find fraud and they just didn't find very much.
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Most of their claims of fraud and savings ended up to be fraudulent themselves and that they were lies. And we predicted he would exit. He's gone. I think he's already gone. I think he's already figured out.
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Yeah, but that's proximity to power. I think Doge is basically—the curtain is closing on Doge. It just didn't work. It was a distraction. Fine. But it's not— It's not working. The reality is Americans, again, see above not willing to endure pain. They have to face a hard decision here.
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It's the hard thing about the hard things, and that is if we're serious about being a country that doesn't spend $7 trillion and take in $5 trillion in tax receipts, there's only two things you can do, folks. You either have to cut entitlements or raise taxes, and the answer is yes.
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At some point, we're going to have to figure out a way to do that or just wait till we get shoved in a corner and the people who own our debt can basically start calling the shots, which they're doing now. In a company where they get so highly levered, basically the bank owes you. This is what's happening to us. Our creditors are beginning to owe us. Doge was jazz hands.
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It didn't clean bill of health. when we decide to elect a grown-up, we're going to have to make some very hard decisions here. My win, and it's win, but this really was my prediction. You're going to see a flurry of deals. The art of the deal, the basic premise was, okay, he's a negotiator, he's bringing these people to the table.
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First off, we just need to dispel the notion this guy is a good business person. He's a rich kid that would have made more money if he'd taken all of his massive inheritance and put it into ETFs. His business career is basically a series of bankrupted companies and unpaid subcontractors. So let's just stop this nonsense that he has any fucking clue what he's doing.
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in terms of business, he has unwittingly inspired unbelievable, an unbelievable torrent, tsunami of deals, cross-border trade deals. But it won't be with us. The EU is talking to Latin America, Japan, South Korea, and China are talking. This has set off incredible incentive
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for a ton of nations around the world to start thinking about free trade zones, to become more dependent upon each other, to take the cost of reconfiguring their supply chain and excising America from the supply chain. They're thinking, how can we make up for some of that lost economic growth that this is going to cost us? I know, let's lower each other's trade barriers.
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The unwitting, unintended consequence of this is that the US is about to trade off a lot of its own prosperity and it's gonna leak to other Western nations who are talking to each other and cooperating and coordinating now. You're gonna see trade deals between Mexico and Canada. You're gonna see trade deals between the EU and China.
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The brand US has become toxic uncertainty. There are several organizations that track an uncertainty index, and that index has reached its highest level since the 80s. The level of uncertainty in the US right now, is greater than COVID. Think about that. By the way, I'm going to give you some anecdotes. I'm not going to name the people because they didn't want to be named.
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This is going to, the intended, what they claim they were going to accomplish for America, they've accomplished for everyone else but America.
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Much less lumber or gypsum drywall. You want to talk about the cost of building right now, gypsum drywall for Mexico or lumber?
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I'm interviewing Mark Carney this afternoon. What would you ask him?
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I wanted to do it for Pivot of Raging Moderates. He said he wanted to do it for Profiteer Conversations. I think he wants to talk about young men.
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Oh, that's a limited series. He called me and said, let's do four pods.
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It's alcohol. I hope it has nothing to do with our relationship. I just like to wake up with a strange man's lipstick all over my day.
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Defile gravity. Defile gravity, Katy Perry.
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Let me hear you roar, you 90s pop star wanton bitch. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.
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I think that's just an attempt to address your PTSD and pretend that Vice President Harris won the election. Yeah.
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She's very talented.
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But what I would tell our listeners is that unlike the Trump administration, my anecdotes are true. I'm not lying. Over the weekend, I talked to several CEOs. One is the CEO of a huge catalog and retail companies that does a lot of housewares. This person has, he thinks about $60 million in outdoor furniture waiting to hit the stores for summer that are on ships en route from China.
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Just FYI, I think Catherine Rampell is a total comer. I think she's going to be— Really?
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I think you're going to hear her name a lot. I think she is exceptionally talented. She's great. She had an outstanding moment on that show I think is a fucking food fight, whatever it's called. CNN, on Abby Phillips' show, yeah. And whoever the Republican is, was trying to defend.
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Whoever the Republican is, was trying to defend.
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You're Good Scott. He's trying to defend Bannon. He's like, it was a wave. And Catherine Rampell goes, give us that wave. Give us that wave. And he just sat there like someone had just been caught masturbating or defiling gravity.
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, Erin Ruff, and Kate Gallagher. Ernie Intertide engineered this episode. Jim Mackle edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Averio, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. Have a great rest of the week.
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All of a sudden, he has to figure out a way to get to the port of Long Beach when they arrive and write a check for $85 million that he wasn't expecting to write. And he has to call his CFO. And this is a publicly traded multi-billion dollar company. He's like, I can't just like find 85 million bucks.
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That's the correct question. Because the way tariffs work is the importer, the catalog, the retailer company taking delivery of outdoor furniture from China, if these products, quote unquote, cost 60 million, With 145 percent tariff, the person receiving the items, the retailer in the US, has to pay $85 million to the US government in the form of a tariff payment.
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So this individual has to come up with $85 million to get the shit off the boat, in addition.
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But he can't just let shit sit on a boat. Right. And right now, he has to plan for what the government is saying. In addition, he's got to find hundreds, if not thousands of people to go down to the port. And when the stuff comes off the boat, re-tag and re-price everything, because now the majority of retailers that order their stuff out of China,
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have it tagged and priced and attached to the actual physical item in China.
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Whatever it is. And so, in addition, he's like, okay, so I have stopped all shipments from China. I've told them, stop producing, which is going to take my inventory levels way down. And the only way I'm going to get anywhere back even is if I raise prices, which I'm going to have to do. In addition... to more expensive prices, i.e.
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inflation, my earnings call is going to be a shit show when I have to explain that, oh yeah, I wasn't expecting to pay an $85 million unexpected straight from the bottom line payment for tariffs that didn't exist seven days before. And he has to go into his office and the CFO goes, all right, if we've got to go borrow $85 million against the line, we can do it.
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But if every retailer is hitting their line, the interest costs are going to go up.
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And this is what played out last week and why this guy blinked yet again. The president has access to more information than any individual in history. Between our security apparatus, the brightest people in the world, a ton of data that's digested, distilled for him. He is the helm of the bobsled. He technically has more. insight into what is going on in the world in any individual.
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And I'm sure two pieces of data were presented to him in fairly stark terms. Consumer confidence is plummeting. Uncertainty is skyrocketing, which all adds up to a decline in spending and hiring and insecurity, which has taken the economy down. Now, traditionally, when an economy goes down, people don't want to borrow money. People don't want to invest, so interest rates come down.
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That makes people more confident and it's a self-healing mechanism. In this instance, we have a reduction in consumer spending, the economy slowing down, but the 10-year spiked 50 points. you have everything getting more expensive as the economy slows down. That's called stagflation, which is a bridge to a depression. The 10-year went up 50 bps in five days. And let's bring that down to a number.
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We have a $34 trillion deficit, meaning every basis point increase in the cost of the 10-year, if it goes from 4% to 4.1%, It's another $3.5 billion in interest payments we have to make on our national debt. I'm not even talking about the incremental cost to consumers of their student loans, their mortgages, and their credit cards. I'm just talking about the interest on the debt we have to pay.
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So when it spikes 50 basis points, right, on $3.5 billion per basis point in incremental interest expense, all of a sudden, in a few days, America has to come up with another $175 billion in interest payments, to foreign creditors. Our entire Veterans Affairs budget is $300 billion.
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So they have figured out a way to reduce the economy, to send the economy into what looks like a low-grade coma while interest rates are going up. This is the worst of all worlds.
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So I never miss a chance to boast. The CEO of one of the most iconic German automobile manufacturers is reached out and said, we'd love to host you and come have you speak to the management team of the board. And I was trying to arrange dates. And then he called me and he said, can I ask you something? I said, of course. He goes, what would you do if you were us, given what's going on in the US?
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And Cara, as a guy who is always willing to run other people's lives and tell them what they should do, I'm like, I have no fucking idea. I have no idea what to do here other than, and I hate to say this because I love America, other than figure out a series of partners that are more reliable. And I said, oh, we're doing that. And going to that notion around, let's talk about China now.
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China since COVID or since 2019 has reduced its percentage of its total exports to the US from 24 to 17%. we have reduced ours by 4 percent. So we're both diversifying away from each other. They have diversified at nearly double the clip we have. The basic premise is that we can hurt them more than they can hurt us, so they will cry uncle. So let's assume
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We could hurt them more than they could hurt us. That is a pretty shaky thesis because while the administration wants you to believe that we're the only customer at the country club and they have to be nice to us.
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The number one trading partner with China is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, at $1 trillion. Who's number two? The EU at $900 billion. We're number three.
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So yeah, we have a lot of power. But if they wanted to, and you want to talk about restraint, If they wanted to go into the market and take the tenure from 450 to 550 and create inflation while the economy is going down, they could do that. But what they realize is that if they really hurt and kneecap their third biggest customer, it would be bad for them as well. They are not stupid.
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In addition, let's discount all of that. And let's take the administration at its word that Howard Luttnick, that we're the biggest consumer and they would be fucked without us. China has its own troubles. Here's the issue or the piece of calculus they are missing. When Americans find, when they're watching the Logan Paul, Mike Tyson fight,
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and it starts, the bandwidth slows down, they go fucking apeshit and they call their cable company.
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I think he recognizes it doesn't matter why you're in the news as long as you're in the news. He's picked the highest profile person in the world and is going after him. I'm just here for it. It's like the Tyson-Jake Paul fight if Tyson had been 20 years younger. I think it's going to be a great battle and really interesting. At the end of the day, I just think Elon Musk wins here.
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I think that he has such adulation, idolatry, and he has more money than Bannon. I think that generally speaking in a capitalist society that's gone full oligarch, full kleptocracy, The good money in a political campaign on an issue is just who has the most money. And Musk has more money and he'll start weaponizing Twitter and his 220 million followers against Bannon. What are your thoughts?
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I love those stereotypes.
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Well, J.D. Vance, I mean, come on.
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Yeah, I remember my best friend, not my best friend, but a close friend of mine when I was young, he was married and for important events, he used to show up with his mistress.
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Yeah, he used to bring his mistress to important events with his wife.
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And that's how J.D. Vance must feel right now. I mean, J.D. Vance is, for all intents and purposes, not the vice president, Elon Musk is.
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And he must think, fuck, I had to go debate And I had to put up with all these people, you know, and this guy's now vice president.
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I heard you set up some people and like all good lesbians on their first date that came over. No.
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Yeah. So I would imagine that.
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I would imagine that J.D. Vance, when he sees Bannon, is high-fiving him.
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Didn't Elon Musk call you truly evil?
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A heart seething with hate.
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That's that smell around my apartment. It's hard. It's smoldering. It's smoldering cardiac organs here.
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Hugged and cried for three hours and then decided to never see each other again.
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There used to be, it seems like the time to blame has gotten shorter and shorter. And I thought the most repugnant one was, and there's been more repugnant statements, but Greg Gutfield on The Five and Jess Tarloff got back in his face called the head of the fire department a DEI hire. And then Musk weighed in and said, DEI equals die.
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The only thing that this fire captain would say about DEI or indicate is this woman is so infinitely qualified that the question is, why did it take so long for someone like that to ascend to a position of power?
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And to immediately kind of politicize this and to force the governor to have to put up a website and take time away from actually saving property and lives, to create a site to dispel and push back on misinformation in the midst of this crisis.
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And the mayor deservedly or not, she's out. It just was really unfortunate timing for her to be in Ghana. And she didn't handle herself well, she's out. But the governor and the people there, I think 13,000 firefighters, something unbelievable.
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And I always feel like we're outgunned because on the left, there's been some people saying, well, it's clearly climate change, but they've been a little bit more measured because they're like, we don't know. And The thing about L.A. is like, OK, so we don't know. We're more measured. And the right just goes fucking crazy and dominates the media cycle with saying DEI is die.
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Look, California actually has a really robust, well-invested, well-resourced fire response apparatus, probably the strongest in the nation. They're not stupid, but I mean, unfortunately, this problem is very nuanced. Los Angeles is I mean, to a certain extent, Los Angeles is an accident and a crazy idea that shouldn't have happened. There's earthquakes there. There's massive droughts there.
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In Portugal, there's this canyon that is off the coast, and it's famous because of all the incredible surfers who ride the biggest wave in history. It's called Nazaré, where the ocean turns into this canyon and then pops up into kind of a weird cliffs on both sides chute. So when this tide comes in, It creates these unprecedented water masses that result in 100-foot waves.
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In LA, you have, quite frankly, this inhospitable environment with a ton of people living in a desert beneath this very strange anomaly where there's a lot of high-pressure and low-pressure systems
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And when they align just correctly, the high pressure winds go chasing the low pressure, creating a windstorm that gets shot through a narrow, a narrow craters of passages in form of the mountains and basically creates the mother of all hot air dryers on high. On high with drought. Shooting a 60 or an 80 mile an hour hot wind over the city. So literally a match can fly hundreds of yards.
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I did some research here and I thought, okay, is this the straw that breaks the camel's back in people? My friend who lost his home in the Palisades has said he got the check the next day and he's done. He's like, he's not going to rebuild. However, the data shows that most people stay because here's the thing about LA. It's fucking magical.
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You get up in February and it's 62 degrees and dry with a light breeze and you think, oh, it's a Saturday, maybe we'll go to Zuma Beach. Oh, I know, I'm gonna go see the LA Philharmonic play Pink Floyd songs at the Hollywood Bowl. I know, I'm gonna go see a movie premiere in Century City. I know, I'm gonna have an Uber driver that's ridiculously fucking hot because he just got a callback
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for season four of Fallout. I mean, the collision of Mexican culture, the entertainment industry, the weather.
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It's funny you said that. I've always said the same thing. Photos and my computer. That's it. I don't know what else. I'm actually pretty healthy that way. I'm not very attracted or attached to things. I'd want photos. I'd want my computer just for practical reasons. But there's nothing in my life, as evidenced by the fact, I'm not exaggerating, twice a year I throw up. Your dogs, obviously.
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Yeah, obviously get the hounds out. But what I've been doing is I've been calling, I want to move to a couple of things around solutions. I mean, one of the things that we're going to have the opportunity to rethink is quite frankly, a lot of these homes are tinderboxes. On the East Coast, we build with cement or we build with different materials.
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They build with wood and other things that quite frankly are just probably don't make sense. the insurance industry and the relationship between insurance and home value.
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Yeah, I had a speaking gig in Boca. So I went down to South Beach and stayed at the Faina. And I went out with my friend Pablo Doritos to this hot new restaurant called Sparrow Italia. I had a Kara Swisher moment. People came up and were really nice to me. And I was a little fucked up. So I really enjoyed it.
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Well, okay. So you've heard my rant on insurance. I think insurance is a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. So if you're wealthy and you can absorb a hit, I have a bunch of rental properties in Florida. I don't insure them because I could afford to lose them.
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Now, what's happened in California is the insurance companies, which are private companies, and their job is to return profits to their shareholders, did the math. They're very smart. Basically, an insurance company does nothing but try and predict the future. And now with AI, I think they can predict it and calibrate it to a much greater confidence interval.
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And about two, three years ago, they said, this makes no fucking sense. This place is a tinderbox. And California... and you could argue this is over-regulation, has put in place in certain areas with certain types of insurance, price caps, saying you can't escalate faster than this. So the insurance company said, okay, girlfriend, we're out.
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And you had a massive number, like hundreds of thousands of homes that got a letter saying, we've canceled your insurance. This no longer makes any sense for us on a risk adjusted basis, given you live in a high propensity fire zone, so we're out. So California had to institute a program where they would back certain insurance policies.
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Now, effectively what that is, it's a transfer of wealth from California taxpayers to homeowners. Because as someone who lives near the beach in Florida and is subject to climate change, whatever you want to call it, The reality is I should either pay for those risks or I should move, or my home prices should go down.
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And so there isn't, you know, when things change, I'm not sure you have a birthright to live in a certain city. This is gonna inspire a very interesting conversation around property values, the rights to live somewhere and insurance and climate change and risk. I'm actually quite hopeful. And let me just go back to patting our government officials on the back.
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I would imagine in L.A. County, I don't know how many traffic deaths there are every weekend, but my point is... Incredible so many people didn't die. I mean, that's a tragedy for those families. That is remarkable. The government's job is to save people and property in a crisis like that in this order.
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I actually like people when I'm drunk.
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So the primary objective when you have a natural disaster like this is to save people's lives and they get an A fucking plus here. Not that many people lost their lives.
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No, people generally say the following. They say to me, oh, we like Kara more, but we like you. And people always say the same thing. Always say the same thing to me.
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But it moves to solutions, and this is an opportunity for virtue signaling, my favorite thing. Stephen Leder said something, Rabbi Stephen Leder said something that really hit hard to me. He said, "'Calling people and asking if you can help is not helpful.'" Because people who are in this state don't wanna be victims. They don't wanna think about how you can help me.
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You don't call and ask how to help, you just help. And one of the things I've really struggled with, and it struck me this time, is I was really curious if UCLA was being affected. And I typed in UCLA evacuation question mark. And the first thing that came up from the fucking Google algorithm was this TikTok from some sophomore there calling UCLA the University of California that doesn't care.
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And I'm like, that's my news on UCLA? Some 19-year-old in his dorm room doing an angry TikTok? So I've been using News Not Noise, Jessica Yellen, who I find is pretty measured. I've been looking at, I've been following Anderson Cooper, who I think does his best job.
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But I gotta be honest, I'm having trouble. I'm just skeptical and distrusting of everything I see. So I'm moving to action. I like Jessica Yellen. She needs more resources. I like News Not Always. It's a hundred bucks. I went and bought 50 subscriptions. I am the biggest GoFundMe slut in the world right now.
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And I realize I'm virtue signaling, but I also believe that many administrators and nonprofits are nothing but attempts to get bored people jobs and tax money getting to people.
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I really do register it as a compliment. People always say, I'm not exaggerating, probably a third to 50% of the time, I don't always agree with what you say, but you make me think. And I'm like, thank you. That's the point.
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Oh, that's nice. So more importantly, what does a lesbian bring to a second date?
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Oh, that's good. You got that.
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Let's go with your bad gay jokes.
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What does a gay man bring to a second date?
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Wait, there's a second date?
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All right. So back to me and my weekend. I went to Houston for a hot minute to speak and I busted into my rep. Unfortunately, the timing wasn't very good there. At the end, they asked me about young men and I got all emotional and I said that
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First off, anyone who's seen Mark Zuckerberg's new wardrobe realize he's not bringing masculine energy. He's bringing Chechen Molly dealer energy.
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Yeah, and that's the best description of his look and feel. For the most part, I think masculinity and femininity are wonderful things. They're societal constructs that can help be great guideposts and aspirational behaviors for both men and women, not sequestered to either sex. But I'm not sure that it plays a role. I don't think companies should be gendered.
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I don't think it's a productive conversation.
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Sorry. Here's on a very basic level. Masculinity means you're a protector, a provider, and a procreator in my view. Let's just go to protection. You add surplus value. You register complaints. You give notice to people's lives. You attempt to help people more than the help you're getting without credit. You're willing to take risks. You're willing to be aggressive.
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Your operating system, your default system is that you protect people. And right now, Mark Zuckerberg, the most favorable thing you could say about him is he's bringing kind of pragmatic billionaire energy to his company.
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He's being very pragmatic around kissing the ass of Donald Trump, figuring out a way to spin moderationist censorship so he can get rid of it, take $5 billion that he was spending on moderation, put it all to the bottom line, which will increase his net worth by $15 to $20 billion, It has nothing to do with masculinity or femininity.
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Masculine energy, if you want to see masculine energy, look at the aerial firefighters who are former military, former civilian pilots or civilian pilots. They get in retrofitted DC-10s. They risk their lives. They bring incredible skill, risk, aggressiveness in the service of others.
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men need to get involved in young men's life, and that Michael Jackson and the Catholic Church have fucked it up for all of us and created suspicion around men getting involved. And this is a Texas audience, so the whole audience went. And then, unfortunately, a programming note, up next was the young boys' choir. And it was just like, oh, God, that didn't go well.
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Without the expectation of economic gain or recognition. We don't know who these guys are.
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Well, it's probably a lot of women. I'm going to go out on a limb here. It's probably a lot of women handling a lot of the infrastructure and navigation.
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I bet it's 98% plus male pilots, because here's the bottom line. The majority of men... The majority of aerial flight training in the military has been sequestered to men, unfairly or fairly. Probably true. And quite frankly, and I'll go out on a limb here, such a Twitter can get mad at me, men are more risk-aggressive.
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And in military situations, that masculine energy, that big-dick energy really pays off because men are more risk-aggressive.
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The base, you can't have true, in my opinion, masculine energy without having a great deal of femininity surrounding yourself. I thought Wallace's best line in the debate was his advice to young men was to surround yourself with smart women and listen to them. Because the things that make up masculinity, surplus value, you create more tax revenue than you absorb.
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You listen to people complain more than you complain. You're in amazing fucking physical shape. Why? so you can protect people. It all stems from wanting to protect people in your life. And also, the thing that complements it, the thing that makes it true masculinity is being surrounded by smart people who create nuance, who create concern, who create care, and who create nurturing, usually women.
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The most masculine men in the world had very strong feminine influence. The most masculine men in the world have really wonderful relationships with their mother.
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It's the first person They decide they would put themselves in harm's way to protect.
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I killed a man. When you're an ass man, if you approach a bear, you're just like, make sure it doesn't have cubs around it.
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I mean, it was just the wrong moment to talk about pedophilia.
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I have less sympathy for the employees because get another fucking job. All right. Okay. If you're that outraged, if you really feel you're working for a company that is targeting you based on your gender or sexual orientation and you are probably one of the most skilled employable people in the world, stop your fucking virtue signaling and go get another job.
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Well, we know why they're doing it. This is a guy who would fuck his mother for a nickel. Oh, wow. This is pretty, okay, when I needed to be in the good graces of the Trump and the Biden administration and not have any regulation, I announced a moderating team, a moderation, billions of investment in moderation.
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And then when the new Trump administration comes in and is very much says, calls moderation censorship, And I need to kiss his ass. I put his friend on the board and I start calling moderation censorship. Mark Zuckerberg, I'll give it to him for this. He is totally predictable. He is all about shareholder value. And quite frankly, and I hate to say this, he's doing his job. We're not doing ours.
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Oh, I can also tell you here, there's a lesbian's favorite chocolate in the freezer.
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To have some semblance of a democracy that is based on information, that has fact-checking, that pursues truth without favor, instead of allowing monopolies to develop such that two-thirds of our information comes from a misinformation lollapalooza. One of the core tenets of America is you get to love who you want to love. You get to live the life you want to lead.
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Does that mean we should have people born as males in girls sports? I don't think so. But does it mean you should have a media platform where two thirds of America get their news, be able to disparage them and create conspiracy theory that puts them in physical harm? That's about as anti-masculine, much less anti-American as you can imagine.
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Klondike's. That's good. That's good. It's so bad, it's good. And I think you know what I mean.
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So I can predict everything Mark Zuckerberg's going to do. What gets the share price from $712 to $712.01? And the reason we have an operating system called capitalism is such that there are individuals that are like that, full body contact, lie, cheat to get more shareholder value. We actually need some of that.
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What we also need is a regulatory body that says, no, you can't pour mercury into the river to get a cost advantage. And no, you can't spread hate, even though it's a fantastic business model. So I don't even fault Zuckerberg. Yeah, I don't like the man. I think he's a terrible role model for young people. But we're the ones at fault here.
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We have let this monster evolve in our midst because it makes a lot of money and because the Senate minority leader, Charles Schumer's daughter, used to work at Meta and because they probably help us track down and kill spies.
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and because they create a ton of money for shareholders, and because they weaponize femininity in the form of Sheryl Sandberg to pretend she gives a flying fuck about gender in the workplace such that they think, oh, they're such nice people, and they just need to do better, and they're proud of their progress.
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I think you know what I mean.
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You can't have capitalism unless there is an operating system that keeps this in check and taxes people such that we can reinvest in the greatest innovation in history, in the middle class, and control the emissions and control the pesticides.
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Oh, feel free. Throw out anything you want.
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Should the first executive action of President Biden be around trans athletes and wait three years for any policy on immigration? No. The Democrats have invited this bullshit of being hyper-focused on niche issues that don't affect that many people instead of just saying we have laws to protect them or we're going to force the laws.
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Take charge of my life. I don't mind.
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At the same time, the far right deciding to find this small group of people and demonize them and terrorize them? I mean, one is stupid. What the far left has done has been tone deaf and politically stupid. What the far right has done is just inhuman. It's just not, you don't treat people that way.
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I think there's still people. There are. There's Marc Benioff. Brian Chesky is offering places for people to stay.
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I don't think it's most of them.
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And I don't even think Bezos has embraced conspiracy theory. What I just don't get, I just don't get, is I have 1%, 0.1% of the wealth of these guys, and I have enough money that I can live an amazing life and try and finally, after 45 years of being an uber-capitalist and focusing on three things, me, me, and fucking me, I can start actually being a real man.
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When people make doctor's appointments for me or plan my, take over my life.
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Where are the men here? Why would you aggregate $110 billion if you couldn't say, no, I'm not going to give money to your inaugural campaign? You want to put me in jail?
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You want me to let unfettered hate on my platform? No, I don't do that. I protect people. I have a pair of fucking testicles. I protect people.
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Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
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We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
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It's so funny, my son will not let me spend money on clothes for him, but I love purging clothes. And no joke was pushing about two thirds of my clothes out and I left them. And all of a sudden my son started showing up in Brunello Cucinelli, like odd colors that I don't like. And he looks so good, and it's such a nice moment.
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Sure, I'll go first. I just have a win. My win is the aerial firefighters. These pilots risk their lives flying at low altitudes in smoky, turbulent conditions, often in mountainous terrain to help protect communities and natural resources. Their work, Kara, is both highly skilled and incredibly dangerous. You want to talk about masculine energy?
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Incredibly skilled, highly dangerous work in the service of others without any expectation of recognition. They have air tankers, retrofitted DC-10s. I love those converted airliners. I used to go look at those. at LAX with my father when I was a kid. C-130 Hercules, Bombardier CL-415s, which are amphibious water scoopers. Those things are beautiful the way they- Aren't they?
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They hover, they skim across the water. Helicopter pilots in the Sikorsky S-70 Firehawks or Bell 212s. Where there probably are more female pilots is in the spotter and lead planes that help identify and spot the exact location for the retardants to be expectorated.
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The wildfire operations coordinators, there's a ton of people figuring out how to make this successful and load the retardants and use AI and an incredibly complex navigation system. Can you imagine how dangerous it is to have all of these aircraft in and around LA flying at 200 miles an hour. It's amazing they haven't hit each other. Most of them have a military background.
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Many aerial firefighter pilots are former military aviators, particularly from the Air Force or Navy, given their experience with large aircraft and challenging conditions. A lot have civilian experience. Others come from civilian aviation backgrounds with additional specialized training. and low-altitude, high-stress flight operations.
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My son is now wearing my clothes, and granted, they look baggy on him, but it's such a nice moment. I'm really enjoying it.
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And then they require specific certification. The pilots must meet strict Federal Aviation Administration or the FAA or equivalent regulatory standards and complete training for water, retardant drops, fire behavior, emergency maneuvers. Yep, they test and test and test.
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And I'm telling you, my prediction, I'll go to a prediction, the Pacific Palisades in five years is going to be one of the nicest neighborhoods in America. When they rebuild, I mean, A, it's a gorgeous, I used to go to Palisades High School when I was at uni for basketball games. The Palisades is spectacular.
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And when you have the ability, this is an opportunity for Los Angeles to not only rethink what happened here.
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Anyways, my win are the aerial, the brave aerial firefighters and the support staff. They are really doing just outstanding work. And it's also, it's just such a, when you think about what is great about our species, our ability to cooperate, our technology, and in the face of all that technology and prosperity, there are a lot of people who still decide to take very aggressive risks.
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They could use that certification, to fly 787s between here and New York and make a good living and instead they get in a fucking plane and hover at 240 miles an hour at an altitude of 10 feet, expectorate this shit in an exact area and then pull up with about a one second margin of error. And nobody even meets these people. No one has any idea. Anyways, that's my win.
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By the way, that is masculine energy.
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And I always feel as if I need an asterisk here. A lot of men, including myself and my closest friends, demonstrate wonderful femininity, nurturing, more thoughtful, more measured, more protected. And a lot of women demonstrate fantastic masculine energy. The only kind of caveat I would put to what you're saying is there are a lot of billionaires in LA and in tech
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who are trying to do the right thing. Right away, Brian Chesky came out with a program that said, if you need a place to live, go on our platform or a place to stay and we're going to help you.
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It's the opportunists. And opportunists go up and down the income stack. But when you start saying DEI is a die or asking the governor to resign because he's a threat to your vice president in 2028 and creating conspiracy theory and letting conspiracy run, A mock. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to weaponize or take over your fail.
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The indignant podcast. Jesus Christ.
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That's an easy one. It's the woman who stayed here all weekend. It was the squatter here. Literally. I see brood aftershave and like armpit hair everywhere in my bathroom right now.
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Today's show is produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Margus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Intertide engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Severio, and Dan Shulon. Nishat Kerwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. My big unlock this week. was recognizing calling and asking if you can help is not the right thing to do. It's just helping, just doing it. Send money. Here's the picture of the room that I want you to come stay at, out of harm's way. I am taking your kids.
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Drop off food. Don't ask to help, just help.
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It's definitely, they're definitely not getting a hall pass here. Something's going to happen. It's just a question of what, whether they've fully uphold the divestiture. In my opinion, a warning label is almost ridiculous. It's like those things that ask you if you accept cookies or whatever. I just don't, I don't think that's going to happen.
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I wonder if there's some kind of back dealings around some sort of investment or governance. or American investors invest just enough such that there's enough governance that would satisfy the White House. There's been some conjecture that Trump wouldn't necessarily need to enforce it.
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That's the secret sauce, yeah. The data that I ran across that kind of gave me a different view on this, or I don't know, enhanced my view, is that, so TikTok has 170 million American users. That's staggering, right? And the people not using it don't matter in the sense that it's probably seniors or people without phones that just don't buy shit. Advertisers don't care about those people.
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But the thing that was also equally surprising is what percentage of TikTok's global revenue would you guess is generated in the U.S.?
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It's very good. You have very good instincts. It's one-fifth. I would have guessed it was like 30% to 50%. It's 20%. So while that is significant, I'm not sure. I think their attitude is, yeah, we love this market.
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It may be our biggest market, but we're fine without it because TikTok is growing 23% a year, meaning if they lose it, and they won't lose all of it because young people will find workarounds. I mean, try and Try and take TikTok off your kid's phone and then find out how many ways there is to get TikTok without you knowing it.
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VPN, all kinds of shit, right?
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Yeah, and I wonder if there's gonna be, I think there's gonna be a lot of unintended consequences here if it gets banned. For example, just as there's ghost guns to try and evade any sort of regulatory enforcement, I wouldn't be surprised if we see the emergence of some sort of like ghost dumb phones that just are single purpose to access TikTok.
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I have seen some kids that are, I mean, if you won't give them opiates via OxyContin through your doctor, they hit the street and they find it. I really do think, I don't think I'm going to be an extremist here. I think TikTok has some opiate like heroin like attributes.
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I told you, I'm already planning out my death. I'm going to play those Apple memories. I'm going to have Tom Petty. I'm doing it in my home in Delray on the beach. I'm going to have a very curated group of people come visit me. Breath work. And I'm going to just ramp up the opium and I'm going to live my life again, except under the influence of heroin. It's going to be wonderful.
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I'm really excited about it.
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I want my exit to be glorious and I don't want to come back.
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That's so traumatizing.
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That's so traumatizing.
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It was a really good conversation, though. It was really – these are – regardless of what you think about their politics, with the exception of – Thomas and maybe a little Lito because he's so fucking weird. These are very intelligent people. It made me actually feel pretty good to be American to listen to the discourse.
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You mean ex-con, Steve Bannon?
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If they're both on Air Force One, we get to call it Con Air One.
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Kiel and Sachs are from South Africa?
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What, they were born there? Those guys have been there for a while.
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I was just in South Africa, and it did not strike me as the most racist place on Earth.
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Well, this is like when Iran and Iraq were at war. I was praying for the bullets. Yeah. Oh my God, that's funny. Yeah, wrong, but funny. I think it's fantastic. I wanna funnel ammunition to whatever side is losing in the short run and just keep that conflict going as long as possible. I think Steve Bannon is in many ways I mean, here's the problem.
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Oh, that's why Riverdale was playing on loop. I love those stereotypes.
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I don't think Elon Musk is as fucked up in the head as Steve Bannon, but Elon Musk is more powerful. So I think this is Steve Bannon trying to be relevant. And he sees, he recognizes, my understanding of people who know Steve Bannon say the guy is brilliant. I would agree. say that he's one of the most well-read people that they have ever met. Not a dummy.
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And America has taken for granted just how powerful having the dollar as the reserve currency, having these inflows of capital, having people feel decent goodwill about us. And he's torn those up such that we can go to 30% temporary tariffs.
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America is meant to be a platform for rights, to protect our shores, and for stuff. Americans love their stuff. And so a 30% tariff is enough to kind of get trade unclogged again. But it'll be essentially the percent of exports the U.S. will go probably from 17 down to 15 or 12. And then the next time we try to do it. A, our products are going to get more expensive.
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If you were to give someone a Christmas tree, every business and all the shit they order from China, it'll make the cost of doing business more expensive. And it's done huge damage to our reputation. It's just, we're no longer seen as a reliable trading partner.
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I think actually, interesting enough, a big winner is Europe, who's going to find a lot of, they're going to be able to negotiate, get a lot of products on sale as China tries to keep these factories humming and
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Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
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Well, again, I go to the brand. Do you know how stupid this makes us look, that we have to have rich Qataris buy the president a plane that's manufactured here? We're the most prosperous nation in the world, but we need a government, an authoritarian government that sponsors the Houthis and Hamas to give us a plane. Yeah, that's right.
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So I have a group of friends from college, mostly Jews, who are pro-Trump. They kind of hold their nose around the man and his policies, but they found that Biden and Harris's wavering around Israel was really disappointing. And so they're, quite frankly, they're pro-Trump or they voted for Trump because they see him as more resolute on Israel.
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Qatar basically is the diplomatic mouthpiece and funds Hamas. The notion that the Trump administration gave a flying fuck about anti-Semitism as they try and implement thought control across our universities, and is meanwhile saying that Middle East policy is now pay for play, that he's now the ultimate frequent.
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There's now a new frequent flyer category for Qatar Airlines, and the president is the only person on it. In exchange, they're going to have leverage over a guy who claims to be focused on anti-Semitism. I find that Jews in America that support Trump, are kind of like, okay, yeah, there's like the white Christian nationals, the evangelicals, are really fond of Jews in Israel.
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I think she's very fashionable. She is.
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But if you actually do a little bit of digging, the reason they're fond of Jews is a little bit unsettling. They think we're part of their master plan when Jesus comes back. It's like, okay, just dig a little deep on what their plan is for us and why they're like us. End times.
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Huh. I thought that was going to be funnier. How is Dr. Swisher?
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Wow, I can totally see that. What does his son do in Portland?
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Good for him, at the University of Oregon?
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I'm not exaggerating when your son took me and my son to work and we asked him to lunch when we were touring the University of Michigan. We asked him what he was doing over the summer, and he looked around as if there were spies about to take notes. And I'm like, Alex, you're not that important. Yes, he is. You're not that important.
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Okay. What is it? He's going into his sophomore year. He's literally like, okay. He's like, you can't tell anyone about this. All right.
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Well, yeah, you love him like a son.
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No, I'm glad he's on our side.
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No, he's going to be my bodyguard and also figure out what technology keeps me alive to 200.
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Yeah, he's got that kind of crazy smart gene.
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Look, I think she's been a great representative. I think she's a powerful, smart woman. I also think she engages in wild corruption.
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I think he's the pope because of Donald Trump. I think that if you look at the new leaders of Australia or the existing leaders of Australia and Canada, basically Trump got them elected. And he got them elected because their opponents were more closely associated with Trump. So Trump is basically anyone who's not Trump or Trump.
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We'll get to that, but the slow creep has not helped.
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represents a pushback on his policies is ascending to the most powerful positions in the world. I think that's what happened here. I think the papacy takes very seriously how they can have the most impact. And if you look at when the Eastern Bloc was really going through a difficult time, they decided to pick someone from the Eastern Bloc. They picked Pope John Paul II from Poland.
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I think they see there's a relevance and a means of adding value by saying, when a place is struggling, we pick someone from there in hopes that they serve as a moral standard bearer. My father-in-law absolutely adores Pope John Paul II. He's born and raised in Poland. And I think that it's no accident that they've decided that America needs a pope, that they need somebody.
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I mean, the best line that identifies or marks this very dark moment in American history is what Bill Gates said, and that is that the richest man in the world is killing the world's poorest children.
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And I thought, Jesus Christ, that's puncturing and sad. And that kind of identifies our mega politics right now. And I think that the Cardinals who elect, I think they decided that America is in desperate need of a moral standard bearer and the world needs someone that America will take seriously. And I was thinking so much about like, how did my generation fuck up so bad?
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And I was thinking, and for me, it all comes back to a personal parable.
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Well, my youngest, he's got the most wonderful grandparents. His wife's parents, correct? Yeah. My grandparents spent on average age expectancy. You know how everyone says I'm going to live forever? None of my grandparents made it past 50.
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Anyways, he's just the most wonderful man. Took over the family room to build a train set for the boys. And he's always with my youngest built these Legos. And this time he came over, my youngest is 14 and into girls and snap and fashion and football. And they built about half of it. And then he said, Zsa Zsa, I don't wanna do this. I don't feel like it. He wasn't enjoying it that much.
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And I could tell it was very upsetting. It's like one of those moments when you feel like that's probably the last time I'll pick up my kid or the last time I'll build a Lego with my grandson. And I was trying to figure out a way to say to him, look, that's not cool. Even if you didn't want to build this or finish it, you should have realized this was important to your grandfather and finished it.
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And what I've been thinking about is that I'm writing a lot about becoming a man. I think that my generation and our politics have become more about our feelings as opposed to our values.
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And that is we don't do a good enough job of identifying values and then basing those actions and those political views off those values as opposed to just what makes us feel good or feel like we're part of a tribe or feels some sort of thrill because the other side looks stupid or feels confirmation because we're signed up for whatever narrative with the party we've chosen believes.
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But I do think there's a degradation or a move away from values and as a guiding light as opposed to just- And this guy feels like values. This guy's really got very, I mean, he's not afraid. He's called Russia's invasion, he said Russia is loving wickedness. He's not afraid to tweet about shit.
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And I like to think that the church has said, all right, there needs to be some sort of rejuvenation or a move back towards values in the West, as opposed to what everyone thinks is going to make them feel good.
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Look, I've said this over and over. I'm trying to be better about coming up with solutions. I think there should be a bill, and I think there's a decent chance it would pass, $1 million a year for representatives, $3 million a year for senators, $10 million a year for the president in exchange for a zero-tolerance policy on corruption.
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Okay. You know, the churches, they're just religious institutions. There just are some limits to even what I will say about the church and El Papa. And, you know, I mean, I will say it was struck me as kind of unusual when the Pope said pets should not replace children in Italy. I guess he doesn't like priests practicing bestiality.
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Sorry, folks. Won't stop, can't stop.
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The religions actually aren't that different. Jews don't recognize Christ. Anglicans don't recognize the Pope. And Baptists don't recognize each other at the liquor store.
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Do you want me to keep going?
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Well, no, the only Catholic in my Jewish fraternity was my roommate, Mike Vogt. And he wasn't circumcised. We used to get high and make him show us his penis and we'd make anteater jokes. That's not really a Pope joke. Is that strange? A bunch of guys.
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Well, Newark is a great airport, and this doesn't, in my opinion, this doesn't reflect on them. What it reflects on is that, or, look, it's pretty basic fucking logic. When Lloyd Austin was the Secretary of Defense, jets weren't falling off of aircraft carriers.
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And when Pete Buttigieg was the Secretary of Transportation, we didn't have near misses and shutdowns at airports because air traffic controllers are so demoralized and there's not enough of them. This guy figures out a way to do his interpretive dance and blame, I actually saw him blame Schumer for this. All these tropes around, yeah, it's the safest form of trans, do your fucking job.
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I'm trying to talk about solutions. The Singapore model works because what ends up happening is the money they get costs so much more in terms of loss of faith in the markets, in terms of people's reticence to invest in certain companies.
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This is totally unacceptable. People, what do you want? People want prosperity. Money is the transfer of time and work. And when you're delaying people for hours and sometimes days at a time, because of your incompetence and decision to bring in someone who knows absolutely nothing about government,
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And start making reckless cuts that result in not only a reduction in safety, but a massive expansion in the amount of time people that's taken away from their families and their work and economic productivity. Again, it's another one of these slow burning, slow burn of our prosperity. And yeah, everything you're saying is right, but they're all... This is his, he's responsible.
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What is he doing right now to solve the problem at Newark?
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Again, this is another thing that I just don't think Americans, and unfortunately, they're about to learn the hard way how incredible our FAA and our government employees and the regulations and the certification and the sea check. As someone who's loved aviation the whole life, has been molesting the Earth for 30 years and has flown probably tens of millions of miles,
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And I'm fascinated with planes and aviation. People don't appreciate what they realized very early on is we're not going to make it like cars where there's an acceptable number of deaths, 10,000, you know, what is it, 20,000 traffic deaths a year because it's worth it. they said, no, this is so uncomfortable to begin with.
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To put people in a cylindrical tube with recirculated air and then convince them it's safe to travel at eight tenths the speed of sound across the surface of the atmosphere, quite frankly, it's just unsettling. It does not feel natural. But if we can connect the world, if we can give people the opportunity to fly around the world safely, we're going to have the most unbelievable unlock in terms of
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of human capital being willing to go to its greatest return. Okay, I did this for 10 years. I commuted to New York. I wanted to live in Florida because it was better for my kids, but I still needed to work in New York. So I commuted. Why? Because you can get on a plane and travel a thousand miles and then commute a thousand miles because it's that safe and it's that and it's that inexpensive.
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These things are so over-engineered. They are so safe. If we had anything resembling the fatality rates of automobiles, no one would get in a fucking plane.
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Well, because when planes go down, it's horrific. And it strikes a very difficult part of our instinctual fear because we're land mammals. So the idea of dying in the air seems especially upsetting to us. And so they have totally over-engineered these things. I mean, I've owned planes.
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The amount of safety, it would be, imagine a car and every six weeks, someone had to show up, check the spark plugs, replace them. If your tires showed anywhere, they have to replace the tires. They test the thing over and over. They detonate the airbags to make sure they're working and then put them back to make sure this thing will not. Almost all airline disasters are pilot air.
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And then they'd have very talented people coordinate all of this while it's sometimes there's 12,000 planes in the air at the same time.
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a bunch of newspapers crumpled up?
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Well, and I got a lot of shit for it, but I thought Elizabeth Holmes' sentence was overdone.
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And I found it unsettling. Only 2% of founders of unicorns are female. I didn't think there was a lot different between what Adam Neumann did and Elizabeth Holmes did. They both lied to their board. They both exaggerated. Yeah. Look, a difference out of circumstances, I think things could have been much different. And people say, well, it's health. It's different. She lied about its capabilities.
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She basically lied to the board and exaggerated the results, which, quite frankly, unicorn executives everywhere do. And I agree she was guilty. I agree she should have gone to jail. And I said publicly, I thought 10 years was overdone for a first offense for a nonviolent criminal. And her husband reached out to me and asked me if I would get involved in a campaign to get her out of jail.
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And I said, look, this isn't something I'm emotionally invested in. I can't help. I think he's doing him and her a disservice doing this, because all he's doing is bringing attention to the fact that she did commit a crime and commit fraud. Because that'll be the story here. The story won't be the startup, whether it's a good idea or a bad idea.
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The story will be reminding everybody that his wife, who's in prison and should be in prison, committed fraud. So I just don't think he's being smart about this. I don't. I think this is strategically, you know what I always wonder, young people, it's so hard to read the label from inside of the bottle.
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Young people, everybody needs to establish a kitchen cabinet of people, and people are willing to do it because people love to give advice because it makes them feel important, where you can just call them and say, hey, I'm thinking about starting a diagnostics company.
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And somebody would say, okay, you realize you're going to bring attention to your wife who is in prison for fraud for lying about the financial results and the capabilities of a similar company. Have you thought this through? Anyone he reached out to who cared about him and was honest would have given him that advice.
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So I hear this, I just think about this across all of these people when they make these decisions. It's like, don't they have friends? I have a friend who's literally a master of the universe. And he was talking to me about his baby mamas and what's going on within his personal life and relationships. And I said to him, I said, don't you have friends? Like, who do you talk to about this stuff?
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Well, I said to him, I said, don't you have friends? Because this guy is literally one of the most impressive people I've ever met. On any issue, he can give you the most reason, thoughtful. And then you hear about his personal life and it's like, so you just took every piece of bad judgment across your entire life and stuffed it into your relationship with women.
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And I'm like, just a couple phone calls to people saying, hey, I'm checking in. I could use your advice. What do you think? What do you think about this?
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It makes sense. So what's happened is there's been a total, the number of companies that are publicly traded has been cut in half in the last couple of decades because there's been mergers and acquisitions and the private markets have captured a lot of the innovation and attributes that used to be sequestered to the public market.
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Specifically, you can now raise billions or even tens of billions in the private market. You can get liquidity for your employees because there's an active secondary market. And also you can avoid all regulation and scrutiny and make kind of harder, tougher, deeper decisions without the scrutiny of public earnings calls.
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Yeah, the guy who lived across the hall from me and the faculty housing also collected newspapers also spoke to himself and was 108.
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What you have with OpenAI and the reason they will go public is that OpenAI is taking, and Sam is brilliant. He'll go down as I think one of the iconic business leaders of this generation. He realizes that this is an Amazon slash Netflix play. And that is, it is very difficult for any AI to establish technological differentiation because AI just crawls it.
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When you asked DeepSeek what LLM it was for the first 10 days, it said, I'm OpenAI. So these things reverse engineer each other. So this is a capital war around getting the best talent, striking the best deals, making acquisitions and tuck-ins. And now he's in an altitude where he doesn't need to spend billions. He needs to spend tens of billions.
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And the way he'll be able to do that is by going public and getting a $400, $500 billion valuation. So It does make sense for him. It's got huge sex appeal, global appeal. It's the fastest, I think, zero to $10 billion run rate. What is it? I think it's a $5 billion run rate right now. Five or six, something like that, yeah.
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It'll have a $10 billion run rate pretty soon. It'll go, he needs to basically, this is a capital war. He's going to outspend everybody. And there are a few companies that can't. find enough capital in the private markets, this is probably one of them. He's going to go out and raise a shit ton of money.
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When are you coming? Wait, when are you coming here?
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Okay, so my... My fail I referenced before, this Qatar luxury suite, basically the privatization of the White House at 40,000 feet, that's not a kickback, it's government capture. Meanwhile, Qatar has funneled over 1.8 billion to Hamas since 2012. They host Hamas's political leadership in luxury Doha compounds and serves as the terrorist group's primary diplomatic shield.
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When are you checking into the hotel?
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The president positions himself as Israel's greatest offender. At the same time, he's accepting lavish gifts from a country that bankrolls the organization that murdered 1,200 Jews. It's like you're fucking twins and then trying to convince each of them that you're monogamous with them. The cognitive dissonance here is stifling. Qatar's influence doesn't stop at the White House.
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The hotel cheap prostitutes and pastries from Balthazar?
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They've poured, get this, 4.7 billion into American universities since 2001. That's more than any other foreign government. This is such a weird relationship. While they host our largest military base in the region, they also maintain cozy relationships with Iran and Hamas.
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And meanwhile, America's leverage in the Middle East deteriorates as our president becomes essentially an employee of Qatar Airways with nuclear codes. And our elite universities become intellectual laundromats for authoritarian anti-Semitic propaganda.
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So this is not just corruption, it's the purchase of American influence from the Oval Office to our universities training our next generation of presidents. And when you think about, you know, what's the point here? We want our government, the founding fathers wanted checks and balances. not deposits and withdrawals from foreign powers.
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Okay. Okay. Memo to self. Cleaning lady. Get rid of the dildos and the condoms. Okay. Okay. Memo to self. All right. Yeah.
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So this is a yet again, and I'm at a point where it's pretty easy, and I think the other side loves it how outraged we are. I think a Democrat needs to sponsor and make very public legislation that says the government of Qatar is engaging in grift or corruption or foreign bribery. You're not supposed to accept gifts over $400.
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as a public official and say that, again, in three years and nine months, we're going to reevaluate our relationship with you based on we're going to do X, Y and Z in exactly three years and nine months. We need to stop. There's no stopping the Trump administration. He's weaponized the DOJ. He is neutered. He has neutered basically all checks and balances here.
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My attitude is go after the foreign governments and some of the lower-level people who are enabling this.
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I'm still focused on the fact you don't know what religion I am.
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No, I'm whole Jewish. My mother was Jewish. And I'm an atheist, but I'm a raging Zionist. I just think it's hilarious when people in the comments section call me a Zionist as if it's an insult. I'm a proud Zionist.
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Yeah, my father's Presbyterian. My mother was a Jew, a maid named Levine. So I identify with Judaism. I just don't believe I have an invisible friend.
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Pretend I'm coming up with a really valid excuse for no.
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Wasn't that nice? That was sweet. I got so many comments back.
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Well, I meant to ask you. Happy Mother's Day. What did you do? Thank you.
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Does anyone get more flowers? How does this whole lesbian thing happen? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, my kids call me. I have a lot of calls. Who gets breakfast in bed first? How does this all work? I have so many questions about lesbian relationships. When there's a really difficult parking spot, who parks the car?
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All right. What'd you do for Mother's Day? That's what I was asking. Thank you.
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What did you do for Mother's Day?
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I had a great weekend. Congratulations to your son. Thank you. I went to one of these new member clubs. I went to San Vicente Bungalows. How was it?
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This is so clearly a new relationship. This is so clearly the thoughtful, well-planned out gift.
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That's a new relationship. This is where you're headed. My wife sends me a picture of a watch she wants, and I'm like, here's the Centurion card number. That's where we are.
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When life gives you lemons, eat mushroom chocolates. That's my saying.
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My win is I am really excited. I make a lot of jokes about the church, but I am excited about an American pope. I think that the pope is sort of a standard bearer for morality. I think this guy is up to the task, unlike our elected leaders. He seems to actually understand technology. In a strange way, I'm happy for Villanova.
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I have a guy I've become friendly with who's pretty involved in Villanova, and he can't stop sending out messages, like memes showing, all the universities in America, how many popes? Zero. Villanova, one.
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You know, they're kind of all beginning to look, smell, and feel the same. The difference is they're all in the same area and are a bunch of them, so you go to one, and if you don't like the crowd, you go to another one.
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But I think America needs kind of a, I don't know, a rejuvenation, an epipen, you know, a narcon of values. And I think we're more inclined to take an American pope or listen to an American pope.
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As a raging atheist, I also believe we need more religious institutions. I've come to believe when I was younger, I was one of those snobs who considered myself a scientist and really was disparaging about religion. As I've gotten older, Other than the extreme batshit crazy part of every religion, I generally find that 90 plus percent of it gives people a lot of comfort.
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And especially, I think young people also need more place to be in the agency of something bigger than themselves and meet potential friends, mentors, and mates. I actually have come full circle. I think religious institutions are really important in America. Interesting.
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That just means you're a closeted atheist.
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That's like when dudes say they're bi.
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You just want to get away from your kids. It's called having little kids at home. Peace. I almost went to church when we had little kids.
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I mean, it's going to be, so the easiest prediction in the world is there's going to be a Harvard business case study on these private members clubs about how it's overinvestment, the shakeout, how they each try to find their own lane and their own identity. But I'm not exaggerating. I would bet 10 have opened in the last year. It's amazing.
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No, I find peace at San Vicente Bungalows talking to some 25-year-old ad executive whose parents are putting her through New York.
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Well, I'm curious, though. I asked this to learn not to make a statement. How has Europe come to America's aid?
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I've been on Christiana's show. I also like her because she's one of those journalists that tries to set you up for success and she lets you speak. I find so many journalists are there.
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Well, actually it's not, but thank you lemon tree weirdo. Catholic lemon tree. What I was thinking was actually generous and that is, I find there's some times when I go on a show, they're there to try and corner you or get you to say something provocative because they want a TikTok moment. I'm guilty of this too.
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A lot of times I ask questions trying to show how smart I am as opposed to get to an answer. And then there's journalists who will let you just speak and want you to get your views out there, whether they personally agree with them or not. They're generous. They want to set you up for success. And I find that she's one of those people.
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Today's show is produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Severio, and Dan Chalon. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. We have a new pope.
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Yeah, I like all of them. I'm easily impressed. But I think they're nice. Also, I'm at the age where I don't want to... I don't want to wait in line. I want to go somewhere that they don't allow in other people, that I shouldn't be there. I need to be the oldest and ugliest person in the room.
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And that happens at these places. Good, good.
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Oh, my favorite is Zero Mon because I like the owner and I think they do a nice job and it's just sort of my cheers. I like it there and it's sort of the original one that kind of took private members clubs to the next level. If I had to guess, I'm fascinated by markets.
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If I had to guess, I think the two that will survive sort of the HBO and the Netflix are Zero Bond and Casa Cipriani, which just has its own kind of Euro trash crowd.
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And it's downtown, and it's just got a very unique positioning. And the other ones are all like, you know, Hulu and Peacock trying to battle it out.
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It'll be very interesting to see what actually survives here.
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ZB? You're going to meet at ZB?
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You don't drink. I'm not. I know. I'm just going to show up. Show up? Yeah.
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You can come over. We'll do edibles.
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Watch Meet the Press on my computer.
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Fun time. That's what I do. That's literally what I do at night. I take edibles and I watch Meet the Press on the computer and I get really depressed.
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Oh, my God. I can't think of anything I'd rather less to. I want to go to the theater. That was you trying to up it? That was you trying to like go one more. Yeah. Yeah.
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I was on Nicole's thing. She's good.
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So I'm going to speak out of school here. Yeah, sure. This is literally why TV is dying.
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Yeah, I'm a total fucking whore lately. So anyway, so when I'm in New York, I just say yes to everything. Almost everything.
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Well, come on, I know you. Okay, go ahead. Anyways, CBS Mornings, whatever it's called, with Gayle King reached out and said, do you want to come on? And I said, yeah, I've never been on the show. My understanding is it gets a huge audience. It does. I actually like Gayle Cain for all the shit she's getting. I like her.
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Okay, whatever. I've done worse. You've done worse. Exactly. That's how I feel. And so big assignment, they do a pre-call, a fricking pre-call with like eight people on the pre-call.
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No, okay, my team agreed to it. I don't do pre-calls for talks where I get paid six figures, but they decide I need to do a pre-call for CBS morning.
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Anyway, so I'm on with like eight very attractive, intelligent 30-somethings who are literally a third of the age of their viewership as they figure out programming for people who are 140. Yeah, okay. And they're asking me all these questions about young men and the economy and tariffs. We talked for 45 minutes. And then I go, can you tell me a little bit about the segment? Five minutes.
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And they said, it's with Gayle King. And I said, how long is it? And they said, four and a half minutes. And I said, I'm not doing it. And I'm like, what?
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I'm not getting up at oh dark hundred hours, putting on a suit, coming to Midtown, getting in a makeup chair to speak to 800,000 seven-year-olds for four and a half minutes.
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You can come over. We'll do edibles. Watch Meet the Press on my computer. It's fun time.
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And then, by the way, same night, and I'm bragging, I went on Nicole Wallace's show for 40 minutes. Yeah, yeah. But I'm supposed to go on fucking, and the thing is, they don't get it. And what did you do? Did you go on? I went, no, I said I'm out. Oh, wow. I said the juice isn't worth the squeeze. I'm pissed off at my team for agreeing.
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And I'm like, and it's bad for my brand to show up with Gayle King for four and a half fucking minutes. That makes me look important. Oh, so poor Gayle. And they seem so shocked. And this is the thing, broadcast news or just cable news, It's one thing that you're dying, but it's another thing you don't realize it yet.
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They literally seem shocked that I wasn't going to haul my ass to Midtown to be on with Gayle King for four and a half minutes.
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Four and a half minutes. Yay. We spent 40 minutes talking through these issues and they want me to answer like one question with Gayle King at 8.04 a.m. Now Gayle's mad at you. So I can sell more opioid-induced constipation medicine.
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Oh, that's right. They're good, good friends. Best friends. They're good friends.
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Do you want some more inside baseball? What else?
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No, this activist investor, smart young guys, called me. They're thinking about taking a big position where they already have in IAC, and they wanted me to join their group. And I'm like, there's no fucking way I'm going up against Mary Taylor. I'm like, one or more of us will end up in the river. Really? And they're like, what, are you scared of him?
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I'm like, good luck with that. And by the way, you don't know me. And I said that I love Barry Diller and I want nothing to do with an activist play against IAC.
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Oh, Gordon Gekker. I mean, Speaker Emeritus Pelosi.
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This is capitulation. You don't show up and say you're levying under 45% and then a week later start negotiating against yourself and saying they're unsustainable. And it's like, well, why did you put that number out there to begin with? And then say there's a temporary pause slash interim tariff of 30%. And This is the reality.
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China kind of gets what they want because China has made a strategic decision to divest from the U.S. They have taken the percentage of their exports from 24% to 17%, which is huge when you look at the size.
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We're their third largest trading partner. We're not even number one. So they're fine to slowly but surely go through a measured decoupling, actually, or reduction, independence upon us. Trump has created so much ill will. I mean, do you realize, and this is the thing people don't realize in terms of brand, for the first time in history,
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When you do, there was a national, a global poll done of global consumers. And for the first time in history, more people see China as a positive force in the world than the U.S.
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So when opting for where should my kid go to graduate school, who should I do business with, who am I inclined, what kind of business am I inclined to meet with, what widget or aircraft should I buy, Chinese or American, more people around the globe for the first time now pick China.
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So, and then just on a more economic level, in terms of capital outflows, in the wake of this nonsense, investors have... rush to the exits on all dollar-denominated investments. And the U.S. dollar index is down 6% year-to-date. More than $10 billion has been wiped off of the stock market. The Magnificent Seven alone lost $2 trillion on April 3rd and 4th. So there's just...
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This is just a massive attempt to claim some sort of Pyrrhic victory in exchange for massively trading off the equity that we have developed over the last 80 years. This is just stupid. Again, these guys don't understand business. They don't understand negotiation. They don't understand
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Even our dollar dominance, people estimate that we get interest rates on mortgages, student loans, and credit cards of between a half a percent and a percent lower because so many people buy our dollars to invest here. The real damage is incremental. It's like a virus that's eating away that you can't even identify. It's all these little, it's, you know, death by a thousand cuts.
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Anyone under the age of 40 in here at some point is either going to have to pay that back or the forward-leaning investments we've been able to make in the past in technology and space and education are going to get crowded out by the interest on this debt, which is now greater than our military.
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So we need to reframe this discussion and say America is about to incur the greatest tax increase in history on young people that's deferred called the deficit. Don't look at that. Look at that. They just fired three people, the National Forestry Service. Who the fuck cares? I know it's sad.
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By the way, 9 a.m. on Sunday of Daylight Savior, what the fuck are you thinking?
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I think there's a large percentage of moderates that feel like breaking some eggs and laying off people in the public sector. First off, if this were an audit, the net results of the audit so far is there is dramatically less inefficiency, fraud, and waste than we thought in government.
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It's like a dog whistle for Mormons or people with no life. Yes, it's true. Literally, this is a negative forward-looking indicator of your social option.
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They're just, if you look at their quote unquote wall of receipts, they don't be, they haven't been able, it appears, to actually find any fraud or waste. Right, that's exactly right, right. We saved $8 billion. Oh no, it's actually 8 million and the money's already been spent. And then numbers two, three, and four that they supposedly saved money on weren't real.
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If this is an audit, the government is getting an outstanding clean bill of health around fraud and waste. But having said that, I do think moderates kind of like the idea. And every administration has done some form of this. It's just not so weird.
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But these departments are – Secretary Rubio isn't going to agree to cuts. If he's actually in charge now, he's got a tough job. He's not going to say, yeah, you snort – do a few rails of ketamine and then come in here and tell me what ambassadors or what people we should lay off.
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If he has to report into him now, it means Doge is over, in my view.
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Now, Delaware is traditionally seen as very corporate-friendly, especially then they're efficient around their Chancery Court and the way they decide stuff. I don't think you can be for competition and ask big tech to break up and not support competition among states. I think the thing that's gonna incent
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California to get its shit together is a lot of people are leaving for Texas because they do the three greatest arbitrages available, I think, in economic history are one, the arbitrage from fossil fuels to things that build everything from this to the tennis shoes you have probably a petroleum in them. Second is to find young, ambitious people who will work.
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Is like Doge in charge of this shit? What is going on? Oh, but they have you and Senator Warren at the prime time at 4 p.m. Billionaires should not exist. Up next, Mark Cuban. Sorry, go ahead. Sorry. Yeah.
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as hard or harder because then I have dogs and kids and will be 80 or 90% as good as the person who's been with your company 20 years. But because they're naive and can live in a 300 square foot apartment, you'll have to pay them 30 or 40% as much. The most successful companies in the world participate in the arbitrage of young people who don't know any better, right?
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Those are your most valuable employees is the overeducated, really hardworking 25 year old that you pay 80 grand instead of 250 grand to the 40 year old who has kids. The other big arbitrage right now economically in the United States is state arbitrage. And that is people who basically say, okay, and I did this in 2010.
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My son was denied, he's doing great now because he was speech delayed when he was four, from seven out of seven schools that wanted to charge us $58,000 a year for him to play with blocks. We moved to Florida and the school there, a lovely little school, was 12,000.
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So the geographic arbitrage that's taking place across America where people are moving to lower cost, higher quality of living states like Texas and Florida is a great thing. So companies coming here, I think, is a good thing. I think it's important. What's weird is Meta, Chevron and KFC. So carbon, teen depression and diabetes.
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Yeah, it's a good quality of life, though. It's a really nice quality of life.
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I can see living here. Don't you think you could live there? This seems pretty nice. No. No? No. Austin?
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I don't walk in your shoes, so I take your word for it.
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Tax the rich. Somehow I became worth $11 million serving in Congress.
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So again, I don't have your lived experience. Right.
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I can hire extra security. As a Florida resident, I think a lot of Florida citizens are horrified by some of the laws that have been passed around restricting a woman's rights. There's no doubt about it. That's rattling. But just on the ground, I live in Delray Beach. It feels like a pretty progressive community that's very open and welcoming.
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Oh, there'll definitely be companies that incorporate here and move here.
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I think that's a great thing. I think competition, intrastate competition is really important.
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I think it's good for the economy.
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I love it here. Do you? I like the food. I like the people. What does a Texan German car enthusiast say?
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Audi. Audi. It's Sunday morning. It's Sunday morning.
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Such a pro, right? What an elegant segue. How did she pull it off? Oh, my God. What are you doing here on a Sunday morning?
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I'm sorry, Kara, what did you say? Yeah, I'm the pretty one. Do you think we'll ever have sex? That's what I get.
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I'm down as long as I don't have to be there.
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Oh, God, you don't know what it takes to get me going now, Cara. It's a Pam Grier film, eight ball of cocaine and a cattle prod up my ass, and then it's go time. It's go time for a good 90 seconds.
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And then when I climax, I scream out, surrender, Dorothy! Or my favorite from Wicked, I'm melting. How did we get here? Get us out of this.
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Yeah, which is why you brought it up.
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I come down here because my urologist is down here.
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So this is essentially just pure pay for play. And Republicans would argue that, okay, we're just more transparent about it. But the crypto community gave $285 million to the Trump campaign. And what do you know, he's decided to have a quote unquote strategic Bitcoin reserve. It makes absolutely no sense.
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And you get to my age, you get a drip. It takes a good, I don't know, three weeks to pee now. And so I go into my urologist and he's like, did you have sex recently? And I said, yeah, about five days ago. And he said, does she live near here? And I said, yeah. And he's like, well, you may want to get back. I think you're coming. Good morning. Good morning.
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You have a strategic petroleum reserve, and it is strategic because if there's a war or our supply chain of fossil fuels gets cut off, we don't want our economy to come to a halt if we need to build tanks or just keep the economy open. So we have a strategic reserve. What's going to happen if we run out of Bitcoin? How is that a defense threat? So there's nothing strategic about it.
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What it is, is the following. You give me $285 million. So I'm going to increase the deficit. I mean, when we seize assets, when the FBI seizes assets, they immediately sell them because they don't want to be in the business of owning boats or Bitcoin or whatever. That's not their job. They're not hedge fund managers.
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If you have a nation that's creating more revenue than you're spending, then you have a sovereign fund that tries to find alpha.
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We don't need a sovereign. We need higher taxes and lower spending. We don't have any additional money because then you're saying the government is better at allocating investment capital than the investment community. And by the way, all this is, again, another increase in a deficit.
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to transfer wealth to his 0.1 percenters such that you can own a little bit of Bitcoin, here's a crazy idea, go buy your own fucking Bitcoin. I mean, it just, this makes no sense whatsoever. This is pure, you gave me $285 million, so I'm gonna come up with a bunch of jazz hands around why we should have a strategic reserve. And by the way, there's a negative implication. Bitcoin is terrible
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for the United States strategically, because the biggest, baddest carrier strike force in our arsenal is an invisible one called the US dollar. And when we put sanctions on a country, it has teeth, because we can stop them from trading in dollars, which makes it very hard for them to do business globally.
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So if you're going to create another global reserve currency, all you are doing is attacking our aircraft carrier squadron called the dollar. So this is not only kleptocracy and pay for play and make no sense. It's actually damaging to the underlying strength of America because it's diminishing the dollar.
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It's a legit, Bitcoin is established, first off, I don't think you can talk about Bitcoin in the same breath as the other ones. Bitcoin has established itself as a credible store of value, because the genius of Bitcoin is they've created this algorithm or this methodology where you have to constantly throw numbers to unlock or mine Bitcoin.
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And people now believe, the market now believes that they're gonna stop minting at 21 million. So Bitcoin is increasing less fast than gold reserves, than we're printing US dollars. So the market says this is a legitimate store of value. That is an asset class. What's to stop anyone at Doja or Ripple or ETH from massively increasing the supply? It's supposed to be one of three things.
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It's supposed to be a payment mechanism, No one's using this shit for payments. It's supposed to have utility. You could argue ETH and some of them, maybe they make payments, maybe other stable coins go on their technology. But for the most part, there's no real utility here, folks. It's not like Dennis used Bitcoin to fill your cavities. There's just... There's no real utility.
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What it could be is a store of value. And one of them, in my view, has created a store of value. And that is a legitimate store of value. And that's Bitcoin. Other than that, it's pure speculation, which is fun. But the notion that we're going to get involved, you're about to see. In 36 months, you're going to see a raft of stories about crypto scans that happen between now and the next 36 months.
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And yes, they do serve Bloody Marys at 7.30 at the proper hotel.
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Because you could make an argument that it was being over-regulated or there was a lack of regulation, which created insecurity. I think Brian Armstrong will fairly say, just tell us what the rules are and we'll comply. But they couldn't get any clarity. So you could argue there was an under-regulation, but there was opaque regulation. Mm-hmm. But now it's the Wild West.
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You're going to see so many stands.
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I'm a no-coiner. I was on the board of a company called Ledger, which was a crypto hardware wallet because I wanted to learn more. But I generally don't invest in things I don't understand. And I'll go down and I'll have lunch with Michael Saylor whenever I'm in Miami. And within about 10 minutes of hearing him, he's brilliant, I start thinking, put everything into Bitcoin.
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Put every this guy's just so much fucking smarter than me. Put everything into Bitcoin. And then by the time I leave lunch, I'm like, I have no fucking idea what Bitcoin is. I don't I don't I don't understand it. I just don't get it. So I'm a no coiner. Do you own any?
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You can't find it. Yeah. That's right.
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Are you interviewing Peter Attia, Dr. Peter Attia?
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I've been using that to our advantage. That story's out there that Kara has like $50 million in Bitcoin in like a drawer somewhere.
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It's probably at Lucky's house. But whenever I'm with Bankoff, we're in the midst of negotiating.
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We're in the midst of negotiating a new four-year deal with Vox. And I'm just malicious and Machiavellian. And last night I'm like, oh, hey, Jim. He's like, what are you doing? I'm going to the Spotify party. They want to talk to us. And also I heard Kara found her crypto. Yeah.
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Well, Peter Attia and Andrew Huberman were like the poster children for... Yeah, I'm aware of them. You know, big, handsome guys who work all the time.
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They've declared war on alcohol.
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That's why she makes the big bucks.
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Young people need to drink more. That is... What is the bigger issue? The alcohol your liver can absolutely handle when you're between the ages of 18 and 40, or the fact that none of you are having sex and making connections? Drink more, for God's sakes.
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It's kind of the walking dead. In 2021, there were a thousand IPOs that raised $280 billion. Last year, there were 150 IPOs that raised 30 billion. I mean, the IPO market is just literally dead. It hasn't been this bad for this long. in a long time and we keep hoping something is going to set the starting gun for it again. And I thought it was going to, I got this wrong.
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I thought Reddit was going to ignite the market and it hasn't. The IPO market is still really dormant. It's just very cold, terrible.
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You would think, but I mean, is this a cyclical thing or is it structural? Because it used to be you couldn't get these types of valuations unless you tapped into deep institutional capital. But now that institutional capital is moving into the private markets.
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And when open AI can raise money to $300 billion market cap, which creates a greater value than 90% of public companies, and you have opportunities or access to liquidity, secondary markets- Is that right?
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But the point is, do we need the public markets? The problem is, is that yet again, we are sequestering the majority of the upside of our prosperity to the private markets that consist mostly of 0.1 percenters and institutional investors. The people who got to invest in Google, retail investors, have done exceptionally well, same as Apple.
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The problem is institutional money figured out, why are we giving away these gains to the retail market? We can capture them privately and offer employees liquidity and have less regulation. So unfortunately, right now, the retail markets have become the last stop when you can't find private investors to take your valuation up. And most of the margin, most of the juice is This gets squeezed out.
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So yet again, the IPO market is another indication of the fact that we're cramming all the prosperity into a small number of institutions.
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That is an excellent point. If you look at some of the fallen angels and you look at the amount of money capital sitting on the sidelines in private equity, it's over $4 trillion of capital waiting to be deployed. I think we're going to see, I did my prediction stack yesterday, I think we're going to see the biggest take private in history this year.
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And it'll be, in my opinion, my three favorite targets are Intel, which is arguably the worst managed company in tech over the last 20 years. I mean, it's one thing when your stock goes into the shitter when your company's in structural decline, right? Warner Brothers Discovery, they can claim we're facing headwinds. Intel has literally been in the best business in the world for the last 30 years.
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Well, I wouldn't know about that. What do you mean by weed care?
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And they have been one of the worst performing stocks.
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someone might step up i think it's got a 70 or 80 billion someone might step up and go there the two others i like are boeing and the third is target big big outstanding brands decent management great businesses and the opportunity to get them you know they're fallen angels they're on sale right now and there's so much money i think there could be a club deal to take one of those companies private those are the three would you be part of that one of those
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Yeah, they're doing drugs. But the thing I don't like about those drugs is I don't think they're as social.
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Taylor is from Texas. Where are you from, Taylor?
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Right. You drink alcohol and you just become more attractive to you, which gives you the confidence to go up to someone who likely does not find you attractive. And maybe over time, and I'm being somewhat serious here, gives you a chance to demonstrate excellence. Do you want to know the scariest stat I have seen? We're totally going off script here.
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There we go. There it is again. Thanks for that.
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You've got to introduce yourself, though.
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Yeah, I do think, and we've talked about, I think we talk about politics too much. And I think a lot of people came in expecting us to talk about tech and business. And oftentimes, sometimes justifiably, but we are both passionate about politics and we both feel very invested and we get triggered by some of this stuff.
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But if we were purely about what I'd call purity of editorial and trying to be as appealing to as large a group as possible, which oftentimes involves not alienating 49% of the U.S., we would talk probably less about politics. But I don't think we can resist.
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Half the nation is right or center right. I'm center left. She's crazy fucking left.
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She came in from Australia. I did. Anyways, more than half, 51%, 51% of 18 to 24 year old males have never asked a woman out in person. Think about just how tragic that is, that these young men are not developing the skills to much less potentially meet a romantic partner, have kids, which I think is the whole shooting match.
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We don't have an apprentice culture. And if you look at, there's so many factors that have led to young men struggling, falling further faster than any other cohort in America. And part of it is like, what happened to auto wood and metal shop? Two thirds of males just aren't cut out for a liberal arts education. They don't have the discipline. They don't have the demeanor to get through college.
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That's just not what they want. And unfortunately, a lot of those jobs are passed to the middle class, have been outsourced or no longer existed. I didn't like Biden's bailout plan of student loans.
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I just thought that was creating more moral hazard and people were going to borrow more money from a nice lady in a pantsuit with an NYU logo always saying, your education investments in yourself lowest payoff. And then they get out with a philosophy major and they have $130,000 in debt. So, I didn't like the bailout. What they could have done and should do is the following.
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If they were to take $100 billion and take the 100 biggest of our public universities, which are the best in the world, and said, I will give you $1 billion over the next 10 years if you do three things. One. You have to expand your enrollments greater than population growth.
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Two, you have to cut your tuition 2% a year, which would result in 10 years of doubling the number of freshman seats at half the cost. Take it back to the 80s when I applied to UCLA and the admissions rate was 76%. And the cost for all seven years of undergrad and grad for me at UCLA and Berkeley was $7,000. I am here. because of the generosity of the California taxpayers.
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And the third thing they need to do is at least 20% of their certificates need to be non-traditional, non-four-year degrees, nursing, specialty construction, installation of HVAC. These jobs, we need these people. And there's this obnoxious self-aggrandizement.
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I have given a lot of my money to UCLA and Berkeley for what's called continuing education because they couldn't call it vocational programs because me and my colleagues are such fucking snobs. We need, think about how little the college degree has not innovated. There's amazing, I was on a plane with this woman who's the IV whisperer. She works at a hospital and she can find any vein.
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That's her whole thing. When they can't find a vein on somebody, they call her. And she makes $180,000 working three a year, working three 12-hour shifts. That's a fucking amazing job. And she needed two years of training.
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Universities need to innovate and they need to recognize we're not there to make ourselves feel important to this bullshit rejectionist culture, but to train people to have the economic security for them and their families. One, you have to grow your population, your freshman class faster than population growth. You have to cut cost 2% a year, which inflation in 10 years would cut it in half.
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and at least 20% of your certificates have to be some sort of vocational programming. That's how we take our universities to the next level and create more- It's also a good message for Democrats, for example, to talk about- Big ideas, and also reignite, give younger people, quite frankly, mostly men, More past on-ramps in the middle class.
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I'm not saying you wouldn't see women, but the program I'm involved in, 70% of the people who show up who aren't cut out for college are men. So many avenues have been shut off, traditional means to economic security for men who are not quite, frankly, they're just not cut out as well for college. They're less mature. They're less disciplined. There's now more women in college.
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Not that you can't be happy without that, but I think everyone should have the option. And then they're not developing social skills. And we don't like to talk about this, but your ability to open and establish contact and connection with someone.
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It's 60-40 globally now. And by the way, we should do nothing to get in the way of that. What I'm suggesting is let's not forget the people who are never going to go to college. They're just not cut out. Remember that guy in high school? They were everywhere. They were just not going to go to college. But they could fix a fucking car. They were really good with their hands.
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And instead, we got rid of those classes and put in computer science and got rid of civics, and we end up with fucking Mark Zuckerberg. Bring back Metal Shop.
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Most beautiful cathedral and the best beer in all Europe.
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I'm not as worried about foreign nations as I am about the US. I don't think we want to come to grips with the fact that democracy and rights are now purely a function of wealth. The R is almost one. It's almost perfectly correlated. And if shit gets real and there's some sort of economic shock and they start rounding up people, which we have done, by the way, in the past, Right?
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Japanese families who were good citizens who had kids fighting in the European theater were rounded up in this country. So we like to believe we're above that. We are not. But the thing is, I have the money to shove a bunch of Bitcoin up my ass and peace out to Dubai. You're going to have to stick around and deal with this bullshit. I don't know where I'm going with this.
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Here's the bottom line. We talk a big game, but somewhere between 70% and 80% of women.
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Anyways. All right, quickly. Oh, I know where I am. All right. Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, basically, in my view, probably swung the election. It's always like 48-48 in the 2% or 4%. And then it's a small number of counties and a small number of states. $285 million. Very smart. Weaponized a platform. And what do you know?
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I'm more worried about the US because the thing about Germany and the UK is they're like, money and politics? Let corporations and individuals spend as much as, are you fucking crazy? They're like, we're not going to do that. The whole point of democracy is the demo. And democracy, we want checks and balances of a populist voting, not a small number of very wealthy people.
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So in the UK, they start to finish elections in six months. And it's much more difficult, I think,
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to weaponize an election with just sheer brute force of money i'm i'm more hopeful i think european nations and other nations have decided that money can't pervert their politics to the same extent in the u.s i think he's given a new playbook to beyond you know other rich people who've done it in the past but i think he's given a new playbook to a lot more people and that is where he's been innovative and unfortunately all right quickly let's try to get through as many as we can
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Between 70% and 80% of women still say they want the man to initiate contact. So they still expect, I mean, think about young men, quite frankly, are getting a lot of mixed messages in my view. And it's making them asocial.
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Three quarters of Americans see Canada as an ally. Only one third of Canada see America as an ally now. You want to talk about the most immoral and stupid decision, turning an unbelievable ally and friend into an enemy. The largest undefended border in the world is the US-Canadian border. What does that tell you about us? They don't even know why we're trying to fuck with their economy.
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They're like, why are you doing this to this? We know it's going to raise costs for all of us, reduce our prosperity, shrink the economy. Why are you doing this? And the answer is fentanyl. The amount of fentanyl that's come over the U.S.-Canadian border could be stuck in a backpack. They think it's less than 1%. They don't even know why we're doing this shit. And here's the thing about Canada.
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Followed us into World War I. We're ahead of us in World War II. Went over to Year of the European Theater and started training pilots into Kosovo. Helped us fight the Taliban. I love the question, and I said this yesterday. about a woman that is friends with Warren Buffett. I thought it was very powerful.
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Holocaust survivor, she said, my definition of friend is I would ask myself, would this person hide me? And then you really think about that. It's a very intense, puncturing question about what it means to be a real friend. You know who's a real friend to America? Canada, in the Iran hostage crisis, the embassy there hid six Americans and at immense personal risk, got them out of Iran.
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And then we have the most talented companies in the world who sponsor this conference trying to convince them they can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen with an algorithm. Here, trust me on this. Trust me. Go out, drink more, make a series of bad decisions that might pay off.
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And then they stuck around. If they had been caught, they could have been hanged from cranes. Canada hid us. Thank you.
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People my age are 72% wealthier than they were 40 years ago. People under the age of 40 in this room are 24% less wealthy. Every major economic policy, whether it's capital gains deduction or mortgage interest rate deduction, is nothing but a transfer of wealth from the young to the old. Who owns homes and stocks? People our age. Who rents and makes their money through current income salary?
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Young people. Until we have a series of class traders, older rich people who say, enough is enough, if we don't reinvest in youth, what's the point of any of this? For the first time in the nation's history, and I think all of our problems can reverse engineer to one data point. For the first time in our history, A 30-year-old isn't doing as well as his or her parents was at 30.
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And that's even worse than a 50-year-old not doing well because when your kid's not doing well, when your daughter's not doing well, it brings down the whole house. You just feel bad about America. So let me now list corporations and corporate leaders. There's a lot of amazing leaders.
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Let me now list every guy my age in corporate America who is really taking a stand for America and the values that made them rich.
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Yeah, but your sons are handsome.
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So Brexit, probably the greatest self-inflicted unforced errors are are entering the Southeast Asia, going into Iraq, and in Europe, Brexit. I live in London. It's like, how can we figure out a way to make everything more expensive and reduce our salaries? And they managed to do it elegantly with Brexit. This is worse than Brexit because it's essentially...
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It's not only morally corrupt and taking away rights for the first time in a history of a democracy, but it's essentially tearing up amazing 80-year-long alliances with the world's biggest economies such that we can blow a murderous autocrat. This is economically stupid. It's morally corrupt. So what can we do?
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The rest of us have to take our shot. The rest of us have to do something like this.
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One, try and not have the indignance I have, the emotional reaction, because I think it just tickles the sensors of the right. Show up with facts, focus, pick your punches on the one or two things. I'm focused on Ukraine and the deficit. And quite frankly, we just need to get very activated and send a strong signal in the midterms in 26 and start working on 28.
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So I don't know what else to do other than to say, let's be focused, let's not be emotional, let's bring data, and let's focus on the midterms in 28. Yeah.
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And he's picked them. He's handpicked them. They've made so much money.
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And also, just to be fair to him, he's clearly got a talent in finding good people. So I don't think it's, I don't think he's been focused on Tesla for a while. He doesn't, we have a bias against Elon Musk. I don't know if you've noticed, but he's clearly good at attracting and retaining very talented people because these are, I would argue these are well-run companies.
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But his board is not a board of directors. It's not, they're not representing, they're representing Elon. And quite frankly, he's been right. He's created a ton of shareholder value. So if you've made 150 million bucks, are you really gonna like dress him down for tweeting or calling someone a pedophile? You're like, no, I got 150 million reasons to ignore this.
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I had a Tesla. I had a great car. He started calling me names on Twitter. So I sold it. And, you know, right before I sold it, I took a giant dump in the passenger seat. Back to you, Kara.
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Should I be insulted when they call you and say, we want you in White Lotus? And they go, but just your voice.
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I am so Sidney Sweeney. Seriously. Seriously.
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The guy that showed his nutsack?
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Mia Saverio, Dan Shulone, and Drew Burrows. Nishat Karwa is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasting. If you'd like to subscribe to the magazine, go to nymag.com. We very much appreciate you waking up on a Sunday morning during Daylight Savings.
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It's great to be here in the great state of Texas. It's great to be here by South Byte. And we really do appreciate you coming up and being supportive and just generally just so lovely. Thank you so much for making time for us today.
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By the way, by the way, for men, for men, 50 is the new 30, and for women, 40 is the new 90. Okay. Oh, my God. I'm not. Oh, my God. I don't. I should have slept in and watched church chat.
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Someone, it's like that propaganda.
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We'll put sugary shit on top of it and a lime and pretend like you're sophisticated.
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Literally, this is me at the Stowe House last night. The loveliest people come up to me and they're like, thank you for your work on Stowe House. Just get me a fucking Makers and Ginger. I don't want to talk about anything.
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Well, I think it's a tale of two two cities here, and that is Tesla is is crashing in the sense. I mean, you've heard so I'm Doing breakfast with the Nike people tomorrow. Nike went political with their embrace of Colin Kaepernick. But they did the math. And that is two-thirds of Nike sales are outside of the U.S. And no one outside of the U.S. thinks the U.S. has got race relations right.
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Two-thirds of their revenue and probably 70% or 80% of their profits come from people under the age of 30. They also have a huge customer base in non-whites. So essentially the people who burned their Nikes after they endorsed Nike, that was probably their first pair of Nikes. And that is they knew that their core audience would probably feel very good about that move.
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As smart as that was, Musk's political forays or adventures are that stupid because 75% of Republicans say they would never buy EV. He's gone very red pill. In California, his biggest market, EV sales for Tesla are down dramatically. And even after this crash in sales in Europe, if you look at the company, it's lost about a third of its value in February.
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It's lost all of its kind of trump bump gains. If you look at it from a valuation perspective, Apple only grew 2% last year, but it trades at a 38 times earnings multiple. Amazon grew 10%, 38 times PE. NVIDIA grew 10%. about 114%, and it has a P multiple of 40. Tesla grew 1%. Tesla's flat, and it has a price earnings multiple of 144.
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So Tesla is still, even after shedding a third of its value, is the most overvalued company in tech, maybe the exception of Palantir, and the sales are just not, it's crashing. His political calculus as it relates to Tesla was just irrational. Now, To be fair, SpaceX and the value proposition of SpaceX is that rockets blow up. And that is they can take risks that NASA and the government can't.
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And 99% of their launches are successful. They're responsible for about 78% of the launches right now. The Falcon Heavy rocket can get shit into the air, into orbit for $1,500 a kilogram. The next... best is a Russian company called Angara that can do it at three times the cost.
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So their ability to take those sorts of risks and put shit into space for a third of the price of the second best per kilogram launch vehicle, I think SpaceX is going to be worth more than Tesla in 2025.
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I think more than trying to increase revenues, it's trying to clear out obstacles. So there are 11 federal agencies that have 32 investigations currently underway for different Musk companies. And a lot of those inspectors and people seem to be getting the ax. So I don't think his foray into government is about trying to increase revenues.
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I think it's about trying to clear out the inspectors and potential regulation. But it doesn't look like the calculus is very smart here. Like David Sachs getting involved in crypto and then getting Trump to have dinner with the guy from Ripple who probably promised him money. And then all of a sudden deciding to include Ripple in the strategic Bitcoin reserve.
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By the way, there's nothing strategic about that. And then all of a sudden Ripple rips. That's smart political kleptocracy corruption. But at least that's smart. His political forays so far, I don't think are paying off for him.
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Yeah, but you said Waymo's just light years ahead of them. And if Tesla starts trading like a regular automobile company in terms of price to earnings, it would be at $14 a share. It's just impossible to to rationalize evaluation. I still think it's a really good car I think you know it I can't help it. I got a Tesla my uber app I cancel or I let him wait outside.
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I'm down as long as I don't have to be there.
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I know that's wrong But it is a good car. It's a great company It should trade at a multiple of 50 to 100 percent more than the other car companies meaning It's a 25 or 30 dollar stock.
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That's the correct question. I don't know. Fame, narcissism, go red pill, clear out inspectors. To me, the calculus is not smart here. Tesla has basically become a brand that has some very negative brand associations. Yeah.
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If so, 92 percent of Trump's advisers were fired. So there's a 90 percent. It's like being second lieutenant in Vietnam. You're just you're you're probably not going to last very long. That was ugly. Yeah. But 92 percent of those advisers in the first administration were fired more than all the advisers that were fired in the previous three administrations.
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He's very good at creating human heat shields. if in fact he has told his cabinet they're now in charge and he's an advisor, it means he's done. He does not have the complexion to go to Senator Rubio, excuse me, Secretary Rubio. And also these individuals have no incentives to trim their departments. They have very difficult jobs and their departments All of this is a giant fucking distraction.
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So far, according to the Wall Street Journal, Doge has saved $2.6 billion. If you wanted a 6X Doge, just cut off all subsidies to Tesla, which have been $15 billion. This is a giant misdirect.
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This is a giant misdirect to get you and mostly young people to look away. Oh, Doge. Oh, he's crazy. He's firing people. All these sad stories about federal employees being let go.
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I get it. And people in the private sector are fired every day. But they want you to look over here such that you don't look at the tax plan that it's going to add $800 billion to the deficit. So this is the conspiracy that is elegant and that people aren't looking at. Talk about DEI being a helicopter crash. Talk about Doge.
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Talk about inflame people by saying that stupid laws like male versus female, that's how they're spending their time? Because look over here, not at the fact that the point... They're making the tax cuts they want, yeah. Not at the fact that the 0.1% who...
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I love it here. Oh, you want to say, hi, I'm Scott Galloway. Go ahead. I'm Scott Galloway.
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will say under the breath, yeah, I don't want to go to his inauguration, but my accountant tells me I'm going to get another $11 million this year. This is a conspiracy between the 0.1% and an administration that wants you to look over here and ignore the fact that we're about to levy the greatest increase in taxes in history called a deficit.
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That's correct. They have emails saying it. Like he's a liar. He's a liar about wanting this particular sentence or a fabulist or whatever. He's just doing it for the performative nature of this. But I think the question is what it will be valued at. And so he's just setting it higher. And who would end up with this controlling stake in the new open AI?
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Now, he could have waited until it did this and then tried to make a play for it publicly. But you're right. It's Joe Lonsdale from Palantir, Ari Emanuel, like literally the least – Charitable people I know, right?
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I'm always taking a bullet for you, Galloway.
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And so, you know, I think he's filed all these legal complaints saying that they had betrayed their nonprofit mission at the same time. colluding with Microsoft, and this Tobarov was the one that tried to get the Attorney General's California to do this and do a fair market value. It's a fuck you, Sam kind of thing.
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And I think he was just to come to the present, there was this announcement at the White House that Musk tried to shit all over this $500 billion on AI infrastructure in this joint venture called Stargate. And he tried to – he wasn't in on that. And this is something Trump announced at the White House with Sam Altman. And so he just doesn't want – he wants to block Sam Altman at all.
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And to say that they're doing it for the charity or fully compensated is just the ploy. in order to get close to it, right? And he said they didn't have the money. He's called Sam Altman a swindler. I mean, he called us deceitful and mean and cruel, but Sam Altman's a swindler. So this is very typical of him.
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And it's largely because Grok just hasn't caught up as much as he's made these efforts to do so. You know, I think this group was on track to value this company, which we think was too high, too, at $157 billion.
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He wanted to run it. He wanted it to become a for-profit.
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Very fair. Actually, let me say, I made a mistake. This transition was part of a $6.6 billion funding round in October that valued at $157 billion. It's $300 billion now. $300 now. It's $40 billion in a new funding round. SoftBank would lead the round in discussions to invest between $15 and $25 billion. This is going to just – and this Stargate thing separately is raising money.
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And Sam's working on a chip, also a very manic entrepreneur, by the way, as is Elon. And they're trying to raise billions for Stargate. This puts uncertainty into it, which is exactly what he's trying to do. He's trying to put uncertainty into a deal because they didn't want him, they declined his kind offer to own the place, right?
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Mm-hmm. That's a fair point.
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Well, we'll see. What's interesting, it just reminds me, you know my favorite movie is the original Patrick Swayze, Roadhouse. Do you know that? You're kidding me.
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No, it's Sam Elliott. Sam Elliott. Oh, Sam Elliott. The lifeguard. That guy's dreamy. I love that guy. I love him so much. That guy's dreamy. Anyway, Swayze was in it, and he plays Dalton, and he's trying to save a town, essentially. Yeah. Jake Gyllenhaal made a terrible version and made me want to cry afterwards. But there's a guy, Ben Gazzara, plays a guy named Brad Wesley.
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And he wants to own the whole town, including this shitty bar, right? Like, by the way, Open Air is not a shitty bar. And there's questions around after Deep Seek. Like, is it... Too overvalued, all of these companies, right? But anyway, Ben Gazzara has to own everything, including this shitty bar. And that's what—Elon reminds me of Brad Wesley. It didn't end well for Brad Wesley in that movie.
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Kelly Lynch, that's right, Dr. Elizabeth Clay. I know this whole movie so well. So getting out of the Roadhouse thing, it's like— aren't you busy ruining the government over here? You want to come and fuck with this guy? This is the level of this guy's energy, I will say, energy and manic nature that nobody gets, like, he just can't stop. It's like, it's demented at this point.
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This is a demented effort.
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I know, of course. Well, I am pretty obnoxious about him all over the place. So it probably like glommed up into one thing.
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Okay, because the best part of this is the relationship between Sam Altman and Elon Musk, I just want to read the tweet that Sam Altman had in response. No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want. All right, we have to move on and talk about the Super Bowl, which was won by the Philadelphia Eagles.
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President Trump became the first president to attend the Super Bowl and had a totally normal reaction afterwards, posting on True Social. The only one who had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift, who got booed out of the stadium. Mag is very unforgiving. Actually, Donald, this was kind of a big, like, fuck you by many people at the event.
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The ads were star-studded with appearances by Ben Affleck, David Beckham, Glenn Powell, and Billy Crystal. Brad Pitt did a big long ad for the NFL, which was a little woke there. I mean, Open AI made its Super Bowl debut with a $62-$14 million spot. Obviously, Kendrick Lamar ruled the fucking school, and he just...
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Oh my God, I can't go to a sex movie with you. I just, that just flashed through my brain.
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Someone said, you know, he should get the Nobel hate prize because he did such a beautiful, artful job of saying fuck you to the Trump administration. But I just thought it was beautiful. I thought this was amazing. I thought this was amazing. And I thought it was artful and beautiful. Did you what did you think?
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I know, but in general, on CNN, where I call him a toddler, an adult toddler on any day of the week and twice on Sunday or anything, just us threatening him. But here's the deal. First of all, all you said, and I tend to agree with, is, you know, from the reporting, the exceptional reporting by Wired, for example, these guys, a couple of them sound like a prick, right? And we said it.
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So you heated up the nachos and got to it. Okay.
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What did you eat? Set the scene for me. What did you eat?
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Oh, all right. That's kind of dull.
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I love that. I love that. Oh, you saw that on TikTok. All right, moving on. Amazon shares are down 2.5% in the last five days after a mixed earnings report. The company reported better than expected earnings and revenue, but told investors to expect slowing growth ahead based on Amazon's estimates. First quarter revenue growth could be the slowest growth on record for the company.
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On the upside, revenue rose 10% and net income almost doubled thanks to a cost-cutting campaign. There's only so much you can cut, I guess. It's set to pass Walmart in revenue at the first time. What's up with this, Scott? Is it the effect of Sheen and Taimou, or what's going on here?
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Which CEO Andy Jassy used to run.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Well, you know, I asked Andy about that during an interview and he said they absolutely are not going to. And I believed him at the time, but. And I thought they should have.
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Yeah. So what happens? What does an investor do? Should they spin it off? It would really be problem. You know, you know, you always talk about shit goes versus this is not a shit go, but it's a version of that. Right. If they take the higher growth one and spin it off, is it still too is it too late to do so?
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These people sound like pricks. They're doing something that's probably fun for them. They get to work for Elon Musk. They get to like raid the government or everything else. We just, we're like, this is not the way we should make sausage in our country. It's really gross how they're doing it this way. And they need to do it in a legal way. That's all we said.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Right. And they are more innovative. You know who doesn't want to do that? People who love to just keep their little groups together and then also then want to merge to get bigger. Right.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
So do you imagine them breaking it off?
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
It was interesting. I interviewed a conservative economist, Oren Kass, today, among others. And he was like, I was like, you'd be for mergers. He's like, no, I don't think mergers for whatever. No, thank you. Like, you know what I mean? Like, because they aren't necessarily the best thing for economic growth. They don't necessarily promote it. It just promotes bigger companies.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
And then they fall into the crosshairs of regulators also, and they spend a lot of time doing that. Anyway, I agree. They should break themselves up. You should always break yourself up.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Not the guy from the Housewives series? That's not your friend?
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
And he tries to insinuate that we're threatening them. Because as I say, everything, every accusation is a confession by these fellas. And let me just read the thing again. for people who don't understand, he reposted a video of us talking about Doge employees in our last episode.
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Yeah, if there's an AI meltdown, these economists noted that.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
We're going to have to bail out the tech bros at some point. Anyway, we'll see. Let's go on a quick break. And when we come back, Trump's latest terror, speaking of bailing out people and Dozier's latest targets.
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Swisher and Galloway are threatening talented young software engineers who gave up high compensation for death threats in order to help American people. Shame on Swisher and Galloway, cruel, mean, and deceitful human beings that they are. First of all, They're going to make high compensation later, folks, by doing this.
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Scott, we're back. President Trump is touting his latest tariff plan after hitting pause on those Canada and Mexico tariffs, which are such a joke, such a ridiculous fucking joke. Trump now says he plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum will apply to everybody, including Canada, Mexico. Reciprocal tariffs on U.S.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
trading partners are also reportedly in the mix this week. I'll note we're recording on Monday morning. Whether he's going to follow through on it is not true. Having just interviewed three economists, none of them think these are a very good idea.
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One of them thought tariffs sometimes are a good negotiating tactic, and sometimes when they're explicit in certain areas, very surgically done, they're a good idea. This was the conservative one. The others thought this was just attacks on people, and none of them ever happened, right? And what a stupid way to—you're trying to—
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
One of them, Mariana Moscato, was saying that you have to focus in on production subsidies over tariffs, like to help companies, to help industries and be very specific about it versus tariffs, which is just a blunt instrument that is about the past. Anyway, talk about these. This seems like this is just some more air blowing from this fella that upsets markets.
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And also, there wasn't that much fentanyl coming over the border from Canada. It's so ridiculous. And linking it to things that have nothing to do with economics are ridiculous.
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This ups the compensation level for them because they become legend among tech people, whatever, because they work for Elon, depending how it turns out. Also, they didn't trade it for death threats. Like they traded it because this is what they want to do. And they were enthusiastically doing it. And we don't have to like them. And just by not liking them, we're not threatening them.
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Is that an age remark? Go ahead. Sorry.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Just the Democrats? It literally looks like... Be bipartisan if you're going to do ice flow.
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Oh my God, this wasn't so grim. I shouldn't laugh, but it's funny. Go ahead.
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He did. He doesn't just blink. It's all such nonsense. It's not even blinking.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Yeah. It's interesting. So speaking of which, Elon's power run continues with Doge worming itself into at least 15 government agencies. Of course, he's going to do this. Trump says he's happy about things are going. He sang Elon's praises and talked about Doge's next targets in the Super Bowl interview with Fox News's Brett Baier. Let's listen.
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So that's fucking nonsense. And neither you didn't threaten them in any way. And it's a larger part of a strategy of intimidating journalists. They're trying. He's trying to shut us up and somehow link us if anything ever happened to them to them just because we don't like them.
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Yeah, they've found a billion maybe, but this is already stuff people knew with other commissions, including Steve Ballmer has shown a lot of costs. This is not new stuff this man is finding at all. And it's very small in comparison to most of them. They're always trying to find like the gold toilet seat. That's what they're all, You know, like, oh, it's a $600 toilet seat.
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That's what they're looking for. But the federal judge temporarily blocked Doge's access to the Treasury Department payment system over the weekend, citing risk of irreparable harm. Though it's unclear when or if Doge employees will comply with that order, we'll talk about compliance. We're going to get into that strategy with the courts after the break.
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But thoughts on the latest Doge move is the Consumer Finance Protection Board, which has returned money to the Treasury by a lot, temporarily closed its offices and suspended its services. And they're pushing to rapidly develop a custom AI chatbot to analyze government data, according to Wired.
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And Doge employees have also fed sensitive data from the education department into AI software to probe the agency's programs and spending, according to the Washington Post. This has all been done before. It's just very performative. I think it's just to gain access to the data and who knows what. I mean, you don't necessarily have to assume they're nefarious, but why not?
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Why not just go start with nefarious and work your way down from there? Your thoughts?
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Right. And fortunately, that's where it leads, right? Presidents have been trying to expand their power for a long, long time, right? This is not a new trend and it's bipartisan, by the way. But this is sort of, what's interesting to me is how performative it is. And then when you call them out on it, they're like, how dare you call us out?
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Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I am the very cruel Kara Swisher.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
But I'm like, they're literally going jazz hands all over the place. and then making these ridiculous statements about cost savings when they're saving very little. It's not strategic. It's not legal. They're not doing it with Congress. And I understand the need to a little shock and awe in that regard. I'm not against that.
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I do think the way they're doing it is just so deleterious to what they're trying to accomplish, which is, you know, they put a tiny little bit. We want to say make the government more efficient. No shit, Sherlock. So do the rest of us. Right. We want to make the government more efficient. But to to like to do it in this way is purposely creating havoc and purposely against Republicans.
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what you're supposed to do to actually save money. And they're going to find very little savings by doing this. The fact that he mentioned military was my, I was like, oh dear, you're going to go over that, over on that rail?
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Because the only thing, you know, I was just interviewing these economists today and Paul Krugman correctly said the United States is an insurance company with a military background. because most of the spending is Medicare, Medicaid, and things like that, or the military. So if you're going for the Medicare, where the real money is, good fucking luck on that one. And if you notice, they're not.
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So the fact that he mentioned military was really interesting to me. And again, probably full of fraud and full of problems, but not in the way that they're talking about in any way, I don't think.
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It was like 69% in Germany.
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Here's the only problem. Look, its shares were down very low for a while in the low 200s. Now they're, you know, they peaked right around Trump's election time at 400 and some, and now they're slowly ticking down. They're at 358. They're still enormously high, right? It's 175 PE ratio. But that's the opportunity. Right.
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The stock is falling, but it's not so, you know, I think, I definitely think you should focus on Musk and how much money he's making out of this and how he's, you know, if he had spent some money against USAID, I don't know who paid for that. If it was an American taxpayer, it was a lot of money ill spent attacking USAID. If he spent his own money, he could knock himself the fuck out.
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Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. What else? I don't think it's wrong to try to push back legally. I think that's quite smart. That's happening.
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And what about the access to data? I mean, everyone, of course, thinks we're in the middle of a Bond movie where they're winning the whole thing. the whole nine yards of it. How do you feel about the data part?
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Well, I think it's opening it up, creating a real danger in terms of opening it up. Let me just read you someone who knows. I was talking about CISA. He was making cuts to CISA, which has always been in his crosshairs, Trump's crosshairs. Elon eliminated the ability to track disinformation on Twitter. Zuck eliminated it for meta. Stanford cut the Samos-Renee project.
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Pam Bondi just eliminated the FBI task force that tracked foreign influence campaigns. And now this at CISA. All this when disinformation is now being spouted to AI speeds. It's a gift to Putin and Xi. On CISA in particular, they've been in Trump's crosshairs since 2020. It's barely getting, you know, it's not much. There was a cut, but still on anyone's left.
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But what they're saying is who can pay to track disinformation and do legal takeouts for Trump? And everyone else, the electorate, were just fucked. And so, you know, this is someone who's been covering this, is that we are very exposed and also allowing the Chinese and Russians incredible possible access to sensitive data. Every single one of these researchers I talk to is like, are you kidding?
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This is terrifying. We just opened the gates.
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I mean, I think there's some... I'm concerned about the Russians and the Chinese. I think that equally affects all of us, no matter what economic bracket you're in, of them having this information.
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I agree with you, but at the same time, I do think this stuff out in the wild, it's like someone just opened all the nuclear things and just, like, we need to clean up this nuclear stuff and just open them. I just think it literally puts us in a Bond villain movie situation, I think. Anyway, I think there's going to be huge repercussions going forward, and it's a gift to China and Russia.
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Every single person who I find intelligent thinks this. All right. Let's go on a quick break. More on Elon and Trump's strategy to target courts. Not just Elon, also J.D. Vance.
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Scott, we're back. As Donald Trump and others continue to push their agenda, the only standing in their way appears to be the courts for now. Federal judges have halted parts of Trump's executive order blitz, including the federal spending freeze, worker buyouts, and Doge's access to the payment system. as we mentioned earlier, but they're attacking the judiciary.
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First, Musk called for the impeachment of a judge who ruled against Doge. He's also proposing that the worst 1% of appointed judges be fired every year. Sorry, Eileen Cannon, you're going. This undermined the strategy was especially by J.D. Vance. He put one out that got enormous attention, and I think it's a coordinated effort.
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Yeah, I get it. I understand. I do attack him.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
He posted over the weekend that judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power, which of course everyone was like, did you go to Yale Law School? Trump administration lawyers also filed a motion saying Dozierling impinges on the president's absolute powers of the executive branch. Which, of course, they're going to do.
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But they're moved to undermine the judiciary portion of the show, I think. And the cases will likely get appealed. Some will go to the Supreme Court. We'll see where that goes. But remember, after the immunity decision last year, Justice Sotomayor wrote, the president is now king above the law.
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And even if the courts do rule against Trump, I'm going to give you the whole package, enforcement will be up to the DOJ, which he controls. The DOJ, through the U.S. Marshal Service, controls that. Legal people say there's no enforcement mechanism for any of this stuff. And if he resists, he can just resist. He can resist illegally too.
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And it takes a while for things to shake out in that regard because judiciary does not have enforcement powers.
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Well, he likes to do that. You know, but let me just say about the death threats. You know when I got death threats? When he said my heart was seething with hate. Remember with Yoel Roth where he said Yoel was evil and my heart was filled with seething hate. I got, should he have not done that? I didn't like bitch and moan about that. And I got a lot of really frightening comments.
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Well, the Supreme Court said that, but go ahead.
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Yeah, I think it's problematic. I think the issue that they don't have enforcement. If a group of people is willing to break laws and then break rulings against their activities, there is nowhere to go, right? And then if, I mean, the place to go is people protest, right? That's the next step. And of course, you could declare martial law. You know what I mean?
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If we protest even slightly, maybe he'll say it's martial law. So it really does put it into stark relief how fragile our systems are in ways that I think we don't think about. Let me just read something someone who I really respect wrote me, who's pretty well done. This is an impending constitutional crisis.
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Courts and Congress become subordinate to the executive branch, and then our system crumbles at its foundation. We are nearing that moment, if not there already. Our system is far more fragile than most people appreciate. It depends on people in power respecting the constitutional framework. At bottom, it's an honor system.
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Most people in power get this at a gut level and will not touch the third rail. But here we are in uncharted territory. Never have we seen this happen at such a scale and depth. And I said, oh, well, that's happy. And he said, it's going to get worse before it It gets better. And I said, what does better look like? And he responded, they're going to break too many things.
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Markets will eventually crash and people will lose basic services. The problem is it will take time for the public to really feel it. He brought it back to the market itself, too, is when the market goes, that's when they stop, right? And that's, you know, there's a lot of damage in the interim. And this guy's not a, trust me, he's not a, like, hyperbolic person in any way.
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And he's usually like, eh, whatever, for a lot of Donald Trump's things. But in this case, concerned. especially when it has to lead to market meltdown, essentially, or violence.
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Yeah, and we're both mean, right? We're both mean.
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Stuff aimed at me when he does it every time. So, you know what? And instead he bitches and moans about it. Well, I'm bitching and moaning now. Guess what? I got death threats. Guess what? I can handle it. It just is, again, a larger strategy of intimidating journalists and other people who speak out and disagree with him.
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Right, right. That's a really good way to put it. It is sort of, you know, for people who don't understand, it is this Silicon Valley ethos of do we really need judges? Do we really? They question everything. And in some cases, that is a great thing. In other cases, it's deeply dangerous, right? The idea of things that probably we, not we shouldn't be questioning, but maybe we could do it better.
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They don't ever want to do it better. They just want to wreck it and then clean it up afterwards. And that's a very Musk-like characteristic. It's not just him. It's a lot of Silicon Valley. And so it's that thinking that like, what could go wrong? Is it so bad if we break it? And I think you have to really understand their personality.
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And when it will matter was when, for at least Trump, from what you just noted, will be when the economy tanks, when the market tanks, when rich people get made discomforted by this, right? Versus just the moral argument that you should make that this system has worked for centuries and pretty well, even if it has all kinds of hair on it, right?
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That this is actually, we've never had a stronger economy. We've never been more productive. We've never been more everything. And yet here we are starting to take apart the pieces that actually quietly hold it together.
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President Trump called for the Washington Post to fire columnist Eugene Robinson. Elon Musk called, speaking of which, investigative reporter Catherine Long, who was writing about this stuff, disgusting and cruel. You know, just this is what these people do all the time. They do all kinds of intimidating and rude remarks.
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I'm just pointing out it's not an excuse. It's an explanation of what their mentality is. And I think these people do not care about disruption or the effect. And I think downstream, away from all of this huffing and puffing by everybody, and it's very serious stuff, Scott, it really is, is this is going to affect—this has nothing to do with the price of fucking eggs, right? Any of this.
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And attacking the court system, which is— People who run businesses like laws. Laws are good. Laws is good. If everyone, you know, runs stop signs and runs red lights and decides to murder people, this is not good for the economy. This is not good for stability. And so what's interesting is this like thoughtless idea of breaking without thinking of the implications of it.
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And I'm not exercised about it. I'm sort of like, this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Like, are you crazy? This works pretty fucking well.
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And so to me, it all does boil down to people who like disruption and don't mind breaking, and because they're in a position to be fine with it, and maybe they'll benefit in the new order, and regular people who are going to see enormous economic stress from all of this if they keep going at the rate they're going. I mean, basically, if the rule of law feels at risk, if judges feel nervous—
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If when you call the U.S. Marshals Service and they decide not to come because Pam Bondi is a suck-up, that's a problem. That's a real—people don't believe in the law, really, pretty much. I think that's an economic problem.
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And that's to say nothing of his endless anti-trans stuff, anti-immigrant stuff, his tasteless stuff about gay people, his tasteless stuff about women, about anyone who opposes him. So this guy, you know, pot, kettle. Nice to meet you. Anyway, there you have it.
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All right, Scott, just remember you're mean, cruel, and deceitful. One more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails. Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. Would you like to go first or would you like me to go first?
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I'm going to do two wins today. One is, I got to say, Wired's coverage of all things Elon and Doge has become essential reading. Scoop after scoop. Who would have thought?
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Well, they've got a new editor, Katie Drummond, who's... They call the digital thorn in Elon Musk's side is Wired. But I got to say, Wired has gone in and out of relevance over the many years. But I got to say, this is just great reporting and their subscriptions are up. Amanda came home, she says, I just got a subscription to Wired. It's doing a great job on basic news and it's been very fair.
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It hasn't been snarky. It's just been, here's who they are. This is what they're doing. Here's what's happening. I have to say it's essential reading and I give them great credit for that. And I like to call out institutions that have really just really improved our lives and they're doing a great job. They're doing a great job and doing it with real like steadiness, which is really hard to do.
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My other win, I hate to say this, but the penny thing that Trump wants to end the production of pennies. I hate pennies. So I'm happy with that. I wanted to say one positive thing about the Trump administration. I just, I don't like cash. I don't like cash at all. That's how I feel. So I feel this is a win.
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Yeah, I love her. She was just on the podcast, yeah.
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That one's accurate. Don't you think?
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Yeah, we won all those awards.
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Yeah, he's a good looking man.
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He's done a ton of great movies. He was in a remake of the one set on Mars that Arnold Schwarzenegger was in, Total Recall. Do you remember that?
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I'm sorry, I like the Schwarzenegger version much better, but... Yeah, he's been in a ton of stuff. He's a very talented person in general and a handsome man. He's a handsome man.
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I can't do it. I can't do it. I don't want to watch her have an orgasm. I'm sorry.
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I literally have no fucking interest in it. I have no interest in it. I don't want to see it. Don't want to see her having an orgasm several times.
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I didn't see the commercial. I have to watch it. I don't like when they redo things like that.
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Oh, God. The only thing I liked was the new Mission Impossible is coming, and I can't wait. reckoning, whatever, dead reckoning. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
But speaking of movies elsewhere in the Kara and Scott universe, I talked to Cynthia Erivo on On, who is the great, she's in Wicked, but she's also been in The Color Purple, on Broadway. She's all over the place. She was in Harriet. This woman's like If she wins an Oscar, she gets an EGOT. And I think she's great. So I interviewed her. Let's listen.
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That was your best one. You're such a great dad.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Good cinema. She also talked a lot about being queer, a whole bunch of stuff. It was really actually a really good interview. And I needed a palate cleanser, Scott. I needed a palate cleanser. Good for you.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
I dove from, I went from Ann Applebaum and now I'm back into it with a legal and economic one. So I needed.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
No, I would never watch that with you. That would be so awkward. Oh, my God, I can't go to a sex movie with you. That just flashed through my brain.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Because I had a discussion with Louie the other day when we went to see Sausage Party. I'm not sure I want to hear this. No, I took him as a teenager to Sausage Party. We were laughing our asses off because it was like awkward parent. I took him to Sausage Party, which was a cartoon. I thought it would just be funny. And it turned out to be food having a lot of sex that was gross.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
And he looked at me while we were watching it and he goes, this is awkward. And I go, I'm the worst parent ever. Shall we leave? He goes, no. And I had to stay there and watch this horrible... food orgy with my son at the time. It was terrible. I can't watch Nicole Kidman. Okay. We're not watching Nicole. We're not doing that. We're going to go to, we're going to go to a Mission Impossible.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Oh my God. You should go see Wicked with me. Let's do that. Okay. Let's do that. Okay. Let's do that. Okay, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back on Friday with more Pivot. Scott, read us out.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
I know. So, I don't know about you, you know, but that was kind of something for Elon to attack us on the Twitter, where neither of us are over there, so we had to be told by people. We're like, what? Huh? What? Huh?
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Jeff Swisher said he'd help you if you need help because he gives ketamine every day as a doctor. Not that he's going to prescribe it for you.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Did he step down from Ted?
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
You know why? Because he's tired as fuck. I know where he sits after leaving. Oh, 100%. I was tired as fuck. I wanted out.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
And I was like, oh, it's the legacy. La, la, la. You know what? I was tired of doing it. I was just fucking exhausted. And I did a great job. But I feel his pain. So are you okay, Scott? Are you okay? Especially because Elon attacked you.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Yeah, it did. It doesn't bother you anymore. It doesn't.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Like he punches you and then you get his energy? Like that kind of person? Seriously.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
We're doing some right. It's true. It's true. He does call most people disgusting, cruel, pedo. When he calls you a pedo, that's when you know he loves you.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
That's what I said. The sexual tension is palpable.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Then I have to ask you.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
I had this, I played this game with someone. I'm not going to tell you. I didn't, I couldn't answer it, but you know, fuck Mary Kelly.
Pivot
Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Okay. I'm going to do this. You're going to answer it right now.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg. Go.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Which one? Go ahead. Okay. We might have played this before, but I'd like to play it again.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
All right, Mrs. Bezos, excellent, okay?
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Okay, not kill. We won't use the word kill because it's not nice, okay? Because we're not cruel and disgusting or whatever.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
As always, everything goes back to Elon, who has continued to plague us, but he's now plaguing Sam Altman. The feud with the CEO of OpenAI took a new turn today when a consortium of investors led by Elon is offering $97 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. The bid was submitted on Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal. And in a quote, Elon Musk said,
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
It's time for OpenAI to return to open source safety focus force for good it once was. Obviously, for people that don't know, Elon and Sam and others created OpenAI Together as a nonprofit to battle. And I did an interview with them at the time about this, both of them. to battle the bigger companies and the privatization of AI.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
And so it was going to be a nonprofit that was going to focus on safety. At the time, Elon thought AI was going to kill all of us. He's changed his tune on that, obviously, over the years. And this is a really shocking news. What do you think, Scott? What's he up to? Because he's not busy with other things, for goodness sake.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Yeah, he's not concerned with anything.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
Well, I think that, you know, they've been trying to stop this move. And I believe the lawyer is the same lawyer that's dealing with this, made this offer. But they've been trying to mess with the move to—and he's been suing OpenAI for a wide range of things, right? And it boils down to he wanted to take control of it. They said no. He huffed out.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
And they were like, goodbye, and didn't, you know, didn't chase him in any way. And so he had made a sort of bid to take over at the time, and they thought that he would be irresistible as a lover, I guess, of this company, and it didn't work. And so now he's been just furious ever since as it's become more profitable and he has this sort of enmity towards it.
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Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
And Sam Altman, that's really severe. I heard it myself. But at the time when they started it, that was the idea of it. But of course, it was all for profits for all these people in the end. And so this will mess with their move to it. It'll cost them more. It'll be interesting to see. What Microsoft has to say about this, obviously they're still negotiating over their equity stake in this thing.
Pivot
Elon's OpenAI Bid, Trump's Judicial Strategy, and DOGE's Shock and Awe
It was $157 billion is the valuation they're looking at now, which is enormously high. You know, when they started as a charity, maybe for a moment there, but the minute it got profitable, all of them were running for the for-profit subsidiary. And OpenAI has emails from Musk talking about wanting to turn it into a for-profit subsidiary.
Pivot
TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
The seminal moment in my life that was both horrifying and motivating was as a young male until the age of like 25, I was sleepwalking through life. Underachiever, got into UCLA because they accepted 76% of people. Graduated from UCLA with a 2.27 GPA, talked my way into Morgan Stanley, somehow got into Berkeley Graduate School because the standards were so much lower back then.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
When I got that call from my mother in my first year in graduate school and said, you need to come home, and I walked into a house where my mother after her second mastectomy had been discharged early by Kaiser, we were underinsured, and I walked into a situation the likes of which I had never seen before and I could not handle.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I started calling nurses and said, I need to get someone over here immediately because this hospital wouldn't take her back. They're like, call an ambulance. My mom's like, don't call an ambulance. Nurses were 35 bucks an hour and our insurance can cover it and I didn't have that money.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I'm in the UK. I'm at a hotel around the street from the place I'm supposed to be moving in that isn't ready. And I just got back from a shoot. I was at a castle where we went, and I did not because fortunately I'm a terrible shot. Oh, a shoot-shoot, like with guns. A shoot, yeah.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I remember thinking, it was literally like at that moment I thought, no one can decide to be rich, but I thought, I'm going to work so fucking hard from this point forward because I can control that. The most frightening moment of my life, the first 25 years of my life, and something that was, quite frankly, exceptionally motivating, was my mother being underinsured.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Because, I mean, you want to talk about fucking with a young man's sense of well-being when you can't take care of your mother, your sick mother, and times that by 10 million. That is what has happened when you insert a profit motive into something as important as health care. And the reason why we're the only major democracy that focuses on shareholders as opposed to the well-being of consumers.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
There are few industries that are more advanced technically, make more money, and are a larger source of despair and suffering. This has come to a head and it all comes down to the same thing, and that is a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. Most people can't buy health insurance for their family for $10,000. People pointed that out.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
When you're living in a society with all this prosperity, And it is a regular occurrence that, oh, I got bad news. Your wife has lung cancer. I got worse news. It probably means you're going to go bankrupt. And we're the wealthiest society in the world. It's like one of these things does not foot to the other. This has inspired...
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And all of these tech executives, and quite frankly, I'm guilty of this. I was horrified by it. And it's like, the people who are most horrified by this are insured wealthy people. Because since then, hundreds of people have killed themselves. Hundreds of non-white kids in terrible areas have been murdered. And a CEO gets murdered and it's horrifying. And we're all grabbing, clutching our pearls.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
It has really inspired an overdue conversation
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
What will be really interesting is what the jury decides. Won't it be interesting what happens at the jury trial?
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
No, no, no. I was at Hackfield and then it was so much fun. I met so many impressive guys and couples here in London, but my one friend Tor and his wife Kristen, they love this and they love old British culture and they do these shoots. I got to be honest, this is not my thing. Yeah. But they were just so happy to show us it, and it was just nice.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Well, I've been advocating for and predicting the following, that it would be banned, And ultimately, it'll be spun. The U.S. interests of TikTok are worth, U.S. TikTok is worth $100 billion.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Divested to U.S. ownership. I think there's so much money involved that they'll figure it out. Look, I generally find 95% of the time, you're right, if you just go follow the money. And to, I mean, there's a couple of things. One, going back to Trump, he could just not enforce it.
Pivot
TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
He could say, wink, wink to different, I'm never gonna enforce this, or I'm gonna tell my AG to never pursue anyone if they violate it. Because basically what it would, the people who have to comply here who have the most power would be Apple or Alphabet to make it the app no longer work in their app store. But he could also say this will never be enforced. There's some elegant ways around it.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I don't think he's going to do that because I think it gives him leverage against the Chinese. And also, it's a goodie he'll be able—now that we've gone full kleptocrat, it's a goodie he can hand out to a U.S. consumer. But I've always predicted two things. One, that one, it should be banned, and I believe it will be. And two— we're not gonna lose our TikTok.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
That at some point, there's so much money here, there's so many US investors who are gonna make so much money or lose so much money that they will figure out with the White House, maybe they give him 10 billion or his buddies 10 billion or the 100 billion, but they will figure out a way to accommodate everybody and spin it and divest it. There is too much money on the line here.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And in addition, you have a China where the economy isn't struggling. Doug Guthrie, who I think is the brightest mind on China, US-China relations, he called me and said, Scott, you don't get it. They're kind of fine to let this stuff roll.
Pivot
TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
They're not doing as poorly as people think, but I still think there is so much money involved that they're gonna figure out a way to divest it to US interests or do enough to satisfy the quote unquote ban. But I mean, it's already happened technically. I mean, he would have to change the law And I don't think he has the attention or the desire to do that. What do you think?
Pivot
TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
But the Supreme Court might not even agree to listen to the case.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
You know when your friends are just so excited to show you something, so it was really enjoyable. The best part about the whole shoot was after these birds drop from the sky, that always, but I don't know if I told you this, I've substantially reduced my alcohol intake. is the dogs. These beautiful hunting dogs go and grab the birds. And the countryside is beautiful.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Look, I don't like the way these guys equip themselves around how they treat you. I've had one guy tweet about me 445 times as part of that mafia, but it's mostly out of insecurity and that he just wants to fuck me. He doesn't. Oh, he does. I've never had someone want me as badly as this guy wants me, clearly. We know who he is.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
But he has no power, so it's not a threat to me. The folks with some real power, I think David is a smart guy and David has real money. And his buddy Elon, for whatever reason, they seem to be, you know, I think at one point Elon called you the definition of pure evil. Like he decided that was the tweet he was going to put out.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
But it's so, okay, that's how you reflect your blessings, right? And I can't stand the general shitposting of America by the people who, if they lived in any other country, would, you know, be the, you know, selling Subarus and wherever in Ecuador.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
They just wouldn't... Anyway, when you join the government, you get, not in this position, I don't believe, but if you become treasury secretary, you get this unbelievable perk. And that is, and Hank Paulson enjoyed this perk. You become... exempt from taxes on the sales of stock.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Right. But the reason they do that is because they need you to sell your stock. Because when you have the most influential organization in the world, the US government, making business decisions for tens, hundreds of billions of dollars, they don't want you to own stock.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And the idea that someone is going to have influence over what are the most high intensity valuation creation and destruction sectors right now, AI and crypto, but also maintain it. I don't have a problem. Trump gets to pick his guys and his guys who throw fundraisers for him.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I've never listened to their show, but I've seen clips on TikTok, and I think David is a smart guy. The problem is there's no fucking way he should be able to maintain his position as a venture capitalist while dictating and advising on policy and regulation around AI and crypto.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I mean, you want to talk about setting up an environment where there's absolutely no guardrails and retail investors around.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Seething hate. And I was vitriolic. Your heart is filled with seething hate.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
He's not at fault here because... It's the administration that has decided to let people dictate massive flows of capital or a lack of regulation while maintaining economic interest in this. They don't care.
Pivot
TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I literally, for a moment, I heard someone send me something saying, one of the all-in guys is going into the administration. I'm like, oh my God. And I had for a moment, I'm like, let me guess. Chamath is going to be head of the SEC.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I'm like, it's going to be SPAC mania.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
It used to be until very recently that people who gave money and people who rolled their eyes would find, okay, you're Howard Leach, who invested in one of my companies, nice man investor, so they let him be ambassador to France. It's payola, right? Ambassadorships, unless it was China or the UK or something strategic, who gave us money, fine, they get those jobs.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
But the hardcore stuff that was about American security and prosperity and running actual government was based on veracity, credibility, stature, intellect, experience. All that, these are all now ambassadorships. It's who gave the most money.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And this guy, I don't, this guy's actually a thoughtful, successful guy who's passionate about space, but he doesn't understand, he doesn't understand government. I mean, he does have, he wasn't evangelist for Hubble, but he has no real domain expertise in, around our space program or how it actually works or the relationship between the private and the public sectors.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
All of a sudden, we've just gone, hey, who wants to be secretary?
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
But when someone can give, and by the way, the numbers keep going up. The number I heard that Musk gave was 119 million. Now I hear it's a quarter of a billion. This guy gave a quarter of a billion dollars.
Pivot
TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I mean, if you think someone has a 50% chance likelihood of winning and you're a billionaire and you either have economic interests, it's a great investment to go two, three, $400 billion into a campaign. We're gonna see someone give a billion dollars to a candidate in the next campaign.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Except she's very good. Have you seen her stuff? She's great.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
If you're worth $5 or $10 billion, why not give $250 million so you can run NASA or maybe, who knows, be attorney general?
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
He's increased his wealth by $130 or $150 billion. That $250 million bet was the best trade of 2024. Wow.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Your heart is seething with hate.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
So just full disclosure, I love Vivian too. I don't know if you've noticed this. I'm not quite stalker level yet, but I'm constantly retweeting her stuff. I think you are a gift.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I think you are a gift to young people. I love your content. I love the optimistic tone you bring. You're like the first... person under the age of, I don't know how old you are, 30, that talks about 1202. And there's this myth that you're not supposed to talk about money, which I think is nothing but an attempt by the rich to keep poor down, to create a sort of taboo.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And I love how you're breaking that taboo. I want to repurpose the question that I got from a gentleman on another show because I got insecure that I didn't answer it correctly. So I want to give you a shot at it. But a gentleman in his 50s said him and his partner have saved some money, not a lot, but they're really risk averse.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
So they have it all probably a money market and they've missed out on a lot of returns. So what would you suggest someone with a little bit of money that wants to start investing? What would be your asset allocation recommendation kind of loosely?
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Tall and handsome? What do you mean looks like me? What do you mean looks like me?
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
It's about rich people. It's not about a specific gender. I understand.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I would actually go, I bet it's more like top 10 or one.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
How do you make money? What's your business model and what advice would you give to people who look at you and think, I'd like that job? What's your business model? How do you make money? Any tips on getting started or if and when there was some seminal strategy or moment that helped elevate you to being a guest on Pivot, which is a crowning achievement for most anyone.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And just some follow-up questions. Which of those businesses is growing the fastest? And in your mind, which platforms are on the way up, way down as it relates to your business?
Pivot
TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Thoughts? I'm following Doge closely, but one of the things that is innovative is I do think on a regular basis, you need to dramatically reduce the amount of regulation. And their response to, okay, 80% of government spending is just not on the table. You just can't, there's no real way to cut most of it.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
But the world doesn't need another DJ and no one's going to pay you for it.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
If you take out entitlements and you take out defense spending and interest on our debt, you're kind of left with 20% to kind of go after this efficiency, if you will. What they've been saying, and it is interesting, is that the Chevron Act, where you don't immediately defer to the agency, that you can strip out regulation, that if you strip out regulations, it just reduces friction and costs.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I find when you make a shit ton of money at something, you start really liking it. You start really loving it. I deal with this really difficult woman on this podcast and I don't love it, but we're making bank. I like podcasting.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
So Vivian, the thing about low-cost index funds is you're still stock picking. You're just stock picking at a macro level because there's different index funds. There's NASDAQ, which is more aggressive. There's still some, quote unquote, selection around which indices you invest in.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Do you believe, and this is a loaded question because obviously I'm putting forward a bias here, that the American market has gotten so expensive, relatively speaking, to emerging or non-American markets based on traditional PEs, that people should be thinking about index funds outside of the US and maybe rebalancing their portfolio and putting more money. I mean, you're basically
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Your whole wrap, and it's the most powerful wrap, is around diversification. You don't need to find the needle by the whole haystack. But do you think, given how expensive the American market is, and quite frankly, how cheap some of the emerging or non-American markets, that people should be thinking about allocating a greater percentage of their portfolio to index funds outside of the U.S.?
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Like which of these or South Korea?
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I think she's fantastic. I love you guys. We should get a podcast for her on Vox. Oh, wait.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And I think there's some value there. What people don't celebrate is regulation. So since 2008, we have not had a financial crisis. We had a run that was basically inspired by a bunch of 50 plus year old venture capitalists in a panic room looking for attention, trying to create a run on banks such that their crypto investments would go up.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Well, these are both good things, so I don't know how to categorize them as wins or fails. But Bashar al-Assad, who's arguably one of the most murderous people in recent history, was forced to flee after rebels took control of Damascus. There's a decent amount of insecurity around The devil you know versus the devil you don't know.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
It's not like these are good people who've taken over, but- But we don't know.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Yeah, we don't know. And right now, Israel is bombing military installations to Syria because they don't want these new folks to have access to this stuff. But this is someone who used gas on his own people, killed somewhere between half a million and a million of his countrymen. and no one seemed quite frankly to be that outraged about it, but anyways, another talk show.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
But what people don't realize is that as much as we shitpost America and we're angry about it, Our support in conjunction with our allies in Western Europe, our support of Ukraine has basically made it impossible. And also Israel's attack on the proxies of Iran have dramatically weakened the allies, Iran and Russia respectively, that Bashar al-Assad turned to to save his ass.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And the reason they're weakened is because right now Russia is losing 1,500 people a day in Ukraine is the Ukrainian army with drone technology and Western aid is proving to be the ultimate underdog that no one ever thought could put up this sort of fight. And Russia has its own problems right now. And when Bosnia called Putin, he said, sorry, boss, we got our own shit to take care of.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And then when they called Iran, whose proxies, Hamas, Houthis, and Hezbollah, and also Syria, their hands have been cut off and their air defenses are weakened. People don't give enough credit to the West. And that is, we are toppling dictators. Do you think Putin is really strong right now? You don't think the Islamic regime in Iran is really worried right now?
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And the thing that disappoints me is that young people and Americans get angry and upset about everything America and they don't realize that democracies, our commitment to the military, our military expenditures, our allies, our intelligence apparatus are winning. We are a formidable force and we are not getting the credit. People are not recognizing
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
the incredible work of our security apparatus, how strong we are when we're allied with people, and the impact it is having on very, just how difficult we are making it for very bad people. And I'm disappointed that the media doesn't recognize and people don't recognize how wonderful of victory this is and what wonderful things it says about the alliance between the U.S., Israel, and Europe.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
We are making the lives of very bad people much more difficult right now. Anyways, I don't know if that's my win or fail. And my win, and this is a weird one, is do you remember the governor of Texas that ran for president? I think his name was Governor Perry, Rick Perry?
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
He lasted for a hot minute. But I liked him because he was very handsome. I also thought he was quite reasonable. And he said on a public debate stage before all this anti-vax misinformation, he said he signed into law mandatory HPV vaccines for girls in schools. And there was a lot of pushback. And he said on stage, he said, well, you know what? I hate cancer.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
But the market proved incredibly resilient and SVB was ring-fenced, the FDIC did its job. But since Sarbanes-Oxley and since we've had stress tests on banks, We have had a remarkably robust banking sector. JP Morgan is now worth more than the top 10 European banks. That does thread the needle, I think, between one, ensuring that they don't collapse and over lever and create a financial crisis.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
So there's this wonderful news that this vaccine for HPV has been found in a peer-reviewed study to reduce cervical cancer by 62%. So think about this, a two-thirds reduction in what is a terrible cancer that does happen to young women has been eliminated. And there's even evidence that a new, more advanced form of an HPV vaccine has the possibility or the potential to eradicate cervical cancer.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
This is just such wonderful news on what continues to be one of the great gifts of our modern economy, and that is vaccines.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I just don't love her music.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Did you see her? I saw her. I did. I went. I did.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
It's funny. Just going back to your went about Taylor Swift. My car took it in because it was making a whining noise and all they needed to do was take the Taylor Swift CD out.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Men can literally do a small thing. I'm not exaggerating. She waved at me in the crowd. I didn't wave back. So you can expect another album and tour in the next few months.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
By the way, she's a fantastic professional, pays her people well, puts on a great show. Not a ton of obvious surgery or profanity. I think she's a wonderful role model for young people. Oh, thank you. And I'm going to go see Wicked again.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I'm sure it's great. I love...
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Who's the hot one that dated the SNL guy? What's her name? Ariana Grande is amazing. She's incredible.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Oh, no, I want to see it. I heard it's great. It's great.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
But also, you need a little bit of risk taking in the banking system because the modern marvel of the banking system is with $100 in deposits, as long as you don't take too many deposits from the same people, you can lend out $120. And you create growth. It's like levered growth with a decent amount of risk controls. So regulation can be a wonderful thing.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Yeah, I appreciate her courage and I appreciate you bringing the story to light. I don't think any of this ends until someone goes to jail.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I should also note, and I'm very reticent to say this because I don't want to add to her pain. This also brings up some important issues around gun control, though, because the kid did find his stepfather's gun. And so this is a tragedy on a number of levels that brings up a warranted conversation on a variety of topics.
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Intertide engineered this episode. Thanks also to Dubros and Mia Severio. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And these individuals are never going to suggest more regulation. They're just very much anti-regulation. These are risk-aggressive people who see regulation as the enemy. And I think you just need a more balanced approach, recognizing that some regulation creates scale and growth. So anyways, it's a long-winded way of saying, I really don't know.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
It's exactly right. This is about survival and consolidation. My first company I started my second year in business school was a firm called Profit Brand Strategy and we were effectively a services company helping companies manage their brands as assets. We didn't do any design or advertising. We were trying to take a strategy approach, just focused on brands as assets.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And I was always very economically driven. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna build this thing for five years and then sell it. And the 10-ton gorillas, the masters of the universe of the entire communications and media world were Omnicom, IPG, and WPP. And then Publisy was kind of in the mix. Then there was some new ones that popped up.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
WPP, I still think it's the biggest and these two combined would surpass WPP. Basically, their model was take advantage of this algorithm that was the algorithm for creating shareholder value and that was find a mediocre product and infuse it
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
with amazing brand codes of masculinity, maternal love, European elegance, sex appeal, and then use this incredibly efficient mechanism called broadcast television where we managed to get 80 percent of Americans in front of one of three outlets five hours a day and print money.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And then that era came to an end, the brand era came to an end in 1995, when all of a sudden these weapons of mass diligence called Google, TripAdvisor, your social graph, you no longer needed to defer to the shorthand of the brand. And also people found it was much easier to fill the customer funnel, if you will, with people based on their behavior, specifically if they indicated
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
You know, Audi Q5 best price into my Google search bar means I'm looking for a car and this person is worth a lot of money to Audi. And you have seen such a tectonic tsunami-like transfer of money, capital and power. These guys, Cara, you know, you've been to Cannes with me. These guys used to be the gods of Cannes.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And now... Best parties. Yeah. And now they have a beach chair, but they don't have a beach party. They're a shadow of themselves. Google loses the value of all three of these companies or gains it in a trading day. But they're still very talented, still very creative. But the reality is... The brand era is not only over. Don Draper has been drawn and quartered.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
So the idea that they absolutely need to consolidate, cut jobs at headquarters just for survival mode, because these have not been good performers. These have been terrible places to work or invest.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
You still need them. I think of this. There was this incredibly moving ad last year by Norwich City or Norwich City Football, but it showed these two men who go to a soccer game together. One's effusive and super outgoing and funny, and the other looks just morbid and depressed. It shows them going to another game. The one seat is empty, the guy who was really effusive and happy.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
It says something along the lines of, ask your friends how they're doing because you may not really know how they're doing. It was so incredibly moving. Ad agencies and creatives still are the domain of breakthrough emotion that moves you.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
That was good, but even better, they add that Apple just did. I mean, occasionally these folks come up with something that just really moves the needle. In addition, even Google needs help figuring out how to allocate. When Google does their beach and spends $40 million having Lenny Kravitz play and
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
and not inviting Scott Galloway, they need an ad agency or a creative agency to come up with all the branding, make sure the beach looks branded. There are agencies doing everything. When I go to all these conferences and speak, there's an agency figuring out how to bring Dreamforce alive and represent Salesforce in the future.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
But they still need someone to come up with the ideas. They still need design. They still need even spending money. Once you get to a certain point, I'll give you an example. I think podcasts, our business, are about to go through a reshuffling.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And the reshuffling, I think, is going to be based on who does the best job using this new distribution mechanism for a podcast that is bigger than Spotify or Apple, and it's YouTube. Joe Rogan gets 15 million downloads of his interview with Trump. He got 40 million on YouTube.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
I'm thinking about hiring a small agency to help me figure out how to get PropG and Pivot and other people to scale our distribution on YouTube, because there are little niche agencies that just are better at it than we are. And there's always opportunity for customer acquisition, branding, events.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
It's just no longer the heyday of, hey, you're General Motors, you're going to spend a billion dollars running ads, and I'm going to take 12% of it by pitching you the next big Don Draper idea. Those days are over.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
In the time I've been going to Cannes, Maurice Levy, the CEO of Publici, has gone from fucking James Bond, who ran the place, and Martin Sorrell was the master of the universe, to almost sort of like cute and majestic and sentimental, right? They're just, they are no longer... Quite frankly, they're no longer players. I know that's terrible to say.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
And Sir Martin is one of the brightest minds in the history of media.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
This is, I mean, it's weird. Bashar al-Assad fleeing to Moscow is really big news that doesn't get enough attention. But one of the most interesting discussions catalyzed by a murder is the CEO of United Healthcare. And the reaction online was just stunning to me. And it made me realize that, you know, someone pointed out that Elon Musk said, a revolution is inevitable or civil war is inevitable.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
Well, 50,000 people killed themselves in America last year. And I wonder how many of those people killed themselves because of financial strain in large part created by medical debt. And also there's just no getting around it.
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TikTok Ban Looms, Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, and Guest Vivian Tu
If you look at the insurance industry, especially the healthcare insurance industry, they have figured out that a decent way to add earnings and shareholder value is to come up with algorithms and sophisticated legal ways of denying coverage to people, which has created a lot of despair. And I mean, you've seen the tweets, like empathy is outside my coverage.
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So first off, they're not coming back here. And all that's going to happen is the following. Fewer people are going to buy fewer iPhones. It'll reduce Apple revenues by $30 to $40 billion, say economists. It trades at eight times revenues. So you're going to wipe out a third of a trillion dollars. You're going to have 401ks go down. You're going to people be less confident buying things.
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You're going to have Apple employees and shareholders lose a lot of wealth. You're going to have, I mean, you're in, we're not even talking about the second tier effects. And that is one, we are thrusting people into the arms of China. And two, you're Assume it just goes tit for tat. Let's stop talking. We know tariffs are bad. Let's assume that we reduce a billion dollars of Samsung sales.
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I'm trying to think of an analog to Apple. Apple sales go down a billion dollars. Samsung trades at 1.2 to two times revenues, Apple trades at eight. You think, okay, it's bad, but we each lose a billion dollars in revenue and sales through prices or products that are less competitive because they're more expensive. No, we lose $8 billion in market cap. They lose too.
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So the biggest beneficiary of global trade over the last 30 or 40 years has been the US because the products we export are high margin, high value add manufactured products. We're the second biggest manufacturer in the world.
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But what we do is we take cheap oil from Canada, we refine it, we take cheap products from other nations in earth minerals, and we turn them into very expensive 55-point margin NVIDIA chips. And services. Don't leave out services. So Tesla, another example. Toyota, really well-run company, trades at 0.7 times revenue. Tesla trades at 8 times revenue.
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How do I look? Oh, my God. Could you be any more? Well, you're apologizing for not having books behind you.
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So for every billion dollars in reductions in trade of Tesla, we lose $8 billion in market cap. They lose $77 million. So the echo effect here is so dramatic. And even beyond that, even beyond that, you're going to see, in my view, over the next five years, a pretty serious destruction in the value of our stock markets. And it's for the following reasons.
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The US market trades at a PE multiple of 28 until Wednesday night, now it's down to 26. Germany is at 22 or 23, Japan at 18, China at 14. Now, why do our companies trade at a higher value for the same earnings, the same profits? as companies in other nations. It's because we have this umbrella called the US brand, and it means a lot of things.
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It means risk-aggressive capital, it means entrepreneurship, it means great universities, great IP, it means immigration, it means rule of law and consistency. We're seen as a consistent trading partner. China doesn't have rule of law. They can put companies out of business right away, they can disappear people. Germany doesn't have as much risk capital, they're not as aggressive.
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The US is losing or has lost two things, rule of law. We've now decided to basically ignore court orders. We're doing one-offs and companies that make no sense. We're deporting people to El Salvador for no reason at all. In addition, we're no longer seen as consistent. The epileptic sclerotic decisions of this guy So what are you going to have?
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Yeah. Do you like my new studio?
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You're going to have a re-rating of the S&P down from 26 to maybe 15. And here's the thing. All of our companies could continue to outperform the rest of companies around the world, and their stocks are still going to go down. If you invested in Latin American stocks... It didn't matter how well the company did.
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You cannot outrun multiple contraction, which is going to happen over the next five years.
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I'm not sure I like the red chair, quite frankly. Really?
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No, it takes me back to an era I think you've moved on. I think you've turned the page on the red chair. We'll see.
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I feel more confident answering the latter than the former. I can't predict Donald Trump's actions. I think he is so... Look, the only adult in the cabinet here that isn't on unsecure phones and apps releasing attack plans to the rest of the world and who has any understanding of economics... I've said this for a long time. The adult in the room is the Dow, the 10-year, and the NASDAQ.
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And if the NASDAQ keeps going down, they're probably going to have to respond. They're not going to be able to jazz hands their way out of this. The argument they're making is the following, is that sometimes the market doesn't represent the real economy. That's actually a relatively good argument. The Dow Jones and NASDAQ are dangerous indicators because they give a false signal of prosperity.
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And a lot of people aren't impacted by the markets. They're impacted by things like inflation. The problem is if you were to take minimum wage of $25 an hour, Or you were to increase taxes on corporations to try and have some fiscal sanity. That would take the markets down, but that would be an investment that would be worth it.
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This is just making products more expensive, making our products less competitive overseas, and convincing the rest of the world to reconfigure the supply chain to not include American businesses or professionals. That's just shooting yourself in the foot and then taking your gun and putting it in your mouth. But I have no idea what he's going to do. I just don't get it.
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I think if this gets much worse, he's probably going to do some bullshit. For example, Jamie Dimon's suggestion, that's even worse because it's the uncertainty that hurts more than the tariffs. We're going to pull another TikTok?
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It's just, for God's sakes, we'd be better off if he just came up with some sort of, not this tariff level, but some sort of modest tariff and let people plan their business. It's the uncertainty and the unpredictability. It's like being in a relationship with someone who's bipolar, speaking for a friend you don't know who you're waking up next to.
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No, I love Walt. I just think you've moved on. I don't know.
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The key to building a business, the team of the best players wins. Greatness is in the agency of others. Do you know these ass clowns? Do you know where they came up with the formula for their tariffs? If you type in tariff, give me a tariff that levels up our trade debt, which is a stupid, you want a trade deficit. But if you ask the question,
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Put in place tariffs against every nation based on bringing equilibrium to our trade deficit. If you put it into chat GPT, you come back with the exact formulas they came up with. Their economic advisors are fucking turning to chat GPT. Let's go to your second question, what to do as an investor. This is what you do. Nothing.
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And that is, whether it's you getting a divorce, whether you lose someone you love, whether you get fired, you do not make big life decisions in the midst of emotional trauma because you are not thinking straight. In addition... Tomorrow morning, he could announce, say you sell all your stocks today, he could announce tomorrow morning that he's removing all tariffs. He's capable of doing that.
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And the markets could rip up 2,000 points. And then what happens to your mental health when you're sold at the bottom? Probably the worst piece of financial advice given to media was when Jim Cramer, who I don't think is... I don't think he's malice. I think he's a good guy trying to do the right thing.
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No, I don't know. Black.
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He told investors at the very bottom, if you don't like this volatility, you should sell your stocks. Within 14 months, we had recovered all of our losses. If you sold when Jim Cramer suggested you might want to think about getting out, you saw your net worth cut in half. And even more damaging to your financial well-being was your mental well-being.
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because you saw everybody else get to back exactly where they were, and you were the idiot that sold at the bottom. This is what I'm doing. Since Q4 of last year, I just look at the S&P, it's trading at... Apple's trading at 38 times earnings and it's not growing. I have been selling down U.S. stocks and I have been diversifying into Latin American and European and some Asian stocks.
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Oh, good. That'd be nice.
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Because if you're just invested in the U.S., you are not diversified. And see above a re-rating down, a contraction in the multiple of U.S. stocks. You may want to think about maybe taking some tax losses, harvesting some tax losses. Talk to people. Talk to people. Have a kitchen cabinet. Don't do anything rash or out of emotion.
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But I think if you were to diversify into European stocks, which, by the way, you're not buying low and buying, selling low and buying high. European stocks have been hit hard, too. You're a little bit more diversified, which I think is a vastly underrated strategy.
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I think it reminds us how old you are. But anyways.
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That's upwork.com, upwork.com.
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Jen Psaki. Those are both great.
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I'd like to be friends with both of them. They'd be fun to roll with. We'll see about that. She's interesting and attractive, and he's interesting.
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Who's the handsome one? Who's the handsome one? All of them. Oh, John Favreau is who you're thinking about. Oh, he's dreamy. Yeah. That dude's dreamy.
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So no longer shop at Walmart, the biggest employer in the U.S.?
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It's just, okay, so let's look at Europe versus the US. We export NVIDIA chips. NVIDIA trades at 24 times revenues. For every billion dollars they sell in additional chips to other markets. Institutional investors and employees of Nvidia register a $24 billion gain. California gets enormous tax revenue from the incremental gains of shareholder value.
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Yeah, he's good looking.
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When Mercedes exports Mercedes in the United States, they trade at 0.23. If they lose a billion dollars in business, they lose $23 million in market cap. 23 million versus 24 billion in lost market cap? We have taken global trade has been great for the world. It's been the world more prosperous. And to be clear, we haven't done a good job of protecting the people who get hurt.
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Some people get hurt. There are certain industries. South Korea has done a good job of protecting nascent industries strategic to them with tariffs. Tariffs can be used. These blanket tariffs are, let me put it this way, one of the greatest increases in In global prosperity over the last 50 years, it would be hard pressed.
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He was on Survivor? Yeah, he was on Survivor. He's way too smart and overthought. He's out in the second round. Yeah, he was out pretty quick, I think. That guy's too. I don't watch that. That guy's, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this. I'm voting John off the island. Okay, college tour back to May.
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You might think, well, it's the world order where democracies have bound together under the umbrella of US prosperity and NATO and military might. We have kept the peace. Wars are very destructive to economics. But at the top of the list would probably be global trade. Find out what you can produce best at the lowest price and trade with someone who's really good at producing something else.
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You both get better products at a lower price and you have a greater quality of life. It's not only reduces the prosperity of the world, It massively, there's no nation that benefits more from global trade because our products are high margin, high value add.
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When Canada ships energy into the US, we then add value to it, we refine it, we turn it into higher grade petroleum and we sell it at triple the price to other people. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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So eight schools in five days, seven straight days of full parenting, cleared everything, didn't talk to anybody. I only talked to you once, if that. It was about the college tour. We went to, I like to personify everything. Obviously. And just so I can make sure my kid gets into none of them. I'll personify each of them. So the first one we did was UW, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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And when I was at UCLA, the fraternity next to mine was the Phi Caps. And the Phi Caps were basically these white dudes from small towns who abused substances who did really well on the SAT.
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That is the University of Wisconsin-Madison, except it's a girl who wears too much makeup, who really likes makeup. And... But they're doing their job. Actually, UW-Madison, I rag a lot on higher education. They're doing their job. They let in a shit ton of kids. It's crowded. They have money, but it's not the Ritz-Carlton, Madison. They get it. They got the assignment. I felt really good.
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I actually met with someone there just so I can virtue signal. They do this amazing program. where they train prisoners or they educate prisoners. They do classes at local prisons. I'm giving some money to it. They're doing their job. I was really impressed with them.
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They get dialed up. And that's not just TikTok. It's everything else. But why on earth would we allow missiles to be planted on an island, Cuba, 60 miles offshore, the U.S. coast, even if they claim they will never use them against us? Like, no, we're just not going to put up with that. And then again, it's the inconsistency that's going to take our prosperity now.
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Oh, biggest winner here. Winner. Biggest winner.
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They were really losing. Biggest winner out of all this, hands down. All of a sudden, Canada's like, Chinese are mowing up all the real estate in Vancouver. This is what every, China, every Chinese diplomat and businessman is working. I've done a lot of business in China. They're all working overtime and they're going to European capitals.
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They're going everywhere and saying, they may say, you may not agree with us, but you know what? We're good partners.
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It's an unbelievable gift to Vice President Xi.
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There you go. Thanks for that. And then we went to Chicago. Chicago's a dude.
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Yeah, UChicago. I did a session there in the Institute of Politics with David Axelrod.
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I like both of those. I'm an ageist. I think all of these old people need to go away. I think that Biden's inability and the people around him, their lack of backbone to acknowledge that biology is
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always wins is if we've decided the prefrontal cortex of a 34-year-old is too immature to have that person have access to nuclear weapons, and for God's sakes, an 80-year-old shouldn't have their finger on the button. And my win is the market is responding.
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Democrat, I think it's Saikat Chakrabarti, who was the comms director for 35-year-old former boss, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has decided that he's going to challenge Rep. Nancy Pelosi, or he did challenge her. For Chakrabarty, 39-year-old software engineer turned political operative. You know, I like seeing young people rising to the challenge.
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Yeah, which is available on YouTube. And... Imagine a guy in a park. They're one of two things. They either win a Nobel Prize. Everyone who goes there either wins a Nobel Prize or ends up in a park without shoes, feeding pigeons and speaking to themselves. I mean, these people are... I can't imagine people I would rather not party with than anyone who went to the University of Chicago.
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In Los Angeles, 37-year-old Jake Rakoff announced last week that he was running for the seat of his former boss, Rep. Brad Sherman, who's 70. Brad, Representative Sherman, you served your country well. Now collect a gold watch and go play fucking golf. You're too old. In Michigan, State Senator Mallory McMorrow, 38, launched a bid for a state's open U.S.
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Senate seat by talking about her experiences as a millennial. I mean, there are young people stepping up here.
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Very impressive. In Illinois, Kat Abugazala. That's the problem with all these young names. Oh, no. Names are too fucking complicated. Change your name to, like, Smith.
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Change your name to Smith. You'll get more votes. You'll get more votes. Anyways, Kat, I like that. That's what I'm going to call her, Rep Kat. Rep Jan Schakowsky.
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But go ahead. Oh, wait. She's running for the seat of Rep Jan Schakowsky, who is 80. Oh, yeah.
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Go home, Rep. Jan Schakowsky.
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Senator Schumer, you're 74. Someone this weekend offered me $10 million if I put in $10 million to run for president. I'm like, I'm too fucking old. You need someone who's going to work. 19. Bill Clinton slept five hours a night for eight years. All right.
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Old people. Old people. OK, we need my win is young people stepping up to the plate. If you're and I always like to put action behind a word. If you're a young, a young, moderate running against someone who just is only there because they're a fucking incumbent. Yeah. Email me, scottatstern.nyu, and I'm in. I'm in for the maximum campaign contribution. I'm voting for youth and new ideas and vigor.
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Okay, my fail is the following. On Thursday and Friday, I lost, I don't know, somewhere between six and eight million dollars. I got some of it back because I'd shorted AI stocks. So I probably lost four to five million bucks. That's the bad news.
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The good news is I am so blessed and privileged because of the underpinnings of an America that offers prosperity, offers opportunities to the children of single immigrant mothers who lived and died a secretary, rule of law, great entrepreneurial culture. It really doesn't matter. I'm fine. I know it matters to a lot of people.
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I'm knowing flexing and bragging about my wealth, but it does have a point. My disappointment is that, okay, we now live in a nation where we've decided to side with autocrats, not democracies pushing back on autocrats. where it's possible that you can go to jail if you don't narc on someone who is planning to get an abortion.
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We live in a country where it is feasible where a 14-year-old who is raped has to carry her child to term. We live in a country where a woman could die of sepsis in an emergency room parking lot. because she's bleeding out because the medical professionals are too scared to perform a necessary abortion.
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We live in a country where we now have a president who's opened a Swiss banking account where anyone can put money in in exchange for political favors and not have to disclose it. That is the country we are in. And here's what money has done.
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And we can intimidate law firms into agreeing, into agreeing not to represent the president's adversaries. I mean, that's the whole point of the, that's the whole fucking point of our legal system. Paul Weiss, go fuck yourself. Jesus Christ, don't call yourself, you should never call yourself an American law firm. Your headquarters is fucking Moscow meets Mar-a-Lago. What cowards.
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Having said that, having said that, anyone that interviews with me that went to the University of Chicago, automatic hire, because they're self-hating, they work all the time, they're brilliant, mildly depressed, perfect employees. Perfect employees.
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And by the way, guest speaker, Bob Iger. That's the country we're in. And where do people turn up? Where do people decide, that's it, we have to go to Mar-a-Lago? Is when the markets are down 10%. Well, guess what? That's about number 30 on my fucking list of what terrible things have happened to this country. So look, I'll take it. I'll take it.
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But when it's all about the markets and not about people's rights, not about humanity, not about coarseness and cruelty, not about the whole point of a constitution, the whole point of a democracy is you protect the lower 50. You and I are going to be just fine. And I understand your concerns about your family. I think those are real concerns.
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The majority of people in the top 1%, we're going to be fine. The whole point of a constitution and a democracy is you have to protect the bottom 50. And what is all of a sudden the red line? The NASDAQ is down. That's what has people riled. That's the red line.
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Yep. All right. We're okay with murderous autocrats and 14-year-olds carrying babies to term. But if the NASDAQ goes down, That's too much. You know what? On Thursday and Friday, the market's going down. I could give a flying fuck. I'll take the markets down another 10%, start protecting the lower 50.
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This is the gay son we all want. Oh, okay. This is...
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The hard part, though, is occasionally I read The Onion and I'm like, is that actual news today? I know. Exactly.
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Today's show is produced by Larry Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kate Gallagher. Ernie Ertod entered into this episode. Julian Villard edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Brosman, Severo, and Dan Shulon. Nishat Karwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Don't you often see someone and think, what's their story? What's their life? How did he end up on a park bench without shoes, feeding pigeons and speaking to himself?
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This is stylish, impressive. Yeah. Good in theater, but also like takes AP everything and does well. And it's the most, there is clearly so much money there. It is such a beautiful campus. It is. But the lake is just sitting there going, oh, bitch, I'm going to make it so cold about three months a year. Yeah. All month of the year. Oh, my God.
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University of Chicago. I was on a college tour, Cara.
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You can just feel Mother Winter in the wear going, oh, just wait and see what I'm going to do to you. Then we went to Michigan.
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Your son is Michigan personified. Oh, no.
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Imagine you're a power forward.
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and work out all the time and a nice kid, and you also get 11 million on the SAT. They're like, these kids are. Michigan is one of the schools, it's arguably the best public school in the nation, maybe tied with Berkeley, but you can go super deep on social or you could literally try and split the atom at the building next to the cafeteria.
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You could go deep either way. I think Michigan, and it's a big school, I like to call out schools that are doing their job. They're living up to their mission. They're trying to keep tuition reasonable. It's not inexpensive, but educating a lot of kids. They're doing their job and it's a really impressive place. And also you can go deep in sports. Your son saved the day. What happened?
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It's storming, about 300 people. By the way, we show up, we've been doing all these tours. By the way, easy law. It should be a law punishable by death. No parent should be able to ask a question in the fucking parent's teacher in the tours. They all, I was so triggered.
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None of the students could ask a question because the over-parenting and get this, the highlight, this is a true story, University of Chicago, University of Chicago, Three women, three moms, ask the same question sequentially about safety on campus.
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The threat to an 18-year-old freshman on college campuses is dwarfed by the suicidal ideation of overprotection of parents that don't prepare them for the fucking real world. Moms asking questions at parent-teacher... I don't think they should ask questions then. I agree. Parents at college tours are a bigger threat to your kids' safety. All right.
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Okay. Anyway, so we get there. They canceled the tour. The weather was so bad. They're like, we're canceling the tour. So you have 100 kids and 200 parents just sitting in the hallway. So I text Alex and he's like, yeah, come to the house. We showed up. Imagine you're an animal living inside a trash dumpster and it had Greek letters on the side. It smells like old beer. There's shit everywhere.
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And by the way, it's much nicer than my fraternity. And it's these kids playing foosball. Some are in suits. Some are studying physics. There's a weight room.
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It took me back. I lived in my fraternity for four years. And my girlfriend wouldn't come over. I'd say, why wouldn't you come over? And she said, it smells like cum. I don't want to come over. So I came up with a business idea. I came up with a business idea. I'm going to start a candle, and it's either stale beer or cum. I think it would work.
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That's my Senate piano. He saved the day. Oh, I'm sorry. Alex saved the day. And then Alex said, no problem. Come out of fraternity. We cruised around his fraternity. My son just got the biggest kick out of a fraternity. And then he took us on this like this, like, I don't know, Cliff Notes tour of Michigan and then took us for lunch. He literally Alex saved the day. We were in a typhoon.
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with a parent-teacher tour canceled, and Alex did this whirlwind. He saved the day. And my son is very impressed by Alex. He couldn't have been nicer and more generous. It's not easy for a kid to just take two or three hours out of his day. Anyways, thank you, Alex Swisher. And then we went to Boston College, which we were really impressed by.
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I say that was the biggest surprise of the upside, but it is sort of a... It's a fallen Catholic. It's a kid that used to go to church, and by the 11th grade, he's selling dope out of his RAV4.
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Oh, yeah. See what there?
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It's a contradiction. It looks like these kids are waiting to get home and light up and maybe start doing some, you know, doing some beer bongs. But there's sisters everywhere. I did not. I still haven't figured out what's going on there. But it's a really impressive. I was really pleasantly surprised by BC. We then went to... We then went to UVA. I want to go to UVA.
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I think it's the most beautiful campus in the nation. I think if we want to restore prosperity and mating, I think men and women should each get a number. And whatever the number is, you get married on the spot on the lawn. Everyone there is nice. Everyone there is good looking. Everyone is there is impressive. Just marry them all off. They should all just marry each other.
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They're never going to find a talent pool like that in the architecture. And then we went to UNC, and the terrible thing about teenagers is they start getting these terrible things called opinions. We got to UNC, and my son was like a dog off a leash in the park. He just started running around and going in buildings, and something happened at UNC. UNC is basically...
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The hottest, smartest person or the hottest, most, the most popular kid in class at all UNC schools have one thing in common. They leave North Carolina. The second hottest, most impressive person goes to UNC.
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It's just got a great vibe. Great vibe. A great vibe.
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I'm not exaggerating. And I'm a little bit scared to say this. I don't think it'll impact anything. But he walked to the top of the stairs. I couldn't tell the difference between UNC and UVA, except UVA looks like it has 50 or 60 wealthier donors. It's a little newer. It's a little shinier. But they look like the same school to me. He walked to the top of the stairs.
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He turned around and he looked out over the quad and he goes, this is my school.
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And all I can think about, 8% out-of-state admissions rate. I don't know if it's your school.
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I literally chat GPT'd that. How do you establish North Carolina residents? It's not easy. You actually have to live there. Anyways, it's two Republicans, but the governor's a great guy. All right.
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Anyways, that's my college tour.
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Really? The world kept spinning?
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Well, that's unfair. They'd fuck their mothers for a nickel. I think that's more accurate.
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Well, let's just talk about Apple. Americans don't want to go into a factory and screw in little screws. Americans don't even want to put on a hazmat suit and go to a regular factory. This notion that Americans are dying to go back to an assembly line is just not true. You can't get... You can't get Americans to work on a construction site.
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Do you think they're going to show up for assembly line work? So let's talk specifically about Apple. iPhone costs about $1,200 or $1,300. With the existing tariffs, they're going to $2,000. If we tried to produce them in the U.S., they'd be $3,500.
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Yeah, with AI. And what you... Leave it to Mark Zuckerberg to be the villain claiming to be the hero. I love what you said that every accusation is a confession. I mean, this is an awful man who has taken absolutely no responsibility for the damage that he's caused. And he wants to further sequester us from one another, not recognizing how dangerous that is.
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And I get mocked a lot for the quote-unquote, you know, talking about the crisis of lonely young men and, you know, well, if you're more lonely, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And if you're only more emotionally, you know, in touch with your emotions. Not having friends has so many ripple effects on the rest of your life.
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Professionally, when Google puts out a job opening, the person who almost always gets the job is someone who has an advocate internally. My advice to young people when they're looking for a job is go out every night and be as social as possible because you want to be put in a room of opportunities when you're not in it.
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Two, do you realize you're much more inclined to stay married when you have a lot of friends because you have someone you can bitch to about your partner? You're less likely to be depressed. You're much less likely to make really stupid fucking decisions financially. So money, marriage, professional opportunities are all correlated to your ability to establish and maintain friendships.
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And so when you see on average, men have gone from, We now have, I think it's a, what is it? One in seven men don't have a single friend and one in four men can't name a best friend. That means that cohort of men is gonna be less likely to have relationships, romantic relationships, less likely to have professionally. So friendships and being mammalia, it really is an issue.
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And again, you have a bunch of tech firms who are compensated to sequester you from anything in the real world so you can spend more time in their world so they can sell you more Nissan ads.
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Well, he's awkward. You're allowed to be awkward. There's a lot of awkward young people.
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Again, but that's a distraction from the fact that he keeps producing products. They're going to make young people more and more depressed and anxious and obese.
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But we want to pathologize these people. But again, let's move to solutions. The seven tobacco executives that stood in front of Congress whenever it was 25 years ago and raised their right hand and said, I do not believe that tobacco is addictive or nicotine is addictive.
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When you are paid not to believe something or you are paid not to understand something, it is really, you will find it's really difficult for you to understand it because you're paid not to understand it. These people are never going to come to their senses and like see the world as it is. We need... We need some sack in fucking Congress to pass laws. I agree.
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No, but a bunch of people texted me that you name-checked me, and I watched the episode. I thought you were really good. Also, I thought Speaker McCarthy was quite good, and I thought Bill did a really good job of...
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So, OK, we probably shouldn't have AI generated humanity and friends for people under the age of 18. We need to break these companies up. We need to remove Section 13. 230 protection with AI-driven bots. So if a kid who thinks he's in a relationship with Cersei from Game of Thrones, and he says, should I kill myself? And she says, I am waiting for you, my sweet.
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And then he puts a gun in his mouth, then fucking that character AI gets hit hard. Instead, we want to run all these stories about how awkward and weird he is. Who gives a fuck? He's awkward. Now figure out laws. True. Yep.
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Well, they revolutionized the world of investing in terms of buy and hold and buying good companies. And first off, I think that meeting registered what is probably the greatest promotion in history to go from VP of non-insurance operations to CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. I mean, congratulations to Greg.
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Oh, he's been named as the heir. I'm just saying from a title standpoint. Yeah, no, I know. That's a pretty big shift in title. That's a much cooler wrap at a conference or at a bar. Well, I'm VP of non-insurance operations. I'm CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Those get entirely different responses. Anyways, look, the part of the...
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The part of his speech, which I watched, which I thought was most powerful and which is totally counter to the current administration, and quite frankly, what infects America a little bit, is this notion that the global economy is a win-lose. And if you look at our economy since World War II, we've 8X'd our GDP significantly.
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We have we control we control basically have the most dominant media companies, seven of the 10 most valuable companies in the world are American. We have the best universities. Our household average household income has hit almost $80,000, which is vastly outpaced Asian or European countries. And this notion somehow that we've been taken advantage of.
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And if we increase our prosperity, it has to come at the cost of another nation or if another nation's prosperity is going up. It comes at our cost. It's just such lame, tired. The most visionary act, in my opinion, of the last hundred years was America said, okay, when we tried to punish Germany after World War I, it didn't work well.
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Because when people are doing really poorly abroad, to believe that you can protect your shores and your kids from that anger is just naive. You can't.
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And when people are much more prosperous, they're less likely, A, they want to buy your shit, they want to buy your Netflix, and they want to buy your Ford trucks, and they're less likely to raise disaffected youth who think, you know what, I would like to declare war on that country because I think their extraordinary advantage has come at my cost.
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Thank you for that. I appreciate that. No problem.
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So when you wanna build prosperity across the oceans, and the problem with this zero sum thinking that literally President Trump defines is this notion somehow that we don't want other nations to do really well, that it comes at our costs. When other nations prosper, it's generally a proxy for how well we're doing. And we have through global trade, through IP, through our universities,
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The most important thing is you look good.
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When other nations do well, we do really well. And he just laid this out. He wasn't political. He didn't use the president's, he didn't vote the president's name. Gay marriage didn't come at the cost of heteronormative marriage. There's a very dangerous trope in the manosphere that the ascent of women has come at the cost of men. It has not.
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Men are struggling for a variety of reasons, but as women thrive, that doesn't mean it's a zero-sum game and we start to do worse. You want the world to prosper. You want your business, you want nations you trade with.
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And if you look at, it's just so obvious since 1945, if you had to pick one nation that has done really well, a lot of people would say the ascent over the last 20 or 30 years of China is probably number one. And by the way, that's been amazing for them and amazing for us. Their ascent has resulted in incredible prosperity for Americans.
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Have we outsourced certain jobs and not thought about the people we were left behind? Absolutely. Is there asymmetry of trade? But the fact that we're able to enjoy such materially wealthy or rich lives is in large part because the Chinese have ascended. Also, when countries ascend, they're really... inclined not to declare war on you or their neighbors when they're prospering.
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Not how I looked. I thought you thread the needle really well. You're able to push back but also come across as... Like goodwill, you're not trying to make the other person look stupid. You're just saying exactly what you think, but you're not doing it in a, that's a skill. I don't have that skill. I get angry and combative. And it was good natured.
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Whenever I go to Mykonos or Ibiza, I have noticed a lot of young kids from the Gulf are dominating these really expensive restaurants. And you know what? It's a wonderful thing because they think, you know what, this whole prosperity thing, this whole Western notion of capitalism is really good for us. And so we're less likely to be radicalized. We're less likely to be angry.
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And he pointed that out so simply and so eloquently that we have to exit this zero-sum thinking as embodied by the Trump administration right now.
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I thought Amazon had a great quarter. I couldn't get over this Kuiper thing. I think that's a big deal. Amazon's probably most vulnerable to the tariffs because two-thirds of their business is in the U.S., and obviously a lot of their products would be subject to the tariffs. But these companies are just so well-run. AWS grew 17% year-on-year.
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North American retail sales grew 8%, which is the slowest since the pandemic, but it's still vastly outpacing any other big retailers. And the stock fell, but right now, I think from the analyst community, they look at Amazon as a cloud company with a retail division, so they're really focused on AWS. And I think the most exciting thing about Amazon right now is this Kuiper. Kuiper.
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Oh, good. Kuiper. Thank you. It wasn't Cooper.
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I thought, I was actually surprised at the upside by the speaker. Or Speaker Emerta or Emeritus. And I thought Bill did a good job. I did not understand the Cheech and Chong episode.
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I thought Apple had the weakest of all of them. Their sales were up 5%, which beat expectations, but I believe a lot of that was front-loading. And that is consumers thinking, all right, I keep seeing rumors of the phone going to $2,300 with tariffs and $3,500 if it's produced in the U.S. So I thought a lot of people thought, well, it's time for a new iPhone. I'm going to pull it forward.
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And I've been selling down, and I've been very public about this, my Apple stake, which I bought in 2010, because I think at a PE of 34, a company that is effectively not growing, its price as a growth company in reality is it's flat. And their big announcement was...
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Another increase in dividend and share buyback, which quite frankly is the sign of a very mature company that does not trade at 34 times earnings. And there's nothing, you used the word refresh, there's nothing that interesting really. And also Apple intelligence, which is sort of their attempted AI, has been delayed again. So I think Apple is in for a rough road.
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It's an amazing product, but just looking at it from a valuation standpoint, let's look at earnings per share growth, right? It's 10 to 12%. Microsoft is 12%. They both trade at about 33 times, a P of about 33 times. Alphabet is growing at 18% and trades at a P multiple of 18. Amazon grew their EPS 30% and trades at a lower P of 31%.
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Meta grew their EPS by 10%, about the same as Apple, and they traded 22%. And NVIDIA
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You know, obviously that one's trading at a, you know, a crazy, crazy P. But if you just look at, if you just look at bottoms up fundamentals, if you look at growth and earnings and top line revenue relative to their valuation or price on earnings, Alphabet is the least expensive and Apple by far is the most expensive.
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Yes, stupidity squared, more stupidity. We're a net exporter. One of the biggest advantages we have as a country is that we're basically running a 24 by 7 commercial on Brand America called Baywatch or The Fantastic Four. These movies generally reflect an aspirational view of America and the whole world consumes our media. And the notion that it's easy how this plays out.
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It's this exact same thing that happened with Apple is going to happen with Netflix. Someone is going to go, okay, if we impose 100% tariff on their movies coming in, which may be even more difficult to surmise than looking at automobile movies, manufacturing where some parts go back and forth across the border a half a dozen or a dozen times.
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This will be even more difficult because if you have an American Warner Brothers film with American actors, American gaffers, but it's being filmed in Prague for tax credits. Okay, tell me how we tariff that.
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What do you tariff? The cost of production? I don't know. These are all really good questions. Honestly. And then when Netflix, who consumers love almost as much as Apple, start going, let me get this I'm going to have to pay more at the box office.
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He's going to send production and media businesses into a flurry where they have to pause, stop, think through what is going on here. And then he will blink. And then he will realize that when every European nation says, fine, if you want us to put 100% tariff on all of the media coming into Europe from the U.S., you want to see L.A. really take a dive? I mean, L.A.
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has basically lost most of its production business assets.
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But if you want to see, I mean, he's literally going industry by industry. And at a minimum, he's putting it into a state of paralysis. And I've become pretty good friends with a guy who's run Warner Brothers Europe. Basically, his job was to take Harry Potter and, you know, Batman and come to Europe.
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And start just grabbing money and to say to the biggest Polish streamer, all right, I want $7 million for you to be able to run Batman. And then go to the London theaters and say, all right, I've got an idea for a Harry Potter play and I need 14% royalties. We literally just suck money out of countries using our IP.
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And he doesn't believe they're going to just say, okay, 100% tariff on any media coming in here.
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Yeah, this is a calm before the storm. And I live in London, so I don't have a front row seat here. But my understanding is in about the next four to 12 weeks, you're just going to start to see things trickle through the supply chain and prices will go up and there'll be some shelves that are empty. And Americans... Americans basically take their cues from their consumerism.
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The San Francisco Library is gorgeous. What does that mean though?
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And when they see empty shelves, as they did in COVID, the next thing they buy is a gun. They get very freaked out when the shelves are empty. And the notion somehow that American consumers won't respond, i.e. freak out. about shortages or prices going up. This is a nation that was essentially formed off of a rebellion when the price of a tax on tea was increased.
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And just Timu and Xi'an are responsible. I mean, in the holidays, 20% of all purchases through the holidays were through either Timu or Xi'an. And all of a sudden, and Timo is essentially announced they're just stopping all shipments. They're like, and I don't even think it's the tariffs. I think it's the insecurity. We know how to plan our business.
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Wait, insulting billionaires is now literature? What does that mean?
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To bring this home, I have my roommate, my sophomore year in the fraternity, this lovely guy. has that specialty products business, everything you get at a conference. He had all this stuff on a boat, had to go down to the port and write like a $2 million check, which he just does not have lying around.
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Nice little business, 180 employees, a family business, built amazing living for himself and a lot of people. And I don't know if he's going to survive this. He just can't. He doesn't have time to reroute his supply chain. About 80% of it comes out of China. He doesn't have time to reroute his supply chain through all of these other Southeast Asian nations. And people, 98%, 98%,
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of the businesses that are run or dependent upon import-export are small and medium-sized business. And here's the problem. They don't have any fucking lobbyists. So let's go back to the media tariff.
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Yeah, they don't have the capital. Say, in fact, he does manage to implement some sort of tariff around our content. You know who will get an exemption? Netflix. But the little independent producer of a film or someone who makes little documentaries, they're shit out of luck.
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So this is yet again, this transnational oligarchy with a top 1% who have access, have lobbyists and can get on his lunch calendar. get, quite frankly, probably end up stronger in the small and medium-sized business, which, by the way, folks, create two-thirds of all new jobs in America. They're shit out of luck. I mean, they're just... And I could just hear in his voice, he's like...
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He doesn't even know how to respond.
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PBS, libraries. I mean, what's next? You're going to some interpretive dance with Alan Alda? You literally could not be more woke.
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Actually, the last time I was in a library, I took my girlfriend in college to show her that my dick was in the Guinness Book of World Records. And then the librarian made me take it out.
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Yeah, so we don't shy away from highlighting that he doesn't acquit himself well, but I actually like the idea of new incorporated cities.
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Well, just because if you look at the basic American dream, right, it's to meet somebody, get a good job. And someday afford a house. And one of the things I like about these initiatives, including the one that those VCs were proposing and, you know, the Inland Empire.
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I like the idea of kind of when I liked a free zone or a city where they could take manufactured homes and just build a shit ton of them. without it being weaponized. I mean, essentially one of the problems for this kind of nimbyism is that housing permits have been taken out of the hands of bureaucrats and put into the hands of homeowners.
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who once they own a home, decide there should be no more homes. So I actually like the idea. There's some developers in Florida.
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Well, you know, like you said, there's company towns. Look, I don't like the man the town is focused around, but I like the idea of competition in cities and these things popping up and taking a different approach to how a city is run. He'll have capital. Hopefully he'll build housing for his employees. I don't know. This is like the least offensive thing he's done in a while. I'm okay with it.
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So my win is Representative Tallarico. I don't know if he's in the Texas House, but I saw his – he did a speech. He's been fantastic on Texas schools. He – He's been talking a lot about vouchers. I hate vouchers. A lot of my, actually, wealthy friends really like vouchers and the idea of school choice and competition.
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I see vouchers as nothing more than a giveaway and another transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy. And I think about the school my kids went to in Florida, which was a private school, a lovely school. And I don't doubt that some people would be able to afford to go there if we gave them vouchers. But essentially what happens is...
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You lose wealthy dual-income parents in the public schools. And all it is, as far as I can tell, not all it is, 70, 80% of it ends up being essentially just a tax rate giveaway for the wealthy who are already in private schools. And now you're going to subsidize subsidize their tuition by $10,000 and take yet even more money out of the public school system.
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And not only that, skim off the most wealthiest parents who, it's not even just their money, it's their ability because of their wealth to be engaged in the quality of that school. And he also started talking about, he had this great session where he started questioning this law and how this law had mistakenly referenced litter boxes in schools. Let's play the clip.
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I mean, this guy, he really brings, he's very forceful yet dignified. He's a Texas state representative. I really think this kid is a comer. He's 35. And he also, I mean, this is just so, it's so weird to go out there and have the governor adopt this talking point that kids are dressing up as cats.
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And this is not only an attack on public schools, but it's an attack, quite frankly, on the whole notion of transgender because they couch it in the notion that, Kids are presenting themselves as all sorts of different things and the public schools have gotten so woke and so weird that if you say you're presenting as a cat, they give you a litter box, which by the way, it's all a fucking lie.
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Yeah. I asked the librarian if she had a book about it. Men with small penises. And she said, well, it's not in yet. And I'm like, that's the one. That's the one.
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But this kid, this kid's a comer. So State Representative James Tallarico, I just thought he was so, I don't know, dignified. I thought, God, can that guy run for president?
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Yeah, I'm just going to make up lies to give people fodder. And because we don't have a populace now because of shitty K through 12 that doesn't critically think, and because we have a media that will repeat any talking point, and the governor picks up this talking point and starts using this as an example.
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There you go. My fail is this whole Maha movement, Make America Healthy Again, and this notion that it has something to do with vaccines or dyes, all of that. But just as the pill had massive amounts of estrogen in the 60s and 70s, and they've been able to achieve the job of birth control with lower and lower doses of hormones, vaccines have actually been able to do the same thing.
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They're just as effective with less of, quote unquote, with fewer antigens. The whole outrage around dyes, I understand our food supply and that it should be looked at meticulously. But this, again, is nothing but a weapon of mass distraction from what is the real problem in health in America.
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And that is you and I, Cara, because we're in the top 1% of income earners, we on average live eight to 10 years longer than someone in the lowest quintile because we don't have to work two jobs. We have access to working out. We have access to good food. We have access to good doctors. We have access to mental health. The reality is life expectancy is directly correlated to your income level.
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And unless we do something about income inequality, we're just shuffling chairs around on the Titanic. And if you look at what's happened in our healthcare system, despite the fact our household income has gone up, our costs per consumer have gone way up, our life expectancy on average has gone down because people live in food deserts. They can't get access to good food.
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They can't get access to exercise. They're sleep deprived because they're so fucking poor and working so much. All of this is a distraction from the fact that he's pushing through a tax cut, which will be a tax cut for the top 5% and a tax increase for the other 95%.
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So no matter what dyes or vaccines you try and demonize, until people in the middle class and lower-income homes have the actual money to pursue health, these outcomes are going to get worse and worse.
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Yeah. Can you tell, what is it?
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I tried to check out a book on suicide, and they said no. They were worried I wouldn't return it. That's wrong. That's just wrong. There's no good suicide library jokes.
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Did you go to any cool restaurants with cool hot people in L.A. ?
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You know, we got to live every day like we're meeting with J.D. Vance.
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Oh, what did you think of that? I keep thinking that I might stay there. I think it's too young for us.
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie Ertod engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Brose, Miss Averio, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kharoua is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
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It has all those sharp edges. I'm worried I'm going to cut myself and bleed out on the floor.
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Congratulations on your library laureate award.
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Well, I sort of go to, I'm sort of done with, okay, this is a guy who's interested or acknowledges that he's quite likely has no fidelity to the Constitution, that he might try to run for a third term, that he's using to use military force against our allies, that he doesn't stand on his own two feet. And he finds he takes responsibility for deporting U.S.
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citizens to what are effectively black sites and then claims that he can't get them back. So lack of accountability, lack of... But then says he can.
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Well, but every time he's faced with a hard question like, will you uphold the Constitution? He says, well, you need to talk to the lawyers. I'm sort of at the point now where I'm no longer... We know this is a person who's a stain on the American experience. The thing that I find so fascinating and we're not focused enough on in terms of being this force that's supposedly pushing back is that
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Democrats are less popular than the president. And I think the hard conversation we need to have is, okay, we all agree he's awful and a threat to America and it's taking the global economy down. And yet our leadership is so feckless, neutered, and ineffective, they can't push back on it. And so what I would like to see is Leader Jeffries or Senator Bennett or someone who's
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You know, Senators Klobuchar, I'd like to see them draft legislation that says, if you're a nation and you're hosting black sites and U.S. citizens have been found to be incarcerated in those black sites and you haven't returned them immediately and you're cooperating with this. we are going to economically punish you severely.
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If you're a nation that is engaging in fraud around cryptocurrency or investing in schemes that ultimately hurt consumers around the world, we may levy the same economic damage on you. That bill would not pass, but I think we need to send a flare across the bow that if we take back the house, this is coming. So enough already. What are we going to do about it?
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PBS, libraries, I mean, what's next? You're going to some interpretive dance with Alan Alda? You literally could not be more woke.
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I'm kind of sick of reporting about how outrageous the president is. I want to see the Democrats do something.
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Well, and also, shouldn't there shouldn't there essentially be legislation or a lawsuit filed that says the statute of limitations on some of the crimes I believe are being committed are longer than three years and nine months? And the justice system similar to America its memory is long and its reach is far.
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And for those of you Republicans who think that, or members of the administration, or proxies of the administration who believe that you can commit securities fraud or wrongful imprisonment, whatever you want to call this, God help you when there's an actual DOJ. Because, you know what? I think at some point, the Democratic Party needs to be the party of not fucking around.
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And I think we're just being run over. And it's not, our popularity is lower than an insurrectionist right now. Not because we don't have the right ideas, not because he's bad, but we're seen as just so fucking weak. People would rather have, and I'm not saying this is the right thing, Americans have decided they'd rather have an autocrat than a weak party.
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Oh, no, he's going to pardon hundreds of people, but there needs to also be- No, but he's going to pardon himself.
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I just think we need to come up with creative ways and indicate that you want to talk about executive orders, you want to talk about a DOJ, you want to talk about- I mean, I just, we're sitting around just outraged.
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You know what our response has been? The most ridiculous thing I've seen all year is when asked how they were pushing back. Senate leader Schumer responded with a strongly worded letter.
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He's got to go. I mean, my God, we need literally- Nancy got mad.
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That's, again, another distraction. He knows it's never going to happen. Don't look at the fact that my family- has increased their wealth by $3 billion with a crypto scam since I took president. Or I took the office.
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I'm in Hamburg, Germany. That's not an easy flight for me. And I'm at the age where I'm trying to reduce the things that are bad for my health, like traveling across time zones all the time.
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I did a Zoom with a Republican congresswoman two days ago talking about the tax status of universities. And she wanted to talk about, I had said about a year ago,
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That I thought universities with an endowment over a billion that weren't growing their freshman class size greater than population growth should lose their tax-free status because they need to stop being LVMH and start living up to their mission of being public servants and letting in more kids.
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And immediately, a lot of Republicans have picked up on that and said, under the auspices of revoking their tax-free status. And so I said to her, look, if this is an attempt to be a good actor and try and expand freshman class size, I'm down and I want to help you and I want to work on it. I've thought a lot about this.
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If this is nothing but a false flag such that you can attack institutions that you see as advancing critical thinking, which lately has been bad for the Republican Party. I mean, this... This ridiculous notion that they're revoking tax-free status because of anti-Semitism, there is some real concerns around anti-Semitism across Ivy Leagues. This is not why they're doing that, folks.
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You're challenging too much. That worries me. And you received a Library Laureate Award, and you were on Bill Maher, which you want to talk about first.
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Yeah, I mean, again, it's clear he's pretty awkward, but what people missed was, and this is terrible, is he's claiming that these new agents he's going to put forward, these AI agents, are going to solve loneliness.
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100%. I'm an ageist, and so is biology. We age-gate the Senate. You have to be 30. We age-gate Congress at 25. We age-gate CEOs of companies in the UK. They say at 65. In India, I think you have to retire at 65. In the UK, the mandatory retirement age for UK Supreme Court justices is 75. Your prefrontal cortex, when you're a male, does not catch up to a woman's until the age of 25.
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And guess what? From the age of 40 on, your prefrontal cortex begins to shrink. And Senator Feinstein did not know where the fuck she was the last year she was in the Senate. And you lose the ability and the judgment, and people around you want to give you some dignity, and it ends up really hurting America. We absolutely need age limits.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
You know what? I like, personally, I'd go younger than most people. I'd probably go 70. Not 65, not 65, because we'd have to retire. No, people are in much better shape now. But I also, in a weird way, I think it's the right thing to do for people because it takes that anxiety away. It's like, all right, it's time for you to go enjoy your life.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Go have a nice life. You don't need to leave this place, feed first. Also, the thing I don't like, and this is one of the things I don't like about academia, is that nobody fucking leaves. And so there isn't room for young stars to advance at the rate they should, because we have some dude who was the bomb in gap one accounting in 1978, who won't fucking leave.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And because he has tenure, we can't fire the guy. And then he not only becomes unproductive, but is a means of trying to maintain some sort of relevance. He becomes obstructionist and general pain in the ass at faculty meetings.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Take to YouTube. He doesn't need to be a Supreme Court justice.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Bring in neurologists who say, look, this is where... This is the thing about age decline is it's not linear. It really drops fast. And at what age are people most likely to start really seeing a serious cognitive decline and have an age gap? But it is insane that we would have lower age limits, but we don't have upper age limits.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
By the way, a couple of the 14-year-old girls my son had over for a Halloween party would have done a better job and had a better... command and grasp of the issues facing the Senate than Senator Feinstein. I mean, there are these stories all over the place. So absolutely, for them, for us, for our Constitution, yeah, we need age limits, 100%.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I just can't even go there, Cara. I'm so fucking triggered. Between surrendering to Putin and measles, I can't even think about what might happen then. You take this one.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I don't see any evidence of that. I haven't seen any evidence he's declining.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And I'm Scott Galloway.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Well, you know, Cara, I hate to talk about me, but, God, can you imagine how much ass I would get if I was president, post-president? I couldn't do it as president, but post-president. Look, I'll be very transparent. I've been approached twice in the last two years by people who said, actually a firm and a person who said, if you put in 10 million, we'll put in 10 million.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Not for president, but run for Senate or governor. And let's be honest, I have all the attributes to do this. I'm a narcissist, and I have outdoor plumbing, and I'm white, which are the three primary considerations for running for office. And also, I have money. Clever.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I appreciate that. I appreciate you saying that. Here's the bottom line. I'm not qualified. I don't have the domain expertise. I'm not especially good with people. I think you have to be really good with people. And also, and Kara knows this, this isn't an act, but this is a side of me that is not in many ways, the real me, and that is I'm an introvert.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
When I'm not on a podcast or on television, I don't enjoy people, I don't get energy from them. I want to be around a small group of people and on my own, and that does not make for a good politician. In addition, and I've learned a lot about this from Cara, and Cara has been very generous and helped me develop the platform and the skills to actually make a change.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I think Cara and I can actually have more impact from outside of the tent. And I think right now, if we are thoughtful and fearless and appreciate our blessings as Americans and decide to pipe up and be strong and thoughtful inside experts and be disciplined and show talent, I think we can affect more change in many ways than almost any congressperson and most senators right now.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I think Mark should run.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
He's the good billionaire. He's the billionaire we need right now.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Just selfishly, look at our lives. I can't imagine having a nice life. Can you imagine running for office and all the shit you have to go through?
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
But here's what I'm going to do is I'm going to take what is for me a decent amount of money, which for almost anyone is a lot of money, and I'm going to support moderate candidates and causes. And I'm moving back to the US in 18 months because I want to be in the fight. I think that this is an existential crisis, especially I think rich people need to get aggressive.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I think it's easy for us to just sort of fold our arms and sit back because the reality is we're going to benefit from the Trump administration. And I think we need to go a little bit more, be a little bit more aggressive.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Actually, Cara, you travel as much as I do. I travel as much. Do you have any thoughts?
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
You really only sleep four or five hours a night?
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
So first off, it is a real issue. I have been, as I joke, molesting the earth for 30 years. I travel a lot. And there is no, I found there's no silver bullet. There's a few tricks. The first is, quite frankly, is just a message of privilege, and that is I no longer do red eyes, or I try not to. I will take, when I come back from New York to London, I'll fly in the morning.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And I'll do a little bit of work and a little bit of nap, you know, take a nap. And I also don't fly into places just for the night any longer. I'll go somewhere and I'll stay one or two days to adjust. But I have some general go-tos that they say are what you're supposed to do. The first is I try not to drink alcohol, especially on the plane. I try to drink a ton of water and hydrate.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
As soon as I get to the place where I'm going, I try to work out. Even if it's just doing, I try and do 100 burpees in less than 12 or 14 minutes when I get into my hotel room if the gym's not open, but I try and immediately exercise. I find sweating really helps. And then if at all possible, even if it's just taking a walk, just going outside and putting my face in the sun for 10 to 12 months.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And some exercise slash sweating, hydration, and getting your face, getting in the sun, if there's sun wherever you are, But it's something I struggle with. And also, and it just helps to have money finally. I used to literally fly to Paris for a night, fly back if I had a meeting at LVMH or wherever. Now I don't do that. I will spend a couple of days. I enjoy myself. I sleep in.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Also, I use sleep aids. I either take, if it's a nation that allows CBD or marijuana, I take half five milligrams edible before I go to sleep to help me sleep. If it's not, I'll sometimes take a half of Lunesta, but I find you got to get some sleep, even if it means using a sleep aid.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Yeah, so first is, and I'm not a humble person, I have an aptitude for numbers and I like data, but more than anything, greatness is in the agency of others. And I have people think that it's us producing this content. We obviously have our producers here. My small media company has 18 people and I have three people who do nothing but try and find interesting data.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
We should be the 11th province.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Well, you know what it means when you're only attracted to Canadians?
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
It means you're asexual.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Well, Canada first welcomed my mom and dad independently when they immigrated from Glasgow and London. And I had a terrible time when I visited Canada, said no one ever. I would suggest to anybody, if you want to go to a beautiful place with friendly people and great food, Montreal is the most European city in North America. Toronto is essentially like a clean, friendly New York.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And also my trick is when I find an interesting piece of data myself, I text it to my data team and I ask them to incorporate it in my presentations. And then I will write it down on my Apple Notes to try and cement it in my memory. So for example, yesterday I saw a piece of data that just blew me away and I wrote it down and it'll show up in my next deck when I do a speaking engagement.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Vancouver is arguably one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
But yeah, every year I went to Formula One in Montreal. I always take the excuse whenever I get invited to speak in Toronto. I just absolutely distinct of the Alliance. It's just a great place to visit, a great place to vacation. And also, you know, whether it's Michael J. Fox or Alan Thicke or Bryan Adams, there's just so many, we've just benefited from so many talented Canadians.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
But I have, Cara and I are really appreciative of that. We clearly struck a nerve. I've had several people come up to me on the street and say that they were very appreciative of those comments. And also just on behalf of almost every sane American, distinct to what you're hearing, the majority of Americans deep down really do feel very positive about Canada and Canadians.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Brazil, because I'm about to go back. Brazil and Canada. If Bannon finally convinces the Trump administration to come after me, I'm either moving to Florianopolis or Montreal. I don't know.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
You got married in Canada?
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
My parents got married in Niagara Falls.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I think that's a wonderful story. I also have a story about Niagara. I actually crossed the Niagara Falls on a tightrope, and it reminded me of getting a blowjob from a 90-year-old. And that is, you did not want to look down, Kara. You did not want to look down. What?
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And that piece of data was the following. Over 50% of 18 to 24 year old males have never asked a woman out in person. And I thought that was so illuminating and horrifying that I wrote it down and you can bet you're going to hear it again across all my different media channels. So
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Hold on, I got a worse one. Niagara, the ED drug for women. Keeps them wet for three days. Oh my God, stop, stop. Stop. That's bad.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Today's show was produced by Larry Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Notat engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows and Mia Severio. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. How do you get 100 drunk Canadian fraternity bros out of your pool? Guys, would you please get out of the pool? Never gets old.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Greatness is in the agency of others, but also when you find an interesting piece of data, it's not like I'm some Svengali that can just recall shit. I write it down and I use it over and over such that it becomes a static part of my web matter.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
98% of lesbians end up divorced.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Humans will do almost anything to avoid pain, and a subset of pain is the unknown, not knowing what's gonna happen. And so I get a lot of calls like this when companies are in play, being acquired, not doing well, should I leave? Is it gonna be shut down? So this is that type of question.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And my general advice is the following, is that change and disruption, you need to ask yourself what could go right. And that is, one, you don't know what's gonna happen, but also, If a lot of people get, say, it gets closed down and a lot of people get laid off, but the U.S.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
operation becomes the headquarters for North America sans the U.S., and a lot of people leave, that creates a lot of opportunity for promotions. So my general advice in situations where there's a lot of change and disruption is to ignore the psychological damage to the extent you can or the insecurity of the unknown. Because disruption brings a lot of opportunity.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And you might find yourself in six months, in 12 months, after a big event or non-event in a much better place than you'd anticipated. So especially with a company like TikTok that's got so much consumer power, you stick around and play it out. See what the next card when they turn it over, see what it is.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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With Coda, you can get the flexibility of docs, the structure of spreadsheets, the power of applications, and the intelligence of AI all built for enterprise. Coda's seamless workspace facilitates deeper collaboration and quicker creativity, giving you more time to build.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Your time is too valuable to spend doom scrolling all day long. Reading terrible anxiety-inducing news all day just isn't productive. Imagine how much time you could save if you limited your news consumption to just 15 minutes a day.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
You'd suddenly have the freedom to call a friend or learn to play the harmonica or just take a breath and be able to appreciate that you're not frying your nerves with more awful news. If you'd like to reclaim your attention without falling out of the loop, you might want to listen to the NPR podcast Up First.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Up First is a daily show that covers the three most important stories of the day in just 15 minutes so you can learn what you need to know and then move on with your day. Every episode gives you what you need to be informed about without compromising your sanity.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Episodes touch on the essential stories you need to know and cover topics including international conflict, the new administration, and so much more. I listened to a recent episode about Ukraine, and I found it actually quite even-handed. If you're looking for more news and less noise, you can listen to the Up First podcast from NPR today.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Yeah, I think I have a little bit of a different take. And I think the underlying assumption is there's a lot of unemployment. And the reality is unemployment is still at pretty much historical lows, hovering around 4, 4.1%. Jobless claims are up a bit. There's a lot of headline news. I think the media loves, the media is like a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
It likes movement and violence and any indication of Things bad in the jobless market or unemployment gets a lot of noise, but the reality is employment in the US is still very, very strong. And distinct to that, there's a lot of change, tumult, insecurity, catastrophizing around AI.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And then a lot of people argue that that unemployment number is a bit illusory because you're considered a discouraged worker or if you're no longer seeking employment after two years. But having say that, in general, it would be really difficult to make the argument that unemployment is bad right now. It just isn't. And I would argue that it's not about unemployment.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
It's about wages and it's about the percentage of workers' wages relative to GDP, relative to the stock market's percentage and corporate profits. Essentially, labor as a percentage or wages as a percentage of GDP are at a near all-time low or near 40-year low, whereas profits and shareholder value as a percentage of GDP is staggering.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
In sum, it's easy to get a job, it's just not easy to get a job where you can make a good living. I think that's the focus.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And they should. That's their job. And the people who figure out how to be part of that efficiency are going to make more money. So that's just capitalism. But unemployment is actually at historic lows right now. So I think there's a lot of insecurity. I think there's more job changes. Let me move to what is actionable. A lot of people call me and say, I hate my job. What do I do? And I'm like,
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I think every three to five years, you should quit your job, even if you don't quit. And what I mean by that, well, you're different. You actually could. What I mean by that is I have been at NYU for 23 years, but I quit every three to five years. What do I mean by that? I go get an offer from a Columbia or Wharton or somewhere else.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And then I walk up to the dean's office and I say, this is the offer I have. And I'm totally transparent. I don't want to leave. I want to stay. But I need you to match the offer because this is market. And they hum and they ha and they make a bunch of excuses and then they match it. So the way, no one's going to manage your career for you. What you need to do is constantly quit.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
As a matter of fact, the surveys show the people who make the most money are job switchers. Not every year, but every three to five years. But here's what you do if you don't want to leave your job. You quit without quitting. You do a market check. You don't be an asshole. You go into your boss and you say, I got approached. This is what they're offering me. I'd like to stay. Be transparent.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
The truth has a nice ring to it and get a higher salary. But unemployment, no, unemployment isn't bad right now.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And the way you do that is with a market check. And you might find out that you're being overpaid. That's correct. And you should shut the fuck up. Don't tell anybody.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
If you're an American car maker, sometimes certain car parts or components literally go up and down Canada and cross Mexican borders six, eight, ten times. There's tariffs going to be everywhere in American automobile companies, except Tesla. The majority of their parts are manufactured vertically here in the US. The majority of the automobiles
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
they sell in China, which would be subject to the reciprocal tariffs that China is going to impose on American products. The majority of Teslas sold in China are actually manufactured in China. Now, and Tesla is suing Europe for their 7.5% tariff they put on Teslas sold, manufactured in China. So actually these tariffs, in my view,
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
And I also occasionally, if I have both a gummy and a couple Makers and Ginger, I put in my AirPods and I danced 80s music without my shirt on.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
were massaged and written and negotiated to a certain extent by Elon Musk. Because what this amounts to in the automobile industry is it's gonna seriously impair U.S. auto companies, but it's not gonna impair Tesla. But this is, what people don't realize, he'll try and get to some sort of political win, flex his muscle, America's back. But the amount of goodwill that we are eroding long-term
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
This isn't how you operate a business. This isn't how you operate a country.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
And long-term, they're just not going to be as inclined to coordinate, cooperate with our central intelligence agency when there's a terrorist threat cell in their country. The reason the U.S. is the most powerful nation in the world is for a variety of reasons, our geography, our natural resources, our IP, but also the incredible amount of admiration and goodwill our allies have for us.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
Well, a senator that both of us know heard our comments and our disappointment in the Democratic Party around messaging and hitting back and called me and said, well, what would you do? And I'm like, don't play the indignance card. Don't talk about all these federal employees being laid off. Don't be outraged.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
Have five or six different items, whether it's eggs, whether it's lumber, whether it's a toy, I don't know what, you know, a car, a new Chevrolet, and have it on the DNC website. and just every day announce what the prices are. Inflation is number one on people's minds. That's what they promised to bring prices down.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
And I don't see any way around how interest rates or prices don't immediately or near immediately tick up. And that's what impacts people every day. And that's what he promised to immediately bring down as we were going to bring prices down immediately. This is, I don't get the end game here. I don't.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
Well, in all of these stories that would have made huge news and had real scrutiny, one, there's fewer journalists to cover them and you flood the zone with all of this stuff. By the way, these tax cuts they're talking about, just so you know, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway are getting a tax cut. Anyone else on this show that makes less than $300,000 a year is getting a tax hike.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
So these tax cuts, again, done under the cover of flooding the zone, are going to cut taxes on people making over, the people making over $300,000 will get a small tax cut, people making over $800,000 or a million bucks a year, about to get a pretty nice tax cut. Is that what you voted for? More wealth for the 1%? But no one's even talking about it because everything seems even more outrageous.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
Yeah. There's so many things here that we can't, the media, and I don't think consumers can absorb it. And that was their strategy. In some ways, it's sort of mendaciously brilliant. Just, oh, slip in a tax cut for the rich because they're going to be focused on all this stuff over here, all our accusations of DEI and the things we're doing at the CDC. Distraction.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
There's just so much here, and one thing feels more strange, weird, reckless, economically stupid than the next. They won't notice all this other stuff. Project 2025 is being implemented.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
Are you? Why are you back in San Francisco?
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
Can we talk about the sites?
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Well, I've always maintained. For example, there was an HIV transmission calculator. And I've maintained that actually, I don't think Trump is homophobic. I'm not even sure it's fair to say that their policies are misogynistic. What I think their policies are, I don't know what the right term is here. I don't think this is a war on women. I don't think it's a war on gay people.
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I think it's a war on poor people. And if you have, the CDC had an HIV transmission calculator. And if you're a young man discovering your sexuality, and you live with a single mother, you don't have a lot of money, maybe you've dropped out of high school, it's important that these kids have this information about PrEP and PEP and what certain types of sex result in transmission of HIV.
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It's important that if you have an STD and you find out that you're pregnant, what that means and what treatment are available. And all those sites have been taken down. Now, who does that impact? Would it impact my son? No, it impacts poor kids. It impacts poor women. And it's the definition of censorship and purposely regressing and taking us back.
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It feels like it's not, I don't think it's a war on women or LGBTQ. It's a war on poor women.
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I think it's a bigger issue, taking the word diversity out of preschool or whatever.
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Well, let me finish. I think in terms of actual damage on the ground,
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not having information around vaccines for new mothers who may not have access to formal education, not having access to information around STDs, not having access to information around HIV transmission, not having access to who you can contact if you think your landlord is unfairly abusing you and won't give you your deposit back. I generally believe America, even under Trump,
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that rich people continue to have more rights at the expense of poor people. And I think that's the basic fulcrum and the injustice in our society right now. I think the majority of the people who are in special interest groups, as long as you have money, I think you're fine. This to me is just a war on poor people. And I agree with you, it's ideologically driven,
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Good. I'm about to get on a plane for Orlando.
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But what they've said is in order to execute it, we're going to give rich people a pass on all these things. They will still have access to medical abortions. They will still have access to lawyers to ensure they have civil rights. They will still have access to marriage if they want it. They're fine. It's poor people who are going to bear the brunt of all this ideological weirdness.
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Yeah. I have a speaking gig at Walt Disney World.
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Yeah. Don't ask. I don't know. I don't know. I just go where they send me.
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They do a lot of conventions there, I guess. I don't know. Foreigners? I don't know. I don't know what's going on there. I just know I'm going. And then I spend a day there, and then I go to New York for three or four days, and I'm back.
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The market is a sober arbiter and has done the math really quickly. Everybody loses over the medium and long term with tariffs.
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Yeah, like they continue to do, I mean, all of them, it just went from sort of better, you know, good, better, best. I don't think you've seen any chill around earnings. The thing I find most interesting is that all of them have essentially said we're going big at AI, except for Apple in terms of CapEx. And no one is thinking that Apple is the dumb one right now.
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Apple said, we're going to take sort of a wait and see approach and we're going to leverage other people's technology and investments. And Apple just continues to, you know, sort of overperform. And then the other one is Meta using their kind of AI ad technology. They continue to serve more ads, more targeted, more effective ads.
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It's almost like what Tim Cook did to Meta was similar to what we did to China around AI. And that is we forced or Tim Cook with their opt-in kind of trying to kneecap Meta actually inspired them to figure out a workaround where now their ad stack is much more robust and much more AI driven.
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And just as we held kind of sophisticated chip technology from China, which forced them to come up with a workaround that might, in fact, disrupt American AI, Apple sort of is, no one is criticizing Apple now for not making these enormous announcements about just these staggering investments.
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This is my thesis right now. There's three layers to AI, loosely speaking, buckets. There's the infrastructure layer, the NVIDIA guys. There's the LLMs, the anthropics, the open AIs, perplexity in there. Then there's the application layer, an Expedia or an Airbnb or whoever comes up with AI to do more sophisticated things and make their services better. They're the customer layer.
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I wonder if this is gonna end up being like the airline industry and the PC industry, where there's a massive increase in economic value and productivity, but no one company is able to capture the majority of revenues, similar to the way people are banking that Microsoft, OpenAI and NVIDIA are gonna be able to capture it.
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Yeah, I don't know. I don't, you spend, it's interesting, as close as we are professionally and personally, we are never in the same place. You spend most of your time in DC and San Francisco and I am never in DC or San Francisco.
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Now, Intel captured a ton of revenue and shareholder value because they were the brains inside of PCs. I was on the board of Gateway Computer. Do you remember them?
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We, okay, get this. PCs changed the world.
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I was on the board of Gateway Computer. I know. Talk about the weakest flex in the world.
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Sorry, did I say that wrong? Anyways, so we were the second largest manufacturer of computers. Think about it. If someone had said 100 years ago, PCs, or 50 years, PCs, these supercomputers that cost the government billions of dollars, we're going to be able to put one on every desk. What would the market cap of that company be? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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It's funny you say that. So just to bring this back to me, I have a really nice relationship with my sister. She's my dad's daughter by his third marriage. I'm the son by his second marriage. And I'm convinced one of the reasons that we're so close now is that we didn't live in the same household.
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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I've always been shocked by how many siblings are not that close, even though they're both really good people. And I'm convinced it's because something traumatic happens that creates a fissure when they're living together as children. And when you're a sibling, you feel that familial bond, but the fact that you never lived together, I don't know. She looks like a different species.
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She's attractive. She's blonde. She kind of looks, I always joke, she looks like Aryan youth. She has big, beautiful blue eyes and platinum blonde hair.
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. . . . . ., en P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P,實,實, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . a Laboratory a
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Yeah, she likes that. She likes that.
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Well, when you have the world's richest man who can deny people there's, you know, get in the way of their Medicare, Social Security, veterans benefits unilaterally based on his crew that shows up. I mean, it's the ultimate. We complain about regulatory capture and private capture. Richest man in the world is now
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have access to who gets money from the federal government without the approval or the oversight of our elected representatives. Again, there's just so much crazy shit going on that we never thought we would see. It's triage right now. There's so many incoming projectiles at everybody that they don't know how to respond and absorb this.
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But he is now the puppet master and the notion that he can go into a website and turn off payments for social services or government services or shut off foreign aid at his sole discretion.
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Well, that's fair because he's appointed by the president, the president can remove him. But my impression is based on the tariffs, the market's reaction to taking a stock up, that basically, okay, you have one guy who the president has entrusted to make these decisions real-time.
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And one of the downsides or the upsides of a bureaucracy, and what people would argue correctly sometimes in an efficient government, is that we don't let any... Power corrupts, and absolute power absolutely corrupts. And what we have here is absolute power, and what do you know? It's the world's wealthiest man. And it goes back to the same thing. There has to be a check on...
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this American experience where we just have decided that money translates to not only power, but to rights. And we are transferring more and more wealth, which subsequently means more and more power and probably most subsiding more and more rights at the expense of poor people. And what's going to happen to every company that isn't owned by Musk.
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And I look at these tariffs and I'm like, this is brilliant. He's figured out a way to create a tariff that pretty much exempts Tesla. Everyone was like, well, Tesla sells a lot of cars into China. No, all the cars being sold in China are manufactured in China. They're not subject to tariffs. Anyways, I find it very distressing and very un-American.
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I think almost every life lesson can be extracted from one of the seasons of Game of Thrones. I feel like Elon Musk right now is the high sparrow.
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Toman is President Trump. It feels to me like Trump is just massaging and coordinating everything here and shows up with these really impressive, probably very hardworking, intensely smart group of people. who show total fealty to Musk like a god, and I bet Trump admires that now, and Trump says to him, show that same loyalty to him. And Trump says, this guy's smart.
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He fired 80% of Twitter staff. This is exactly what we need in the government. And they just go at it. And I don't think at this point Trump has the regulatory checks to even slow him down unless he were to decide to fire him. So I think he's just going after it so fast and so furious.
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Yeah, it just, it feels, I mean, there's a component of it that I understand. There's a kernel of like value, you know, it's.
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You can see the importance of shock value. And occasionally you do need to kind of go in with a hammer, not a scalpel. It strikes me that this is just so reckless that it's going to take, it's going to erode decades. What do you think the morale is like?
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Yeah, look, it's impossible not, that's an impossible, I don't call it accusation, but it's an impossible comment to not land. Because if you knew somebody on one of those flights, you're devastated, right? They're losing a loved one unexpectedly in such a harsh spectacle. I can't imagine any of those people, including their families, are ever going to be the same again.
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It strikes me that you need a better strategy than showing up at churches and schools and workplaces for these immigration raids. I just find it so ironic that the agencies charged with locating people. Okay, starting with people who've been detained for a crime, I get it.
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But it just strikes me as so ironic that they have determined the place to find these undocumented workers is at work, church, or school. Doesn't that make them the most American of us?
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But it appears that we've decided that if we want to find undocumented workers, we should go to a workplace, or they're sending their kids to school, or they're going to worship. I find it so telling that maybe
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maybe i mean i i i'm not about i'm not against deporting people but i find it illuminating that okay we didn't wake up one day and just find out that 17 of people on construction work sites were undocumented workers and what i don't think we've come to grips with in terms of an honest conversation around this is one i do believe i don't think you can have open borders but two
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The reason why we have let this go so far is that if the secret sauce of America is immigration, the most profitable part of that secret sauce has been illegal immigration. We don't want to have an honest conversation about it because they come in, They take care of grandma, they pick our crops, they build our houses, and then when the work dries up, they leave without taking social security.
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They pay social security taxes, but they never stick around for social security. They actually don't lean on our social services because they're worried about being deported. And have you seen what's happened at construction sites across America? They're empty. People aren't showing up. So I wonder if this strategy is just of trying to shock and awe and intimidate
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is very shortsighted and not good for the economy and not going to accomplish what we need to accomplish in terms of having a sane immigration strategy. That's my, you know, anyways, call it two fails in a row here. The other real fail, again, under the auspices of flooding the zone with mendacious shit, you know, a foreign aid freeze, I think we spent about $70 billion or about $200 per citizen.
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And this is some of the things we do. You know, in Sudan, we support 634 soup kitchens that feed almost a million people. In Thailand and Myanmar, refugee hospitals funded by the U.S. are closing their doors. Patients with tuberculosis and life-threatening conditions are being carried away on makeshift stretchers. In Africa,
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I mean, the Democratic Republic of Congo, where USAID supported four and a half million displaced people, we were on the verge of eradicating diseases like malaria and malnutrition because of private and public coordination. In Cambodia, where the US was close to eliminating malaria, officials now fear the disease is making a comeback.
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I think the majority of Republicans... When if you sat them down and you said for 200 bucks a year, this is the good we're going to do around the world. And this is the goodwill it's going to create. And these are the diseases we're going to eradicate. And this is how we're going to find refugees who are displaced in wars a shot at surviving.
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I think the majority of people go, here's $200 right on. Yep.
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But let's put the morality aside. So you decide, look, I want that $200 to go to American kids. Full stop. Okay, I understand the argument. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. That $200, That void we're leaving, Russia and China are gonna step into that void. They're going to find people willing to be allies and who will fund groups.
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my view is taking a step back. It was like when the wildfires came, I think at least the point I was trying to make, I won't put words in your mouth, is that rather than I would argue empathy for the people who lost their homes or the people who lost their lives, the left says it's climate change, the right says it's DEI. In this instance, the left was mostly quiet. The right was, this is DEI.
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We have this sense of security, this cold comfort, that there are people out there who would come for us, kill us, and take our shit away. And one of the reasons they don't is because they can't, because generally speaking, the vast majority of nations and the vast majority of people around the world might find us obnoxious, they might find us gluttonous, they might find us arrogant.
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But they think at the end of the day, we're trying to do the right thing. That we're the people who are funding that hospital. That when there's refugees, when there are homeless people and there are maternity wards being shelled in Ukraine, that American charities show up. I mean, we're seen as the good guys. And that pays enormous...
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that pays enormous dividends that we don't recognize because the homeland hasn't been attacked since September 11th. So even if you think, even if you don't make the moral argument or you don't accept the moral argument, just from a security standpoint, from a geopolitical power standpoint, this is the best 200 bucks
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I'm glad you're lighting up. You know what?
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He did vote against Hegseth, which is kind of... He did, finally. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I feel like that's Hannibal Lecter deciding he's a vegan on his deathbed. I know. It doesn't do us a lot of good now, right?
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And it's just a shame that a lot of that empathy gets some bullshit nods from people, thoughts and prayers, and they immediately go to, how can I politicize this? And our point was, or not our point, my point is the following. The FAA is arguably one of the most successful government agencies in history. And as someone who's invested in aviation, the error rate you have to
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I have a quick question for you.
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Is Edward Snowden a traitor?
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Because, well, I thought that was the most interesting moment, but you now as well, no longer, in my opinion, are qualified to run our National Intelligence Service. I think that's a layup of a question. I'm not suggesting what was found out might not ultimately be good for America, but he's full stop, 100% a traitor.
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You lost my vote. I'll vote for you. Secretary of Defense, I'm in for you.
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I hang out with my dogs. Sometimes I take a gummy. I like to write. The evening is my alone peace time. I also occasionally, if I have both a gummy and a couple of Makers and Ginger, I put in my AirPods and I danced 80s music. Without my shirt on, a dance in the mirror, like a 15, what I imagine like a gay 15 year old teenager would do. Is that wrong?
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It would literally, it would probably decrease the amount of sex people have that night by like, everyone would just be so freaked out and so unattracted to everybody.
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DJs and Tom Petty, little bit of edible CBD and sativa with the makers and ginger. Daddy's got the moves. Dancing. Hello, ladies.
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Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk by again?
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Today's show is produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Underside, engineer of this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Severio, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Cara, have a great rest of the week.
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test to is 10 to the negative eighth with, to get a civil aviation aircraft certified to fly passengers. I mean, in the ability at any moment, there's something like 7,000 planes in the air, in our airspace. And the fact that they're able to minimize or keep the number of these horrific tragedies It is more dangerous to walk up your stairs to get on a plane.
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And just let me finish here. I am not a fan of DEI. I've said in the university setting, I think that apparatus should be disassembled. I think in the corporate setting, there is absolutely still a role for DEI. And people don't realize that DEI The removal of DEI will impact veterans' ability to get jobs.
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But in the instance of, if you were to say that the DEI has infected the FAA, then all you could say is, based on the performance of the FAA, then DEI should be incorporated into every organization. Because whatever the FAA has been doing the last 30 or 40 years has resulted in outstanding metrics. But I just want to circle back. I feel whoever wrote that, I trust and hope that-
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Yeah, I apologize sincerely if in any way our comments come across as coarse. That was not our intention.
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Well, just on a human level, for the first time in my life, and this is an odd feeling and it's a mix of shame and surprise, I'm rooting for Canada, not the U.S. So let's start with the tariffs and let's do a strong man or steel man.
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His argument is that the America has been too soft and that America should command the space it occupies and charge more and create a revenue source for access to what is the largest economy in the world. and that our trade agreements have been asymmetric, and that is we have been taken advantage of.
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First, my personal experience having literally done business in almost every Western nation and even negotiated agreements between private companies and world leaders, America flexes its power every fucking day. I mean, the notion that somehow we're always on the wrong end of deals, when you show up, almost every trade agreement. We have 700 military bases in 80 countries.
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China has one in Djibouti. And you think we just asked for those? You think we just said, hey, wouldn't it be great idea to have a military base? We flex our power. every day. So first, the base notion that somehow we've been getting taken advantage of is literally comical. Now, let's talk about the tariffs themselves.
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You could make the argument, all right, with China, the argument would be, and I'm trying to call balls and strikes here, a lot of the tariffs initially imposed in the first Trump administration were actually kept in place by Biden. This takes it to such a deeper, weirder level because For example, with Canada, 25%, this will just immediately raise prices for both nations.
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The definition of stupid is you hurt yourself and you hurt others. In addition, you don't think China might get a military base at Colombia at some point? You don't think Canada? Canada, the Canadian embassy in Tehran, those people risked their lives to try and covertly get American hostages out of Iran.
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They risked their lives because Canada sees themselves as friends, brothers, siblings of America. They followed us into Afghanistan. They followed us into Iraq. We have Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association teams in Canada. It's more than an ally. They are with us. And Canada right now can't even answer the question, what do you want from us? What's the end game here?
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Why didn't you call us your good friend and say, this is our concern and this is what we're trying to achieve? I don't even think they know. They can't even answer the question, what is his end game here in this bullshit that, well, we've got to reduce the level of fentanyl. You can sort of make that argument against China and Mexico. You can't make it against Canada. Yeah.
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Okay. You've managed to raise prices to diminish the quality of life of a friend, to diminish goodwill that has been built up over 150 years. And it's just going to raise consumer prices. It's not only reckless. It is literally the definition of stupid is doing something that hurts others and hurts yourself, especially the one against Canada.
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I can sort of see the argument, at least theoretically, about the drug trade and fentanyl coming through Mexico. Fine. The immigrants, the 250,000 people coming over the border, maybe China. I can sort of make an argument. I still don't think it's smart. But the tariffs against Canada?
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If you were to game theory this out, the most likely outcome is that immediately you're going to see a spike in prices, or near immediately. A lot of companies have been stockpiling. I was on the board of a retailer and I was speaking to the CEO the other day and he said, yeah, the tariffs in China, we knew they were coming, so we've been stockpiling things.
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and trying to get them in until this gets solved. So I actually don't think you're going to see price increases as quickly as people think. Maybe we will, but we will see price increases. And then he will come up with some sort of, he'll declare victory and say he got something and most likely rolled them back somewhat or all. That's the most likely scenario.
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What we're not thinking about is that people have memories, people have egos. And we're no longer a trusted ally. We no longer can be counted on. You're going to see that the Canadians are going to be more likely to import BYD electric vehicles.
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And what's interesting about this, and it gets more Machiavellian and mendacious as you look at it, it's clear Musk's fingerprints are all over this. Because if you look at Tesla, they actually have, to their credit, the greatest manufacturing depth. What do I mean by that?
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I feel like you know more about this than I do. When people come up with, when they're faced with the issue of is it at the device level or at the app level, I think the answer is yes. And that is with tobacco, I think both retailers and manufacturers face liability.
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My sense is, in terms of age gating, it feels like it should be at the device level because it seems like it would be more efficient and practical to say, because we can track your activity across all apps, we have a pretty good sense for what your age is. And we don't allow anyone under the age of 16 to have car keys or operate a car. So why would we let anyone under the age of 16 operate?
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I don't think anyone under the age of 16 should be able to operate a smartphone. I don't think you put a video arcade, a porn site, Netflix and a casino in a 15-year-old's pocket. I just don't think that's a good idea. Then they have an incentive to make it so complicated that parents can't figure out parental controls.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
We tried to implement parental controls for my son last weekend and within about three minutes, he'd figured out the password. and reinstalled everything. So I guess what I'm talking about is at the device level maybe, but I still think the app should be on the hook for a second layer of protection. What are your thoughts? I think you need to wear two condoms here.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
But the whole privacy argument I find is so cynical and indefensible because I have to give up my privacy every time I get on a plane. Not only that, they get to go through my liquids.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And by the way, if I buy a one-way ticket, they violated my privacy and they're more likely to do an additional security screening. They know my age. They know my status. The guy at immigration looks through my passport and asks me, when was I in Israel and what was I doing there? Part of a modern society is the following compact.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
You agree to have a certain amount of your privacy violated in exchange for utility. And what they're claiming is that the privacy violation of a 15-year-old knowing their age and identity is Think about how ridiculous that is.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
So instead, we're gonna enable this person to give their data and have their data molested by the CCP of who they are, their preferences, their sexual orientation, what they do, what their key relationships are. I mean, the notion that these people give a flying fuck about their privacy, It's just so, it's just not- Yeah, I agree.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And I'm Scott Galloway.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
But one of the most powerful forces in the universe is biology, specifically the ways we change, mature, evolve, grow, and die. And I don't think we spend enough time talking about what a powerful metric and indicator and arbiter of these rules age is. For example, if you are under the age of 16, you should not have a smartphone. If you are under the age of 21, you should not have alcohol.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
If you're under the age of 18, you should not be allowed to join the military. If you are over the age of 75, you shouldn't be allowed to run for fucking president.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And instead, we've decided that we have this amazing indicator that it's 95% of Americans over a certain age are incapable of doing a certain thing. 100% of people under the age of 16 do not make great decisions around drugs. So why would we not leverage this amazing thing called biology as indicated by this other thing called age and time? It's...
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Another situation. No, I'm at the Fine Hotel in South Beach. I was in Paris over the weekend. I went to the French Open, which was lovely. Then I jumped on a plane yesterday and came here, forgot my computer on the plane. What? Which is part of the course. You forgot your computer on the plane. The third computer I've left on a plane this year. Year to date, I've left three computers on planes.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
For all of time, it has been a consistent indicator of someone's cognitive ability decline. And yet we decided with technology and with presidential elections, we're just going to ignore biology.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
None of us is getting out of here alive, Cara.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I think it's capitalism. I think if she wants to own her own catalog, that's her business. I don't think she has any—I mean, she's an adult. I think this is pretty simple. I don't think there's much more to this than it's a marketplace, and she has the rights, along with anybody else, to buy them.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Well, she gets control. So, for example— When we were doing the intro song, which we spent six months trying to figure out for Pivot, it was just too serious, it wasn't right, so we wanted a new one. I thought, we got to pay the money and we'd be worth it, we should get Tracy Chapman's Revolution. We both love Tracy Chapman, we thought it was a great song.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Somebody immediately said, no, Tracy Chapman doesn't license her songs because she's worried that some car company is going to license fast car. This is what she gets. She doesn't have a toilet paper company or a suppository using Shake It Off. She gets control. Good idea. Anybody who has, and this is really going to go crazy in AI,
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
When all of a sudden, Lincoln starts giving people advice because whoever owns his image and likeness licenses it to AI. Or if Warren Buffett doesn't have serious IP protection that his heirs will agree to. His heirs in three generations, some kid who's got a cocaine habit and has squandered all of his inheritance says, well, I'm going to start an investment app.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
using Warren Buffett, his likeness and his image. So the advantage to her is that she has other considerations than just purely monetizing every ounce and every dollar out of her songs.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
She can control her legacy. She can decide how it's used and how it's not used.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Why? Why? Because if my dick wasn't attached, you'd find it on a card table next to a script of Goodfellas in Soho, Kara.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
There you go. Put it in the refrigerator. So, anyways, I lose everything, but I'm safe and sound of the faena, and my good friend Pablo Doritos saved my ass for bacon and got me a new Macintosh, and Drew and the team have fired it up, and now I'm doing podcasts.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Well, sure. But the key piece of data here is that Taylor Swift has 500 songs about dudes leaving her and not one single song about giving a good blow job. Just connect the dots, Cara.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I've got a sickness care. I couldn't help it. I couldn't help it.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I was thinking about my Taylor Swift joke.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I didn't hear anything you said. Something about Elon Musk.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
So go ahead. We got the world's most powerful man, the president, and the world's wealthiest man, both wearing diapers. Look, I go to a different place with this. The first thing is, I think that there is a mythology and lazy thinking around drugs and alcohol, and that is between 90 and 94% of people are able to manage their professional, their personal, and their substance lives.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
The wonderful thing about technology now is it doesn't matter. I'll have a new one for me when I get back to New York. They're dumb appliances. It's all in the cloud now. So some lucky flight attendant has a lot of porn coming his way this weekend.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
That a lot of people do recreational drugs, a lot of people drink a lot of alcohol, and are able to manage all of it really well. As a matter of fact, the majority— Speaking for a friend, but go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. The majority of people can manage it. But that 5% or 10%, it can come off the rails.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And not only that, you become very susceptible to moving into that decile if you have other stressors in your life. And for me, this isn't a story about drug abuse. So I think the guy is coming off the rails. And I want to be clear here. I'm not... In no way am I intimating violence or wish or harm against anyone. I think this guy probably...
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
has some of the lowest life expectancy of any public figure right now. Because when you are, I've been involved in two quote-unquote interventions. I've had a decent amount of people professionally and personally who've struggled with drugs and alcohol. If the New York Times reporting is accurate, which I believe it is, his ketamine use and his other drug abuse here.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
is so out of control, and then you couple it with something that's even more dangerous, and it's the following. What all of the research is showing is that there's this myth or this trope of the woman who can't find a dude, and poor her, her life is awful because she can't find a guy and have kids, right?
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And the majority of the research is all leading to one place, and that is relationships in a heteronormative relationship are actually more beneficial and important to the male than to the female. Widows are happier after the guy dies than when they were married. Widowers are much less happy.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I appreciate that. When men don't have a romantic relationship as a guardrail, they come off the tracks. They become much more prone to self-harm. They reinvest that energy in nationalist content, conspiracy theory, video games, porn. And I'm not pathologizing all single men here, but a single man is much more vulnerable to bad things in life than a single woman.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
A woman oftentimes, when she has a lack of romantic opportunities, rechannels that energy into a friend network, into professional opportunities.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And a lot of what's happening, I think, and quote, unquote, if you call it a mating crisis, everything's a crisis now, is that women, as they've economically become more prosperous, have just decided on the whole these heteronormative relationships just aren't a great deal for them. Men really need relationships.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I think the thing that is really dangerous in the cautionary tale here is that I don't think Elon Musk, in addition, the nitro and glycerin here is that not only does he appear to have out of control drug use, but he appears to have absolutely no guardrails in terms of a close friend network or a monogamous romantic relationship. I think that is just an incredibly dangerous cocktail.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
What defines America right now, Is that we have an individual who is the world's wealthiest man making decisions that supposedly, according to several agencies, are going to result in several hundred thousand of the poorest children around the world dying.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
But we forgive him, even though of this rampant out of control drug abuse and this personal life that just seems chaotic because he has so much money.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Yeah, I do the trade-off. I was going to go back to the airport, and I figured it would cost me a half a day, and I don't want to do it. I'd rather get nothing to do.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I think in some ways it's essentially the government's come out with a much cleaner bill of health around this bullshit notion of waste, fraud, and abuse. They just weren't able to find it as easily as they'd hoped. Or they're just bad.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Some people are reporting that it's actually the real loss is the effective, or I'm sorry, the effective savings are like seven to nine billion, which isn't even the amount of the subsidies. I mean, I always come back to this statement. Look what money's done to us. If, Cara, if you had a sibling, if you had a brother who was exceptionally talented and
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And say he was worth, he was just very good at business, and say he was worth 400 million, which means he's remarkably successful. But it was clear he was radically addicted to ketamine. At a parent-teacher's conference, he was giving Nazi salutes.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
He was fathering multiple children with multiple women who were all suing him, or many of them were suing him for sole custody of that child because he hadn't seen that child. He had declared war on one of the children publicly. And he was clearly like, and then he shows up with a black eye. I mean, wouldn't you get anyone who cares about this guy to do an intervention?
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
But here's the thing. If you're worth $400 billion out of $400 million, the world admires you and thinks that you're... Think it's not drug abuse, it's you're provocative and you're authentic and you're different. I just come back to the same place, the idolatry of money, that we have decided that money somehow conflates with character and leadership.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
If he was worth $400 million, no one would put up with this shit. They'd be like, Jesus Christ, this guy is- Just some help. is an addict. We're not listening to this guy around. An accounting firm, a mid-level accounting firm wouldn't let him be a partner in their firm if they saw evidence of this.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Yeah, I don't know. So they want to know what cock gobbler site I'm spending time at? Yeah.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Yeah, my life isn't that interesting. It's pretty much a rested adolescence and someone who doesn't like themselves. It's not going to be that interesting a journey.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
The president has incredible political instincts. He sees things that other people don't see and goes places no one else would go. And it ends up not only... being less damaging than we thought, but we hate to admit it, that even despite what the media's reaction to it, it appears to sometimes resonate with the larger population.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I think he's decided that the half-life of Musk's usefulness to him is over. He absolutely doesn't want to piss him off. He's got an incredibly powerful platform. He does not want him spending a lot of money. The thing about Musk and drug addicts in general is they generally aren't that reliable or consistent. And so I think Trump is a bit afraid of Musk and goes, this guy could turn on me.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
So I think he's trying to thread this needle of getting him out of the White House. Supposedly, him and Besant basically almost came to blows, and it was creating real chaos in the West Wing. So he wants to get him out, move him aside, and at the same time, stay on good terms with him. This is essentially what every manager's goal is.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
What Trump is trying to do is what every good manager's goal is, and that is the following, and this is my approach to firing. That is, you will constantly managers, whenever I ask about someone that we're worried about, people will constantly make excuses for them. We're doing this, we're redefining the job role, and I'm like, and this is going to sound terrible, I'm like, fire them.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I've found nine times out of 10 when someone's not working, The people making excuses and recasting that it's the organization's fault. I'm like, okay, the organization's not changing. And the sooner we can move, the more generous we can be. I think you are rapacious and capitalist when it comes to these decisions, but then you're as generous as possible.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
You sit them down and you say, listen, it's not working here. We can go into why, but what we're gonna do is we're gonna let you stay as long as you need to so you don't lose your health insurance. You don't have to worry about money in the short term. We're gonna help you find another job. And I think that's the objective here.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
It's really... Your computer doesn't matter. It's just a dumb appliance tapping into the cloud. It really doesn't... I lose a lot of laptops. I think it's much more damaging when you lose your phone because that takes a while to set up. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I think something came out. Wasn't there something about his past? I think they basically said, this is not the guy. Who knows? There's probably another donor who's given more money or something. Who knows?
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I mean, I just felt it was a weird... You felt it was a shot across the bow. It was an affront to Musk.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I think a lot of people have heard of sort of the taco trade, but they don't really understand it.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
But what it actually means is the following, is that the stock market will move. So he announces tariffs on Apple products, and Apple goes down 3% to 5%. It takes a little bit of a hit. He announces huge, huge tariffs on China, 135%, and shipping companies that are dependent upon Apple Chinese exports into the Port of Long Beach, they lose 30 or 40% of their value overnight.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
EU tariffs, EU stock market announcement, EU stock market declines. The incredibly consistent, massively profitable trade has been to assume that this is all bluster and these tariffs will not hold and the companies that took an initial dive will recover.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And it has been one of the most consistent profitable trades that Trump always chickens out, that his threats are bluster and that he's bluffing and the companies that take a short-term hit, you go long those companies and you make a shit ton of money. He has announced or reduced tariffs 50 times.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And so far, as far as I can tell, we're gonna get a reduction in the price of Austin Martin engines from Britain. I mean, there's been absolutely almost no meaningful deal struck here. Now, my belief is it's the following.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I used to think that he was an idiot in terms of basic understanding of economics and was hoping through bluster and by saber rattling to bring different economies to the table, thinking that that was going to benefit Americans. I no longer believe that.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I think one of the, there's a few things in your life that really connote luxury and economic security. And one for me is I don't have keys. I cannot have keys. I'm physically incapable of holding on to keys and I have no keys.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I believe he is purposely creating massive volatility such that him and his insiders can make billions of dollars in market manipulation and insider trading. and that in a year, the tariffs are gonna look remarkably similar to the way they did before the Trump administration.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
When Attorney General Bondi is trading and selling Trump media shares, the morning he announces these incredible tariffs taking the markets down, it means that all rules and fear around insider trading criminality have gone away.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And I think you are seeing that he has basically said, all right, saying to his local cronies, his PE and hedge fund guys who tuck him in at night, I'm thinking about massively increasing steel tariffs tomorrow, which by the way, took Cleveland Cliffs
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
New core steel dynamics up 27, 11, and 5.9% because essentially local domestic steel manufacturers are gonna get to charge unearned prices because there's such massive tariffs on steel coming in. What does that mean? That means the prices of homes and cars are gonna go up.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Now, if you believe the taco trade, what you would do is you would now go short those companies, believing he's not gonna be able to implement those tariffs against steel manufacturers. So I'm now beginning to believe that given that the courts or the, I forget what it was called, the IEEPA is basically saying, this is not a wartime, You do not have license to impose these tariffs.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
They can only be done in exceptional measures during times of terrorism or cyber attacks. I think George W. Bush invoked them during 9-11. They said, this does not meet that test for what you are trying to do. It's basically like an exceptional wartime act. The trade would be to go the other way. But I'm now of the mind of these people are not dumb.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
What they're doing is creating massive volatility that them and their cronies and their loyalists are making tens of billions of dollars off. It's all market manipulation and insider trading.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
No, now I just use my phone. Although, actually, I carry my black car because it signals masculinity.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
So I do like to throw that down and say, Daddy's here. Daddy's here. And he's bringing. You throw it down.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
There's the tariffs and then there's the war on these elite institutions. The tariffs will do structural damage and that is everyone's trying to reroute their supply chain around America. They're like, we can't handle this toxic uncertainty.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
The fear on this nonsense with Harvard, by the way, both Xi Jinping and his rival who disagreed on a lot, both had one thing in common, they sent their kids to Harvard.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And what's just so insane and so cynical about this move is they're doing it under the banner of antisemitism, but the funding they're trying to cut is around medical research or scientific research of which we get huge dividends and which Harvard is outstanding at. Now, having said that, I do believe personally, I apologize, you asked about, I'm sorry, you asked about China.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I think that he is looking for some sort of big, beautiful deal and that Xi is gonna call his bluff. I think they have totally overplayed their hand. and the kid or the person torn between two lovers right now is Tim Cook, and that is Tim has nowhere to go. Tim, it would be easier, it was easier to get to splitting the atom
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
during World War II than it would be for us to return all manufacturing of the iPhone to the US right now. It's just an impossibility. And China is restricting the granting of visas to Chinese people in China who Apple is trying to transition to India. such that they can assemble one screw and say, made in India. It's all tariff gaming right now.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
People, I mean, it's just so, Tim Cook is literally caught between these two people and quite frankly, the more consistent player right now and the easier player to deal with is Xi. He doesn't know what Trump's gonna do. But if you look at what's happened to Apple stock, People sort of don't believe it's really going to affect them.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
That makes that big titanium sound like, that's right. Uh-huh. That's right. Mate with me and your kids are more likely to survive than if you mate with someone who has a Discover card.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
They sort of believe that that supply chain that has taken that has absorbed 25 million people and 50 billion dollars a year and five super centers around China, that it's going to survive, that Trump will eventually go back down.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Or forget about it and move on to something else.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
But what you see is every time they make a new announcement about a tariff, there's even less volatility. The market is absorbing these threats and saying they're not credible.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
You never stop wanting, though.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Well, my fail, two images were summarized here. My fail was seeing kids, teenage boys, in zip ties, detained by ICE. Do you realize how much damage that does to America? The cocktail, the peanut butter and chocolate that has created the strongest...
Pivot
Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
the strongest nation in history, and most people don't know, most people around the world don't know Americans, don't come to America, but they're willing to work with us. They think twice before they try to damage us or steal from us because they know our memory is long and our reach is far. And also that coupled with a general sense that at the end of the day, they're the good guys.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And when an image is shot around the world of our own security agencies putting children in zip ties, it just does so much damage to our reputation as the good guys. Basically, we're no longer the good guys. As evidenced by the scariest piece of data I've seen this year, other than 51 percent of men 18-24 have never asked a woman out in person, the second scariest piece of data,
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Yeah. Anyways, what are you doing? Enough about me.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
is that now globally, more people think China is a force of good in the world than the US. And that makes our deep pools of capital more shallow. People don't want to invest in us. People are less likely to inform when they think there's a terrorist cell trying to infiltrate our borders. It makes their scientists less likely to come here.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
It makes them much less likely to want to buy our products over Chinese products. That is my fail. That image, and I won't go into the semantics of it, I don't know the specifics, but there's just some basics here. Okay, the memo, memo to all ICE employees, never, ever have a minor in zip ties or in handcuffs, ever. If they pose a risk to you, you have to incur that risk.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
If they become violent, fine, but we never put minors in zip ties or any other sort of restraining device. Anyways, that's my loss. And I was equally excited by the image in the video of 40 strategic bombers, different Russian airfields being blown up. I mean, you cannot imagine.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Filming a secret thing?
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
This is arguably the most precise genius and well thought out and bold military operation since the IDF's operation against Hezbollah and the Pedro operation. They managed to smuggle in trucks to different areas or a thousand miles inside Russian territory, figure out a way at the exact right moment with soft assets on the ground, i.e.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Ukrainian spies on the ground to geolocate these strategic bombers And then these trucks, their roofs would collapse or retract and they would launch these drones. And these drones took out 40 long-term strategic bombers precisely that have been bombing Ukrainian cities. And by the time I knew what was going on, the agents,
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And the launch vehicles and the trucks had returned to safety or been abandoned. This was 18 months in the planning. It was incredibly strategic, brave. I mean, nothing creates momentum and respect like this type of bravery and this type of thoughtfulness. action. I was just so excited to see this.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I think it puts new wind in the sails and morale of not only people within Ukraine fighting this fight on behalf of all of us, but it also makes it more, we're more inclined in the West to support Ukraine because we see when we put our dollars and our support to work, These people are not fucking around. They are very good at what they do.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
NPR on cuts to the National Forestry Service DEI department with special report with Kara Swisher.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
This will go down in history as one of the great brave military operations. And you're going to see in about 18 months, two or three different dramas on Netflix and on Hulu about this operation. Anyways, the Ukrainian special operation to take out 40 long-range strategic bombers who were shelling and bombing Ukrainian cities. That's my win.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Is this your health thing that you roped me into? Yeah.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
So that's what Reid's been up to.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie Andretat, Andrew in this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Severo, and Dan Chalon. The Chuck Kerouac's Vox Media's executive producer podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite platforms. podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Cara, have a great rest of the week.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Does it rhyme with CNS?
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
What's interesting about that? I'm still waiting for the interesting part.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Do you guys have big plans for the summer? What do the Swishers do over the summer?
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
What's the point of making all this money to go to Vermont?
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
You so want to hang out with me. I do.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
When you hit 70, you're going to start slowing down.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I love both those places.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
I think more importantly, do you know what I have in common after my vasectomy with a Christmas tree?
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
We both have decorative balls.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Back to Joni. The thing that has become an unfortunate theme in the Republican Party, and I also think across America right now, and I was just talking to Jess about this, is I think social media has created such a strong profit incentive and getting people pitted against each other and enraging them. And then at the same time,
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
speedballing that rage by shoving all of the prosperity that everyone else seems to be enjoying, that people are just so upset and so angry, and that they respond to the Republican Party being a little bit cruel and coarse. And I think, unfortunately, across the Republican Party, you're seeing this adoption of a narrative where they conflate leadership with cruelty and coarseness.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And I just don't think you ever would have heard a senator say that. I don't...
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Yeah, I think it reflects something deeper and more uncomfortable about the United States and that is, we've decided that cruelty is the point, that you can cut America first. We're closing down hospitals in Myanmar for people with serious diseases or or food kitchens in war-torn parts of Ukraine, but that somehow has been conflated with leadership, the coarseness and cruelty.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And I think that these Republican town halls have been awful for Republicans. They make for really good TikTok moments, but I worry they're not indicative of how... a lot of America feels that, okay, you have these democratic elitists that after they make their money with low taxes, all of a sudden get very concerned about me. Forty percent of American households have some medical or dental debt.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
Every day, 210 times a day on my phone, I'm reminded about people having extraordinary lives that I'm not participating in. And then I have a social media platform that I spend five or seven hours a day on trying to convince me that it's my neighbor who's the enemy, not soldiers pouring over the border in Ukraine.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And I think there's just so much rage in America and so much anger against other Americans that an unfortunately large number of Americans kind of enjoy this harshness and this cruelty.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And distinct of what Joni's doing, or Senator Ernst, I just think we've lost a little bit, a lot of at the hands of, I don't think people recognize just how much our discourse has been coarsened by social media and that people have been taught. I was thinking just about dating. When you were in your 20s and 30s and you were dating, do you remember the politics of anyone you dated?
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
It didn't come up. And you didn't, there was a general sense that as Americans, we were these good people and we had a certain comity and a certain thing in common. You know what? Men and women liked each other. I've been thinking about this a lot. I think social media has done a great job of convincing the genders that the other gender is the problem, that men believe that women's assent
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
is the culprit for their descent. And that's not true at all. Whereas women think it's the patriarchy and that men don't have problems, they are the problem. We've convinced that gender is the greatest alliance in history to dislike each other.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
But it has to be decency. For example, I think the real opportunity that Democrats are missing is to propose an alternative to this tax bill. where we seize this enormous white space of the adult in the room. Right. We say, okay, this is our plan. We're going to means test Social Security and raise the age limit. We're going to dramatically lower the exemption for the trust exemption.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
We are going to increase taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and we are going to, across the board, hold Medicaid, Social Security, and military spending flat for the next 15 years and even cut it 2% a year. And within eight years, we're going to reduce the deficit from $2 trillion a year to $200 billion a year.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
And what they would do is Fox News and CNN would all line up these bills next to each other, and say, okay, one expands the deficit or adds to the deficit $3.75 trillion. This one will reduce the deficit. It'll never pass. It has no hopes, but it would position the Democrats as the adults in the room.
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Elon's Drug Denial, Trump's Tariff Play, and Taylor Swift's Master Move
But instead, we're clutching our pearls and highlighting these very real, very ugly things that are happening rather than saying, okay, you guys have to be more than what's bad about what they're doing. You have to propose your own solution.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I think the issue is enforcement. It's how do you enforce it, right? I think that's the question. I think, to me, it's a flag in the sand, right? It's like, we're doing it now. We're doing it. It's the first in the world. You know what I mean? It's really astonishing. It's the first in the world of substance. And, you know, what's interesting about it is that they...
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Will these social media sites abandon these areas? And obviously, one of the legislators said, we know some kids will find workarounds that we're sending a message to social media companies to clean up their act. I think that's the most important things. It's kind of like the Microsoft trial. It's sending a message, right? This means a lot to us.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
And I think nobody's getting forced to provide government identification as part of it because of privacy issues. There was opposition from conservatives about the privacy rights. And, you know, I think France had a parental consent for social media thing. It wasn't quite as large as this. They've been pushing for similar measures across the European Union.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Florida passed a ban for users under 14, but it has to, you know, there's constitutional challenges around that here in this country. So They don't have that issue in Australia, right? And that was more a little hand-waving. It has to be a national bill that will meet congressional, I mean, meet constitutional muster. But I do think it's a, I think a line in the sand's okay.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I think it's actually saying something really significant about what a country's values are, right? I mean, I think you feel the same way.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
If you say shrimp on the barbie, I'll have to stop you.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Yeah. Well, this was actually in the works for many, many years. But one of the things that Julie Inman Grant, who's Australia's e-safety commissioner, they have one. She was noting about enforcement, which I think she's right. They've got financial resources, technologies, and some of the best brain power.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
If they can target you for advertising, they can use the same technology and know how to identify and verify the age of a child. They certainly could. They don't want to. They don't want to pay for it. Anyway, kudos to Australia. We'll go down.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Right, exactly. Yeah, this happens all the time. All right, lastly, the FTC has opened an investigation to whether Microsoft has violated antitrust laws. Ooh, it's back. Lena Kahn has thrown a bomb in her last moments in office. I think probably she will be replaced. The company has reportedly received a request for information on its cloud computing, AI, and cybersecurity products.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
The news comes just weeks left in the Biden administration. Probably they'll replace Lena Kahn. You never know because J.D. Vance likes her. Yeah. Should Microsoft be concerned? Will it be off the hook? It's very unclear. But boy, I like that Lena Kahn's going down, like throwing some steamers or whatever they call them. Anyway, what do you think?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Oh, interesting. You think they'll keep her? I wonder if they'll keep her. I haven't heard names floated. Maybe I'm not paying attention.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Right. No, he hasn't.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
He could keep her.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Jeff Bezos would lose his mind. Elon would like it, too. Elon would like it, too.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
She seems to have gotten her feet under her, as they say. She had a little bit of a rough start, right? So interesting.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Their search share has declined rather precipitously. The market is taking care of some of this. I think their argument, you know, that decision is going to be written by the judge soon, that decision. And then they have a second case coming up. I think they should keep Lena Kahn. You know, the conservative, you know that word, conservative. There's a whole bunch of them. They like her. We'll see.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Where are you, Scott? I don't recognize this background.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
We'll see if the tech people, but I would say if Elon has a part of it, he'll advise to keep her too. Anyway, let's get to our first big story. President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the FBI is former national security official Kash Patel. What a strange man he is. Patel is a Trump loyalist who's vowed to come after Trump's enemies, including people in the media.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
A number of high-level Senate Republicans have already indicated their willingness to get behind the choice, but others not so much. It's a real mixed bag on this guy. By the way, he has to fire Chris Wray, who was appointed by Trump to a 10-year term. So Chris Wray shouldn't be out of office until 2027. It's alarming a lot of people.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
At the same time, the Pete Hegs nomination is still raising big questions. This New Yorker piece is a damning whistleblower report on his previous behavior at running two organizations where he drank too much, he abused women. sexual harassment, a bunch of lying, misspending, mismanagement. This story has got it all by Jane Mayer.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
It's a devastating, very well-reported piece about how bad a manager he was. It may have been a bad period of his life, but boy, was it bad. The New York Times also had the 2018 email from Hegseth's mother calling her son an abuser of women. That email was something else. She told the Times she'd written the messages in anger and had apologized for it.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
But boy, did it have a ring of truth at the time. I guess it was during the same time period. What do you think? I thought the mother thing I had mixed feelings on. The New Yorker piece, I do not. It's really, he's a bad, bad, bad manager. And again, he could be going through a difficult period. But this, as you recall, John Tower, the womanizing and the sexual violence.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
And the drinking was a big issue and sort of scuttled his nomination. This guy's entirely unqualified for this job. Both of them are. So what do you think about that?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
King, don't. This is an odd person.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Yeah, he was nominated by Trump, everybody, once again, let's just be clear.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Actually, I'm doing a renovation, actually has been. I've had really amazing experience. We're moving back in January. It's beautiful. The house is beautiful.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Did it have a ring of truth? It absolutely did. It was beautifully written. Wasn't emotional. It actually was, my son sucks, right?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Right. It rattled me beyond belief. I thought I would write that letter if my son behaved like that, but I would feel sick to my fucking stomach for doing it. But I would have written that letter if my son behaved like this.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Did you read the New Yorker piece? It was disturbing.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
And the attempts to try to attack, there's like dozens of people making these allegations, and they're all conservative, every one of them. And, you know, they're trying to like say this person had created fake rape allegations, this woman who accused him of raping her. And then, of course, the reporter went to the police and they said, no, absolutely not. She has not.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Like, they lie about the people. They're so aggressive still. It's disturbing that they're trying to shut down a dozen people who are... by the way, are not Democrats. These are Republicans making these allegations, very conservative Republicans. He sounds like a drunk and should get some help, by the way. He sounds like a sexual harasser woman when he is drunk.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
He's falling down drunk, and all the rich people got him out of his jobs. They fired him. They fired this guy. As good a career he had in the military, they saw the need to fire him. Now, he may have come back from Iraq with all kinds of troubles, and he drowned them in alcohol. He should get some help, and he behaved incredibly badly, and he's incompetent at running.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I'm telling you, I have the best feel. Actually, they turned out to be fans of Pivot, which is interesting, this group using four brothers. They're great. Are you excited to move back in your new house? We're both doing renovations. How interesting.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
He couldn't run a small organization. He cannot run and make decisions about nuclear war for us. I'm sorry. And the mother thing, at first, when I read the two in combination, it's devastating, just devastating. He's incompetent.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
No, I think all three of them. I got to say, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, and Tulsi Gabbard are... And by the way, one of the things I did when I was looking at them was find the other people that were in line. Every one of them was acceptable. Like, they're not my favorites, but they were certainly competent. Like, the other names being bandied about, they were fine.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
They're just Republicans, and they're a little more conservative than I care to have. You know, a little more aggressive, a little less, a little too America first for me, a couple of them. But, you know, nobody, not having allies, anti-ally. Okay, I see it. That's the point of view. These people, one is a...
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
absolutely incompetent and has a real problem with women in a creepy, creepy way, and has a drinking problem, which he may or may not have taken in hand. I have no idea. And can't run anything, by the way. He's a good soldier. Otherwise, no thank you. The second one is insane. Kash Patel seems insane. And the other one feels like a Russian asset. And the fact that he had good people...
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
And pick these guys? And then also Matt Gaetz, who they managed to get rid of, is just such a ridiculous... It's ridiculous. It's really kind of... Like, it's going to take up his whole... He's going to have to fire Chris Wray, just so you know. And then the chaos will... He'll never get anything done because the chaos will ensue.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Because they'll spend all their time doing chaos versus doing anything he said... Nobody, when they were voting for him to get the price of eggs down, voted for this lunacy. I'm sorry, they didn't. And it's an opportunity lost.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Let's kill all the Muslims? Did you see that part? Let's kill all the Muslims.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I think he just gets something happens late at night with him. Maybe he's taking ketamine with him. Elon or something. Anyway, we'll see what happens here. But it's disturbing. I would recommend reading The Mother's Letter as disturbing as along with the story from The New Yorker for Hegseth, that's for sure.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
And I'm looking forward to the Kash Patel story, which is going to be just worse, I think, in a different way, and the Tulsi Gabbard stories. Anyway, journalists are doing a great job with these things. And I thought it was a very fair story on Pete Hegseth. It really was. So, you know, Whatever. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
When we come back, Elon targets OpenAI and Sam Altman yet again. And we'll speak with Lauren Greenfield about what she learned about teens and social media in our new docuseries, Social Studies.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I'm in DC again. We were in Boston for Thanksgiving. How did you have a nice Thanksgiving?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Scott, we're back. Elon Musk's feud with OpenAI is heating up with Elon trying to stop OpenAI from becoming a for-profit company. The new filing says OpenAI's path from nonprofit to for-profit has been full of anti-competitive practices and flagrant breaches of its charitable mission. OpenAI's spokesperson says the suit is without merit and Elon is recycling the same baseless complaints.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
He had pulled the case and then put it back. I think he had some meeting with Sam Altman at some event around a fire and there was a hug, etc., And now it's back. I don't know. This is kind of ridiculous. Elon does everything through lawsuits. It doesn't matter who it is. He does lawsuits on every topic. I think this is anti-competitive. I think there's plenty of competition in this area.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
And to claim OpenAI is this giant behemoth seems an overstepping on Elon's part. He has so much control right now with Trump and he probably will be a big name in selecting the AI. They're going to have an AI guru for the government or whatever. I just think he's got enough power and I'm not sure what he's doing here.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I think his mother was there, but she's such a hanger-on or a feral hanger-on, but go ahead.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I know her, so I'm going to go beat the winner on this one.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
He loves to sue. he has so much power and it's not enough. Like there is so much competition in AI right now between all the, even though they're the big companies and we don't prefer that. We'd like a lot more startups and things like that. This is just, literally, he's just trying to do, besides being in, you know, polluting an area so he could get this, this thing he's trying to create going.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
We had a beautiful—the Katzes have all these—it's a very classic Thanksgiving. And Anne Katz, who's a big fan of ours, cooks an amazing pie. There's a lot of pies happening. She baked me a pumpkin pie. She doesn't usually do a pumpkin because I like it. It was delicious. They do turkey, sides, all kinds of stuff.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
He doesn't care what he does, you know, whether it's, stuff at Tesla where he flouts the laws. This is a very similar situation is he can't win by just winning. And so he has to win by being anti-competitive. And given he's going to have power over a lot of, like Trump is going to favor him in the AI race.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
That's the worry is that he's going to have an undue influence, which is nothing about actual competition or innovation and is everything about influence and power. Tells you all I need to know about the situation.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
He's still at the place. It's lasted longer. That Thanksgiving photo was depressing. Wasn't it sad? The food looked sad, too. I was like, could you not do better here if you're paying? And then them dancing to, oh, the music.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Yeah, great guy.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
That was a great video.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Vivek, I'm responding. This is where I think they might, both Elon and Vivek are going after a defense budget, which is, I think all of them should be looked at. By the way, I don't disagree that overspending is a problem and they should always be audited, et cetera. But they're going right for the military in that regard, just so you know. I think that might be a big Trump fight going on forward.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
That's my feeling.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I agree. Absolutely. But you're right. It's really, you know, I did like one last thing is the Canadian general lady who like clapped back at Pete Hexeth saying women shouldn't be in the military. I love that. She looked like I would get out of her way in any day of the week and twice on Sunday. You know, it is. You don't... You can reform something without ruining it.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
There's also lots of things they need to fix like sexism and stuff like that, but definitely it's an organization that has distinguished itself. Anyway, let's bring in our friend of Pivot.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Lauren Greenfield is an Emmy award-winning filmmaker and the creator, executive producer, and director of Social Studies, a documentary series that delves into the lives of the first generation raised on social media. Welcome, Lauren. I have to say I love this docuseries. I love it. It's amazing. Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I feel bad because I used to watch Euphoria and now I feel like I've watched Euphoria. Unfortunately, you know, I was like, no, I have lots of kids. I cannot watch this. So tell us about it because this is something we just were recently just earlier talking about the Australia ban and about across social media for young people.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
So tell us about social studies and what made you decide to make this docuseries because it's been in the ether, this idea that this stuff is bad for kids. But talk a little bit about it.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
All the cats show up, all the various cats and brothers and sisters-in-laws and this and that. They have a beautiful house in Brookline in Boston, so it was nice.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
And you're talking about like Cosmo, like thin thighs in 30 days or your man doesn't love you, that kind of stuff, all that.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
What's happening. Right. And you say the teens are the experts. Obviously, they are, rather than the adults. This is not a new, fresh thing. But talk about the importance of trusting them to tell their stories. Because, you know, most parents, I happen, my ex-wife was the chief technology officer in the United States, and I'm good at tech. So we were good at that, right?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
But most parents aren't the experts, and the teens really do, you know, my son's always saying, don't do it this way, do it this way. He's so facile with it. He's 22, and my other one's 19. So talk about the importance of trusting them to tell their stories, because they really do know what's going on.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Yeah, that it's not addictive. Because you yourself are addictive as an adult, right? That's the one thing, for some reason, parents don't see. They themselves have an addiction.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Well, two things. You notice the onus on the parent. I'm always, whenever the social media sites were doing this, I'm like, this is all on the parents. Like you're all, you're doing it. And one of the, this was a character, this Jonathan in your, in the show said it is a lifeline, but also a loaded gun, which was very striking and actually quite wise to talk about it because it's necessary.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
These kids need it. And Scott talks about this a lot. You can't, it's part of your social life, right? What, what, When you think about that, when it's necessary addictive and you can't not use it, like that kind of thing, and it's also interesting, right? It also has some good qualities to it. What do you understand about where it's going?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Because it doesn't seem like there's any fix given the parents themselves are also addicted and perpetually online. Yeah.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Yeah, they, you know, they also don't, they don't absolutely know. There was a friend of mine whose daughter was sending very provocative kicks to my son. And my son showed them to me. He's like, Mom, can you believe this? And I didn't know what to do. Because the person was like, oh, my daughter loves being online. And I'm like, you don't know what she's doing, do you?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Like, it was kind of, I didn't know what to do, right? Was it my goal to say, hey, your daughter's sending real disturbing pictures to my son or not? Like, that was... one of the things, right? And I happen to have kids that show me these things versus kids that don't, right? Who might not.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Yeah, my son didn't want that picture. Oddly, you know, he was like, he was far too young and he didn't know what to do with it, right? Which was why I think he showed it to me. But Scott?
Pivot
Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
One of the things, I'm actually interviewing the mother of that child later today who killed himself. One of the things that's really disturbing to me is that they want to get off, but they can't. And I remember when I was younger, and I'm sure Scott remembers, any little bit of prurient thing you could find, you read, right? But you only got a tiny little taste of it, right? Like some
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I don't know, some weird sexual thing when you were- Yeah, your dad's Playboy in the garage that you found, right? Right, right. But you only got little tastes of it. And it was enough, and then it was a little scary at the same time, and it was scary to access it. And now it comes flooding at you in an addictive manner, which is a very different thing.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
So one is that it's so available, and there's no price for it, right? You're not going to get in trouble or anything else. And I do think kids do want to get off of these things. Both my kids took their social media off their phones because it made them feel bad, including the dating sites, by the way, because I think those made them feel bad at the same time when they get a little older.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
What do you think is the best solution for disruption of getting it out? I think in some ways my kids would prefer not to have had it. I feel like that's their tone towards it. And right now they mostly watch TV on it. That's what they do now. But what do you think the solution to get them off of it? Even though they talk about wanting to, they don't get off of it, right?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
They don't care. They don't care. Scott, last question?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Right. And any argument about that they should be able to talk, free speech arguments that people make? Do you buy any of it? No.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Anyway, this amazing series. Thank you, Lauren. You can watch Social Studies on Hulu and Disney+, and you can find a link to the educational curriculum in the show notes. And we really appreciate you. Everybody should go and watch it. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Thanks, Lauren.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
All right, Scott, that was, you know, it's the same story. I feel like we repeat ourselves over and over again on a critically important topic. I don't know what to do. But anyway, we'll keep talking about it so people will change. There we go. Anyway, we'll be back for wins and fails.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
You gotta get down still.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. I think I shall go first. I shall go first. Here's the win. Moana 2. Oh, my God. The money it's making. I liked it. I liked it. I think the music wasn't as good. Lin-Manuel Miranda's music was so good in the first one.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
The reason why I believe it started off as a TV series and Bob Iger made the call to make it a movie, which was a hugely fantastic call for this guy. He has made some big calls inside and out. Two is the three top movies, Moana. Inside and Out 2 and Deadpool and Wolverine, all Disney movies. This guy is doing a good job with the movies at Disney right now.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
But I got to tell you, it was beautifully done. My kids loved it. And let me just say, except for the music, which is not as good. And it's killing it at the box office, more to the point. It's like closing in on $300 million in five days, which is amazing to go along with. Wicked and Gladiator is sort of pulling up the rear in that $100 million domestically or something like that.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I think Wicked is almost close to $250 or $300 million. Anyway, great movie, Moana. Winner, winner, winner, chicken dinner for Bob Iger. My fail is Pete Hegseth. I would agree with you on Katelsa Gabbard and Kash Patel frightens me and is weird. But this guy, the Secretary of Defense is one of the most important jobs in any administration. And Our lives depend on someone being competent.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
And this guy is obviously an alcoholic, is incompetent at management, is a creepy sexual predator, very clearly. His mom thinks so. Whether she takes it back or not, you know she thought that. And I think they should absolutely send this guy out and get a competent person in one of the most important jobs. This isn't game...
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I get Trump wants to kill the deep state, but this is frigging ridiculous and chaotic and dangerous in that regard. Scott, your turn.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Well, does he have a real, does he have a real, I mean, there is the ceasefire, right, which is holding. And does it really matter what he reads now? I don't know.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I know! I didn't understand it.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Man City every year.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I can't believe you're saying nil and Zed now because you're from London. But go ahead. Go ahead.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I hear that. You did it in a Scottish accent, but continue.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
So it's like the Dallas Cowboys losing, right? Remember in the day when they were kind of douche nozzles over at the Dallas Cowboys and when they lost, people were happy.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Well, good. That's really good. I have another suggestion, if you don't mind. I can't wait. I do. I have very low blood pressure, just so you know. I have extraordinary low blood pressure. Almost too low. But my...
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Keeps it fresh. Every team's got a shot.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
So you're excited now that this team is getting its head handed to them.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Oh, well, good. I'm glad to provide that. It's been so exciting. I read it. I'm like, I think this is his team or maybe he doesn't like it. I didn't know which one it was.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Because I knew you mentioned it and I vaguely listened to some of your soccer, whatever you want to call it.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I love those people. All I know is I'm glad the Jets lost and I don't even follow it because Aaron Rodgers is a jerk.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
No, but I happen to. I've always had it, but I don't drink. I don't smoke. So one of the things that is that I was talking, a friend of mine from San Francisco is visiting, and he's one of these long-distance cold-water swimmers. You know, the plungers, the ones that go in at 40 to 50 degrees.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
They're both wonderful men. Masayoshi Son runs... Wait a second, isn't that the internet guy? Is that another person?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
All right. I will send my sons to you to do this. You know where we are going? I have accepted on your behalf. So I read that in that whole area, in the sports area, and I was reading it, Egan Durbin, you know, from Silver Lake, who I've known for a million years, who I've always liked.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
He might have been. He might have been. But in any case, I've always liked him. He's a very smart guy. He and his wife, Abby, are investing in bull riding. Like making it a thing. All these really rich people are looking for different sports areas to invest in. And they happen to like professional bull riding, PBR, professional bull riding.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
No, I don't know. I don't know. But anyway, he's making invest. Maybe he is because he's close to those guys. But I wrote him. I'm like bull riding. He goes, you want to come? I'm like, we're coming. We're coming to bull. We're coming to bull riding. I saw it once and I loved it.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I know. He's like, how do you like bull riding? And I said, I'm a lesbian.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
And I know people get hurt and everything else. I know there's damage. I don't care. I loved it when I saw it. I saw it in one of those states where they have it.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Do you know what? I'm thinking of doing that for you sometimes. That's a great idea.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Well, I'm glad your blood pressure is down, but I will try to bring it back up. Anyway, we're going bull riding also. Well, I'm glad for you in whatever soccer situation you have going. Anyway, that's the show. We want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech, or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I also want to mention on my latest episode of On with Kara Swisher, I'm talking to Nathan Mirvold, the founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures and former CTO of Microsoft's He's a really funny thinker about everything. We discussed all sorts of things, including tech leaders taking to social media. This is my favorite response. Let's listen.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Have you been surprised by the shift of some tech people into this area? I am surprised at how people who...
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
And he has gotten his resting heart rate down to 50. Incredible. So he's so fit now from doing cold water swims. I just might suggest it to you. Jump in the Thames.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I tried with a number of them. It didn't work. It didn't work. I tried. Anyway, I like Nathan. He's always really funny.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Oh, wow. Well, deserved probably, right?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Oh, you mean a football? Football or soccer?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Oh, real football.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Bend it like Beckham. Bend it like Beckham. Did you see that movie? Go watch that movie again.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Bend it like Beckham, Scott Galloway. Okay, I'm excited for that. I'm excited for you to be a sports owner. You've always wanted to do that. Always. I support it.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Oh, good. Oh, fantastic. Okay. All right, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back on Friday with more. Please read us out.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I'm working on my new book, actually. Cold weather stuff. Not cold plunge. All this coldness is really interesting. There's all sorts of interesting research around bringing your body temperature down. Cold. I'm just telling you. I know.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I know, but I don't either. But I'm going to do one for this book. Maybe you can come with me. But the cold water is really interesting. I've been doing a lot of research on it. It's the cold water. I know, me too. Me too. But there's all these indications that it's quite good for you. And I don't like a lot of that stuff, but this one is one that I think is super interesting.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Anyway, we've got a lot to get to today, including the damning new report about Pete Hegseth and Australia's new social media law. Plus, our friend of Pivot is filmmaker Lauren Greenfield. Lauren has a new docuseries, Social Studies, where she provides an up and close and frightening look at teens in social media. It's like euphoria, but real, which is disturbing. It's a really good series.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
We wanted to talk to her about it. But first, President Biden has signed a presidential pardon for his son, Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden was convicted of felony gun charges and pled guilty to felony tax charges. He was set to appear at a sentencing hearing later this month. President-elect Trump responded by suggesting January 6th rioters should be pardoned. He didn't quite object to it.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
He shouldn't. He pardoned enough crazy people and, in fact, gave them ambassadorship. So what do you think of the move, just briefly, regardless of the circumstances? Does it set a bad precedent, even though Trump is pretty free with the pardons?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Well, I think it's interesting because a lot of people, it's really interesting to watch Republicans attack him, given Trump's record on this thing. And then, I know, I'm sort of like, stop, hush, hush, people. I felt bad about it at the same time. I think moving it behind us for some reason, the Hunter Biden thing just illuminates and drives the right wing. It's like Hillary Clinton's emails.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I'd like it to go away. And I think if this moves it towards going away, I thought the prosecution was an overdone one, and most lawyers will tell you what they charged him with. He's a very troubled young, I mean, older man now. And I just feel like they wouldn't have probably done it. They were using him as a punching bag. I don't know. The question is, will he pardon Fauci?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Although Fauci hasn't done anything, right? Or give him a blanket pardon. Do you think Fauci's going to need to be pardoned? Well, I think they've threatened to go after him. And so has Elon Musk. They all have. Jail him, jail him, jail him. So that's the question. Or Jack Smith or other people. And that's, I think... That starts to get into really funny territory.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
At the same time, I think they've used Fauci as a punching bag. And to make their points, they will continue. I think they would have continued to plague Hunter Biden. So I'm okay with this one. I don't know. I just, it's gross. I think if, you know, Trump's done 10 of these and then rewarded them even further. So I'm kind of like, oh, whatever. Like, it's Hunter Biden. It's fine. Let's move along.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Yeah, come and go.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
The Bragg one, but not necessarily the documents one or the insurrection one?
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Yeah, or just older, just older. We need new fresh blood. I mean, there's a move to remove Jerry Nadler from— Put in Raskin. That guy's smart. Raskin. Yeah, guess who's behind it? Guess who's behind it? Nancy Pelosi, apparently.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
I think she is, but she's trying to get him in there.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Well, at the same time, Scott, I know you're headed this way. There's not a bad argument for Bernie either, because a lot of these people were Bernie bros. I mean, I'm saying there's several directions.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
But he's considered progressive, just so you know. Anyway, let's move on. Australia has banned social media for children under 16. The law requires social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent anyone under 16 from having an account or face fines of up to $32 million. There are no punishments for underage users and their parents.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, and X will be included, but YouTube and messaging apps will not. I'm not sure why YouTube won't. There's a lot of controversy around it, whether it's too broad, et cetera, et cetera, same old, same old, same old, and whether it will be effective. But it was a big move. It was a big move.
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Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
And the word reasonable steps, I think people were like, what does that mean precisely? And how can you do it? I think the fines are interesting. There's legal questions, et cetera, et cetera. But thoughts?
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
You know, for Meta, AI tools are, you know, part of kind of a whole set of experiences, which are all funded by, you know, advertising, right? And so that's not the main source of revenue. On the other hand, what we think is that the platform will progress faster. In fact, we've seen this.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
More innovative. There's a lot of innovations that we would not have had the idea of or we didn't have the bandwidth to do that people have done because they had the LAMA system in their hands and they were able to experiment with it and sort of come up with new ideas.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
So there's an interesting history to all of this, right? So first of all, you have to realize that everyone in the industry, except Google, to build AI system uses open source software platform called PyTorch, which is mostly developed, which was originally developed at Meta. Meta transferred the ownership of it to the Linux Foundation. So now it's not owned by Meta anymore.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
But, you know, OpenAI, Anthropic, everybody uses PyTorch. So without Meta, there would not be ChatGPT and Cloud and all of those things. Not to the same extent that they are today. There has been developments, the underlying techniques that are used in tools like ChatGPT were invented in various places. OpenAI made some contributions back when they were not secretive.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
When they were not secretive, because they became secretive, right? They kind of climbed up in the last three years or so. Google climbed up, too, to some extent. Not completely, but they did. And Anthropic has never been open. So they sort of try to push the technology in secret.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
I think we are, perhaps, at Meta, we're a pretty large research organization, and we also have an applied research and advanced development organization called GenAI. The research organization is called FAIR. That used to mean Facebook AI Research. Now that means Fundamental AI Research.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And it's about 500 people, and what we're working on is really sort of the next generation AI system, so beyond LLMs, beyond large language models, beyond chatbots.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
There was this idea by some people in the past that you take LLMs like the, you know, ChatGPT, MetaAI, Gemini of the world, and you just scale them up, train them on more data with more compute, and somehow sort of human-level intelligence will emerge from it. And everybody believes in this concept.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Right. And it's pretty clear that we're reaching a kind of a ceiling in the performance of those systems because we basically run out of natural data, like all the text that's publicly available on the internet. is currently being used to train all those LLMs. And we can get much more than that. So people are kind of generating synthetic data and things like this.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
But we're not going to improve this by a factor of 10 or 100, right? So it's hitting a saturation. And what we're working on is basically the next generation AI system that is not based on just predicting the next word. So in LLM, it's called a large language model because it's basically trained to just predict the next word in a text. You collect
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
typically something like 20 trillion words, something of that order. That's all the publicly available text on the internet with some filtering. And you train some gigantic neural net with, you know, billions or hundreds of billions of tunable parameters in it to just predict the next word. Given a sequence of a few thousand words, can you predict the next word that will occur?
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
You can never do this exactly, but what those systems do is that they predict basically a probability distribution over words, which you can use to then generate text. Now, there's no guarantee that whatever sequence of words is produced makes sense, doesn't generate confabulations or make stuff up, right?
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
So what a lot of the industry has been working on is basically fine-tuning those systems, training them with humans in the loop to train them to do particular tasks and not produce nonsense. And also to kind of interrogate a database or a search engine where they don't actually know the answer. And so you have to have systems that can actually detect whether they know the answer or not.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And then perhaps generate multiple answers and then pick which ones are good. But ultimately, this is not how future AI systems will work.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Yeah, a lot of money.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Okay, I'll let you in on the secret. I'm wearing smart glasses right now.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
It's pretty cool, right? It's got cameras.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
If you smile, I can take a picture of you guys.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Now, here's the thing. Eventually, we'll be working around, you know, we're talking five, ten years from now, we'll be working around with smart glasses, perhaps other smart devices, and they will have AI assistants in them. This one has one. I can talk to meta-AIs through this, right?
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And, you know, those things will be sort of assisting us, you know, in our daily lives. And we need those systems to have essentially human-like intelligence, human-level intelligence, or perhaps even superhuman intelligence in many ways. And now, you know, how do we get to that point? And we're very far from that point.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Like, you know, some people are kind of making us believe that we're really close to what they call AGI, artificial general intelligence. We're actually very far from it. I mean, when I say very far, it's not centuries. It may not be decades, but it's several years.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And the way you can tell is that the type of task, right, we have LLMs that can pass the bar exam or pass some college exam or whatever. But where is our domestic robot that cleans the house and clears up the dinner table and fills up the dishwasher? We don't have that. And it's not because we can't build the robots. We just cannot make them smart enough.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
We can't get them to understand the physical world. Turns out the physical world is much harder for AI systems to understand that language. Language is simple. I mean, it's kind of counterintuitive for humans to think that, you know, we think language is the pinnacle of intelligence. It's actually simple because it's, you know, just a sequence of discrete symbols. We can't handle that.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
The real world, we don't. So what we're working on basically are kind of new architectures, new systems that understand the physical world and learn to understand the physical world the way babies and young animals do it by basically observing the world and and acting in it. And those systems will eventually be able to plan sequences of actions so as to fulfill a particular goal.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And that's what we call agentic, right? So an agentic system is a system that can plan a sequence of actions to arrive at a particular result. Right now, the agentic systems that everybody talks about don't actually do this planning. They kind of cheat a little bit. They kind of learn templates of plans.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well, a component of an intelligent assistant that you want to talk to obviously is search. You want to search for facts, right, and link to the sources of that fact so that the person you talk to kind of trusts the results. So a search engine is a component of an overall, you know, complete AI system.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well, I mean, the goal is not necessarily to compete with Google directly, but to serve people who want an AI system.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
It is that vision of the future where everyone will have an AI assistant with them at all times. It's a new computing platform, before we used to call this a metaverse. Those glasses eventually will have augmented reality displays. There are already demonstrations of this with the Orion project. was shown recently.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
We can build them cheap enough right now, so we can sell them yet, but eventually they'll be there. So it's that vision, that long-term vision.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
It'll be our helper, our daily helper. I mean, it's like everyone will work around with, you know, a virtual assistant, which is like a human assistant, basically, or eventually like a staff of really smart people, maybe smarter people than you, working for you.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well, it's a long-term investment. I mean, you need the infrastructure to be able to run those AI assistants at a reasonable speed for a growing number of people. As you said, there are 600 million people using meta-AI right now. By the way, there's another interesting number.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
The open source engine, LAMA, on top of which Materia is built, but which is open source, has been downloaded 650 million times. That's an astonishing number. I don't know who are all these people, by the way, but that's an astonishing number. There are 85,000 projects that have been derived from LAMA that are publicly available, all open source.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Mostly in parts of the world, a lot of those projects are, basically training Lama, for example, to speak a bunch of languages from Senegal or from India. So you don't think this money is ill-spent? No, I don't think so, because there's going to be a very large population who will use those AI systems on a daily basis. you know, within a year or two, and then growing.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And then those systems are more useful if they're more powerful, and the more powerful they are, the more expensive they are computationally. So this investment is investment in infrastructure.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Okay, so this was a huge debate until fairly recently, early 2023, when we started distributing LLAMA. The first LLAMA was not open source. You had to ask permission and you had to show that you were a researcher. And it's because the legal landscape was uncertain and we didn't know what people were going to do with it. So it wasn't open source.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
But then all of us at Meta received a lot of requests from industry saying like, you have to open source the next version because this is going to create a whole industry. It's going to enable a lot of startups and kind of new products and new things. And so we had a big internal discussion for several months internally, a weekly discussion, two hours, with 40 people from Mark Zuckerberg down.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Okay, very serious discussions about this, about safety, about legal landscape, about all kinds of questions. And then at some point, the decision was made by Mark to say, okay, we're going to open source LAMA 2. Tell me how to do it. And that was done in kind of summer 2023. And since then, it's basically completely jump-started a whole industry.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Because there are more eyeballs on it. And so there are more people kind of fine-tuning them for all kinds of things. And so there was a question as to, you know, maybe a lot of badly-intentioned people will put their hands on it and then we'll use them for nefarious purposes.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
It's actually kind of a very kind of minor bad things, and it could have used one of the many excellent open source Chinese models. There's one called Quen, that's really good. which is on par with, you know, the best. So, I mean, the Chinese have good research, good engineers. They open source a lot of their own models.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
No, it is to some extent, of course. So there is a big effort to... in the LAMA team, in the GenAI organization, to red team all the systems that we put out so that we ensure that they are, at least when they come out, are minimally toxic and things like that, and mostly safe. That's a really important effort, actually.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
We even initially gave Lama 2 to a bunch of hackers at DEF CON and sort of asked them, like, try to do something bad with it. And the result is we haven't been aware of anything really bad done with any of the models that we've been distributing over the last almost two years.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well, yet, but you know, it would have happened already. I mean, there have been, you know, the public doesn't realize this because they think it just appeared with GPT, but there have been LLMs, open source LLMs, available for many years before that.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And I don't know if you remember this, but when OpenAI came up with GPT-2, they said, oh, we're not going to open source it because, you know, it's very dangerous, so people could do really bad things, you know, they could flood. the internet with disinformation and blah, blah, blah. So we're not going to open source. I made fun of them because, I mean, it was kind of ridiculous at the time.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
The capability of the system really was not that bad. And so, I mean, you have to Except the fact that those things have been available for several years and nothing really bad has happened. There was some, you know, a bit of worry that people would use this for disinformation, you know, in the run-up of the elections in the U.S.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And all kinds of things like this, you know, cyber attacks and things like that. None of that really has happened.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well, I mean, you have to be, you know, watchful and do what you can to prevent those things from happening. The point is, you know, you don't need any of those AI systems for disseminating disinformation, as Twitter has shown us.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Okay. Outside of all of those legal questions, if you have this vision that AI is going to be the repository of all human knowledge, then all human knowledge has to be available to train those models, right? And most of it is either not digitized or digitized but not available publicly. And it's not necessarily copyrighted material.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
It could be the entire content of the French National Library, a lot of which is digitized but not available for training. So I'm not, this is, I was not necessarily talking about copyrighted work in that case. It's more like, you know, if you are in, so I'm from, my family, my father's family is from Brittany, okay, the western part of France, right?
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
The traditional language spoken there, which was spoken until my great-grandfather, is Breton. Breton is disappearing. There is something like 30,000 people speaking it on a daily basis, which is very small. If you want future LLMs to speak Breton, there needs to be enough training data in Breton. Where are you going to get that?
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
You're going to have cultural non-profits, you know, kind of collecting all the stuff that they have, maybe governments helping, things like that. And they're going to say like, you know, use my data. Like, I want your system to speak Breton. Now, they may not want to just hand that data just like that to, you know, big companies on the U.S.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
But a future that I envision, this is not company policy, all right, this is my view, is that the best way to get to that level is by kind of training an AI system, a common AI system, repository of all human knowledge, in a distributed fashion so that there would be several data centers around the world using local data to contribute to training a global system. You don't have to copy the data.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Who writes Linux?
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Yeah, I mean, who pays for Wikipedia, right?
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Good idea. Or the Internet Archive, right? Yeah. So for Linux, in the case, actually, Linux is mostly supported by employees of companies who tell them to actually distribute their contributions. And you can have kind of a similar system where everyone contributes to this kind of global model.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Which is AI for, you know, LLMs in the short term.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Yeah. Well, you monetize on top of it, right? I mean, Linux, you don't pay for Linux, but if you buy a widget that, you know, runs Linux like an Android phone or a car that has, you know, Linux in its touchscreen, you pay for the the widget that you buy. So it's going to be the same thing with AI.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
The basic foundation model is going to be open and free.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well, my opinion is actually inevitable.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
I'm very vocal about that, yes. So Jeff and Yoshua are both good friends. We've been friends for decades. I did my postdoc in 1987-88 with Jeff Hinton, so we've known each other for a very long time, for 40 years now. Same with Yoshua. I met him the first time. He was a master's student and I was a postdoc. So we've been kind of working together.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
We won this prize together because we worked together at sort of reviving interest in what we now call deep learning, which is a root of a lot of AI technology today. So we agree on many things. We disagree on a few things, and that's one of them.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
The existential threat, yeah. So, exactly. So, Jeff... You're like, ah, no.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
I mean, Jeff believes that current LLMs have subjective experience. I completely disagree with this. I think he's completely wrong about that. We disagreed on technical things before. It was kind of less public. It was more kind of technical, but it's not the first time we disagree. I just think he's wrong. We're still good friends. Yoshua comes from a slightly different point of view.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
He's worried a little bit about this, but he's more worried about bad people doing bad things with AI systems. Yeah, I'm with him. Developing bio-weapons or chemical weapons or things like this. I think, frankly, those dangers have been formulated for several years now and have been incredibly inflated to the point of being kind of distorted so much that really they don't make any sense.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well, I don't call them delusional. I call some of the other people who are more extreme and are pushing for, you know, regulation like SB 1047. Yes, delusional. I mean, some people will tell you in the face, you know, a year ago, you ask them, like, how long is it going to take for AI to kill us all? And they say, like, five months.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And obviously, they were wrong.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
So first of all, there's no question that at some point in the future, we're going to have AI systems that are smarter than us, okay? It's going to happen. Is it five years, 10 years, 20 years? It's really hard to tell.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
In our kind of, or at least my personal vision of it, the earliest it could happen is about five years, six years, but probably more like 10 and probably longer because it's probably harder than we think. And it's almost always harder than we think. There is this history over, you know, the several decades of AI of people sort of completely underestimating how hard it is.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And again, you know, we don't have or domestic robots. We don't have, you know, level five self-driving cars. There's a lot of things that we don't know how to do with AI systems today. And so, until we figure out kind of a new set of techniques to get there, we're not even on a path towards human level intelligence. So,
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Once we, you know, a few years from now, once we have kind of a blueprint and some kind of believable demonstration that we might have a path towards human-level AI, I don't like to call it AGI because human intelligence is very specialized, actually. So we think we have general intelligence. We don't. So once we have a blueprint, we're going to have a good way to think about how to make it safe.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
It's kind of like, you know, if you kind of backpedal to the 1920s, and someone is telling you, you know, in a few decades, we're going to be flying millions of people across the Atlantic at near the speed of sound. You know, and someone would say, like, oh, my God, are you going to make this safe? The turbojet was not invented yet.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
How can you make turbojets safe if you haven't invented a turbojet? We are in this situation today. So, you know, making AI safe means designing those AI systems in ways that are safe. But until we have a design, we're not going to be able to make them safe. So the question, you know, makes no sense.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well, none on R&D. I mean, clearly, if you want to, you know, put out a domestic robot and that robot can cook for you, you probably want to, like, hardwire some rules so that when there's people around the robot and the robot has a knife in his hand, you know, he's not going to flood his arm around or something. Right. So, you know, kind of, you know, those are guardrails. So...
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
The design of current AI systems, to some extent, is intrinsically unsafe. You could say it this way. A lot of people are going to hate me for saying this. But they're kind of hard to control. You basically have to train them to behave properly.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
What you want, and this is something I've proposed, is another type of architecture, which I call objective-driven, where the AI system basically is there to fulfill an objective, and cannot do anything but fulfill this objective, subject to a number of guardrails, which are just other objectives.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And that will guarantee that whatever output the system produces, whatever action it takes, satisfy those guardrails and objectives and are safe. Now, the next question is, how do we design those objectives? And a lot of people are saying, oh, we've never done this before. This is completely new. We're going to have to kind of invent a new science. No, actually, we're pretty familiar with this.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
It's called making laws. We do this with people. We establish laws, and the laws basically change the cost of taking actions. Right. And so we've been shaping the behavior of people by making laws. And we're going to do the same for AI systems. The difference is that people can choose to not respect the law, whereas the AI system, by construction, will have to
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
No, no, that's not what I'm suggesting. I mean, you know, measures like, you know, banning massive, you know, face recognition in public places, that's a good thing. Like, you know, nobody would... really think that's a bad thing, except if you are an authoritarian government.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Yeah, it already exists in some countries, actually. But that's a good thing, right? And there are measures like this that make complete sense, but they are at the product level. Also, changing the face of someone on some embarrassing video and stuff like that, I mean, it's kind of already legal, more or less. The fact that we have the tools to do it doesn't make it less illegal.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
There may be a need for specific rules against that, but I have no problem with that. You know, I have a problem with this idea that, you know, AI is intrinsically dangerous and you need to regulate R&D.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And the reason I think it's counterproductive is, you know, in a future in which you would have those open source platforms I was talking about, which I think are necessary for things like democracy in the future. then those rules would be counterproductive.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
They would, you know, basically make open source too risky for any company to distribute, and so would kind of kill— So that these private companies will control everything. That's right. A small number of private companies in the West Coast of the U.S. would control everything. Now, talk to any government outside the U.S.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
and tell them about this future where everyone's digital diet would be mediated by AI assistance. and tell them that this will come from three companies on the west coast of the U.S. And they say, like, that's completely unacceptable. Like, this is the death of our democracy.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Like, how will people get a diversity of opinions, right, if it all comes from three companies on the west coast of the U.S.? We all have the same culture. We all speak the same language. Like, this is completely unacceptable. So what they want are open platforms that then can be fine-tuned for any culture, value system, center of interest, whatever, so that users around the world have a choice.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
They don't have to use three assistants. They can use
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well, so yeah, I mean, there is a point at which we're going to have systems that learn a little bit like humans and animals and can learn new skills and new tasks as efficiently as humans and animals, which is frankly astonishingly fast. Like we can't reproduce this with machines, right?
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
We have, you know, companies like Tesla and others have hundreds of thousands or millions of hours of cars being driven by people. They could use this to train AI systems, which they do. They're still not as good as humans. We can't buy a car that actually drives itself or a robotaxi unless we cheat. Waymo can do it, but there's a lot of tricks to it.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And again, we can't buy a domestic robot because we can't make them smart enough. The reason for this is very simple. As I said before, we train LLMs and chatbots on all the publicly available text and some more. That's about 20 trillion words, right? A four-year-old has seen essentially the same amount of data visually than the biggest LLM has seen through text.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
That text would take any of us several hundred thousand years to read through. Okay, so what that tells you is that we're never going to get to human-level AI by just training on text. We have to train on sensory input, which is basically an unlimited supply. 16,000 hours of video is 30 minutes of YouTube uploads. We have way more video data than we know what to do with.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
So the big challenge for the next few years in AI to make progress to the next level is get systems to understand how the world works by basically watching the world go by, watching video, and then interacting in the world.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And this is not solved, but, you know, there's a good chance that progress will be made, like significant progress will be made over the next five years, which is why you see all of those companies starting to build humanoid robots.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
They can't make them smart enough yet, but they're counting on the fact that AI is going to make sufficient progress over the next five years, that by the time that those things can be sold in the public, that they, you know, the AI will be powerful enough.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well— I mean, I worry about many things, or I'm interested in a lot of questions. I'm sort of politically pretty clearly a classic liberal, right, which on the European political spectrum puts me right in the center, not in the U.S.,
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Me?
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Okay. I'm not a billionaire.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
I'm not a billionaire. That's not the first thing. I'm doing okay, though.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Okay. I'm first and foremost a scientist. and I would not sort of, you know, be able to look at myself in the mirror unless I had some level of integrity, scientific integrity at least. I might be wrong. So you can trust that I'm not lying to you and that I'm not... motivated by nefarious motives like greed or something like this. But I might be wrong. I might very well be wrong.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
In fact, that's kind of the whole process of science is that you have to accept the fact that you might be wrong. And elaborating the correct ideas comes from the collision of multiple ideas and people who disagree. But look at the evidence.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
We look at the evidence from the people who said that AI was going to destroy society because we're going to be inundated with disinformation or generated hate speech or things like this. We're just not seeing this at all. We're not seeing it. We've not seen it. I mean, people produce hate speech, people produce disinformation, and they try to disseminate it, you know, every way they can.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
A lot of people are trying to disseminate hate speech on Facebook, and it's against the content policy at Facebook to do this. Now, the best protection we have against this is AI systems. We couldn't do this in 2017, for example. 2017 AI technology was not good enough to allow Facebook and Instagram to detect hate speech in every language in the world.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And what happened in between is progress in AI. So AI is not the tool that people use to produce hate speech or disinformation or whatever. It's actually the best countermeasure against it. So what you need is just more powerful AI in the hands of the good guys than in the hands of the bad guys.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And what got me riled up with Elon was when he started sort of attacking the institutions of higher learning, of science and scientists like Antonio Fauci and things like this. And, you know, I'm a scientist, I'm a professor as well as an executive at Meta. And I have a very independent voice. And I really appreciate the fact that at Meta, I can have an independent voice.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
You know, I'm not doing corporate speech, as you can tell. So, that tells me something about, I think, how the company is run. And it's also reflected in the fact that in the research lab that I started at Meta, we publish everything we do. distribute our code in open source, you know, we're sort of very open about things and about our opinions as well. So that's the, you know, that's the story.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And I'm Scott Galloway.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well, I mean, I may tell on a bunch of times is, you know, it can be reasonable. I mean, you have to work with people, right? Regardless of disagreements about, you know, political or philosophical opinions. At some point, you have to work with people. And that's what's going to happen between. I don't do policy at Meta, right? You don't.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
I work on fundamental research, right? I don't do content policy. I don't do any of that. I talk to a lot of governments around the world, but mostly about AI technology and how it impacts their policies. But I don't have any influence on the relationship between the meta and the political system.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Okay, I'm also an academic, right? I'm a professor at NYU. And I've kept my position at NYU. When Mark Zuckerberg approached me 11 years ago, almost to the day, he asked me to kind of create basically a research lab in AI for Meta because he had this vision that this was going to have a big impact and a big importance, he was right. And I told him, I only have three conditions.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
So fancy. Listen to you.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
I don't move from New York. I don't quit my job at NYU. And all the research that we're going to do, we're going to do it in the open. We're going to publish everything we do, and we're going to open source our code. And his answer was, yes, yes. And the third thing is, you don't have to worry about this. It's in the data of the company. We already open source all of our platform code.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And so, yeah, there's no problem with that. And this is not an answer I would have had anywhere else that would have had the resources to create a research lab. And I had the opportunity there. I was given the opportunity, basically, to create a research organization in industry from scratch. and basically shape it the way I thought was proper.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Johns Hopkins.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
I had some experience with this because I started my career at Bell Labs. So I had some experience with how you do real ambitious research in industry. So I thought that was the most exciting challenge
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Oh, absolutely.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well, there's a number of different things. The first thing is to not make regulations that make open source AI platforms illegal, because I think it's essential for the future of not just the progress of technology, but also the way people use them, like to make it widely disseminated. So that's the first thing.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
The second thing is, and by the way, there is no problem regulating products that are based on AI. That's perfectly fine. I'm not anti-regulation or anything. The second thing is the academic world is falling behind and has a hard time contributing. to the progress of AI because of the lack of computing resources.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And so I think there should be resources allocated by the government to give computing resources to academics.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
It's certainly important for the government to be more informed and educated about it. But I mean, active certainly for the reasons that I said before, because there's probably an industrial policy to have all the chips that enable AI at the moment are all fabricated in Taiwan, designed by a single company.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
There's probably something to do there to sort of maybe make the landscape a little more competitive or...
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
For chips, for example. And there's another question I think that's really crucial also, and that has consequences not just for the U.S. government, but governments around the world, which is that AI is quickly going to become a kind of universal knowledge platform, basically, you know, the sort of repository of all human knowledge.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
But that can only happen with free and open source platforms that are trained on data from around the world. You can't do this within the walls of a single company on the West Coast of the US. You can't have a system speak all 700 languages of India, or however many there are. So eventually, those platforms will have to be
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
train in a distributed fashion with lots of contributors from around the world. And it will need to be open.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
So I think there were plenty of completely reasonable things in that executive order. Similarly, in the EU AI Act, like for protection of privacy and things like this, which made complete sense. What really sort of I disagreed with, both in the EU AI Act in its original form and in the executive order,
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
is that there was a limit established where if you train a model with more than 10 to the 24th, 10 to the 25th flop, you have to basically get a license from the government or get authorization of some kind based, again, on the idea that AI is intrinsically dangerous, that above a certain level of sophistication, it's intrinsically dangerous. And I completely disagree with this approach.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
I mean, there are... you know, important questions about AI safety that need to be discussed, but a limit on computation just makes absolutely no sense.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Scientists need to be honest. I mean, the main difference between LAMA and most of the other models is that it's free and open.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Okay, so open source software is software that comes to you with the source code. So you can modify it, compile it yourself. You can use it for free. And in most licenses, if you make some improvement to it and you want to use it in a product, you have to release your improvement as well in the form of source code. So that allows platform-style software to progress really quickly.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
And it's been astonishingly successful as a way to distribute platform software over the years. The entire internet runs on open source software. Most computers in the world run on Linux. Almost all computers in the world run on Linux, in your car, in your Wi-Fi router. So that's incredibly successful, and the reason is it's a platform.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
People need to be able to modify it, make it safer, more secure, et cetera, make it run on various hardware. That's what happens. And it's not by design, it's just the market forces naturally push the industry to pick open source platforms, open source code when it's a platform. Now for AI, the question of whether something is open source is complicated.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Because when you build an AI system, first of all, you have to collect training data. Second, you have to train what's called a foundation model on that training data. And the training code for that and the data generally is not distributed. So Meta, for example, does not distribute the training data nor the training code, or most of it, for the LAMA models, for example.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Then you can distribute the trained foundation model, and that's what LAMA is. It comes with open source code, which allows you to run the system and also fine-tune it any way you want. You don't have to pay Meta, you don't have to ask questions, you don't have to ask Meta, you can do this. There are some limits to this that are due to the legal landscape, essentially.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
There are a few other open platforms. Right, but the big ones are... But the big ones are closed. Yeah, the ones from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are closed.
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Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source | On With Kara Swisher
Well, quite possibly to get a commercial advantage. Like, if you want to derive revenue directly from a product of this type, and you think you are ahead technologically, or you think you can be ahead technologically, and your main source of revenue is going to come from those services, then maybe there is an argument for keeping it closed. But this is not the case for Meta.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
Yeah. Who would have thought that China would engage in IP theft to create a cheaper product? We've never seen that before. I love that AI is taking the job of AI.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
That's what Jon Stewart said. Yes. So another thesis, most consumer markets, if you think of this, is not only B2B, but B2C. they bifurcate. It becomes Walmart or Tiffany. It becomes Android, which is essentially free, and it's ad-supported, or it's iOS.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
Isn't this potentially just the first sort of shot across the bow where this market is going to become similar to every other consumer market, where we're going to have Walmart and Tiffany? And this is kind of the first entry into the Walmart, 80%. Kind of Old Navy.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
Old Navy is 80% of GAAP for 50% of the price, and that hits a large market, but a lot of people want GAAP or Banana Republic, that there's a market for both of these, if you will, both respective positionings.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
And I'm Scott Galloway.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
Well, there's two dimensions to this. The first is from a pure shareholder standpoint, it probably makes sense when the president's coming after you to say, and you make $20 million a year in operating profit to say, yeah, just make it go away. Just give them $25 million to the presidential library and make it go away.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
The problem is, and I wouldn't expect based on pattern behavior, Mark Zuckerberg to think anything about this, is that this has real societal implications. And that is despite the fact Bob Iger made $45 million last year, I would argue he's becoming more and more impoverished in terms of his citizenship.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
And that is when a media company says things that are a fraction of the misinformation, slander, disparaging statements that the president has made himself, that happens every day online, and they agree to set precedent by bending a knee and bowing to this intimidation, it sends a chill across the entire fucking nation.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
I'm on Morning Joe, and I call the president an insurrectionist and a rapist, and Mika stops the show to clarify he was found guilty of sexual abuse. Liable. Excuse me, sexual libel. He was found liable of sexual abuse. Is that the right terminology?
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
But look at what we're doing, all right? And by the way, the judge then went on in his sentencing to say the street term for that is rape. So what do you have? You have a group of people. This is straight out of the fascist handbook. Intimidate anyone who says anything negative about you.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
And if these companies, in my opinion, had more fidelity to American values and the very important role media plays in checking power, they wouldn't be bending the fucking knee like this. So is it a practical thing to do? Yes, you can't argue with that. Has it sent a chill?
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
across the entire country in what is an incredible double standard that the critics of President Trump are now feel that they're being held to. Look at the shit he has said about people that's been incorrect. So, you know, yeah, Bob and Mark, I expected this from Mark. I was disappointed to see it from Bob. Where are the men? Where are the Americans who are going to stand up and say, no,
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
If you're not guilty, if we're not, if the entire ecosystem has never been held liable for things much more slanderous or disparaging than these statements, I'll see you in court.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
But here's the problem. If I'm a thoughtful guy who's high profile with a lot of business interests with a family, I would be inclined, I'm not going to speak for you, Reid, I'd be inclined to keep a very low profile over the next 12 months. Whereas the people on the right are emboldened to be aggressive and pollute and flood the zone with misinformation and bullshit and attacks.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
And the people on the other side of the aisle feel like, well, maybe I should just keep quiet for a while, because they are removing security details of people, which is nothing but repackaged violence.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
When you took out the head of the Iranian security forces and you ordered that strike as a general, and the president, for whatever reason, doesn't like you, is removing your security detail, that is repackaged violence against that person. So what we have is a group, this is the road to fascism. Keep them quiet. Put a chill across people. I'm going to keep a low profile.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
Maybe I'm just not going to be quite as aggressive. Let me be clear. One of the roads to fascism, and I want you both to respond to this, is littered with calls or accusations that people are overreacting. Call me overreacting.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
Well, look, these things, obviously, it's a tragedy. The only thing, there's such a spectacle that they attract a lot of media. And I believe about 1,000 people a week in the U.S. or about 800 people a week die in automobile accidents. But they're not nearly as dramatic or as much as a spectacle. And, you know, when I hear this, it's a tragedy.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
But at the same time, when I look at the data, it's just sort of incredible. that it doesn't happen more often. I mean, what you said at the very top of this, it's the worst disaster in over 15 years because it doesn't happen very often. So I'm not saying it doesn't warrant scrutiny. I'm not saying it's not a tragedy.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
I do think it's just a miracle, though, that this form of transportation is as safe as it is. So anyways, I look at it almost as a glass half full, if you will.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
I heard the air traffic controller was a lesbian. Your thoughts, Cara?
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
I do believe a president should have pretty wide berth in terms of bringing in their own people. And for all of the weirdness and incompetence parade of some of these nominees, I think this is the most dangerous. You have an individual here who is not only anti-vaccine.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
If you were to list the greatest innovations in history, I think most thoughtful scientists from both sides of the political spectrum, vaccines would be near the top of the list. The fact that we have now politicized it and have an individual with no science background spewing misinformation who seems to be committed to reducing or creating skepticism around vaccines.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
And then something that came out yesterday from Senator Warren was that he is being paid to find people to sue Gardasil, an HPV vaccine that so far has shown to reduce cervical cancer in women by 90%. I don't know if either of you have known anyone with cervical cancer. I have. My God, we have something... We have something that can prevent nine out of 10 times this vicious, awful disease.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
And we have the head of HHS being paid to try and discourage and financially damage that miracle. This guy has no business. At HHS. He is probably the most dangerous of the nominees in terms of what it could mean long term without attribution, where in 10 years we wake up and go, oh, cervical cancer is back and reverse engineer it to this individual who is blatantly, repeatedly anti-vaccine.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
Well, first off, along your prediction, I immediately read that and I sent Jim Acosta an email saying, I need you to start a podcast. I want you back at those press briefings. Yeah.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
He's a great journalist. So I'm fascinated by what I think is kind of a tectonic shift with Deep Seeker, just the notion that, There might be a reasonable facsimile of the best AI models at a much lower price.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
I think that this, regardless of what we find out, it was probably exaggerated, there is now, I think, a much greater likelihood we might be able to see cheap and cheerful old Navy-like models.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
So my prediction is there's an entire layer of companies and pharmaceuticals in the consumer sector that had allocated $100, $200, $500 million for CapEx for the cost or OpEx for the cost of AI that they were going to have to spend to rent these models to develop new drugs.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
come up with a better itinerary for your Airbnb stay, that all of a sudden are going to decide, wow, we're going to be able to get all of the great taste of AI with a lot less calories, a lot less OPEX. And you're going to see a bunch of companies that were setting aside a ton of reserves because they thought this was going to be a lot more expensive than it's going to be.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
recognize, take those reserves back and it'll juice their bottom line. So I'm in the midst of trying to identify those. I don't know if it's Airbnb. I don't know if it's Johnson & Johnson or GlaxoSmithKline, but I think there's an entire layer of companies that just got great news that their CapEx on AI could be 30, 50, 80% less than they'd originally anticipated.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Moussa Vario, and Dan Chalon. Nishat Kerouan is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Have a great weekend.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
So, Reid, I'm genuine with this question because I think you're one of the brightest blue flame thinkers in the world of technology. I'm sort of blown away by DeepSeek. And I want to posit a hypothesis with you and see if there's any merit. And that is, we were just talking about the airline disaster, the air crash. And I was thinking about the airline industry. I was thinking about PCs.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
We can skirt along the surface of the atmosphere at 0.8, the speed of sound. It's added remarkable valuable to the economy and to consumers, air travel, jet air travel. PCs have revolutionized the world. yet neither of those industries were able to capture or any specific companies were able to capture a great deal of shareholder value.
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
It was consumers and the general public that got captured most of the value. And I'm wondering if deep seek is in fact a signal that in fact, AI may be one of those industries where there's not a small number of companies that are worth a couple trillion dollars,
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DeepSeek Fallout, Meta Settles with Trump, and Guest Host Reid Hoffman
But there's so much competition and the barriers are so low that it might have unbelievable winners, but those winners will be further dispersed into the general public and the economy. And we might not have a small number of winners as we did in social or search, that the big winners similar to the airline or the PC industry might be the public, but a lack of really big winners in tech.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
The person, either the defense secretary, someone needs to say, I take responsibility. Then the third thing is, and this is the hard part, you need to overcorrect. When Tylenol, when it was found out that some crazy person had put cyanide in Tylenol, capsules, Johnson & Johnson cleared all of the shelves of all Tylenol nationally at huge cost to them to restore trust.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
And Cara, if you're texting and you see the emoji of a Makers and Ginger, a guy dancing and a limp dick, I am in the chat. That means I am in the chat.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
They're doing none of these things because President Trump comes from the Roy Cohn zeitgeist of never, never acknowledge that you're wrong and just continue to lie. And if you lie long enough, you in fact will, you know, people will start to believe you. But the real damage here is that if you think about Within the greatest organization in history, the U.S.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
government is arguably the most successful organization in history or the most impressive, and that is the U.S. military. It has turned back fascism. It has turned repelled armies out of Gulf nations in days because of our ability to deliver violence anywhere in the world really effectively, efficiently, and because people are willing to put their lives on the line.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
When you can't trust the people at the highest levels that they are taking, when you're flying an aircraft, you're trusting some guy from Omaha or some gal from Nebraska that she is obsessing over every fucking part on that plane before you have to skirt along the atmosphere at two times the speed of sound, avoiding surface-to-air missiles, and then trust that the agent's on the ground risking their lives.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
would never have anyone not follow protocols and might unmask them. So what does this do to the effectiveness, the morale, the willingness to join these security forces? And also this stuff around the phone and the app, it's a misdirect. I've had some interaction with our security apparatus. When you go into a building, of the NSA or the CIA, you can't even bring a phone in.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
You know, I'm not talking about high-level classified information.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
And then this conversation was why skiffs were invented.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Because the idea is you have a secure room that no one – how are our allies going to share their sensitive information with this clown car? So the damage here, we don't know. The damage here is like an iceberg. The majority of it is below the surface. We will never know about it until there are military operations that fail. They will blame it on somebody else. But this is an enormous –
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Whiskey Leaks. Just before we get into the serious stuff, I think people want to hear more about me.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
But you don't need to be a national security advisor to know what happened here. And that is, When I establish an ongoing relationship with a male prostitute, I change the name and the number, or I change the name.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
It throws the people in my life off the scent. So it's clear. It's so obvious what is happening here. Walls is fucking Jeffrey Goldberg. It's obvious what's going on here. And he had the wrong name purposely on the wrong number to throw the folks in his life off. Oh.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
I'm a little slow today. All right. So I think, as you know, for the first time in my life, I had something resembling a non-outstanding physical where he said, you're borderline hypertensive. I didn't tell you this.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
A little geopolitical humor to lighten the mood.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
And Tulsi Gabbard refusing to acknowledge it was her. And Senator Warren's like, so TG isn't you? And she's like, well, it's under review. And he's like, what does that have to do with anything? And then she says, there was no classified information. And he's like, well, then share it if it wasn't classified. She looks like, I think.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
My man, who I supported for president in 2020.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
I love watching these hearings. If you want to know what you look like, you look at these people. If you want to know what you look like when you were 17 and you got caught masturbating.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
That is literally the facial expression of these people.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Oh, there's, I actually do. One of them's going to go down.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
I think it's, oh my gosh. I think, look, I don't think Trump cares about national security.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
That he's putting warriors in harm's way. I really don't think he cares. What I do think he cares about is I think this is very embarrassing for him. It makes him look incompetent. There's going to be a blood offering. It's a toss up between. I think it's got to be walls. Well, I don't know. It could be walls. He could also decide, heck, Seth, this DUI hire just makes us look bad.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Heck, Seth, getting off that plane and being so indignant. No, no attack plans were shared. I see attack plans every day. And then you see these text messages and they have the equipment. The cadence, the sequencing, the targets, the time. I'm like, what do you want? Color-coded tabs? I mean, he came across, he's handled himself so poorly. I think, so Gabbard, I don't know. Someone's got to go.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Yeah, 140 over 80. And I'm like, what? Take it again. I made him take it like eight times. I'm like, sorry, we're not doing a ninth time. And so immediately had my urine, my blood drawn, my fecal matter, like everything uploaded to ChatGPT. And they all come back with the same fucking thing, drink less. And when they started asking me questions. So anyways, I have- What's happening?
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
A really easy prediction. This is my prediction. A really easy prediction. At a very big D.C. event in the next 30 to 90 days, Jeffrey Goldberg and his wife are going to walk in somewhere. There's going to be a pause and he is going to get a standing ovation. Yeah. If there's a winner here, it's journalism and it's Jeffrey Goldberg.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
But this guy just did the right thing. He just he he resisted the temptation to just continue listening in because he understands, you know, defense and security protocols. He didn't release it till after the attack. He's been he has handled this perfectly well.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Yeah, I like it, but I think it runs deeper than that. I think these guys, look, we like to think that you can put people, I mean, for God's sakes, we've got a Fox host, his defense secretary, and we're surprised that there's amateur errors?
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
So it's not, okay, you can have protocols and fine, put them in jail. That's not the problem. The problem is an environment where you have an autocrat who values loyalty and fealty over competence.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Dry out clinics as a sober person. By the way, just a quick side note. I think this anti-alcohol movement is the second worst thing behind remote work to happen to young people. Your 25-year-old liver, the damage or inability to process or ability to process alcohol at 25 is dwarfed by the risk of social isolation and anxiety.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
When the attacks of October 7th happen and Hamas is hoping to inspire a multi-front war on Israel, Biden sends these amazing things called U.S. carrier strike forces that literally take A city to run and massive, massive capital expenditure and skills and 5000 sailors who are just so highly trained, so committed, so willing to put themselves.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
And he parks them off the coast of the Mediterranean and says to Iran, sit the fuck down. And we don't have a multi-front war. And we don't have a nuclear power backed into a corner, Israel. America doesn't realize, it doesn't miss what it doesn't have. And that is a level of, it has so much prosperity, so many freedoms that they don't recognize are a function of a military that trusts each other.
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That trusts that the people back in Langley, Virginia will not accidentally share who I am and I will be tortured and then murdered. That if I am flying With a package of armaments and a cash to deliver that I have the right coordinates and the and the air defense systems haven't gotten.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Well, I had a few thoughts listening to the speech. That's the first time that I have, in my view, or that I've really noticed cognitive decline. That's the first time I thought, oh, wow, it's getting old. And you've been saying it for a while. That's the first time I really saw evidence of it. He just sounds not flight of foot, so to speak.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Look, and also his speech writer clearly is mimicking what Nigel Farage said about Brexit, claimed that it was, this is our independence day. And it's like, well, folks, you realize that people declare independence from Britain, not Britain doesn't declare independence, like declaring independence from who? But we've just said this all along.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
My 50-year-old liver can't process the same way. Anyway, so I took my blood pressure over the weekend. I hadn't taken it in a while. I was becoming obsessed with it. It's 127 over 72. It's dropped dramatically. And I'm like, oh, it's mistaken.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
If you were looking for the most elegant, clear, blue line path... to increasing prices and reducing the competitiveness of our products overseas as reciprocal tariffs are implemented, there's no more elegant a way to reduce prosperity in economic history probably than tariffs. And it comes down to – so I teach strategy.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
And if you try to distill strategy down to a few basic tenets, two of them would be the following. In strategy, you're trying to answer one question. What can we do that's really hard? Either with spending $18 billion a year on content is really hard, but we have access to cheap capital. Okay, we're Netflix.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Building the most robust supply chain in the world because of access to cheap capital is really hard. Hi, we're Amazon. What can we do that is really hard? And then the second thing is the biggest mistake people make in strategy organizations is believing that they're boxing against a speed bag or that they're in that twilight zone where when they move, they stop time and no one else responds.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
And this is the strategic here is so basic and that is he's under the impression the U.S. is so powerful and superior that we can just levy tariffs errantly without any rationale. and that they won't respond and levy reciprocal tariffs. As a matter of fact, you want to talk about people who are doing it strategically.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Canada and Europe have said, not only are we going to implement reciprocal tariffs, we're going to be especially hard on the tariffs affecting red states. We're going after your heart and lungs, President Trump. I mean, they're being quite strategic about it. And it's this basic error. I see companies make this all the time. We're going to do this one, this one, and this one.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Okay, you realize that Adidas and Ahn will do the same thing. I mean, they will respond. And that is the biggest strategic error is assuming that you are operating in a vacuum of strength. and that your competitors aren't going to respond. And every nation has levied reciprocal tariffs. No one has said President Trump, you're so big and bad and America is so amazing.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
I think there's an argument that you could say we have unfairly subsidized a military umbrella for the second and third largest economies in the world, specifically Japan and Germany and maybe most of Europe. I think that's a real, I think that's a valid argument. But the notion that we don't get the better end or as good a deal Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Yeah. I think that means you're a vampire. I'm a corpse.
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So I'm trying to figure out what's going on. And I figured out that I'm drinking dramatically less because Chiltern Firehouse burned down. I was going there once or twice a week.
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Geopolitical disasters are going to have to hold on for a minute. So I go there, I'm never able to get in there. It's total face control, the coolest people in London, the coolest room, greatest bartenders, greatest vibe. The door woman ends up, she has a podcast called, I forget what it's called. Oh shit, I'll find out. A really talented young creative woman.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
And she came up to me and said, hi, I love your podcast. Would you be willing to have lunch someday? I said, sure, we have lunch. End of the lunch, she goes. Here's my WhatsApp number if you ever want to come by. Here it is. This is like Charlie getting the golden ticket in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
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And whenever I got with my friends, everyone's like, wouldn't it be great to go to Chiltern? And everyone's like, do you know anybody? And I'm like, yeah, no problem. I'll just text my friend. Anyways, this is I'm there twice a week. And the world clearly decided that the universe was out of order with me having access to this level of hot, cool people just regularly. The place fucking burned down.
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have created one million. And sometimes it's people go, oh, Republicans are acknowledging inflation. They're speaking more, they're business people. Trump's a businessman. So it goes back and forth. So they're the swing voter.
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In addition, you're seeing a flood of advertising into this young male demographic, because by the way, those people are the great white rhino of advertisers because they're stupid. They spend money on things like shoes, and watches and coffee and their decision makers and their companies around technology.
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They buy high margin products and you can't reach them because they're watching Netflix and Spotify. So where do you reach a 34 year old male? You reach him on podcasts. Reaching a young male wealthy audience is an advertiser's dream and you can't reach them anywhere else. In addition, 50% of people have said they listen to at least one podcast a month. The medium is growing faster
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than Alphabet or Meta right now in terms of ad revenue. In addition, there's a built-in moat, and that moat is the following. Because we started seven years ago, we have a huge subscriber base on Apple, on Spotify, on YouTube, and anything we drop gets downloaded when you subscribe. And advertisers base their advertising and CPMs based on your built-in installed base.
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So if you have been in the podcasting game for a while, you almost have a natural mode around you because advertisers will only advertise on pods who have a certain amount of scale. So the little guys, the 699,000 podcasts that aren't in the top 1,000, It is difficult for them to make it out of the crib.
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So you have a plethora, you have a tectonic shift in the flows of rivers of advertising capital into this new medium. And you actually, strangely enough, despite the fact there's low barriers of entry and 700,000 podcasts put out something every week, there's really only five or 600 of them that have the scale that advertisers want.
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Meaning like almost every other medium where digitization comes in, it's become a winner take most, if not all environment. What's interesting about podcasting is the two newer platforms are YouTube. More people listen to podcasts on YouTube now than on Spotify or Apple. 20% of my listens at Prof G, because the Prof G market is very visual, is on TVs.
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No one was hurt. No one was hurt. But it's out of commission for three years. Oh, my God.
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It's on YouTube that people airplay to their TV. You're seeing our revenues here at Pivot are comping up for the last seven years, probably 28 or 30% a year. So this is attracting a ton of talent, a ton of capital, big growth up a small base. And Megan, and oh, and by the way, I forgot, you know who's just decided they're getting into the podcasting game? Netflix.
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So if they put Steve Bartlett or Pivot or On With Kara Swisher on their front page for a hot minute in front of 300 million people, that podcast is going to go into the top 10. They're getting into the game. So you're going to see advertisers switch to the small number of companies that have scale. You're going to see a dramatic increase in advertising spend.
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You're going to see some multi, some nine-figure-plus businesses deals in podcasting. You're going to see some really, really big deals. This is the medium of 2026. Let me ask you a question.
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OK, in the short term, yes, it hurts everybody because people go on to a standstill and we've seen this and they say, just just, you know, cool your jets, stand down until we figure out what's going on. However, if you look at the shifts in mediums, everyone knew people were shifting money and ad spend from traditional media into search based media or social based media. We all knew that.
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But what happens is whenever there's an economic shock, and media planners and big agencies are forced to rethink their budgets, they typically take everyone down, but then they come back in the new mediums. Exogenous shocks give a company pause to rethink their entire media strategy, and that almost benefits the new guys. So actually in recessions and in economic shocks,
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It does feel... It's a total Andre Balazs special. It's a shitty hotel with decent service and hot people and amazing cool vibes so you can charge $1,100 a night for a $400 room. Anyways, more power to you, Andre. By the way, met the mother of my children at a Raleigh hotel controlled by Andre Balazs.
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In the short term, it hurts everybody, but in the medium term, it massively expedites the transition that was sort of already happening at a low speed. It expedites it in Google and Meta. When they take their advertising budgets back, it gives them a chance to think, should we be spending this much on newspapers or broadcast television? Maybe not.
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We know we're going back into TikTok and Meta and Alphabet. So while we will absolutely, with these tariffs, see a reduction in our growth,
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When the economy comes back, it's going to expedite the disruption.
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Oh, look, the Chinese see this void. We had spent decades and $70 to $80 billion a year on USAID helping fund a hospital in Cambodia. Tremendous goodwill in Cambodia. Set up this infrastructure. It was working well. Money was being put to good use. We just cut it off. You know who showed up literally the next week? And this is a true story, the Chinese.
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And they are taking advantage of all the good work that's been done to usurp soft power. And I believe this goes back to the notion that we have a monopoly on our ability to deliver violence. We have, I think, 700 bases in 70 or 80 nations. I think China has two or three.
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You're going to see a dramatic increase in the number of Chinese military bases on foreign soil because they are filling our shoes and getting massive benefit from the organizations, the relationships in the NGO sector that we were funding. And they'll just slip into those shoes and say, no, no, no, you don't need to close the hospital. The good guys are here. And nothing's for free.
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The next time they show up in a year, two years, three years and say, look, we'd like to have a naval base here. We'd like to be able to refuel our planes here and we'll pay for the revenue. And by the way, how's the hospital coming? Is it still working? Great. So we're going to see for the first time a dramatic increase in Chinese military bases overseas, which to date the U.S.
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really has had a monopoly on. This soft power translates to hard power. And people don't realize, again, these people don't think long term. They're morons. Well, the whole basis of an elected official at the end of the day, it goes back to strategy. What are you supposed to do that's really hard? What are you supposed to do that's really hard?
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You're supposed to prevent a tragedy of the commons over the medium and the long term.
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My son's middle name is now Raleigh. Anyways...
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What I'm doing with my health is the children firehouses burned down. And I figured out that I think somewhere between I'm drinking somewhere between six and eight fewer drinks a week because children burn down. Anyway, so I need to find a new place. So last night. There's a bunch of new contenders. Last night, and I'm checking them all out.
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But the people or the entities that will fill the void abroad are foreign nations, some of which do not have our best interests at heart. I don't think of China as an enemy, I think of them as a competitor, maybe even an adversary. The organizations that will fill the void in the US, are for-profit organizations that over the medium and the long term will probably demand margin.
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So what happens when the government vacates from these services, and this is what they want. They want private enterprise running all prisons. They want to privatize Social Security because then corporations will insert themselves in the middle. In some ways, they're more innovative. In some ways, they're more productive.
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They'll get monopoly power on the jails and whatever, this part of the county or this part of the state. They will slowly raise the rates and we will end up paying more for less. There are certain things that should be delivered at scale. The electricity in a city needs a monopoly. And in order to have monopolies, you have to have regulators such that they don't enact monopoly pricing power.
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So this is abroad. Our adversaries will fill the void domestically with these businesses that they're cutting. You'll see private enterprise move in. And over the medium and the long term, the consumer will lose.
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Yeah, I'm convinced if my co-host on Property Markets was German, we just wouldn't be successful. Yeah, let's talk about AI in the markets. It just doesn't have the same ring as when a British guy is talking about it.
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But the thing he was talking about, I don't think you got fully across, the German word for debt translates to guilt in English. Isn't that interesting? And they're about to kind of unchain their fiscal strength for infrastructure spending and military spending, which I think is going to be a big deal. But anyways.
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What was my stock pick? What was my stock pick for 2025, Cara?
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Last night, I went to this new place called Soho Muse, which is a Soho house. But Soho house has figured out they let in too many people. So now they have a one that you can't get into. There's always another room. There's always another level.
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Intertide engineered this episode. Ronnie Paladaro edited this video. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Severo, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. That's right. A whiskey, emoji, dancing, and a limp dig. The dog is in the chat. I'm sorry.
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So I found somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody. Went there last night. Pretty good. Not sure. Daddy went deep in the paint. And tonight, I'm going to Kensington Gardens.
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As Winston Churchill said, I've gotten more out of alcohol than it's gotten out of me. I would not have kids and I'd likely still be a virgin and I'd have very few good friends if it wasn't for alcohol.
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Well, these are some of our most senior and most impactful and most important people in government. And I think you have to take them at their word. So let's just look at a few of their past quotes. Any security professional, military, government, or otherwise would be fired on the spot for this type of conduct and criminally prosecuted for being so reckless with this kind of information.
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That's Secretary Hegseth referring to Hillary Clinton's emails being on a server. More from Secretary Hegseth, how damaging is it to your ability to recruit or build allies with others when they are worried that our leaders may be exposing them because of their gross negligence or their recklessness in handling information?
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Again, that was Secretary Hegseth when they found emails on a server that he decided were classified. Let's keep going. The fact that she wouldn't be held accountable for this I think blows the mind of anyone who's held our nation's secrets dear, Hegseth added back. And who's had top secret clearance like I have and others who know that even one hiccup causes a problem. What about Secretary Rubio?
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Nobody is above the law, not even Hillary Clinton, Rubio said at Fox, even though she thinks she is. Mishandling classified information is still a violation of the Espionage Act. That's a criminal charge so serious that it can bring the death penalty. Close quote.
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When you have the Clinton emails on top of the fact that the sitting president of the United States admitted he had documents in his garage, Director Walz or National Security Advisor Walz told CNN, but they didn't prosecute. They didn't go after these folks. Exasperated.
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Any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such, said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. And my favorite quote on the actual— You know what my name for her is?
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And my favorite quote is actually from the text message chain. We are currently clean on OPSEC from Secretary Hagsath, meaning we are clear. You can trust that the security protocols are in place. And this reflects a couple of things. One.
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This administration, as led by Donald Trump, President Trump, believe that the government of the United States, which is the most impressive organization in history, ask yourself, for all the shitposting all of us do about the U.S. government, who's provided more rights and more prosperity at a lower cost, at taxes this low? Best product for lowest price brought to you by the U.S. government.
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Most impressive organization in the world. And these folks have decided that any protocols, no matter how established or how important, they're bigger than. That they just, they don't need to pay attention to this stupid shit that people before them were doing. It's the ultimate Dunning-Kruger effect.
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And then the last thing I'll say before I get your comments is when someone is pulled over and convicted for a DUI, on average, on average, They have driven drunk 80 times previous to that. So the question isn't what happened here, because fortunately, Jeff Goldberg understands security protocols. He didn't release the information until after the attacks had happened.
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When he realized he was privy errantly to classified information, he voluntarily exited the chat. He understands security protocols. I mean, make him fucking defense secretary.
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The scariest question is, we found out they got a DUI here. What are the other 79 times that secure information has been leaked to bad actors who aren't going to follow security protocols? Maybe work for the CCP or the GRU. When you put peewee little leaguer incompetent ass clowns In positions of this importance, there are going to be unforced errors.
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If you want to know what you looked like when you were 17 and you got caught masturbating, that is literally the facial expression of these people.
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This is a crisis, and there's only three things you have to remember in crisis management. I don't care if it's Martha Stewart, Exxon, or what's happened here. One, you have to acknowledge the problem. This was a fuck up. There's just no getting around it. This is unacceptable. That should have been their three words. This is unacceptable. Two. the top guy or gal needs to take responsibility.
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When did Jeff Bezos become Marc Andreessen? That's what I want to know.
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Really? I always thought he was a pretty, like, even-handed guy.
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Yeah, but the bottom line is it's because most journalists just aren't that hot, Cara.
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Well, the good news is that probably won't happen. The next move, you won't even be aware it's happening.
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You'll have, no, no, no, no, no. You're not that old. You'll have some Filipino nurse saying, it's okay, Ms. Swisher, just follow me. And you'll be like, where's grandpa? You'll just, we'll be so out of it, you won't even notice.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Yeah, well, speaking of the Wall Street Journal, they did some great analysis a couple days ago saying that they think so far Doge has saved a whopping $2.6 billion. Yeah, a whopping.
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And by the way, Musk has received subsidies, depending on how you count them, somewhere between 15 and 50 billion. So if you want to 6x the Doge savings, just cut off all subsidies to Tesla.
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And it's just, again, it's look over here. And also, I'm trying to do the analysis. I believe... that these tax cuts will cost taxpayers more in terms of the treasury, just the benefits that Elon Musk will accrue than the savings he is garnering at Doge.
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So if you wanted to double the savings of Doge, you would just say, okay, thank you for your service, but you are no longer entitled to the tax cuts. I mean, this is it's just the math ain't math. And for lack of a better term, I don't think I don't think they should focus on the injustice.
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I don't quite frankly, I don't think it's outrageous to get an email from somebody saying, tell us what you did last week.
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Agreed. Agreed. But it's that's not where our focus should be. Our focus should be, OK, you recognize that the Department of Energy has been Department of Energy and I forget what the that exact term, has been tasked with cutting 800 billion, there's no way they can avoid Medicare and Medicaid. And by the way, when you privatize, okay, so a kid is still gonna need his medication.
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Unless we decide to just let them die, they're gonna get their medication, but this is, hold on. That's what we're doing. Go ahead. Give me some running room. I don't think that's gonna happen. What's gonna happen is it's gonna be privatized, and either the employer or the individual or the county or the state is going to have to go into the private market and buy it.
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And then the insurance company and the pharmaceutical and the medical industrial complex will insert themselves, make it less efficient, less cost-effective such that shareholder value goes up in the industrial medical complex. The privatization, essentially what these autocrats or these oligarchs want is they want the privatization of everything.
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You'll literally, it'll be like watching a senator stroll around the halls.
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That way they can insert themselves in the middle for shareholder value. There are cities that have privatized everything, the utilities, the water, services, they've privatized everything. And what happens traditionally or typically is that there are some things that should be privatized.
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But when you privatize the post as they did here in London, what you end up with is a more expensive service where shareholders and companies get to skim or scoop up that incremental margin. And that is what they want here, is they want to get government out so they can insert, one, private enterprise and make money, and two, emasculate any regulation or oversight of their near grifty businesses.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
But the basis of DEI or the arguments against DEI is that it made sense, I think, if you were to steel man this, it made sense at some point to have DEI, but many of these problems won't have been solved. I won't say have been solved, but have been addressed in terms of a workforce that somewhat resembles the population.
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The problem is, is the basis of the arguments for doing away with DEI is that you risk economic growth and even safety if in fact you're not hiring based on competence.
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Now, that is a real argument, but that argument holds no water when you are hiring fucking idiots to go into your cabinet, when you're hiring Fox News hosts to be the secretary of defense and you're claiming we need to get rid of DEI so we have more competence, that this becomes a meritocratic. I mean, it's just so cynical to talk about skills and domain expertise and who wins.
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earned and deserves the job and who would execute or prosecute the job with the most competence when you are bringing in, seriously, a fucking village, a circle of village idiots?
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
This is a dark side of me. I hate to admit this. I'd kind of welcome a measles outbreak in D.C. right now. I just think that this surrender clown and his cabinet of the best friends measles ever had. I mean, at what point, and of course it hits a small community in Lubbock, I mean, at what point do these literally head up your ass, cruel, weird decisions come back to DC?
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Yeah, I don't. But I'm more interested in they're using her as a prop such that somebody, I think someone, I think my guess is Musk's lawyer said, nothing good can come from you having any sort of official affiliation here.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Yeah, that's exactly right. even despite the fact no one can even find her or get any sort of statement from her. Oh, she's in charge. That way, when these myriad of lawsuits actually get to a quote unquote judge who looks at the law, we need to figure, it's almost like they've created, she's effectively the equivalent of a human LLC, where you create a corporate shield between her and Musk.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I just can't, I'm trying to figure out the legalities.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Can I ask you a question? Sure. I'm veering from the script, which will drive our producers crazy because we won't get to sell as many fucking ZipRecruiter ads.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I saw this statement, I think it was from Cory Doctorow, and it just perfectly summarized, I really have a difficult time encapsulating what I think is going on or the kind of gestalt of this elite class of tech bros and their representatives in Washington, the vice president and the president. And he summarized it perfectly. He said that they believe there's an in and an out crowd.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
That's right. Link it in.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Z-Biotics, let's party tonight and let's not feel it in the morning. Hello, dog.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Oh, my God. E.D. Chewable Viagra. Hello. Have you met me?
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
What did you think of James Carville's opinion piece that would the Democrats to just sit back and and and let, you know, kind of let them have at it and let Americans kind of see what happens?
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I'm torn. Actually, I think I have a little bit more reverence for James. I think he's brilliant. I do too.
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I enjoy how courageous he is. I thought his clip on Fox was just amazing.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And I'm thinking of him as sort of a role model. I just like how he's eased into, you know, his eighth decade wearing LSU sweatshirts and just being fearless.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Oh, I'm sure. You know that guy. He's like, I'll have a mint julep every five minutes.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
They're a pair. I worry that if we don't, I think there's a way to respond. I like what you said, become obstructionist and get in the way of stuff. I'm up for actually shutting down government. I think we should just say, fine, how about it? No, let's shut it down. But I worry that if we don't respond pretty aggressively, that we de facto normalize what's going on.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And I struggle with it because I can see his point. It's a really interesting tactical suggestion. Well, just to just sit there and say, this is all Republicans now. Let's let them have at it. See what happens, folks. Hey, U.S. citizens, you broke it. You bought it. This is you.
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And not even not give them the satisfaction of being hysterical or responding or swinging back or counterpunching wildly. But I think where I land is, I think you need to be smart about how you respond, but you need to just say consistently with facts and experts, we cannot normalize this. This is not, measles should not be a thing.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
You know who I think we need more of? I think we need more kind of what I'll call dark people I don't want to call it Dark MAGA, but Dark Woke. One of my favorite comedians, Bill Burr,
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And if you read Alex Karp's new book, it's basically engineers and innovators are the in crowd. And everybody else is the out crowd. And that essentially the theory is, and I think it's a philosopher, I forget his theory, is that with the in crowd, they are protected by the law, but not bound by it. And the out crowd is bound by it, but not protected by it.
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It's basically saying this billionaire fuck Musk, just because he didn't get laid in high school, we have to put up with his hair plugs and his total lack of empathy. It's like, how much more money do you guys need? He just, you know, when people can't, people, there's so much money in this country and people can't, people have to get a second and a third job and can't be with their kids.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And he, I think we need more of that energy, just empathy.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Well, I mean, first off, all these things require context, and that is, in the past year, the stock, even with its drawdown, is up 50%. It still trades at just an exceptional valuation. It's trading at PE today of 145. I think Ford trades at a PE of like six or seven. So I think the market, when a company becomes this overvalued, is looking for reasons to take it down.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
But there's just no getting around it. The sales are down in Germany and across Europe and also in California. Sales are off between 10 and 40 percent. So this is really having an impact on sales. And he still gets, I think, about a third of his net worth from his stake in Tesla. I think it's just getting started. I mean, I think you remember my prediction three weeks ago. It was.
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My broken clock was that at some point, this is going to hurt the brand so much. I mean, I got to think at some point, people don't want... to drive into a parking lot and have people flip them off, which is everyone's, not everyone, a lot of people's inclination now when you see someone in a Tesla is to- I don't like them. Is like, oh, what an asshole, or flip them off.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I sold my Tesla three years ago and people said I was overreacting. Look, you should stay out of politics as a general rule for brands. It is finally starting. I think it got them some loyalty. I think it sort of is a reference and a little bit like, kind of innovation, politically incorrect.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Actually, I think that probably got him some additional customers for a while, but this feels like a lot of people, even people who probably support him think, I just don't need the hassle of someone judging me by the car I roll up in, in terms of my politics. Now, I want to be judged when I roll up in a Range Rover. It means that I'm in the midst of a midlife crisis and I can afford it.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And would you like to jump on, speaking of erectile dysfunction?
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And I thought that perfectly summarized what is going on here. And that is these guys love COVID bailouts. They love the protections of free speech. They love the law. They expect the Justice Department to weigh in.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
The interesting thing will be, so the stock's overvalued. The market's looking for reasons to take it down. The product lineup feels stale. The interesting thing will be is if his kind of off-camera activities here or his extracurricular activities begin to infect Starlink. Because Starlink really is an amazing product, and they are signing up new customers like crazy.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
What I'm interested in or waiting for is the first company that says, we're reconsidering our deal with Starlink. Because so far it's just impacted Tesla. If it starts to infect SpaceX slash Starlink, then Houston has a real problem. And I think you probably are going to see that in the next 30 days.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
A big carrier or a government or someone's going to say, we're rethinking our relationship with Starlink.
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It's funny you say that because last night I was watching Game of, I'm watching Game of Thrones with my 14-year-old.
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And the easiest way to buy it was on, it never gets old, Cara.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And so, but last night, the easiest way to buy it was on Amazon Prime. And for the first time I thought, is there another place I can buy it?
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
But they themselves are not subject to it, right? No, no. I mean, whether it's paternity court, they would have a field day with- Andrew Tate getting out in Romania, sex trafficking. The role model for male abandonment, you know, Doge King. I mean, literally the notion that these folks
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Some would say 10, but the Magnum is at seven.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Yeah. What's interesting about the market right now is with respect to Nvidia or some of these other companies, their expectation or the expectations are that they'll beat expectations because what happened yesterday was Again, NVIDIA beat expectations. It came in at $39.3 billion versus a projection of $38.3. Its earnings were $0.89 versus a projected $0.84, and the stock is down 1% today.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
People have gotten so used to, or the market has gotten so used to these companies just blowing away expectations that when they only slightly beat expectations, they kind of, if you will, actually don't meet the expectations. So this company has gotten just so... The unusual thing about this company, and people like to compare it to Cisco, is that Cisco's price earnings multiple went crazy.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And the price earnings multiple has expanded here, but it hasn't expanded nearly as much because their earnings growth has also been exponential. So it does appear to have, I don't want to even say flat line, because the gains here have been so extraordinary, but the stock is down 5% year to date. It's just flat for the last six months after what is like a 100x increase over the last decade.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
don't weaponize or don't use the laws and means of transferring wealth and rights from the poor to them, but at the same time, don't feel bound to it. If you want to see, I'm really ranting now, if you want to see a massive amount of corruption, just wait until about three years from now when we find out what happened between now and then in the crypto markets. You are going to see so many scams.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
It really has been the stock of the last decade, but the expectations around these companies now are that you're going to beat expectations.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I'm of the mind that there's a non-zero probability, maybe a one in three chance where AI ends up being more like the PC industry and the airline industries where consumers capture the majority of value because they're not able to create sustainable moats. And I think DeepSeq was the first sort of signal of that.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And that is arguably jet transportation and PCs should be the most valuable companies in the world, they're not. And I wonder, I mean, a lot of these LLMs are beginning to feel pretty similar. Although I can't stand anthropic. It's so fucking PG-13. I can't make recommendations around this.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And also I think it's just going to be, this could be, in fact, one of those industries where, and this is a good thing, the winners might be us, the winners might be all industry.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Industry has garnered enormous and citizens shareholder value from jet transportation and the PC, but very few companies were able to create modes such that they could capture a lot of the value for specific shareholders. And I think if there's evidence of that this year or there's a slowdown, I think you're absolutely going to see a real correction.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And all I can say is what I'm doing, because I don't think anybody knows, I am rotating. of U.S. stocks into foreign stocks, because if you look at U.S. growth stocks, which have really carried the day for the last 15 years, relative to their historical averages, they are in the 98th percentile right now.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
So there's only 2% of the time in history, like basically sometime in 1999 or 2007, have they been more expensive. At the same time, Large cap value companies in Europe, Latin America, and China are at their 2%, meaning that they've been higher 98% of their historical, or in history, they've been higher 98% of the time. So I am rotating out.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
You're investing globally. And by the way, if in fact you're dumb enough to listen to any of us, absolutely listen to Aswath.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
But when you have Apple trading at a PE of 39 and it traditionally trades at 18, I mean, it's just not a bad, it's not a terrible idea to think about taking some chips off the table.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
That's right. Rich people can go not only shopping for clothes or experiences, they can go shopping for rights. So if they're, back to the statement of these people are protected by the law but not bound by it, if you're a wealthy person, in fact, you are... the law has kind of gotten fed up with you, you can go somewhere else.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Or if you're worried about persecution, but you're right, this is nothing new. The EU has taken in approximately $23 billion selling visas across Greece, Malta, Portugal, Spain. The UK used to have a golden visa and then the populace got pissed off by it. What's unusual about this is the price point at 5 million I would think that that probably just appeals. So I'm on a visa here in the UK.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I'm on what's called a tech talent visa, where I had to say I bring specialized differentiated skills around technology. So give me and my family a five-year visa. And they agreed. The notion that you can buy in is not new. What's weird is the price point. Because what I think this says is you don't have any other options. And maybe you're a little bit on the run.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Or the tax authorities are closing in on you. Because if you look at one of the reasons the British economy or London specifically has done really well, or I would argue has done well over the last 30 or 40 years. I mean, London is the most, Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. London is the most handsome.
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And when you came here in the 80s, I've been coming here since I was a kid because my parents are from here. It was a shitty city, bad food, ugly rundown. It was just infrastructure was collapsing. It was really a mess.
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And Tony Blair basically did something similar in that he passed a series of incredibly airtight private property laws that said you can be an African warlord or a Russian oligarch, but if you bring in a million, 10 million or a billion dollars into the UK and you buy property here and you invest your money with British banks, no one can come for it. It's here.
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No one can come take it away from you. And as a result, London basically became, even more so than New York, I would say, every wealthy person's second or first home.
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And it has catered. It has become a butler economy.
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Well, I'm not sure that's fair.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I just think this appeals to- That's a great point because here's the difference between London and America. People go to America to make their billion, people come to London to spend their billion and protect it. That is my biggest criticism or observation of the London economy, and this is the question I spoke at the Royal Academy of Arts last night.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I needed an excuse to drop that, so I'm doing it right now.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I sat next to this lovely woman named Dame Rothschild last night, who's actually a quite successful author. She gave me the whole Rothschild story.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Dame Rothschild, yeah. Okay, all right. Anyways, by the way, that is an incredible venue. I think that was probably the highlight of my London experience so far. But anyways, people always ask me, how would you distinguish London from the U.S.? And one of the things I say is that this entire economy in the UK is serving wealth created elsewhere.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And that is the wealthiest people I know here are people in money management. They own great hotels, great restaurants. They're servicing wealth that was built and created or inherited somewhere else. Well, I think that's a little unfair. I think the majority of these people, well, the majority of the people I know here made a lot of money somewhere else. Okay.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Anyways, whereas in the U.S., people go to the U.S. to make their money. And there's so much risk-taking and so much aggression. Again, my collective distillation or summary, having molested the earth for the last 30 years, is America is still the best place to make money and Europe is the best place to spend it.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
It's like being knighted. You're knighted except you have indoor plumbing.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
It'll be really interesting to see how many people do it and who it collects. If you need to spend $5 million to get into the U.S.,
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
That's not a great forward looking indicator of why you need to do that.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
It will be real. Someone will do some investigative reporting and find out the first.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
The first hundred people that are willing to pay five million bucks to hang out or hide in the U.S. or avoid local tax authorities. All right. It's going to be very interesting.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I think Doge is going to be over and done by the end of the year. I think the reason that Musk invented it and came up with it is for money. People talk about patriotism. Sure, it looks like it. Every time we dig further into these things, we find out that these individuals are doing everything to try and get richer.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And I think he thought, I can get in there and under the auspices of some sort of fucked up, perverted means of patriotism or getting out my Anger or whatever it is, or getting more news about me. I'll also get a twofer because I'll basically fire everybody who's getting in the way of my autonomous car.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Yeah, I'll get in the way. I'll defenestrate anyone around trying to get in the way of space launches. I think it's all about money. And I think he saw an opportunity to clear out the regulatory hurdles that's between him and a trillion dollars. Having said that, I think over the last 30 days, he's found out there's a tax to this. And that is, I felt a noticeable pivot there.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
In the last 48 hours of the narrative around all this shit. Tell me. Well, you tell me because I'm in a bubble and I don't understand the American people anymore and I realize how out of touch I am. But I felt like, okay, people want to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. He should get to pick his cabinet. A lot of people voted for this.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Right. People think, OK, government is too fat. I kind of like it kind of tickles some of my sensors that they're feeling some of the pain of the private sector. It feels as if the narrative has turned just in the last 48 hours where all of a sudden Trump and Doge are on their heels and people, including Republicans that voted for Trump, are pissed off. They're like, we wanted more efficiency.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
We wanted leadership. We did not want this type of kind of heartless recklessness. This does not appear to make any sense. And I think with Musk, I think the straw that's going to break the camel's back here is when people start canceling contracts at Starlink. And he says, wow, I'm actually losing money doing this. And I think that is about to happen.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I think he is a brilliant guy, but it's all about money. The math... is gonna show that he is better off pulling a Vivek Ramaswamy. And it's like, remember Vivek? Vivek was the co-head of Doge, remember him?
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And so this is what's gonna happen. It's gonna be like what happens to old actors. They don't die, they just fade away. Doge and Elon Musk are gonna fade away, because you can be sure he's doing the math,
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And he's like, even if I can get rid of all those pesky regulators, I'm still losing money here because my sales are plummeting because the general public across the U.S., much less Europe, when they see these idiots surrendering to Putin and when they see the type of recklessness and they see that they're not saving any money, all they're doing is making our government less competent.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
You're going to see Tesla sales continue to plummet, Tesla stock continue to go down. And again, the pivotal moment here is when it starts to infect Starlink. And I think he's going to fade back to the corporate sector.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Well, Clinton Gore did it. Almost every president's done it.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
That's a long way, someone your age.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
He's a tall drink of lemonade.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
So I got to add some color here. He called me and said, would you consider doing a cameo? I'm like, yes, how much will it cost me? I mean, I'm so excited about it. Yeah.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Yeah. And basically, I read my lines. And I thought, oh, it's like kind of own a room. You're a lawyer giving some very bad news to someone. It's just, of course, face radio. It's just my voice. And I thought, oh, my God, I nailed it. And I sent it. And they wrote back, well, we love it, but we think it can be even better. And I later found out that they were thinking about cutting it out.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And Jason took me into the studio and it was such a learning experience for me because he would do stuff like, I'd do a line and he'd go, no, he's like, you're scared of this dude, but you're also angry. Have you ever been scared and angry? And he's like, think about it. And I talked about it. He's like, okay, now hit it. And he's like, no, no, no, no.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And then on another line, he'd be like, this dude is banging your wife and you are now really pissed off and you just found out and you're going to tell him this, hit it. And we did this back and forth where he was trying to bring out emotions in me and he'd be like, no, no, no, you're reading to an eight-year-old a comic book, be more animated, hit it.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
We did this back and forth for an hour and I was practically sweating. I was so exhausted by the end of the hour. And it made me walk away with such an incredible appreciation for just how fucking hard acting and directing is. And this guy literally turned my chicken shit into what I'm hoping is chicken salad. And it was so generous of him. He's not a director.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
He didn't get paid to do this, but he wanted the scene to be great.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And he was the guy. He's the he's the lead in the show. By the way, Parker Posey is hilarious.
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She's fantastic. I think Jason owns the screen whenever he's on it, but obviously I'm a little bit biased. But he was so, it just gave me an appreciation. You think acting is like they're really good looking and just act like themselves. That is horrible. That was one of the hardest hours I have ever spent.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
These guys, I can't tell you how profoundly disappointed I am in this. These whores trying to protect themselves or excuse their behavior, texting you or other people. I hate myself. Well, we fucking hate you more.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
No, no, no. I wish them the breast of luck. I mean, I wish them... Okay, all right. If there's an explosion in the capsule, we got to be quick to judge.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Godspeed. I'm a fan of fake breasts, and I have found so far that they taste real.
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That's why the people come here, Kira.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Today's show is produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Corinne Ruff. Ernie Ertod entered in this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Saverio, and Dan Shilan. Nishat Kurwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
If there's anybody who has the money and the resources to stand up to this bullshit. Tim Cook. It is Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Cinder Pichai, Sam Altman, and his hushed tones and concerns about AI. Fuck you. You are literally...
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
The very principles, rule of law, separation between business and state, systemic laws, not individual laws where you give a million dollars to a campaign for favorable treatment. These ridiculous fake announcements, okay, put out a press release claiming that we're spending a quarter of a trillion dollars because of President Trump, even though it's all fucking jazz hands, it's all bullshit.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Somebody I'd like to think in the business community is gonna reach down and feel these circular things in between their legs and go, you know, no.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
No, there you go. Or a vagina and say, okay. Let's be honest though, they're all men. And say, okay, no, we're not doing this. And you're right, shareholders brace.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
At Apple, they've said, we want the EI.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
That's right. All this stuff is so good. His pronouns are now he and Himmler.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
There you go. Played a key backup role. Character actor in the whole drama.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Go ahead. But I don't even really understand what that means. We're only going to talk about- It doesn't mean anything. I don't. So do you not have an opinion? Isn't the whole idea of opinion is that you're going to be provocative and perhaps upset some people and catalyze a dialogue that perhaps helps craft better solutions? What's the point?
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Fair point. So why wouldn't the Washington Post? I just don't get any of this. I'm having trouble even making an argument for or against it. I don't know what it means other than him saying, I don't like the way it's being run now.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I mean, the reality is with these newspapers now— There used to be 20, about 60 or 80 million subscriptions in the U.S. It's gone down to 20 million. Some have made the jump to digital, such as the New York Times. But the problem is it's a zero-sum game. And so when they sign up, when they thought, okay, the Washington Post is doing good work, it usually comes at the cost of someone else.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
They are now, as someone who's, I think, got some distance from the Washington Post. I like it. I have affection for it. But the reality is, it just feels like it's circling the drain right now. Yeah, absolutely. It doesn't feel like it has a growth strategy.
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And the people who like the Post are quite frankly, I hate to use this word, but kind of the cultural elite.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Well, my view is they're pretty prickly. And when a billionaire weighs in with his views without really understanding journalism, it turns off their readers and their employees, and it's probably very damaging for the culture.
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There's all kinds of great content out there.
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The two winners here are, if he had said, I do think there's an opportunity. If you look at the amount of media coverage that sports gets, if you look at the amount of media coverage that politics gets, I think relative to its importance in the economy and the consumer's obsession with it, I would argue the opportunity in media And in podcasts, and I'm thinking a lot about this, is business.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
So if he were to say, if he were to say, we're going to focus, we're going to try and really beef up our coverage of the economy and business issues relating to the markets and everyday pricing and how it affects people's lives.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Because we all are kind of obsessed with Amazon and taxes and innovation and how AI affects us or doesn't in terms of our jobs. I think there's real opportunity here. The biggest winner of this move, hands down, are the heads of HR and recruiting at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
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Because every talented, my sense is at every organization, there's between 10 and 20% of the employees that add 120% of the value and the rest are negative 20. And what I mean by that is you have to have B players to scale. I know that sounds disparaging, but at every organization, they're generally a group of superstars that just drive a disproportionate amount of value.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Those 10 or 20 people at The Washington Post have their pictures and their names like an FBI mob board at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. And guess what? They've already grabbed them.
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They'll all return your calls now. They have never, you're going to see, they are literally, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and some media players are going to come for the heart and the lungs of The Washington Post.
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And I'm Scott Galloway.
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Elon Steps Back from DOGE, Wall Street Whiplash, and Meta’s Antitrust Trial Continues
And I'm Scott Galloway.
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Lena and I went to the Windward prom and I was so excited. I was telling my mom I was going to a prom and she went with me and I rented a tuxedo and I didn't know how to put the fucking thing on because I'd never worn a tuxedo before. I didn't know how to do cufflinks or anything. Anyways, I said, and she said, well, what are you going to do? And I'm like, well, the after party's near here.
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And I'm like, and I'm like, and I've got a key. I just might bring her back after all of this to here. And And I did manage to get her back to my place. And you know what? There was firewood in the fireplace that my mom had put in there.
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What, Cara?
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Wasn't that nice? She looked at me, I was 6'2", 140 pounds with bad acne, and she's like, he needs all the help he can get. He needs all the help he can get.
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You know, my mom used to say to me, she would say, when I was talking about my women troubles, which was mostly an inability to get a woman in my life, she would look at me and she'd be like, whine.
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I just want to thank the Academy.
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Well, I told you about the sex talk I had with my son, right?
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When I went into his room with a banana and a condom.
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And he said, what's the banana for? And I said, well, I can't get hard on an empty stomach.
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Never gets old. It gets old.
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Never gets old. Okay, once again. I'll be here all week. Try the veal.
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Oh, by the way.
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I need to correct it. It's wrong. The Polish cavalry, that was an attack meant to divert German forces, and it was effective. And it's an insult to the brave men of the Polish cavalry. That attack was actually an effective diversion of German, they weren't tanks, but German armored vehicles. I've had literally eight Polish historians reach out to me and say, stop saying that.
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Both, yeah.
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On the antitrusts?
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The question I have, I'm hoping you know more about this than I do, but is it, okay, everything's fine and continue? Because that's a parking ticket in terms of their cash flow.
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And the judges, right?
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And this is, I mean, OK, so the good guys, you could argue, are winning here. So the EU find both. They find them both for violating the new Digital Markets Act. And it's the first time that the law has been has been enforced. It was 570 million for Apple and 230 million for Meta. I just said that. Yeah. But. We'll say it again.
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Okay. So anyways, I'm saying it again.
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Keep going. Yeah. And then, so what is that? Half of what Apple and Meta make in one day? So the question for me is, is it going to happen every month unless they change their behavior? Or is this like that old fine where they effectively... are like, okay, you were bad, now continue to be bad, and you got caught this time and we're fining you, but it's not going to really change future behavior.
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Not, we run for Prof G Markets or for Raging Moderates, we were an honoree, which just means please send in your $1,300 a year next year to be considered for something. And then, by the way, this business, we should be in the awards business. This is such a racket. And then Prof G Markets won the People's Choice Award, but not the Judges Award.
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Well, I do believe one of these companies, I don't know which one, is going to prophylactically spin something. I think that they're so smart that when they feel the wolves circling, they're going to get out ahead of it and go to them and say, all right, what's our blot offering here? What if we spun something?
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what if we sold Chrome to OpenAI, or what if we spun Instagram, I don't know, or WhatsApp. I think one of them, I think we're gonna see our first spin in the next 12 months.
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I think she's just a trivia question at this point. She caught this moment of charisma and fire. And then over the course of the last 10 or 12 years, Governor Palin has just revealed herself to not be a serious person.
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Well, and then I think this is actually really important because I think this would have inspired a ton of, the reality is when you're, one of the key tenants of America that's really wonderful is pretty much anyone can say pretty much anything about pretty much anybody.
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If it ends up you know you're spreading misinformation against someone less powerful than you, not famous, and it creates economic harm or undue stress, then you have a libel or slander case. And I think the law mostly gets it right.
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So the cultural elite or the deep state of podcasting.
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And they said in this case, look, you are such a public figure, you continue to say like kind of insane things, people respond, people cover you, people are quite frankly biased against you, and they're allowed to be biased against you. And she was unable to prove that. Look, to me, this seemed fairly obvious. It did.
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Has decided they're smarter than the people who picked property markets. But Pivot, there was just sort of no argument across anybody. Across the board.
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It is really sad. And I remember being invited. He had created this kind of, for lack of a better term, kind of cool e-commerce hub commune kind of thing.
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In Vegas. And he invited me to speak. They used to do these little gatherings. And everyone said, oh, you should go. It's a total party. And I never went, but his is sort of a tragic lesson on if you don't keep some perspective around why people are around you, And also, he's a big boy. He made his own decisions.
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But there's this, I forget the adage, the more famous you become, the lonelier you get, essentially. And he struck me as someone who really struggled with loneliness. And when I met with the head of Warner Brothers Film, and I like to... We spitball ideas. And one of my ideas, I think the most, you know, there was that whole raft of big tech. There was Bad Blood, We Crashed, the one about Uber.
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I think we're pretty much hitting the limit of obnoxious. I can't imagine. Yeah, I don't see us getting more obnoxious.
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And I said, the most interesting one hasn't been told. I think the story of Tony Hsieh is actually the most interesting story.
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So back to me, and I'll relate this to nitrous. I love nitrous and I have terrible dental hygiene. I've come out of the closet as somebody, I brush my teeth twice a day, that's it. I think I've flossed maybe six times in my life.
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And it's like, it's literally like social shaming. And I go, and every time I go into the dentist to get my teeth cleaned, they're like, you know, your gums are a little bit inflamed. You really should do this. I'm like, look. You're going to give me a bunch of shit, a bunch of pics, a bunch of devices. I'm not going to use any of it. I get my teeth cleaned every three months.
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Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's right.
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I want you to turn the nitrous up. I want you to turn on Tom Petty. I will be back here in three months, but save the fucking speech. I don't have good dental hygiene.
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You have to do the water, the pulsing water. No, if you get your teeth cleaned every three months, that helps.
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There you go.
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No joke, my son, my youngest son won't come into our bathroom anymore because I traumatized him by chasing him around with a Waterpik.
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My team's been to the dinner. They love it. They say it's a ton of fun.
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Oh, Jesus. Of course you did. You're going to get one at some. It was so much fun. Lifetime Achievement Award.
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I want a Midlife Crisis Award. I want... an award for best midlife crisis, like really leaning in.
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Doge and Elon Musk are going to fade away because you can be sure he's doing the math.
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And he's like, even if I can get rid of all those pesky regulators, I'm still losing money here because my sales are plummeting because the general public across the US, much less Europe, when they see these idiots surrendering to Putin and when they see the type of recklessness and they see that they're not saving any money, all they're doing is making our government less competent.
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you're gonna see Tesla sales continue to plummet, Tesla stock continue to go down, and I think he's gonna fade back to the corporate sector.
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Yeah, but whatever I predict about Tesla tends to be wrong.
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Other than the adult video tripod award?
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Well, it all comes down to one thing. It's very mundane. It's product. If they come up with a hit product, they're kind of back. The problem is that this has become a meme stock. And keep in mind, automotive revenue declined 20% year on year, Cara. They're now the fastest declining automobile company, I think, in the world.
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I'm having trouble thinking of an automobile company that declined 20% year on year and what is just so fucking cynical about Elon Musk. is he goes after, he, you know, parachutes into town with a chainsaw and starts talking about government waste. Without government subsidies, this company would have lost money. It's just so incredibly cynical. It's government largesse and subsidies.
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Tripod award. That's good. I just made that up. My nickname in the fraternity. Don't ask me why. Don't ask me why. Okay.
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That are the only reason that Tesla kept in, was in the black. And then the thing about Tesla that said that we're not even an automotive company, and if we are a different company, an automotive company or an entirely different type of automotive companies, they could point to the fact that electric cars have much fewer parts, dramatically collapsing the supply chain.
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He milled a lot of his own products, which would increase margin. He's technically the most vertical automaker in the world. And also to Tesla's credit, it's the most American-made car in America, meaning more parts that go into their car are from And as a result, in 2022, Tesla had operating margins of 20%, which is staggering.
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That's double, that's at least double what the other big automakers report in terms of operating margin. But what's happened this year, this quarter, their operating margins have dropped to 2.1%. This is an unprofitable government subsidized. This is DeLorean. This is a company that's riding on government subsidies right now.
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Do you remember John DeLorean? Yes, I do. John DeLorean was a man's man in the 70s. I think he came from Chrysler GM and he was considered the best automobile designer. He designed the Pontiac GTO. He raised a shit ton of money to start a new automobile company called DeLorean that was famously portrayed in Back to the Future.
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He got huge subsidies from the United Kingdom to say, the United Kingdom said, all right, we're going to give this company enormous subsidies to try and re-inspire manufacturing domestically, similar to a tariff. And then the car was kind of underpowered and just didn't have any consumer reception.
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I don't know, the National Medal of Freedom, whatever it is, at the White House, they pin it on you.
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And then this photo came out of, I think it was a warehouse in Ireland showing thousands of DeLoreans just sitting there. He was on the ropes. The UK said no more subsidies. It was not selling. And basically they set up a sting, the US government, to try and entrap him. And they did.
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And gave him the opportunity and seduced a guy, in my opinion, unfairly, who was desperate to pull his company out of this tailspin. And he agreed to finance or take part in what was ultimately a cocaine trade. And he was arrested on the spot. I believe he served some time and then he converted to Christianity. And, you know, he was he was the you want to talk about a fall from grace.
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He was also married to one of the most beautiful women and a big model at the time at the Christina Ferrara, I think her name was. But he was an American icon that really fell from grace. There's a lot of life lessons here, but more specifically, cars are almost impossible to make. on a single platform. Rivian, which is an amazing car, if you buy one for 80 grand, it's costing them 120 grand.
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Maybe it'll be at the Kennedy Center. I don't know.
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It's all about scale. And when the sales of Tesla go down, it's an especially big hit to earnings because this is a business all about scale. And when you start descaling, your profits are the tail of the whip. But it's insane that this company and the stock went up. That's what I don't get.
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That'll come back, though. Yeah, I know. I don't really care about priests, don't want a Nobel. I don't know.
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I was thinking about that. The last award I won from these, other than these Webby's, is in, did you have a high school poll?
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This is OK. These guys are geniuses in saying that we have to put something out there in the future that's exciting and exotic.
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They will never have to deliver up to the people can at least fill their dreams and somewhat justify such that I can have Kathy Wood say there's going to be a billion robots and justify my irrational valuation. By the way, just I need to correct this. He was found DeLorean was found not guilty. And I just want to go back to this for a second.
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In 82, he was charged with cocaine trafficking after FBI informant James Hoffman solicited him as a financier in a scheme to sell 220 pounds. It was total entrapment. At the time, DeLorean was on the verge of bankruptcy. And a guy approaches you who's a federal agent and says, I have a way for you to make a lot of money if you sell 200 pounds of cocaine. And he said, yes.
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Most handsome, most successful, most likely to succeed. No. You didn't have that in your high school?
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And then they try and charge them. I mean, you want to talk about government overreach. And then anyways, but I don't I'm sorry. Back to Tesla, the robots. Give me a fucking break. I mean, come on. That that is even more pie in the sky than a million self-driving Tesla taxis. That is just insane. By the way, the robots they featured at that big event were being controlled by people 50 feet away.
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You want to talk about jazz hands, but people are excited that he's back and focused on Tesla, so good for them. I have learned to stay away from this stock but This is a company now that is underperforming Ford Motor by a long shot and yet trades at 70 times earnings and Ford trades at whatever, 10. Crazy town.
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I did. I won most comical and Steve Martin, which dates me.
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Well, let's talk a little bit about Doge. He's claimed on stage he was going to find $2 trillion in savings. He's claimed $150 billion, which is obviously a lot less than $2 trillion. And so far, it looks as if it's approximately—they claim—now they're saying $150 billion. It looks like it's more like $60 billion, and they can't even validate or confirm those savings.
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Well, they did these things like, you know, Richard Pryor, so we could give the black kids. I mean, we thought we were being woke and yet we were being very racist. And we had all these, you know, celebs that you were supposed to be in the 80s, like, you know, the blondie or, you know, they said, this is who you are. And they picked characters.
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If you were to look at this as an audit of a $7 trillion company— The fact that they have gone in with full license and what I'll call incredible adjectives and embellishments and exaggerations around quote-unquote fraud and waste, the U.S. government has come out with literally the cleanest bill of health of any organization that would undergo this type of reckless audit.
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The people, the auditors weren't there to give them a clean bill of health. The auditors were there to try and make them look stupid and exaggerate inefficiencies.
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And every time they think they found something or not every time, but most of the time, I think they found fraud, waste or inefficiency and they posted it. Someone someone did a little bit of research on Google and said, actually, that's not accurate. You're exaggerating. The savings or the waste or the fraud here.
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And by the way, I don't think there's been a single case where they've said there's fraud here and we're charging these people. So what entity, what organization in the world could you have this type of bias, aggressive, unbridled audit that's doing 700 billion a year in sales, much less 7 trillion, and get this clean bill of health?
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This was nothing but a weapon of mass distraction. If the U.S. was a household, It makes $50,000 a year. It spends $70,000. And it has household debt of $370,000. And the bad news is that all of the kids in that house are going to have to inherit that debt even after mom and dad die. And we don't want to have an adult conversation. The adult conversation is the following.
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If you believe that fiscal responsibility means not spending $7 trillion and $5 trillion in tax revenue, all roads lead to the same place, folks. You either have to cut costs or cut spending, or you have to raise taxes. And if you want to cut spending, you have to go after one or all of three areas. And that's either entitlements, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.
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I won Steve Martin and I won Most Comical.
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defense spending, or the interest rate, the interest on our debt. Those are the three. If you don't go after one or all of those things, you're not serious about cutting our expenses. Or you have to acknowledge that the wealthiest in our society have figured out a way to weaponize the tax code and have an alternative minimum tax.
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The majority of very wealthy people pay very little in tax relative to their income, or the increase corporate taxes. And what's the answer, folks?
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When we interviewed Leader Jeffries, I think there's an opportunity for the Democrats to say, where are the adults in the room? We're going to have to means test Social Security, move the age up. People like Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway should not get Social Security. It's called a Social Security tax, meaning you pay into it. It might not get it back. It's for the better common good.
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It's not called the Social Security pension fund. We are going to have to figure out a way to get our medical costs from $13,000 a person down to $6,500. We're going to do that by lowering the age eligibility of Medicaid and Medicare, which do a great job, until we have nationalized health care. So we're going to have to cut military spending at some point or make it more efficient.
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And we're going to have to announce that we are going to put $40 billion a year, $7,000 a year in every baby's 401k that they don't have access to their 65 and announce that we are doing away with all Social Security in 65 years. And then in 30 years, interest rates will come down as people see a light at the end of the tunnel.
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No, not most likely to succeed. Not smartest. Not most likable. None of that. Yeah. None of that. No, no.
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We'll get to do away with this $1.3 trillion in growing tax on young people. But nobody wants to have a fucking serious conversation. But the Democrats have an opportunity here because the reality is the swing voters in every election that determines the president, it's not based on transgender rights. It's not based on Ukraine. As important as those issues are, they don't swing elections.
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What swings elections is is people in their 30s who are moderates who basically vote on who they think will give them the best prospects to establish economic security and have a reasonable life. And it swings back and forth. It's a swing issue. And over the last 40 years, Democratic administrations have created 40 million jobs. Republicans have created 1 million. Democrats need to seize.
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We're the adults in the room. We have to have an honest, hard conversation around our deficits and our fiscal and monetary policy because this is not sustainable. And you know what? People will respect it. And then when I asked Leader Jeffries, what they say is, well, at some point, we're going to have that conversation. At some point, tomorrow needs to be today.
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I think citizens are ready for this conversation.
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By the way, I just want to acknowledge, I've been doing research. You blew my mind with the notion of a combined Tesla, XAI, and SpaceX. You know, and I'm just like, that has totally blown my mind. As long as you attribute it to me.
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That's something to do with journalism.
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I do, but the idea of him merging all of those companies, I can't wrap my head around what that would mean.
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I think they hated you for other reasons. I'm just going to go out on another limb.
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Oh, that's big. That's journalism, right?
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This was all, you're doing what I'm doing. You asked me not really caring. You just wanted me to ask you.
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Keep in mind, we only have 90 minutes here, so rifle through your awards.
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Oh, that would be pretty cool.
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Well, the only two things you have to remember in a negotiation are not to make it emotional, not to have it be a win-lose, and to always show a credible willingness to walk away. This guy gets an F on each of those. He's insulted them. His vice president has called them peasants. He makes it emotional. He pisses off. People are human. If I'm a Canadian, I don't want to work with you.
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You know what award I aspire to but will never happen just through randomness? There's something called, I think it's called the Carnegie Award. And it's basically the burning car award. And that is they give about, I think, between 60 and 100 a year to people who have risked their own life on the spot to save someone else's life. So it's literally rushing into a burning house.
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I'm willing to sacrifice my own economic prosperity.
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You want to talk about, and I was thinking about it today, Bill Ackman, on an unrelated note, Bill Ackman came out with this tweet that sent Hertz stock up 100%. And he said, he'd been aggregating a stake for a long time. And he said that because of these tariffs, The value of Hertz's automobile fleet is it's a $14 billion fleet or $12 billion fleet.
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The cost of cars is going to go up so much because of these tariffs that it's an underappreciated asset in the sense that their Hertz fleet is now worth $1.2 billion more. And I'm like, this is the ultimate interpretive dance. Because one, that's like saying my liver and my lungs are more valuable than they are to me. Well, I'm sort of fond of them. Like, how are you going to harvest?
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Unless Hertz announces it's selling its auto fleet, which they're not going to.
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Yeah, but they have a division that buys cars. Yes, that's correct. of this what I'll call gymnastics and interpretive dance to try and turn chicken shit into chicken salad is that the majority of the automobile rental market is based on tourism. And tourism is absolutely crashing.
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And let's just talk about reality here as we're trying to boost the manufacturing sector that employs 11 million people. Has anyone noticed while we were sleeping that tourism is fucking crashing and also employs 12 million people?
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So all of this interpretive dance around these sycophants trying to either pump a stock they have an activist position in or trying to claim that this guy's playing 4-D chess just can't look at data. And also, back to Trump. He's been very emotional.
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I mean, it's like... I would describe the day he announced that as remember when you go to interpretive dance, you look at modern art and you're like, oh, you don't want you want to be cool and you want to say, oh, it's beautiful. And then you look at the next person like this makes no fucking sense.
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I mean, this is his announcement that they have this undervalued asset is really modern art slash interpretive.
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When's the last time you rented? It's a shitty business in structural decline.
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Anyways, it speaks to his brand, to Bill Ackman's brand, that he puts out a tweet of an insane thesis that makes no sense if you actually look at the data. So thirsty. Well, the stock doubled. You got to give it to him. The guy's brand clearly still means something in the market. But back to Trump.
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Highly emotional, creating enemies and adjective where he doesn't need to that will only reduce our negotiating leverage when people will put their own ego now, like him, ahead of actual prosperity and fidelity demands. to their stakeholders and to citizens and to their economy, and two, a credible willingness to walk away.
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He imposes 145% tariff and then hours later says that the tariffs on Chinese goods will come down substantially but won't be zero. Then why the fuck did you go to 145%?
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This guy has, he is competing against people who are willing to starve millions of their own people, and he thinks he's going to intimidate them with 145. I meant, no, but they're going to come down. They're going to do, we're about to enter the stage where they try to figure out a way to basically somehow put lipstick on a pig here and call victory and stop all this nonsense.
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I think you would.
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The tariffs are going to be remarkably similar to what they were before all of this nonsense, but you're going to have all these people trying to spin how it's some sort of great victory.
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And all we have done here- Stop, you sad, pathetic- All we have done here is massively erode brand America. It's gone from freedom, generosity, military might, prosperity, risk aggressiveness, opportunity, rule of law to toxic uncertainty. And that that brand does not command margins. It commands negative margins.
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It's a really interesting, I love those sorts of philosophical questions, though, that in faced with that type of situation. And by the way, to be more thoughtful, men are more likely to run out of the field and try and save their comrades and get shot doing it.
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Well, he's kind of already done it. He clearly leaked... that interaction and he's saying, I'm on top and I've had it with this guy. Trump is scared. He's seen as, Besant is seen as like a sycophant, but is potentially the guy in the Oval Office that will take stuff off his desk so he doesn't even see it, that he is sort of an adult in the room.
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He has a reputation versus Lutnick that's just considered you know, a clown that is now engaged in full-scale corruption with his son starting a crypto company. Jesus Christ.
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Just when you thought this couldn't get any more corrupt, Bessette is seen as a very credible guy and behind the scenes is basically saying, okay, I'm going to do my best here. I know this is fucking batshit crazy. This is, we know where this goes, but... Blink, blink, blink, try and run Vaseline over the lens of incompetence here and pretend this is a victory.
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I never made this mistake, and I'm not- The tariffs are going to look remarkably similar to where they were before. And all that's happened is we have eroded our image around the world to the detriment of our- So what would you do?
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If he would listen to me, I would immediately, I would pretend to have discussions, declare victory and leave. Just like literally find a country that's willing to do something for you, come up with a bunch of fake reasons for why this was happening.
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Anything but what it was, which was insanely damaging and literally get back to the economy and try and repair as many of our alliances as possible and go on and go on the mother of all behind the scenes apology tours. Because this is going to start showing up in earnings calls. I think China might say, oh, you want to go back to where we were? Fuck you.
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And women are more likely, and we hate to establish any sort of gender roles here, but women are more likely to like, let's think this through and not be idiots. Like, how do we accomplish the mission?
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You've been out banging hookers and doing blow and ignoring our children. Now you've decided you want to be married again? Sorry, boss. Sorry. I'll be at my sister's.
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Isn't it? Yeah. Anyways, speaking for a friend.
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My tennis pro is texting me.
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My friends are going to St. Bart's. That sounds pretty good. He needs to.
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Yeah, they'll they'll they'll pretend that it was genius and 40 chess. So move to that part of the program as soon as possible. I mean, you literally have to put the fire out here. You have to put the fire out.
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The adult in the room is the tenure. We've been saying that. I'm glad the sense is there. But I do think the raft of them, I think we're on the cusp of a few of them being fired.
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Well, most of them should go. But I think he's going to try and blame a lot of this on incompetence and saying, you know, I got some bad information. These folks did the wrong thing. I've moved them out. He's going to throw a bunch of them into the volcano, if you will.
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and slow down and be more thoughtful. And quite frankly, that peanut butter and chocolate is really useful in all situations, including combat situations, right?
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Look, a step back from the wrong direction is a step in the right direction. So if you were really advising the guy, you'd say as elegantly, as gracefully, and as respectfully as possible, you need to stop this shit really, really quickly. And behind the scenes, say, call Prime Minister Carney and say, congratulations. And by the way, you're a fantastic friend. A lot of this was posturing.
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I want to apologize to you personally. What can we do that makes this better for both of us?
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I was surprised. I'd like to think that... Are you panicky? I don't... We're all going to die. We're all going to die.
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Pick one. Some good ones. This is always dangerous, but I'm going to do it anyways. Alphabet's reporting. We're talking Thursday. Alphabet's reporting at the end of the day. And I think rumors of Alphabet's struggles have been greatly exaggerated. I still think while ChatGPT is ascending dramatically and does present an existential threat to search, YouTube is just an absolute juggernaut.
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And you talk about Waymo. I just think this company is so well run and Google continues to be the largest toll booth in the history of mankind. I think that they're going to beat expectations this afternoon because I think some of those expectations have been beaten down.
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And then another one, I think in the next 12 to 24 months, we're going to see a spin prophylactically in big tech for the first time. And then I love- Pick one, pick one.
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I think it's the ad business. Ad business, you're right. I'm sorry, ad business for Alphabet.
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And then the most interesting one, and this is, I'm putting words in your mouth or taking your words, and I will credit you. Tesla right now has, I think it's like a $750 billion market cap, right? And when you think about, essentially when you're doing acquisitions or mergers, you want to do them when your stock, it's 806 billion, you want to do mergers
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when you have a really strong valuation because you end up, Steve Case sold AOL when he knew there was no way it was gonna be worth a fraction of that in a matter of months or years. So that's when you sell your company. The problem is no one will buy Tesla for $805 billion, except XAI, right? Or SpaceX.
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Yeah. You'd want me along. I'm good at calming down emotionally fraught situations when people get upset. I break up fights a lot at bars, not a lot.
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And so your idea is so interesting because what he could try to do is say, okay, jazz hands will only last so long. At some point, people start saying, okay, enough is enough here, folks. That $800 billion market cap is going to come way down.
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So the idea of taking a large revenue base, which you get from an automobile company, putting on top of it the impression and the valuation of AI with the data set of X and And also maybe some of the gross and RIS and unbelievable coolness of SpaceX, which would, that would be a lot. Maybe it keeps that independent.
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But I think your idea is really insightful that the way to maintain that ridiculous $800 billion valuation is to cash it in now and he'll have, maintain a huge stake and potentially do kind of, One that's going to 0.5 plus one plus one equals four or five. I think you're right. I think there's going to be, I think Tesla is going to be folded in to another or merged.
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Yeah, I just, I love that. Because when you said it, the moment you said it, I thought, oh, that would be really fucking smart from a shareholder perspective.
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Very bold. And he has control of his board. Right. Yeah. He doesn't care. He'll tell the board this is what we're doing. Yeah. He's not scared of shareholder lawsuits.
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Oh, no way. Can't take it private. No one will fund it. Yeah, that's right. No one will finance it.
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And finally, Cara, the prediction, the geopolitical prediction. So Donald Trump is having a huge impact globally, including what leaders are elected or not elected, but it wasn't the impact he thought he was going to have in the Canadian elections for decades. Prime Minister, my prediction is that Mark Carney of the Liberal Party is going to prevail.
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And that is after overcoming a 25-point deficit coming into the year. And why is the Liberal Party going to prevail here? Donald Trump, he has so pissed off Canada and the Conservative Party nominee for prime minister is aligned with Trump and considered a more Trumpian candidate. And boy, has Canada turned off Trump.
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So in sum, Trump has elected, in my opinion, or will elect, Prime Minister Mark Carney of the Liberal Party and has swung the Canadian elections 25 points because of how repellent they find Donald Trump and the Conservative Party has been contaminated by Trump. So
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He is getting world leaders elected, just not the world leaders that everyone had anticipated or certainly not the ones he had hoped for. In sum, I think the underdog here, Mark Carney, is about to be the next prime minister of Canada solely because of the unpopularity of our American president. Do you have a prediction?
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Oh, I was going to go, but I'm not in town.
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I got asked by a friend of yours to be their date, and I was really excited. She's totally cool. I won't say who it is.
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Well, a friend of ours. Oh, okay.
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I find as I get older, I'm really happy for someone else to take charge.
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Emily Ratajkowski. Just saying. No, it's not Emily Ratajkowski.
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It looks like so much fun.
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Ooh, the NBC party.
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The NBC party. Will David Hasselhoff or Courtney Cox be there? I was wrong. I don't want to go. You have literally said nothing that sounds remotely fun.
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Yeah. Really happy.
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Oh, I had that. You just take erythromycin. Oh, wait, I'm sorry. UTA? Yeah.
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Especially if she's wearing leather and I have to pay her a couple hundred euros. Leather.
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Where does she get all her power?
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I couldn't get my visa done. I couldn't get my passport. And she's like, give me five minutes. And all of a sudden, the ambassador to Britain is calling me and sending me a car with my passport. It's like, who is this woman?
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She's Michael Clayton. She's a total fixer. She is. Seriously.
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And went to Pitt. Went to the University of Pittsburgh. She did.
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No, I don't. Anyway, we have a lot to speak about. I'm not a take charge person anymore.
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I met Tammy Haddad before I met you. We were doing a conference together. I don't think I'd ever met you. Or I'd met you before a podcast. But we went to, I think it was South by Southwest. But I showed up and this woman came up to me and she was so nice and so on my face. I'm like, who is this very friendly woman? And I said, and I saw, I saw, it was so adorable.
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In the back, it was in the makeup room. There was this little adorable boy asleep on the couch. And I'm like, I should probably pregame with Kara. And they go, where is she? And she goes, and then they pointed to the little boy. You were sleeping on the couch. Ha! You look like a nine-year-old boy. It was so loud. I'm like, she can sleep here?
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That was one of my first images of you, where you were just on a couch sleeping with hundreds of people around you.
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You're like Winston Churchill.
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And congratulations to our team.
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Should we name them? Go ahead.
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I love supply chain stuff. One of my best investments of the last few years was I invested in a company called Zero100, which was supply chain research.
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Quick lesson. Quick lesson. When you're thinking about how to allocate and invest your most precious assets, your financial capital, and even more precious, your human capital, it's very easy. ROI on the X side of the scale, sex appeal on the X axis. It essentially, the sexier the business, the lower the ROI.
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Who's Drew? Oh, the tech guy who's been with me 15 years. Memo to self. Remember Drew. Yeah.
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If someone wants you to invest in a members club downtown for artists and creatives, join the club, do not invest. If someone wants you to invest in software as a service for scheduling healthcare maintenance workers, if it sounds so fucking awful you wouldn't want to work there, that's where you write a check. because anything that's sexy is overinvested, which drives down returns.
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The less sexy, the more return on your invested capital. Also think about that in terms of your career. If you're going for something sexy, you better get bright green lights that you're in the top 1%, otherwise find something boring. And this is what creates passion, mastery, artisanship, and be able to take care of your kids and your parents.
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Hello, ladies.
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Jim Mackle edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Severo, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kerouac is Vox Media's executive producer podcast. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
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Yay. Vox. Vox. Yay, the suits. The suits. The corporate. They don't really wear suits. The headquarters.
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Can you imagine if we've been with them seven years, what does that say about how easygoing and nice they are?
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Between the two of us, we've been with them. The chances for a blowup between you, me, and any third party-
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No, Jim's the nicest guy. Jim's the nicest guy in media.
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He really is. He's the nicest guy in media. Anyway, enough about us.
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Yeah, look, Kevin strikes me as a very talented entrepreneur. I don't doubt that anything he says, there's some veracity to it. But, you know, he cashed their check. What a shocker. The current CEO or the CEO was on top and wanted to maintain his platform, his kind of firstborn Facebook, maybe even at the expense of Instagram.
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But the thing that sort of countered all this is whatever he was feeling or whatever resources he was trying to starve one of the kids from, he clearly changed his mind because Instagram is now responsible for over half of ad revenue and it's growing faster. And so at some point... It's a better product.
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At some point, the Zuck realized this and has absolutely turned it into a monster of business. So that may have been true then, but clearly, if that was true, Mark has seen the light. And what I have found or what is interesting, I had dinner with Jonathan Haidt the other night. And he actually said, you know, I get so emotional and biased about this stuff.
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He said some of the controls that META has put in place for parents, even though they're not easy to use and, you know, you can criticize them. He said the one that gets away with more than or doesn't get the scrutiny it deserves and he thinks is actually the most mendacious is SNAP.
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Well, things like their add-on feature where you can, the core components of it, he kind of said are sort of tailor-made, likely unintentionally, for drug dealing and for people reaching out to minors. Because that feature where you can add on people near to you, immediately it adds people near to you, is perfect for a drug dealer.
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Well, they're not going to be on Facebook. No young person's on Facebook. I think Snap is actually pretty scary. And also the whole zeitgeist of it where it's disappearing messages.
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I mean, isn't that kind of perfect for people looking to reach? It doesn't have to promote a certain level of lack of accountability.
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But regardless of whether, I don't think any of those people are looking to harm children. But when they have features that make it easy for adults to reach out to minors, Isn't that a problem?
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I would agree with you. I agree.
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I think that's a fair point.
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My kids are on Snap though, aren't your kids on? Or I guess the kids have aged out of it. It's really about Snap.
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Be a brother. Help him get some.
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His brother narked on him?
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So a lot of breadcrumbs. It sounds like he wanted to be caught. He was.
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Anyway. When I was- You're about to enter into this period of your childhood. When I was a senior in high school, I asked four women to my prom and all of them said no. And my friend, Adam Markman, who I think felt empathy for me, set me up with a woman, actually one of the most beautiful women I've ever met, this woman named Lena. I posted the picture of her on my Instagram. Anyways-
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I think there's this transnational oligarchy class that's emerging where people get so rich they can afford their own security and their own rights. They're only their own family planning, their own schools, and as a result, they have less of a vested interest in the wellbeing and democracy of their native country. Anyways, and the problem is, or how this has arisen is the following, and that is,
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What you see in America, and this has happened consistently, is that as income inequality has increased, a smaller and smaller group of people who are unified in their love of low taxes and getting richer continue to weaponize the government. And the result is, as wealth concentrates, political spending capacity increases,
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And Mardi Gras, you should throw a necklace at me if you're going to do that.
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which secures policy outcomes that further concentrate wealth, and you enter into a doom loop. The share of wealth at the top 0.1% since 1980 has tripled, their share of wealth. Political spending has increased 17 times in real terms on inflation justice basis. And what do you know? Combined corporate and top individual tax rates fell from an average of 58% to 29%. So
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As the 0.1% gets wealthier... They get what they want. ...over the last 40%, their effective tax rate has been cut in half. So you just see a correlation here. And that is, unless you step in and redistribute income from corporations in the 0.1% to the middle class, they increasingly... And I live this firsthand.
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It's just, when you're paid not to understand something, it's really easy to not understand it. And people can talk about, oh, income inequality. But at the end of the day, they vote for candidates and give money to candidates who are going to find a way to continue to cut their taxes. We have to have class traitors. We have to have rich people.
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You know, FDR was a class traitor. Truman was a class traitor who turned around to these very rich people in these special interest groups and these lobbyists and say, no, you're going to hate me. I appreciate all the money you gave to me, but you're going to hate me. I'm coming for your ass.
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Well, no, I might die. Yeah.
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You're excited about that, huh?
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It's not out of the question, but that would have to be something that the Tesla shareholders would want to vote for. Understood.
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It's not currently. There are no plans to do so. It's not out of the question, but obviously it would require Tesla shareholder support.
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Yeah, I 100% agree. The only pushback I would give, Kara, and I think some of... And I share this bias, but I think your bias is coming out here, and that is against Elon, which I share. But one, I do think he should continue to do interviews. I think he gets so much free attention. He still has a big fan base.
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And free media around Tesla all the time and SpaceX and attention. I do think... that is worth billions of dollars and you should probably continue to do it. Should he be coached a little bit better about things to say? He was coached there when he said, well, shareholders would have to approve it. That's not true. He can muscle around his board, but that was the smart thing to say.
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The other thing is, I disagree. I think a lot of people, you may not. You didn't say a lot of people. You said you wouldn't. A lot of people will try self-driving from Tesla. I don't think they're going to hesitate to get into a Tesla.
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That is a lot of Tom Cruise. You're a big fan, though.
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I believe that you wouldn't. I think there's a lot of people that will try an autonomous Tesla taxi.
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The whole woke conditioning thing. He doesn't pass my purity test, so I need to condition everything.
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But we predicted this.
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The exact moment was when I saw that whatever it is, the head of the province in Ontario said he was canceling a SpaceX contract. I'm like, he's out. He'll leave government. Once he sees that happening, he's out. He's going to pull the VAC. The VAC was fired, but he's going to fade to black. And he did. Literally from that moment on, he started fading back into the...
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And your analysis was the correct one. And that is they don't want him around, but they're scared of him because of his money and his platform. But he's out. He's gone.
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He sounds like a pretty nice guy, though, no?
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Look, so I've tried to be, I think like a lot of people during COVID, I decided I was a junior epidemiologist. And what I realized is I had no fucking idea what I was talking about. So when it comes to medical advice, I try to be more measured. And what I'll say as a citizen who gets regular prostate exams and even has a regular MRI that looks and images my prostate,
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And the PSA test is a blood test. That's it. It costs $100. It just seems weird to me that this guy wasn't getting the most robust scans in history and PSA tests all the time.
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As president. Your brother immediately reached out to me and said, it's not unusual for a man of this age to find out in a screening that it is this advanced. I believe Dr. Jeffrey Swisher, who spent a decade of his life studying these issues over my instincts. Having said that, I still think this is just incredibly odd.
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He really is the kind of dumb movie star that defines our generation, at least. Absolutely. I don't love Tom Cruise movies, but I'm a huge Tom Cruise fan. I just think he works so hard. I love that he has a certain fidelity to movies and the big screen, and he's trying to promote theaters. And everything I've heard about him
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There's so much understandable and deserved affection and goodwill towards Joe Biden right now, but this is the reality. He has ruined his legacy. This is what he'll be remembered for. He'll be remembered for the guy who fucked up and got an insurrectionist elected. This is the fine point on his career that will be the thing that he was known for, our years of public service.
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And he would have gone down a hero. This was such incredibly poor judgment, and it brings up two issues around how we move forward. The first is, and we talked about this last week, if we're going to have age limits on the lower end, we need them on the upper end.
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Two, the Democratic Party needs to recognize that one of the greatest tools we have in history in terms of our democracy is the primary process. The primary process is such full body contact violence and incredible competition that it matures not only the right person, but the right person for the moment. No one had heard of Barack Obama. No one had heard of Bill Clinton.
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The Democratic Party wasn't going to pick either of those people, but you know what? They just rose every week and did the work and America fell in love with them. When the Democratic Party tries to clear Bernie Sanders out of the way for Secretary Clinton or Barack, you have to let our primary process run.
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In fact, in my opinion, another mistake they made in addition to this consensual hallucination we all entered in with each other, is that I think they should have had a super Shark Tank-like mini primary rather than just anointing Vice President Harris. I think they could have made it. And I want to be clear, I don't think we're guilty of Monday morning quarterbacking.
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I was Saturday afternoon quarterbacking. I said, have a mini Shark Tank-like primary with the best eight candidates go from two debates with eight, then to four, then to two, it would have dominated the media cycle. And by the way, Trump was dominating it because they were afraid to let Joe out of the basement. We would have, Democrats would have dominated it.
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And who knows, maybe it would have been Vice President Harris that would have matured. I don't think she would have, the woman who...
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Well, the bottom line is, we don't want to acknowledge this. She's not a great candidate. I think she did a good job given the hand she was dealt with. But this is a candidate who didn't make it to Iowa four years earlier, which says to me, America didn't think of her as a great candidate.
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Look, I think given the hand she was dealt, Vice President Harris, first off, I think one of the great performances in political history was her debate. I think the amount of pressure that she must have felt and for her to show up and be that composed, that articulate, that deft, practicing with two screens, I thought that was one of the great performances in political history. The reality is,
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She was not a strong candidate and President Biden and his family's narcissism have severely fucked this country, severely. That is his legacy. We'll get shit for this because people are correctly feeling empathy for him. But his legacy, in my view, has been ruined by this.
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anecdotally about people who have interactions with him is that he's a very lovely guy.
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But betrayal is a strong word. He screwed up and we went along with it.
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Look at the shit Tapper's getting right now. People are so angry at him.
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People are so angry. By the way, just we should point out or try and use this for some good about the importance of a prostate exam. And you know how you can tell or how I can tell it's going to be a really great prostate exam?
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I feel two hands on my shoulders.
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By the way, if Patrick comes over and gives me an in-home prostate exam, I think I should be reimbursed by my insurance.
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You were called an ist. The moment you said it, you were called, no one wants to be called an ist. No one wants to be called a sexist or ageist, but immediately you were called an ageist. Right away. Oh, you're an ageist. You don't think you can do it.
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I do remember it. As a matter of fact, this is how things change. The star of the movie who got paid more was Timothy Hutton.
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He was the heartthrob at the time. And also the other guy who was number two ahead of Tom Cruise in terms of the billing was Sean Penn.
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Well, look, this is, and several nonpartisan economic think tanks have said that this tax bill is the greatest transfer of capital and money from poor to rich in history. And adding five trillion to the debt, which will increase interest rates for everybody and young people is basically a deferred tax on young people such that It's very simple to understand this tax cut.
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The top 5% are getting a tax cut. The bottom 95% are getting a tax increase. And I was hopeful that this thing was going to be rejected. I thought the arguments were just so insane and cruel that they weren't going deep enough in the cuts. But effectively, I was with Anthony Scaramucci last night, who I just continue to be so impressed with. I think he's so thoughtful.
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And he brought up something so interesting, and that is- Is he in London? Yeah, he's in London. And he brought up something so interesting. He said, look, effectively, you had Republicans were fiscal budget hawks. They were very concerned about the deficit. And Clinton, who was a moderate, figured out a way to have a surplus.
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And Al Gore said, with my economic plan over the next eight to 10 years, we're going to have $4 to $5 trillion in surpluses. Bush won. And that was really the pivot point, because what Bush did was the following. He convinced, he decided, and the American public has gotten used to this, he decided we can have our cake and eat it too.
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He should have won an Oscar for that. I think Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise were denied Oscars and Oscar nominations because they're so good looking.
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And what he did was he decided to go to war and lower taxes at the same time. And nothing really happened in the short term to the markets because we have built up so much borrowing capacity because of the responsible fiscal approach of our predecessors.
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And the result is when we decided during W's administration that we could cut taxes and spend more, we began essentially a downward spiral of fiscal irresponsibility that Democrats and Republicans have both taken a play from. that the haunting or the negative impact of deficits don't come to fruition during my administration. So whatever, I'm just going to keep everybody happy.
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I'm going to the far left and the far right meet around. I know let's cut taxes and I know let's increase social spending. By the way, government expenditures are up $200 billion since Trump took office compared to last year. And also Biden, despite railing against the billionaire class, not paying enough taxes during the Biden administration, taxes went down.
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I think that Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July was absolutely, he was out. That was such a moving performance. There's a scene in that. I remember there's a scene in that where he comes home, you know, it's based on a guy, I think, Ron Kovac, who was paralyzed in the Vietnam War. And there's such a moving scene between him and his father.
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So this is a continuation of the same irresponsible fiscal behavior, but this is a focus and this kind of embodies what America has become about. And that is the bottom 95% are here to optimize the lifestyle and economics of the top 5%.
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And one of the reasons we do this is because the Republicans are very good at representing the top 5% and convincing the top 50 that they'll be there, that Americans are so optimistic, they believe at some point they might be in the top 5%. And because Democrats, quite frankly, just don't want to be serious about, neither side want to be serious about either raising taxes or cutting spending.
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And neither is willing to have a serious conversation. The best the Democrats will do will say, at some point when I interviewed Leader Jeffries with Jess, he said, well, at some point we should probably have that conversation. But no Democrat will stand up and say, we probably need to means test Social Security. The only person I've found who's being kind of responsible is Senator Chris Murphy.
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He's actually naming programs we need to take a hard look at. But this is a transfer of wealth.
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Oh, the bond market is saying that this irresponsible fiscal behavior means that lending money to U.S. companies and to the U.S. government is is now riskier, meaning that you need to get paid more to take that risk. And effectively what you have is the bond, the 30 years treasury is at 5.09%, and that's the greatest or the highest it's been since October 23.
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And this impacts, this means you're paying more for your student loans, your credit cards, your mortgages, and companies are less inclined to borrow money to grow because it's more expensive. In other words, everything everywhere gets a little bit more expensive. Now, that's okay if you're the 5% getting a huge tax credit because I don't have student loans.
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My mortgage, if it goes up 25 bps, that still will be overcompensated by the tax cut that I will get. But the bottom 95% see their taxes go up and see an increase in costs across their debt instruments and their kids. are really gonna have a tough time because the fastest growing expense line in the government budget right now is the interest on our debt. It's not investing in infrastructure.
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It's not social services to keep seniors out of poverty. And this is how nations fail. Nations don't fail because they get invaded. They fail because they go broke.
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You know, the mom is sort of overbearing and the dad's a softie. And this kid, you know, he's a kid back from Vietnam. And he has this wonderful, as I think about it, actually, I love Tom Cruise as an actor. There's a scene where he's like, you know, putting him to bed and hooking up his catheter. And he's like sobbing. He's like, dad, who's ever going to love me? So powerful.
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Well, it is a big moment in business history because this is now the most expensive acqui-hire of all time at $6.5 billion. And at just 55 employees, that's 120 million per employee. Actually, no, the biggest, number three was Instagram. I think it was 20 people, billions of 50 million. This is now, I was wrong, this is now number two and $120 million per employee.
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Number one was Meta's acquisition of WhatsApp, which was purchased for over $300 million per employee. But this was an acqui-hire. They're getting stock. I don't think they're getting cash. But even if it gets cut in half or by 75%, I think OpenAI is dramatically overvalued right now. This is an acquihire, and I can see why. The justification is they got a lot of press, a lot of awareness today.
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Quite frankly, this isn't as big a story as Google's announcement of some of their AI products yesterday.
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I know, but my point is OpenAI stepped on it.
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Basically, they took the oxygen out of the room. I don't know if they planned it, but it was quite brilliant. As soon as Google came out with this, they came out with this love picture of them. And Johnny Ive is a very compelling, charismatic guy. And they stepped all over Alphabet's big announcement, which, by the way, is a lot more meaningful in terms of tech news.
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And then another great, really powerful scene is from a great movie called Magnolia, which he didn't get the credit he deserved.
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Yeah, they stepped on it. They basically said, now back of the bus in terms of your story. Look, good for Johnny Ivey. He's a visionary. This is him saying that if we can come up with a better user interface or some sort of hardware product, it signals to the market that they're more leadership. Is it worth $6.5 billion? That's a 2% dilution at a $340 billion.
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I mean, that's real freaking dilution. But if it gets them awareness and they can end up having a cleaner user interface on their search or whatever product, you know, good for them. So, look, I think it was a risk we're taking.
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Where he's next to his dying father who abandoned him. He's obviously, I have some of my own father issues, but he really is, as I think about it, really an outstanding actor.
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I mean, you could see an AI phone. And Johnny Ive is one of probably the three or five, one of the three or five greatest consumer designers. I mean, I'll list off some others. Charles and Ray Eames, the furniture guys. Dieter Rams, who was... Kind of the original consumer design company, I think, was Braun.
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They said that this stuff can be more interesting and not just functional and ugly and look like Soviets designed it. James Dyson, I think, would have to be up there. A guy named Achille Castigliani, who was known for furniture and lighting. If you... I love furniture and I think some of the more interesting design and consumer has actually been in furniture of all places.
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But anyways, he's right up there. I can see an AI phone. There's something about when you get a physical product that creates. I was having lunch with Jordan Harbinger. He's a great podcaster and I just like him. I think he's a really decent young man.
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And I said, my advice to him was, you need to write a book because something you can hold in your hands, it takes the podcaster and makes it, gives you a level of heft and gravitas. I kind of feel the same about a physical product for these digital only companies.
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that if Google can put out an interesting laptop or a good phone, and the Pixel phone, while it hasn't really got any traction, is a great phone, it gives you a certain level of, I don't know, heft, gravitas, that it takes you, I mean, for God's sakes, Meta's been trying to figure it out. They might have it with their AR Ray-Ban glasses.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
But there's just a certain affinity or affection or gravitas you get when you have something people can hold in their hands or marvel at its beauty because you are limited in terms of what you can do in a digital interface.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Will. You know it'll happen at some point. Just when.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
We'll see. So I'm an investor and was on the board for a couple of years in a company called Ledger, which is kind of the premier hardware wallet for crypto. Right.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
A lot of their stuff got... Actually, well, it's still known as a secure story. The company is doing really well. I see the numbers. But anyways, I left the board mostly because I hate crypto and I shitpost it everywhere. So I wasn't a good fit for that board. But you know who took my spot is Tony Fadell.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Because the company realized he's been very involved in the design. And one of the things that... that ledger nanos do have on the competition is they just feel better in your hand, they look cooler.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
They realize that the guy who was involved in the iPod and I think he was involved in Nest, that it makes sense. These people, top-end designers are rock stars and they can have a material impact on the perception. When you have a tech company with people who brighten up a room by leaving it, having some of that sex appeal in beautiful things,
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
As I just talk, process this, it probably is worth the 2% dilution when this company is trading at three. You know, OpenAI needs to maintain a lot of momentum and constantly be in the news to justify a third of a trillion dollar valuation right now.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Oh, that's a good one.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Well, the metaphor I use is that Google is big box, everything at the lowest price. But there's some decision calorie expenditure. You have to decide which of the 45 brands of peanut butter you want. Whereas... AI is specialty retail and says, we're not going to give you every answer, we're just going to give you the three best toasters or the one best, and that's specialty retail.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I think there's room for both, but specialty retail took market capitalization away from big box, and I think that's going to happen here. Having said that, I actually like the chat like interface with Google search. I use it, I find it's now at the top, they're integrating into the search and they're saying, look, if you want to go down the aisle and pick out which of the 100 toasters is fine,
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
but similar to what AI does, we're trying to at least start with what we think is the best toaster or the best answer. One of my predictions in October for 2025 was I called it the empire strikes back. I think Alphabet is about to strike back. I think still the largest concentration of IQ and even IQ related to AI is in fact at Alphabet. Also the scale they have is,
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
the scale they have, so just one piece of data here, there are 373 times more queries on Google than on OpenAI right now. Now granted, their search has declined, but I'd still think that Alphabet with their IP, their IQ, their capital, and the interface they have is still, I think it would be very dangerous to count Alphabet out.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
And I believe that Alphabet's market cap will go up, and I think OpenAI's is going to go down. And when I saw that product release yesterday of the different things, their AI mode, the chat-like interface, I was blown away by those product releases yesterday. I think it's really incredible what they're doing.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Oh, from a PR standpoint, they lost. One guy, Johnny Ive in a $6.5 billion acquisition is the bigger news today. They released so much stuff that I think a lot of the stuff stepped on each other. I would have pasted out and had a series of product releases, but some of the things like basically putting a movie studio on your phone, Some of the stuff that feels like mid-journey but better.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Some of the stuff they announced yesterday, I felt like I needed a few hours to really digest and understand, but I just got the sense they have all of a sudden that they got the memo that they're behind and they need to catch up. I think the distance between that they're lagging open AI substantially narrowed yesterday. Did you see it and what did you think about it?
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I do think they dominate. There's been some
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
What is? Pivot? We're 76 in the world? Yeah.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Watch out, 75.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Well, here's the thing. When you're a Democratic, we're seen as center-left to crazy-left.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I won't say who's who.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
We have. I like that you said I'm a San Francisco lesbian. Anyways.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I love that you threw that in.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Oh my God, that's such a Kara Swisher thing. Oh, by the way.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I'm focused on money versus rankings. The Democratic podcasts get a much higher CPM.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Because the bottom line is Democrats listening to podcasts have more money. than some of the Republicans listening to these podcasts. I do still think they dominate. Occasionally stuff is breaking through, like the Midas Touch came out of nowhere into the top five. But a lot of the top podcasts, like Stephen Bartlett is pretty much middle of the road. He tries to be apolitical.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I think he's going to replace Joe Rogan. And I'm... Joe Rogan, I kind of feel like we should all send Joe a royalty because he kind of busted open the medium. I still think he's number one on most accounts, if you really are honest in the long term. Mel Robbins, who's broken through, but she's not she's not political. And but there's Megan does a great job in podcasts in terms of her viewership.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Tucker's right at the top. It's still pretty is it still really is very right now. What the Republican Party does really well is the synchronicity between the think tanks, their media, their podcasters, and their candidates. The Democrats war within each other. I mean, if you think about even, there were four parties just a few years ago.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
There was the kind of George Bush, Mitt Romney Republicans, and MAGA. And then there's the Bernie AOC side of the Democratic Party and kind of the more moderate side. The right has consolidated around MAGA. The Romney, McCain, Bush Republicans are gone. They've been cast into the wilderness.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
And to a certain extent, that's an advantage because they're all on the same page from a messaging standpoint. And I'll speak to the same talking points. I don't think it's good for America. Whereas the Democrats, we're still roaring with each other. We're still saying, oh, you're my ally, but I don't like the way you're holding the gun.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
And we're spending a lot of time getting angry at Jake Tapper as opposed to saying, okay, let's focus on the fact that the biggest grift in history is taking place. So what I've... thought about doing, and I've talked to some podcasters about, is as we go into 26, I want to be more coordinated around organizing with other kind of what I'll call like-minded podcasts.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Because I do think podcasts are increasing their influence. And I've said that I think our revenues in podcasting are going to grow dramatically because I think political candidates are going to start transferring money from local news stations to podcasts based on Trump's genius move to go right into podcasting. But I think the left needs to be much more organized.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Promote each other, highlight great candidates, maybe even circulate certain data that's super interesting that people aren't focused on. But everyone, I'd like to see everyone from kind of the smartless guys to crooked media. You know, these guys are so smart.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
And all the, Kara Switzer is so powerful. You connect me with literally like- Top people. Anyways, go ahead. Tell them the story.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
An autocracy is very efficient. I think there's a certain elegance. I think our messaging has to be more on point and more coordinated and we have to do a better job of building each other up and highlighting Richie Torres or Wes Moore or Josh Shapiro or Gretchen Whitmer, whoever it is, and also highlighting the fact that, okay, while you were sleeping,
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
you know, there was a million and a half dollar per day. I mean, some of the grift that we're constantly seeing
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Well, but there's all sorts of great talking points. He did a trip to the Middle East, but the two biggest economies in the Middle East, or the three biggest, are Turkey, Israel, or Turkey, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Israel. And he avoided Turkey and Israel because they're democracies and they wouldn't figure, they could not give him grift. Even Turkey couldn't give him a 747.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
There's no fucking way Israel would bribe him or his sons. So he skipped those countries. He went to the countries where the supreme ruler was willing to give them a billion dollar golf course. a multi-hundred-million-dollar Trump Tower or a 747. He seems to have accepted it. That's what he picked up in those three countries. You know what he would have picked up in Israel?
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
He would have picked up a trip to the border of the Gaza border, which he's not interested in. He's actually not interested in actual defense.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
There's a genocide against white people for the wrong country.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
The way I presented it to the people I'm speaking to is that bad CMOs get a directive from the CEO and take budget from the brands and then impose a series of guidelines around. I want this type of advertising for this brand and ultimately they get fired because all the powers with the people making the money at the individual brands, they start to resent the CMO and he or she gets fired.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Good CMOs become a center of excellence and basically shared services where they say, I've done a bunch of work on media effectiveness and if any of the brands want to come to me, I will provide you with this data.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I think we need a group of people that says, we have some amazing candidates that are available for interviews, up to you, here they are, and we can make it seamless and easy for you. Every day, we're going to send out a series of talking points and data that you may choose or may not choose, to highlight in your stories.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
By the way, SmartList, Pivot would like to promote you and promote certain episodes. Would you be interested in a reciprocal deal to promote them? And we're also going to promote the Midas Touch. Would you like to be part, all opt-in, would you like to be part of a consortium that helps build each other's audience? So almost like just a shared services where it becomes a pull as opposed to a push.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
But us lecturing at them saying, oh, you need to highlight this or talk this way. These people are going to stick up the middle finger. These people have their own businesses to run.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Okay, so my prediction is that, it goes back to a prediction I made in October of last year, and my prediction is the empire strikes back. And I just want to be clear, my financial advice to anyone, especially a young person, is hope you go double platinum or sell your company, but just in case you don't,
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
save 3-5 percent of your salary in a tax-advantaged vehicle in low-cost, diversified index funds, not only in the US but across the world. By the time you're my age, even if you haven't gone double platinum or sold your business, you're going to be fine. Try to resist the temptation of believing you're smarter than everyone else and do stock picking and limit that to 20 or 30 percent.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
A bunch of my friends texted me and said, have you seen this? And some even said, should I do this? And I click on it, and it's an AI-generated Scott saying, please sign up for my WhatsApp group, and there's a fee involved, where I will share with you two to three stock tips every week.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I do think it's worthwhile to take some of your money and do stuff because it forces you to learn about the market and also quite frankly, it's fun. Anyways, that's my big asterisk there. Having said that, my prediction is that Alphabet is going to outperform the market. If you look at Alphabet right now, they have so many incredible businesses.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
The Google Cloud is basically a $43 billion business going to 50. If you put the same multiple on that business that Oracle gets, you get a company worth about $400 billion. YouTube, which is essentially the biggest streamer in the world. It does $54 billion in business. If you apply that Netflix multiple, you get a 650 billion, so at $1.1 trillion.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Waymo, in my opinion, let's not even count that, but I think that's worth a lot of money. I think the autonomous war is about to break out and the leader is going to be Waymo, and if they spin that out, I think that'll get a huge valuation. So essentially what you have is at the most conservative level, Google is being valued at about $800 billion to a trillion or four to five times revenues.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
And Chipotle and Coca-Cola trade at six times sales. So, you know, Kava trades at 10 times sales. Kava is delicious. A $200 billion tech business that grew at 13% last year does not deserve a lower multiple than Coca-Cola, a mature food and beverage firm with less than 50 billion in revenue that grew 3%. So if you do a sum of the parts analysis, it's undervalued.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
So the question is, well, why is it undervalued? And the two reasons I think are one,
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
the existential threat posed by open AI, which is a threat, but I think it's been overestimated, and two, the likelihood of antitrust and a breakup, which I believe would actually be accretive to shareholders if they were forced to spend some of these companies because they would be unlocked from this conglomerate tax that the company is paying right now.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
My final point here is that right now, Google trades at a PE of 19, The S&P 500, with its drawdowns, trades at 24. So take an average company in the S&P, a P&G or a Dow. Like, I don't know what company sort of embodies the S&P, but those are both great companies.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
But any average, quote unquote, average company in the S&P is not nearly as impressive, isn't growing nearly as fast, doesn't have nearly the margins of an alphabet.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Well, I really think this company of all of the big tech right now is the most undervalued and it's being overly punished because of this existential threat of open AI and the notion of antitrust. One, I think is overstated. I think they are absolutely striking back in terms of AI. And two, I think antitrust- Will be a good thing.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
if the law was passed and they had to spend something, would actually be accretive to shareholders. There is no reason. Alphabet, at the end of the day, is a much more impressive company than your average S&P company. And yet it's trading at 18 or 19 versus 25. And it's traded at an average of 26 over the last five years.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Well, it was everywhere, and it was a scam. And that is just terrible. for my brand. And we purposely, we don't take crypto investments. We turn down a lot of money and we're even quite cautious about doing financials because I take very seriously that I want young men to have economic security. And I think there's a bunch of grifters out there that have moved from finance
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
And even this year, even with its bump up yesterday, it's down 12% year to date. This is an impressive company that in some I think is undervalued.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Let me bring in a totally unrelated topic. Okay. Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella, two guys who've created unbelievable market cap, hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs, incredible ecosystem, incredible shareholder value. Sundar's from Madurai, India, and Satya is from Hyderabad, India.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
The fact that we are not saying to every Indian, golden visa for anyone, I can tell you, and I'm being a racist here. I think the Indian population that immigrates to America is some of the most accretive, positive human capital flow in history. Walk around the halls of Stern,
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
These Indian Americans, these people who decided to get, who are literally the 0.01% and got to IIT and then decided of all their options to come to America, they are a gift to America.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I'm curious. You got to text me and tell me what you think.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, Kevin Oliver, and Corinne Ruff. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Moussa Vario, Dan Chalon, and Kate Gallagher. Nishat Kharoua is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Cara, enjoy the movies.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
to health who basically claim they can outperform the market if you just send them your 49 bucks and they'll give you insider stock tips, or that you can't trust the industrial food complex to buy their fucking ridiculous supplement even though they failed biology in high school. I'm very sensitive to the fact that young men can be very seduced by this.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I think we both take economic viability very seriously in young people.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
There's literally probably tens of millions of people who have seen me trying to shill a fucking investment forum on WhatsApp. That is just not, and most of them don't realize it's a scam, they just ignore it. That is not good for my brand, that inhibits my ability to make a living, that hurts my brand equity, my reputation. That is the definition of libel and defamation.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
And they can, with AI, figure out if someone in your house is about to go to a Beyonce concert, but they can't find, they can't take that one ad And send out a crawler across their network and go, anything saying this is fake and we're going to pull it down right away.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
They could do that in about a five, if they took two minutes of an engineer's time or two hours of an engineer's time to do it across everyone, they could get rid of all this shit. But instead they throw up their arms and say, it's just too complex.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
That was my favorite. While some still remains. I'm like, oh, okay. So you've taken the knife 90% of the way out, but some still remains. Anyways, these people, you texted them, immediately they got back to you.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I have been screaming into, I have been, you know, barking at the moon trying to actually go through the, you know, the channels here. Yeah. trying to get anyone's attention. And in about a hot minute, you got two people who I'm sure are lovely, nice people with good kids who are mendacious fucks hurting the world.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
No, I'm sure they're lovely people. Everyone I meet from Facebook is super lovely.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Oh, I haven't texted them back. I'm scared.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Yeah, yeah. I got distracted last night. I stayed up late. I watched the last two episodes of Friends and Neighbors. I'll call them today. I'll call them today.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Well, even Alphabet has figured out a way not to have this shit on their network, right?
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Support for Pivot comes from ZocDoc. ZocDoc can help making finding a doctor and scheduling appointments easy, making it feel like a walk in the park. 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.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I see. I don't think it'd be that hard. I think they could so easily upload that video to AI and say, look for the attributes, the sentence structure, the photo resolution, everything, and go identify this everywhere and pull it down.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
They asked me if I'd signed up for face scan or something. I'm like, no, I don't even know what you're talking about.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Well, do you expect it to happen immediately?
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
I mean, your question is absurd in its fundamental premise. Are you assuming that within a few months, an instant $2 trillion saved?
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Have we not made good progress given the amount of time?
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
The ability of Doge to operate is a function of whether the government, and this includes the Congress, is willing to take our advice. We're not the dictators of the government. We are the advisers.
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Once you find the right doctor, you can see what time works best for you. You can stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to ZocDoc.com slash pivot to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today. That's Z-O-C-D-O-C dot com slash pivot. ZocDoc.com slash pivot. Oh, God, that's literally the worst spring break I've ever seen.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Well, just some data. This has backfired. It was initially the best investment anyone had made for a quarter of a billion dollars and sort of the promotion of Tesla and the belief of the markets that this would pay off because we had gone to a kleptocracy. It's now the rivers have reversed and the tide has turned entirely against them. And this is arguably one of the greatest brand destructions.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
And Tesla was a great brand, according to Axios Harris Poll. Tesla has fallen from the eighth most reputable brand in 2021. I mean, that's in the company of Coca-Cola, right? You know, Amazon and Coke and Apple. It's fallen from eighth to 95th.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
We talked a lot about this. Their revenue was down 20%. Do you realize Tesla, despite the fact it trades at 150 times earnings and most automobile companies trade at 10, Tesla's sales are declining faster than any automobile company in the world. They decline 20%. Profits are down 71%. Sales, you want to talk about sales declines, down 59%.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
Year-on-year in France, 81% in Sweden, 74% in the Netherlands. Their sales have been cut in half in Switzerland, 33% in Portugal. And their sales are down by two-thirds in Denmark. And what I don't get is he's such a – he is a brilliant guy, but – He's alienated his core demographic.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
He's alienated the wrong people. Three-quarters of Republicans would never consider buying an EV. So he's cozied up to the people who aren't interested in EVs. And then California, which is the biggest EV market in the U.S., Tesla sales in the state have dropped 12%, and its market share has dropped almost 8%. And then let's just be clear about Doge.
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
It's not saving the US money, it's costing money because one of the recommendations they made was a plan to cut the IRS by 50%, which would essentially lead to a $400 billion increase in uncollected taxes. So if you're talking about effect on the treasury and our receipts, let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say it is 150 billion. Well, but if you lose 400 billion in uncollected taxes,
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Elon’s Politics Detox, the “Big, Beautiful” Bill's Next Phase, and Open AI's Big Bet
That's a quarter of a trillion dollar net loss to the U.S. government. So you're down about one and a half or two trillion dollars over the next 10 years because Doge has emasculated our ability to collect taxes from the people who know them. And I'm writing a newsletter this week called Tologarchs.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Yeah, you have. Essentially, what people or what Democrats have failed to do is connect antitrust with lower inflation. And that is, it's no accident that Google announced they were going to acquire, I think it was called Wiz, a company last year. And the FTC and DOJ said, we have some concerns, and they called it off. And the whiz filed to go public.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Now, had Biden been reelected or, excuse me, Harris been elected, it's likely that whiz would have gone public and Google would have had a competitor, which would have meant that enterprises that use these products would have had more options, which results in competition, which results in lower prices.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And I heard you're going on vacation.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
But because Trump was elected, the FTC and the DOJ have effectively have an entirely different complexion now in terms of the bar or how high the bar needs to be to file an action to block a merger and acquisition. And what do you know, Google came back and said, let's acquire this company.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
So under the Biden administration, you know, last year was a record low for M&A, but you're going to see a lot, you're going to see a further consolidation of power. And one of the biggest issues facing our economy is really boring. You know, it's the boring stuff that moves the needle.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And it's the fact that across everything from home renovations to chicken to things like fertilizer, much less digital media, there are a small handful of companies that They control the entire market, and the result is in concentrated industries, they can charge higher rents on corporations and on consumers.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I don't think I've ever known you to go on a vacation.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
So if you want – I mean, it sounds really boring, but if you want inflation to come down over the medium and the long term, you want a really robust FTC and DOJ, and they're no longer that. They're basically there to say, okay – Jonathan Cantor, who I had on the podcast – was more optimistic.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
He said that a lot of people still at the FTC and the DOJ are not exactly, they're not just going to roll over. Yeah, especially the DOJ. We still haven't been able to effectively on the left communicate that M&A, while it feels like capitalism and it's more macho and get out of the way of companies, We have seven companies basically driving the stock market right now.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I think it's the biggest acquisition ever.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, when companies... Okay, it's their biggest acquisition ever. It's only a 1.5% dilution to their stock price. They have a $2 trillion market cap. They can make a $30 billion acquisition. I mean, these companies...
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
These companies are just so enormous and have so much capital that they can, I mean, quite frankly, they could afford to buy this, and they're not going to do it here, but they could afford to buy this and do an acqua kill and just kill it if they were bothering them. Because a 1.5% dilution of the stock price, it's just not, quite frankly, $32 billion is a lot of money.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
A dilution of 1.5% of your outstanding stock is not. And these big companies have such an advantage because the reality is if they see any sort of strategic reason whatsoever to acquire a company, no one else can compete. There's a small handful of companies that have multi-trillion dollar market caps that
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
You just can't, it's like when the kingdom decides they're bidding on the World Cup, no other bidder even shows up because every other country was like, why bother? Why even go through the hassle of finding the former governor of the province of Brazil or whatever, putting together a team, putting together a group of people, putting our best foot forward?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Why even bother when we know the kingdom is showing up? And if one of these players shows up for an acquisition, it's over, it's done. It's over.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, you may be too old for this to really have any impact on you, but my wife claims that she just loves to fuck on vacation, which was kind of a weird postcard to get. That's good. Oh, my God.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, it's more just sort of the White House is turning into a giant infomercial for its political allies. But in addition, I think it's stupid of SpaceX and Starlink. Starlink, I absolutely love Starlink. I think it's an amazing product. It's a superior product. And its competitors all of a sudden have seen their stock prices surge and have access to capital potentially at some point.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
That's good. It's called the internet. What is the internet for other than watching videos?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I think Jeff Bezos, I think everyone is eyeing this space going, these guys have created an opening because of Musk's kind of overt political activity. I'm now thinking, how do I get rid of, or how do I not use Starlink? And I just think this is a dumb move for them. He is alienating 52% of the population overnight with his products. And I just want to give a shout out to me.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I sold my Tesla before it was cool three years ago. And I don't know if you saw, Senator Kelly just made a big deal of him selling his Tesla. This is next. Starlink, they basically decided to politicize this product. And I think just on an economic level, shareholders, SpaceX is one of the most actively traded and most valuable private companies on the secondary market.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
It's also responsible now for the majority of It's the largest source of wealth now for Musk because he owns so much of it. And it's an incredible product, but it looks like it's going to go the same way of Tesla. And that is it's attracting a ton of competition.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Tracking the slow descent into fascism and funny jokes. That's it.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
People will catch up and then people given sort of a coin flip or a tiebreaker will opt for the company that's not run by someone whose politics they don't agree with. So I think it's a stupid move.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I am so pissed off. I believe I'm that dad. I send at least... two dozen ridiculously hilarious memes to my sons every day. And I will see, I will wake, I will get up at two in the morning and find out that they still have not seen them, much less responded. They don't even open or look at my memes anymore.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
This is, I mean, again, it's difficult to know where to focus because the hits keep on coming. But as you referenced, number one source of death for children in the United States, past accidents, cancer, drowning, drug poisonings, is now firearms. And as someone who left the U.S. two and a half years ago,
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Just telling you, a free gift with purchase living in the UK is you don't have these horror fantasies involving gun deaths or mass shooters. Yeah, you talk about that. 54% of U.S. adults report that either they or a family member have experienced a firearm-related incident. One in five have a family member who was killed by a firearm, including suicide.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And then going back to, I always like to ground everything in a personal parable. When I sold my first company, Profit, there was like a 20-year anniversary of the company. I started the company when I was 26, and me and the other co-founder were not invited. The CEO wanted it to be all about him. Fine, okay, have at it.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And we used to joke that we were living in a fascist state and we were Trotsky being erased from photos. And even we heard about them showing up to clients and referring to themselves as the founders. Like we were literally erased from the scrolls of history from this company, despite the fact that we had hired everybody that was now claiming they were the founders.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And to go back in history and say to the 2.5 million African Americans that registered for the draft, the 1 million African Americans that fought in World War II, the 33,000 Japanese Americans who fought, mostly in the European theater, despite the fact that maybe their parents had been sent to confinement camps, 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry,
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And then to not at least nod that many of them served in World War II. There was 20,000 Chinese Americans. There were 44,000 Native Americans. Somewhere between 5% and 10% of the entire indigenous population fought in World War II. A quarter of a million Filipino Americans, 400,000 Hispanic Americans.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And to not acknowledge that is to not acknowledge one of the great victories, one of the great civil rights advancements. in American history that makes our military so... The US military, I believe, is the most impressive organization in history.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And across many of its achievements and many of its victories, it was also a tremendous means of progress in civil rights, because there's something about wearing the same uniform and being dependent upon the guy or the gal next to you that has a tendency to make you look at each other for your character and your skills and nothing else.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And the armed services have been an outstanding means of progress for special interest groups. And to remove their commitment and their sacrifice, it's just so un-American.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
How can you not read a text?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, we hope they'll pay the price. I think they will pay the price. So far they haven't. We keep hoping and waiting. But just back to the erasing people from photos of history, and a really positive part of our history, you're going to Puerto Rico, 53,000 Puerto Ricans fought in World War II.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
400,000 Hispanic Americans, including 350,000 Mexican Americans. These are people who came here, felt really fortunate to be a part of this great experiment called America, and decided to put themselves, you know, and risk bodily harm to serve in a uniform to fight for the rights of all Americans. And we're erasing them from history. It's It's very strange and self-defeating.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I haven't thought about it. Probably call. Anyways, are you staying? What's the, is it the Four Seasons or the Rich Carlton?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And how likely are people going to be to raise their hand and say, I will fight for my country, thinking that at some point my contribution might be starched from history? It's very disappointing, to say the least.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Support for Pivot comes from Upwork. If you run a small business, you know that the difference between a successful project and a money bit often comes down to one simple thing, the people you hire. Upwork is your one-stop shop to find, hire, and pay top freelance talent, saving you time and keeping costs in check, all in one place. Thank you. Thank you.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Thank you. Thank you.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Oh, you've needed it for a few years.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I'm pretty much on an extended vacation. I'm not exaggerating. I think I vacation arguably like 15 to 20 weeks a year, and I'm planning to increase it.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Where are we going to next that you have absolutely no chance of getting in?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Harvard. Oh, my God. By the way, can we just talk for a moment about Harvard?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Okay, Harvard puts out this ridiculously, this virtue signaling of all virtually, Wokistan meets total virtue signaling bullshit.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
, , , , , ,, P. P. P. P. P. P,實 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , a a And if you don't realize what tariffs are going to do, about 99% of our clothes... No, I'm sorry, 97% of our clothes... are made abroad.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Okay, they announced that anyone, any family that makes less than $200,000 has free tuition. Well, aren't they just fucking amazing? But here's the thing, I think I did the math. Okay, so you have about 1,500 students. I bet maybe a third come from families that make less than $200,000, and of those, they would have gotten some financial aid.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Oh, there's no low-cost maker.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
H&M's not US. Yeah, no, they're not US. The iconic US fashion specialty retailers are, in my opinion, Urban Outfitters. Urban and Free People are two of the hottest brands. But the majority, if not all, of their manufacturing is abroad. I remember, and I always love an opportunity to have a professional flex, one of the first consulting clients I had
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
One of my mentors was a guy named Warren Hellman of Hellman and Friedman, and he said, I have a great assignment for you. I was like 27, and I'd started a quote-unquote strategy firm. He said, I wanted you to come to Levi Strauss & Company board meetings. I don't want you to talk to anybody. I want you to listen to the entire board meeting, and then I want you to stand up and give your view.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And it was me and a guy named Lee Clow from Chiat Day got to do this for four board meetings. And one of the first things I said was they had, back in the 90s, Levi Strauss & Company still had domestic manufacturing. And the Haas family, who are very paternal, and really civic-minded, we're very committed to keeping domestic manufacturing. And the CFO got up there and I can do math.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I said, what is the cost per unit producing domestically? And it was like, I think it was 11 bucks a pair. And the cost to bring in the same quality from just across the border in Mexico, or I forget where we were, Honduras, was $3.80. And
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And so I'm like, okay, but just to be clear, what you have decided is that you're giving people naturally artificially high wages that once they're laid off, there's going to be nowhere else to go. And eventually, of course, they outsourced all of their production. We are meant to go to the lowest cost provider for more prosperity. We need to maintain a certain level of domestic production.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
For example, the shoe industry has these ridiculous tariffs claiming that if we go to war, we need domestic manufacture of boots, which is just stupid, right? We could spin up a factory to build boots pretty quickly. But the clothing industry is an example of an increase in prosperity because we've globalized it and we don't have massive tariffs.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
So, I mean, it's striking how Timu and Sheehan, like one out of five things purchased over the holidays were from those two companies. But Forever 21, you know, it just like you said, it just didn't it just couldn't compete, nor should it. I like it when nations compete for our dollar.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
So call it, I don't know, 500 kids are going to get a $50,000 benefit, and that's being really, really generous. I think it comes out to about $20 or $25 million.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I would like to see a tax holiday on anyone making under a certain amount or people under the age of 40, similar to what Portugal's done. The problem is, will this come at the cost of Social Security? We need to hear more. I hope it's not populist bullshit. I need to do more research. do more analysis. I think it makes a lot more sense than this ridiculous no tax on tips.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
The waiter gets a tax cut, but not the dishwasher. And the reality is the majority of people in the services industry don't pay any taxes anyways because they don't make enough money. But I just need to understand more about this. We'll see.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
We're paying the lowest amount of GDP as represented by the taxes since 1939. People, it's worth noting that Americans in this income range who make less than $150,000, they pay more in payroll taxes than in income taxes.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Look, I'm going to go off script here and I'm going to, I don't have a prediction, but I'm especially slow today because I was up till 4 a.m. binge watching all four episodes of what I think is so far the media property, other than the White Lotus, of course, the media property of 2025 or the media achievement. Have you seen Adolescence, Kara? Yeah.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
It is really powerful. So I'm not going to give anything away here. It's a British crime drama miniseries from Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham and directed by Philip Berentini. It's about a 13-year-old schoolboy who's arrested for the murder of a female classmate. And the interesting thing from a creative standpoint is each scene is shot in one take. And it is so powerful.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
So they have a $53 billion endowment. If it's matching the market, it's doing about $4 billion a year. So they've decided to step up and give a whopping, what is that, a whopping half a percent and put out a press release rather than taking some of that $52 billion and stop acting like rejectionist, exclusionary, self-important jerks and expand the number. And here's what it is.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
It brings up social media. It's, you know... Obviously, violence, crime, father-son relationships, families, the impact of social media, the anxiety and depression that young people are dealing with. It's like if you wanted to explain to someone the stress that young people or adolescents are under and facing and what it means and how it ripples out in so many negative ways,
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
it would be really hard to do it more efficiently than watching this four-part series.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I'm moving it up. I'm turning in my manuscript early. I'm hoping that it'll come out in November. It was supposed to be streamed next year, but I feel like the moment is going to pass if I don't get it out soon.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Josh Hawley's writing a book on masculinity.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, it's easy, Kara. I've leaned into my anger and my depression. I mean, I'm not the person to talk to about maintaining a positive outlook. I struggle with this shit. And one of the things you referenced, which is a social norm, which is kind of interesting, is that in boom times or positive times, tragedies and dramas are more popular.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And then in depressing times, romantic comedies are much more popular. People want to get out of the mood they're in. Or like White Lotus, something that's like- That's just pure entertainment with some subculture. By the way, Sam Rockwell's monologue from last week is incredible. I heard. I heard. I haven't seen it yet.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
But this is, I mean, it talks a lot about school bullying via social media centered on incel subculture, and people don't realize how powerful that is. This week's post I'm writing about porn, which I think is playing an unfortunately increasingly not important large role in young men's lives.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
But this, if you read about this stuff but don't understand it and wonder, want to see how it's really impacting people on a ground level in an exceptionally compelling and gripping way. But you asked me how I deal with it. To be honest, Cara, I'm having trouble dealing with it. For the first time in my life, I was thinking about this the other day.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I've always been able to disassociate from the news. Since this last election, I'm having trouble disassociating. I'm I'm, I'm just a, I'm that guy who's that fucking downer at a dinner party that turns everything into, well, yeah.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
But yeah, I not, so the answer is how do I, how do I handle this shit? The answer is not well, but this is such a powerful piece of media that it is, it's so satisfying because you feel as if you've learned and you can't I turned the thing on at midnight and I was up till four in the morning. I just couldn't turn away from it.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
It makes things even worse because this is what's happening in America. Yeah. If you're the son of somebody who's rich or the daughter of someone who's rich or freakishly fucking remarkable, you not only get into an amazing university, you get to go for free. But the rest, the other 99.9% of America gets arbed down to a mediocre school that doesn't have a $53 billion endowment.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Ernie and her Todd engineer this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Miss Severio, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nmymag.com slash pod.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Adolescence on Netflix.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
This is nothing but making everything possible. worse in terms of income inequality, and yet they have the fucking nads to put out a thing acting as if they're doing the world a service. Here's what you do, folks. You take some of that $52 billion endowment, and you make your freshman class bigger than what a good Starbucks serves.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Pricing at elite universities is the following. There's the sticker price, which is for foreign students and rich people so they can charge them a ridiculous amount of money, and almost everybody else does not pay the sticker price. And the problem with these elite universities that hoard this amazing drug called higher education is that they have so much money.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
that it means absolutely nothing for the... If you get into Princeton or Harvard, it doesn't matter how much money. If you have enough money, then don't worry about it. If you don't, you will absolutely get financial aid. It's the other 99% of our youth that has to go to a university that doesn't have these enormous endowments.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Under siege. Under siege. Yeah.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
You guys have a little bit of a crush on her.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Yeah, yeah. No, you guys seem to like each other.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, we could fit all those people in a closet.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
The line is long, lovers of the dog.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Almost all of them still have their teeth. Yeah.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, this is, I think, probably one of the most significant historical events happened, kind of, it got some coverage, but I don't think people realize how important it was. And that is, the White House essentially defied a court order and let those planes carrying Carrying the people they wanted deported, some of whom had done nothing but had the wrong tattoo.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Support for the show comes from UserTesting. Your brand is only as strong as the decisions you make behind it. UserTesting's human insight engine helps marketing product and business leaders make smarter, faster decisions with real human feedback, AI-driven insights, and the world's strongest participant network.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And then they created what I think is basically a Republican snuff film. Did you see the video of them being dragged off planes?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I mean, El Salvador is a really interesting situation, what's happened there. But that's another talk show. But... Effectively, if the White House is going to ignore court orders, the question is, well, okay, what power does the judiciary or the court have if they start violating court orders?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And what the power they have is they could say, all right, if you carry out these, if you actively are the individuals defying these court orders, we can put you in jail or fine you. But the problem is the president can then pardon them. So if you have, we're in uncharted territories. Look, we have a criminal as president.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And this is a convicted felon, someone who appears to have absolutely no regard for the law, who's set or seems comfortable carving up the world with another mob boss, another autocrat, who has now defined court orders. And if he has the power of the pardon, and can threaten judges and it appears to be comfortable to find court orders, then folks, you know, it might feel good, right?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
A decent number of Democrats and Republicans have both said in polls they'd be comfortable with an autocrat as long as he or she agreed with their views. All right.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Just wait until that knock on the door comes for you and your nephew or your outspoken friend on politics is kind of disappeared, is shipped off, is put on a plane to somewhere where they aren't protected by the law, is incarcerated without due process, has their livelihood taken away and has no recourse. I mean, they're It's really interesting. They are doing exactly what they said they would do.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
When he said, I will concede the election if I win, that was a blatant, I'm going to be an autocrat. And everyone is like, oh, isn't that funny? Isn't that cute? He doesn't really mean it. He's pretty much done everything he said he was going to do. But if the courts are neutered by the power of the pardon or president or administration supported by one party that controls Congress entirely,
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
It says it's okay to violate court orders. We're essentially done.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Equip your team with the power to validate every decision, co-innovate at scale, and build digital and in-person experiences with confidence. The best brands don't guess, they test. See how at usertesting.com slash UserTesting. Pivot.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Look what's going on in Hungary. I mean, Viktor Orban, who's sort of the role model or the idol here for how Trump is executing his presidential powers, there's enormous protests. Protests. In Hungary, which is actually really hopeful. I do, too.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
But the question then becomes, does that mean anything when you lose, if they just start ignoring those court decisions? Correct.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Yeah, Ronnie, it's a really thoughtful question. First off, I want to acknowledge that I'm a beneficiary of the sexism and the racism and the homophobia that plagued and still is a problem. In the 90s, right out of business school, I started raising money for my startups. I never really stopped to think, why is it that 99 percent of the capital is going to straight white males?
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
It never dawned on me that, okay, something's wrong here. And also, we should, as we talk about this, celebrate the fact that's no longer the case. It's still not where it needs to be. But when I walked into my venture capitalist in 2013 to raise money, the 26 partners, my two co-founders who are female, walked me out and said, we can't take money from these folks. I said, why is that?
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And said, all 26 partners are male. They couldn't find one female. There's now a third of the partners are female. There has been extraordinary progress. Having said that, it's still not where it needs to be. So let's move to solutions. There's some very boring ones. Community-based banks.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Community-based banks get to know local entrepreneurs, get to know that this guy, regardless of his or her sexual orientation or ethnicity, runs a really successful car wash. And I have a mandate to put a certain amount of my free capital to work in the local community. So community-based banks are really important. The US is too concentrated. Actually, in the UK, it's crazy.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Five banks control 80%. So community-based banking is actually very important. I personally believe we should have a form of tax subsidies or what you would call affirmative action that gives advantage or access to easier and cheaper capital. But I don't think it should be based on identity, race, sexual orientation, or gender. I think it should be based on income.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I'm a fan of income-based low-interest loans to startups because I know a lot of very wealthy, 54% of gay men will get college degrees. Soon we're going to find more women in professional services that will have an easier time raising capital. I do believe, I don't think you're doing anyone any favors.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I saw this at Morgan Stanley, a certain amount of capital had to go or a certain amount of the underwriting business had to go to women or minority-owned businesses. This is what happened.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
One white dude with big connections found two female partners or two non-white partners and they called it a minority-owned business and everyone resented them because they did no goddamn work and they just saw it as an absolute grift. I think that what we need is programs that provide capital and low-interest loans and access to capital to people who are below a certain income level.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Because one of the wonderful things about our society that I think we can take collective victory in and reward in is that as of today, you would rather be born non-white or gay than poor. So I'm a big fan of affirmative action.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I'm a big fan of access to low-cost loans, but I think it should be based on the income of your household and your zip code as opposed to your ethnicity, your sexual orientation, or your gender.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
But back to Rodney's question around access to capital or venture capital. What's even more frightening is, or as frightening, is the concentration around white males in terms of funding. In particular schools, right, Scott? I mean, particular schools, regions. Yeah. But where it gets, I don't want to talk about frightening. 40% of venture capitalists are from two schools.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And then I would bet, and no one wants to do this analysis because I bet it would be scary, Harvard and Stanford, I bet 60 to 80% of the capital deployed is from people who went to two schools. So you want to talk about groupthink. And guess what? If you're offering concierge medicine to people in Palo Alto, you can get funding, right?
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
So if you were going to have an overlay, the question goes to most people, I believe, even most Republicans believe that people are born based through no fault of their own, The smartest thing I ever did was being born a white heterosexual male in 1964 in California. That was the smartest thing I've ever done. And none of that was my fault. And I realize that now.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And I think most people realize some people are born with such headwinds that they deserve a little hand up. Call it unfair advantage. Call it discrimination. Call it whatever you want. Some people need a hand up. The issue is what determines who gets the hand up.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And if you wanted an overlay above people from low-income backgrounds, which I think is the primary consideration or what the University of California calls an adversity index, I believe, and I just gave this speech today to the largest bank in Europe, start hiring people who don't have traditional four-year degrees, and for God's sake, stop fetishizing elite colleges, because that is the caste system in America.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Two-thirds... of Harvard's freshman class identifies as non-white. Guess what? They don't need any fucking programs or help. I don't care what color, sexual orientation they are. If you're a freshman at Harvard, you do not need government help. At the same time, in my view, a white straight kid from Appalachia being raised by a single mother, I think that kid faces real headwinds.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And here's the thing. If you just based it on income and you just based it on people who didn't have the opportunity to go to elite colleges, The affirmative action programs in place would still have the same impact on 70% of the population, because what we still have in this nation is an economic apartheid, where white families are worth $150,000 and Latino and Black families are worth $30,000.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
But there are a lot of non-whites who are wealthy. If you have wealthy parents, a lot of these problems go away. Not all of them, but a lot of them. So the key is what are the metrics given today, the reality of today and what's happening today and the fact we've made progress that help the people that need it the most. The most disadvantaged Americans are people born to poor households.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
But that should attract more capital. And I would argue, quite frankly, I don't buy the minority-owned business owners are any better than non-minority-owned business owners. What I buy is that they have a harder time getting capital. So there's a dearth of capital which drives up returns. And I don't.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
So the bottom line is, how do we get to a post-racial, post-sexual orientation, post-gender society, recognizing we're going to have to lift some people up? And again, I think the way to do that is through income.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
That's a really thoughtful question. Thank you, Rodney.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Yeah. So what I think of it as, the analogy I would use is that Ozempic or semaglutide drugs basically tell the brain, they stop sending signals that you're hungry. They send signals that you're sated much sooner.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And the most seminal earnings call I've seen in business was three earnings calls ago for Meta, where they announced that they had increased their revenues by 23% while decreasing headcount.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And if you're in the tech industry or software that's eating the planet and every year controls more and more of GDP and your revenues are likely growing, there's a signal going to your brain, need to hire more, need to hire more. What is going through every board, and I know this firsthand mind and CEO, and they can't say this in all hands.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
They can't say in all hands, I've got good news, our revenues are up. But the great news is I'm going to need fewer of you next year. They don't say the last part because it is not aspirational. But the reality is the most seminal breakthrough technology in history is first and foremost, I think, being used for drug discovery and health care.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I think that'll be its biggest value add to expedite discovery around health care. But its second biggest quote unquote value add, quite frankly, is around efficiency, which is Latin for do more with less people. So this is and then you put that on top of the cloud and you just have every CEO thinking, how can I how can I grow my revenues 8 percent next year with 10 percent less people?
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And also, it's up and down the stack. It's not senior managers. They tend to figure out a way to hold on to their jobs. Not always, but most of the time, but middle management and back. You'd hate to be in a back office right now for a B2B company or, you know, compliance or legal, whatever it is, these things that can be routinized. So there's going to be a lot of pain.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I just want to move to a question, like, what do you do about it? Because I hear from a lot of young men that are struggling. Who I am increasingly hearing from is people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who say, I need to reinvent myself. or my career path has been derailed because quite frankly, I was a good software engineer. Maybe I wasn't a genius, but I was good at what I did.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
That's our Christine. By the way, one cat is enough. Yeah, I agree. Kara, do you want to kick us off?
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I was working remotely, making 150K a year, and all of a sudden, I can't find a job. Overnight, a switch went off. The first thing I say is to forgive yourself. And that is, I've been unemployed for a good three to five years of my life. I was kind of wandering. I had sort of pretend jobs. I joined NYU so I could say I was doing something.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
But I was kind of lost trying to figure out what's my next gig. And to realize that most successful people have had those stretches of like, I need to reinvent myself. I'm not making enough money. Things aren't working out the way they thought. That is part of it. And the key is, I think every morning waking up, I used to do it at night. Tomorrow, I need to do three things.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I need to call people that I don't necessarily want to call. I need to have some coffees. I need to think about some stuff. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. If you get an opportunity, go at it and see if you can grow it into something good, even if it's a pay cut or not your dream job, give yourself a statute of limitations and force yourself to take stuff.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Because what I find with a lot of these people is they have the exact wrong amount of money, enough money that they don't have to take the next thing, but not enough money so they can retire. So they end up waiting too long and just getting on to the next thing. And then the other thing I would suggest is form a kitchen cabinet of people and be very transparent. This is what's going on with me.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
This is what I, you know, I'm trying to do. Here are some ideas because it is really hard to read the label from inside of the bottle. And it creates, you know, this is an insecure time. And also get alignment. I don't know, you know, I think it's really important to get alignment with your partner. This is what's going on. This is how it affects our spending on our lifestyle. Be transparent.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I'm feeling insecure. I think this is harder on men than it is on women, quite frankly, because I think men have a predetermined sort of expectation that they'll be the economic provider. So I think it really fucks with a man's self-esteem. But getting alignment around your partner and also being open and vulnerable with other friends and also being willing to ask for help.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I know so many people that ended up in such a bad place and we had no idea they were struggling. We could have helped them. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Forgive yourself. A kitchen cabinet. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. And every night, these are the three of the five people, jobs, things I'm going to do to try and find that next thing. But more than anything, forgive yourself.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
This happens to everybody at some point.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Just think about it. In three short years, 36 months from 2021 to 2024, we transitioned from a war for talent to a war on talent. You want to talk about 180 degree turn in terms of creating stress in households, right? I was a systems engineer and people were bidding on my services and now there's, you know, 60% of my department was laid off. It really is a huge shift in our economy.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Most importantly, Scott with a K, were your parents hippies or are you from Denmark or something? What the fuck? Scott with a K?
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I'm Barbara Streisand, not Streisand, Streisand.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Thank you. Thanks, Scott. Bye, everybody.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
This is an easy one, Jane. Tonight, you go out, you drink, you go home, you have a lot of sex, and you keep doing that until you get pregnant. All right? What? On the whole, no one is entirely certain what's going to happen in the future to what generation, but on the whole, the line is up and to the right. Your kids are most likely going to have
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
the best lives on average of any kids ever born ever, except if the second kid you have. Things generally get better. They're gonna enjoy hot showers. They're gonna enjoy civil rights. They're gonna enjoy Spotify. They're gonna enjoy equal rights. They're gonna enjoy more democracy. They're gonna enjoy more agency as young people.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
They're gonna have their parents around longer because you'll live longer. Oh my gosh.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
You seem like a thoughtful person. If you have a certain level of economic security and a loving, confident partner, get on it. Get on it.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And if they have Scottish accents, send them to New York and, oh, my God, that's going to be playtime for the little boy.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And by the way, just so you know, the most talented people in Scotland have one thing in common.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Have some kids. Unless you are like on the tenure track at St. Andrews or you're on an oil platform making a shit ton of money in the North Sea, what I would say, I love Scotland. I'm not going to shitpost Scotland. It's a beautiful place for a good six weeks a year. By the way, my favorite team is Rangers FC. I don't know if you follow football. But back to the question. Oh, my God.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Having kids, you're being way too thoughtful. You're being way too careful.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Jane, grief and anxiety are the receipts for love and joy. There is no risk-free return. And if my boys had been born in Germany in 1920, they would have ended up dead on a Russian field in the late 30s. You just don't know. What you do know is that on the whole, your life is going to go really fast. And things show that happiness is a function of very basic things.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And the most basic thing you can do is procreate. And to raise kids with a loving partner and the odds that they have really wonderful, prosperous lives have never been greater. This is such an easy one. Get on it. Start procreating. Yeah.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Never goes away. There'll be new threats, new anxiety.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Yeah, but she's about 40 years younger than you.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
If you have a little girl and there's a little too much going on, we'll take her. I'll take her.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I need someone to take care of me.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Get on it. Find that love machine you call a partner.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Talk about windows that should have been shut decades ago. Jesus. Anyways, go ahead.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
It's a super interesting question. I think a lot about this, and that is since our species came off the savanna, there was an absence of access to salty, sugary, or fatty food. There was an absence of free play, free safe play. There was an absence of mating opportunities.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Expert's a dangerous word. The first thing again is to forgive yourself. There's a lot of people in their 50s who don't have anything. The fact that you didn't save money means that you and your partner are ahead of two-thirds of Americans. I don't know. What do you do? The first is, for the most part, don't believe you're smarter than everybody else.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I strongly believe that low-cost index funds are the way to go. And that is you want to reduce your fees and you want to be totally diversified. You don't need to find the needle in the haystack. You want to buy the whole haystack. I would do something along the lines of 50% of an S&P fund or maybe QQQ if you want a little bit more exposure to aggressive tech companies. I would probably take 30%.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
There's a lot of great financial advisors on, I hate to say it, TikTok and on Instagram Reels, where you can type in or into AI, type in your exact personality, situation, and it'll look probably something like this, 50 percent in an S&P or S&P-related low-cost index fund through Schwab or Vanguard. You do not want to pay fees.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Thirty percent in some index fund that gives you exposure to international or some a credit or debt fund. Again, the key is low fees. And then maybe treasuries such that you have access to some capital, some liquidity in case you run into a short-term liquidity crunch, one of you loses your job or something like that.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
But over the last, since the beginning of the market, the returns have been around 8% or 9% in the S&P. In the NASDAQ, it's been 11%. That may not sound like a lot. But even though you're in your 50s, you're probably going to be working or making money for the next 20 or 30 years. And then when Social Security kicks in, you should be able to reverse engineer back.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
All right, how much money do we need to save? So that's that when we're 70 and we slow down with our Social Security, with taking out three to four percent of our nest egg. What is that number that we need? And then reverse engineer back and determine how much money you need to add to your savings or that investment every year.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And then when you introduce industrial production to all of those things, you develop addictions, addictions to trans fats, addictions to gambling, addictions to porn. I'm very cognizant of those things. Then you couple that with what is a fairly healthy instinct, and that is competitive instinct to want to be better.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
But it's something along the lines of like 50, 30, 20 low-cost index funds. Great.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Yeah, move to Alaska. Oh, wait. Oh, wait. It's probably pretty low cost of living.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
My total exposure to Alaska is the great series, Northern Exposure, a wonderful series in the 90s.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Those are really smart questions.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Can you get Kara to sign her book for me? No. Hard no.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
People think that's the funniest joke. They come up with a book open to sign. And then just as I'm about to sign it, they flip it around and it says burn book. And they wait for me and everyone to laugh. I'm like, this is like the oldest joke in the book. Everybody does this to me.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
You're immediately at a stoplight with three people, especially if you're a dude, you want to jet out in front of the other two. When you collapse those two things, and perhaps you didn't grow up with a lot of money or things or stuff or experiences, you have this insatiable desire to acquire and experience more. And I suffer from that.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Christine Driscoll. Ernie Intertide engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows and Mia Silverio. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. And get to business. And when I say get to business, I mean get to busy with your love machine. Have children.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And then the problem is at some point when you have enough to state your needs and then even enough to have more than your needs, it is very difficult to get off that hamster wheel. And similar to Kara, I've never really been into quote unquote stuff. I have wonderful homes because it's my strategy is A, I want to live in beautiful places, but I want...
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I want to make it difficult for my adult sons to avoid me. So I'm hoping that they'll want to bring their girlfriends and their friends to hang with me or they'll pay the tax to hang with me to be in these beautiful places. But in terms of experiences... I have struggled with more. And that is, I always wanted more money because money, unfortunately, can be distilled down to a number.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And it's very easy to double the number. And in a capitalist society, your worth as a man is unfortunately correlated to how big that number is. So even when I got well beyond probably my financial needs, I've struggled with wanting more and more and more. Every Friday... As a single man in New York, I was thinking, how can I hang out with more interesting people? How can I date hotter women?
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And no matter how high character or how hot the women I was dating or how interesting the people, I've always thought there's more here and always wanted more.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Yeah, that's exactly what happened, Christine. Anyways, but the only time I've ever felt sated, and this is virtue signaling, but it's true, is with my boys. Occasionally, you have that moment with your boys where your kid tells you something or you're lying in bed with one of your sons. Your son's kind of just rolling naturally into the TV room and throw their legs over yours.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And you're like, okay, this is it. I don't really need a hell of a lot of more here. maybe a third, maybe a little girl, but I don't need more. But what has helped me was understanding the anthropological and sociological reasons I've been addicted to more. I don't have an addictive personality, And then something that was really important for me was an unlock around 2017.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
When I sold my last company, I was planning to double down and start a private equity firm because I thought I'm wealthy, but I'd like to be super fucking wealthy. And then I had kind of a moment, I lost a friend and I thought, why am I just going for more? Why don't I just go for happy? Because the pursuit of more comes at a cost.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
There's emissions around the conversion of any substance, whether it's money to experiences or food to calories, there's emissions. And what I decided was I didn't need to create more emissions around pursuing more and more money, more and more like crazier experiences. But I want to be clear, it's something I still haven't reconciled in my life. You can see where it comes from.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
It comes from a desire to survive, a desire to mate, a desire to have free play. And the fact that industrial production has caught up to that. And in a person in a capitalist society, I think especially men, your worth, your value. The most admired people in the world are the wealthiest people in the world. The people with the most mating opportunities.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
So this is something I struggle with, but understanding the root causes of it has helped me dealt with. And I want to be clear what I'm talking about is the mother of all good problems.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Yeah, 100%. Buy shit you don't need. Right? Yeah. But I do think, what did I say? I don't know if it's most, but I know this has happened to me. About 10 years ago, I realized that I got peace from less stuff. So I'm moving right now. I do this once every two years. I'm giving away two-thirds of my clothes. Oh, okay.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Anything I won't use in the next seven or 14 days, whether it's 22 pairs of sunglasses that I ended up with, I just give it all away. And I find there is real inner peace. And this is a struggle when you live with someone and you have kids.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
of simplicity like i would like to live my life like uh you know a neurotic japanese architect in terms of simplicity like i want a nice bed no even bed frame a nice comforter you know my entire beauty routine as i splash water on my face maybe some sunblock i love there's nothing like when i stay in a hotel and there's a vanity with no on it i just checked into a hotel because i have to do this podcast because we're moving and i needed a hotel
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
But all the crap everywhere. I think as you get older, you do... For the first time in my life, I don't own a car. And it's freeing because you don't have to take care of it. And what you realize is distinct of the accoutrements of trying to signal your worth as a mate or signal your worth to your friends or impress people.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
The fewer things you have, I find I get actual peace because every object... is not only a piece of clutter that gives you too much distraction and for me, it creates haze or noise in my thinking, it's another thing you have to manage. Again, I find that simple lifestyle of less stuff, I want more experiences, I'm still addicted to that, but I have broken the addiction to stuff.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
But what you would need to do is you would need... So I'm an investor in Sheehan, and I believe the form of sustainability is giving young people who have less money than they've had relative to their older generation in history access to more stuff to feel better about themselves. I am all down with the notion that young people need to be rewired to not pursue as much stuff.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
I don't think it's going to happen for several generations. And I also find that a lot of the... a lot of the, in my opinion, I think young people just want stuff. I think young people wanting a lot of clothes is not only understandable, they're in their mating years, they want to express their identity.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
And a lot of people who, in my opinion, are being very critical and self-righteous about fast fashion are the incumbents who want you to spend 800 bucks on a Ralph Lauren sweater. And that it is to their advantage to shitpost and criticize companies that offer people a lot of stuff for a lot less money. Should we have environmental standards? Yes, pass laws.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
But the notion we're going to talk young people out of acquiring stuff, I think it's a noble effort. Good luck with that.
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Tech Layoffs, Midlife Investing, and Parenthood in the Age of AI
Yeah, that was a good question.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Then we get back into a corner where the whole world owns our debt, and they not only are reciprocating with the trade war, they're reciprocating with the capital war. That is they just go into the market and sell a disproportionate number of our treasury bills and the 10-year spikes, and all of a sudden we have an additional $175 billion in interest rate payments,
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
which we weren't planning on making. I mean, we have put ourselves in such a vulnerable position because if you think of the US as a household, we make 50,000 a year in tax receipts, we're spending 70, and we have credit card debt of 370,000. And the scary thing is the kids, despite not spending any of this money or really benefiting from it, are going to inherit those credit card bills.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And everyone has power over us now. We no longer really own our home. So this is if you anyways back to Chairman Powell, he probably can't wait for his termination because guess what? He's going to go be chairman of like Bridgewater.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I agree. And he came out, he's one of the few people, he's really the first kind of what I'll call leader to just in a thoughtful, methodical way, just stand up and say, okay, just in case you didn't believe every point of light from every economist or anyone who doesn't have their head up their ass and is trying to contort themselves into figuring out some way to justify this.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
The interpretive dance taking place across podcasters and officials trying to support these tariffs is almost, it's literally hilarious. It's like modern art that doesn't make any fucking sense, right?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
So when I'm in New York every morning, a ritual for me is I make coffee and I order a quiche and blueberry muffin and a chai latte from Balthazar. And then I go and I have my morning ritual as in my sit down. You know, I like to stay regular. And then the doorman will put the Baltazar delivery in the elevator. And I heard the elevator door open.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Yeah, it took Donald Trump to get me to like Harvard.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
My assistant got it for me because I just wanted a Harvard t-shirt to wear around. I was strolling around in a Canada t-shirt last week. If you look at the darkest moment of the last hundred years, there was some... key attributes of a move to fascism. One, they start demonizing people and rounding them up. And it takes on a different complexion.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
But let's be clear, we have demonized illegal immigrants, of which we have turned a blind eye to because it's very profitable. And now we're rounding them up. We're taking them off the street and we're sending them to hellscapes. One of the other key steps is you come for, quote unquote, the academic institutions and the cultural elite, and you demonize them. And that's what's going on here.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
So this is, you know, I'm not a fan of these institutions. I've even suggested their tax-free status be revoked if they have an endowment over a billion dollars and not growing their freshman class faster.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
No, I don't care. They have the right to pick their curriculum. They have the right to pick their faculty. They have the right to talk about what they want to talk about on campus. I think if you're going to have a law—and be clear, folks— This has about as much to do with anti-Semitism as evangelicals liking Israel. They just see the notion of putting this under the banner of anti-Semitism.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
They're just using it as a vessel to go after an ideology and centers that typically aren't traditionally and right now are not supportive of these types of policies. And there is, is it true that there's not enough intellectual diversity at these campuses? Sure.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
But when you start targeting individual universities and going after, quote unquote, the cultural elite under the auspices of anti-Semitism, it's just, it's not, A, it's not true. And B, it's morally corrupt, but more, I'll just go to the economic argument. The funding of research at universities has been the greatest investment in history.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And that is, and I've said this before, that the most successful venture capitalists in history are middle-class taxpayers who give money to the government, and then the government funds research that private enterprise can't afford to make these types of staggering investments.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Or a catalog listing all things on the internet for academic research that ultimately ends up becoming a $2 trillion company called Google. Or vaccines looking at how mRNA might be more effective than traditional vaccines. Or diabetes medication. Most studies show, and then the vessel for this unbelievable investment are universities.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And if I don't get it, it goes all the way back down. And I'm always worried that someone's going to steal my chai latte from Baltazar.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Government funding of university research has proven to be one of the highest ROI public investments, with economic impact studies suggesting returns of, get this, Cara, somewhere between 20% at the low end and 60% annually.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
on federal research dollars through job creation, new industries, and increased productivity, in agriculture, genetically modified crops, food safety technologies, and energy, solar panels technology, advanced battery companies.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Natural gas fracking, LED lighting, advanced materials, Moderna and BioNTech, hundreds of drugs, including Lyrica, Remesade, I think it's called. We did that. The HIV protease inhibitors, the cocktail drugs, came out of universities. Genentech was based on recombinant DNA technology from UCSF and Stanford, Google, smartphones, Cisco Systems. I mean, this is the best. The U.S.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I'm not sure where this is going, but okay. With all the grace and strength of a jungle cat, I leapt up from the basin. And at that moment, it dawned on me, I'm an astronaut. And in between the time between my flight, between the basin and the ceramic, I realized we're all one part of the same species, Cara.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
does actually a small number of things better than anyone, but we do them really, really well.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
It sometimes ends up being unbelievable. Lithium ion batteries.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Columbia literally has just this virus of a lack of leadership right now. I would argue that Columbia, between the response, I mean, there were two campuses with protests. President Linda Mills just handled it much differently than the folks at Columbia.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And I also think Columbia, quite frankly, for whatever reason, has been a flashpoint and has been, you know, unfortunately targeted, whatever you want to call it. But I do think the reason that Harvard decided to stand up, I think they have more leadership. I think they have more moral clarity. And quite frankly, it just really helps to have $54 billion endowment. Yeah. All right.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
It's just, this is, they can afford to do this. So, and it's also great, it's great for their brand. Harvard probably, this is probably one of the better brand moves of 2025.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Yeah, and the president of Harvard, unable to condemn anti, you know, anti-Semitic speech as hate speech, or whatever it is, you know, they... They've had their hits the last six months. This is absolutely them standing up and doing the right thing, even when it's hard.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
What you're saying is so important. And I've been talking to a lot of Democrats. I was on Governor Newsom's podcast yesterday. And I think once something that's missing from the Democratic Party, I don't believe that like this, when they go low, we go high. I think that's just like trying to capture social status. I absolutely think we need to get in the mud.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And I think there needs to be a Democrat who basically says, I'm running for president. I'm going to win. And when I win, I am absolutely targeting, I'm going to have the SEC look into all trading on April the 9th. I'm going to look at all illegal deportations. I'm going to look at the unlawful seizure of constitutional power. It's going to be done to the letter of the law, but be clear.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Be clear, folks. If you're breaking laws and you're under the impression you're no longer subject to the law, that might be true for the next decade. you know, 40, you know, 44 months, but in 44 months, the law is coming back. The sheriff is coming back.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Why can't we just love each other?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And I recognized when I got back to Earth, everything had just changed for me, Cara.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Look, there's a kernel of truth here, just calling balls and strikes. There was this fear or this moral panic around a population explosion that we were going to absorb, that our population was growing faster than the Earth's resources, and it was going to collapse under population growth. What's actually happened is that bomb has detonated, but it's imploded.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And that is Western nations, as they become wealthier and more educated, women decide having a lot of kids is a bad deal for them. and also men, and basically birth rates go down. And evidence has shown that as population has gone up, poverty has gone down. It ends up that if you put 10 new brains into society, one is a problem, eight do just Fine.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
There's so much about this I love. My favorite moment was when they live broadcast it. There was the actual people at Blue Origin saying, two minutes to launch. Someone said, and this is so exciting, when they're up there, Katy Perry is going to sing. Right on cue, someone from Blue Origin goes, one minute warning. That was classic. That was just perfect.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And one might solve more problems in those 10 brains create. So population growth is actually really it's a huge problem in Japan and South Korea, supposedly like only three or four people will have grandkids right now with these birth rates. Now you can solve it.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
with thoughtful immigration policies, and also restoring a tax code that doesn't rob from the young and give money to the old such that young people, should they decide to have kids, which 60% did 40 years ago at the age of 30, now it's 27%. So we can solve for this problem. I do believe that his basic theory is rooted in something that's true, like having more kids.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Now, having said that, having said that, If you look at what I believe maybe next to income inequality is the biggest thing threatening the U.S., it's extremism led by a group of young men who feel are sequestering from society and becoming shitty citizens. They're not attaching to work. They're not attaching to school. They're not attaching to relationships.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
They become prone to misogynistic content. They start blaming women and immigrants for their problems. They become less likely to believe in climate change. And if they don't have a relationship or work by the time they're 30, the levels of substance abuse and self-harm just go crazy. Just go crazy. Struggling young men in this country is a huge threat to our society.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
There you go. Now, if you were to reverse engineer it to the point of failure where a boy with a lot of potential comes off the tracks, you might say, well, their prefrontal cortex doesn't mature as quickly. Well, the education system is biased against them. They're twice as likely to be suspended on a... behavior adjusted. There's a lot of things.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
They've been told for 40 years that they're the oppressor and they're starting to believe it. They have big tech trying to sequester them from society with gambling and porn. They have a lot of things going against them. But the number one point of failure to be reverse engineered to is when they lose a male role model.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
The worst thing or one of the worst things you can do as a man, or let me put it this way, the best thing you can do is to stay involved in your kid's life. He's not around. And what's interesting is that when you have a single-parent household, which he's creating, he's creating 14 single-parent households. He doesn't have 14 kids. He has 14 single-parent households.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And what's interesting is that the daughters in single-parent households have similar outcomes as dual-parent households. I'm not saying girls don't need their dad, but if you look at high school and college attendance and rates of self-harm, they're not materially different in single-parent households than dual. It is an entirely different story for boys.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And what it ends up is that while boys are physically stronger, they're mentally and emotionally much weaker. But him creating a series, a cadre of children that don't have their dad around, even if he sends checks, that is bad for society.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Well, it's almost as if he'd give a Nazi salute.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Or that his dad started banging his stepdaughter?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Is he only procreating with other white women?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Let me ask you this. Is it true that on all dates with lesbians, they hug for three hours, cry, and then decide never to see each other again? Is that true?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I took my shirt off. And the whole audience is like, I made the right choice. Literally every woman in the crowd is like, I did make the right choice. I was the second straight guy to ever be on the stage versus Mark Benioff.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I think it's important though that we bring this back to me.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
So I have more kids likely, substantially more kids than Elon Musk. You know why?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Yeah. I could get 40 bucks a shot because I was a quote unquote athlete at UCLA. Anyways, I got called back four times a week for a full year. And I couldn't figure it out because the two guys I went with- where the two guys I went with were literally blonde gods. They were water polo players and went to the Olympics. They were smarter than me. These guys were specimens.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
That's right. And I said, why do I have the golden seed here? And they said, you have the two things.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Baby, my man gravy is like literally it's like in video chips. The reason why my sperm was literally an Hermes bag, I was the Hermes of sperm, was two things. What are the two things that people in West L.A. parents want in their sperm?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I think we should start a conspiracy that the Katy Perry that came back is not the same Katy Perry that went up. Something is going on here.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Tall and Jewish. I had the peanut butter and chocolate of sperm donation.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Can you imagine how many receding hairlines are out there right now?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
How many angry, depressed people? They didn't test me for that shit.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
But there's actually two sort of observations or a couple of things that struck me. The first is kind of trivial. The other, I think, is more, I don't know, meaningful. If the magazine industry, did you see the cover of Elle?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And nothing other than this, all of this stuff announcing investment is performative, thinking he's an idiot. If we just repackage existing investments, he'll go for it and he'll potentially leave us alone. And the stocks are now trading based on the prediction markets of the Mad King. I mean, this is just not the way to run an economy.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Looking for a political show that doesn't scream from the extremes? Raging Moderates is now twice a week. What a thrill! Oh my God! Alert the media! Hosted by political strategist Jess Tarloff and myself, Scott Galloway. This is the show for this. who are living somewhere between the center-left and the center-right. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday and Friday.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
If the magazine industry wanted to just confirm that it's become totally irrelevant and toned up, they managed to do it.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And it's not just hers. I mean, did you see the Vanity Fair cover of Tim Cook with his mixed reality headset on?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
So there's different remedies. One is a fine, which it looks like they're pursuing right now if they're found guilty of monopolistic behavior.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Nine out of 10 people in the world outside of China are on a meta app. If not, I think it's either every day or every week. And they have 70% share of social media. Now, that alone isn't illegal. What's illegal is if you're using that 70% share to deploy monopoly pricing that's bad for consumers. And I would argue or engage in anti-competitive behavior.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
They decided that that had something to do with... Yeah. Anyway, and then that cover for Mel, it was literally like, we need the world to... We need to put a fine point on the fact that we as magazines are not only no longer relevant, but we're totally tone deaf. Anyways, that's my trivial observation. My more... What's your deeper one?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And if you look at the notes that have come out in Discovery, a big justification for acquiring Instagram is that we need to neutralize a competitor. That right there, that statement, that's illegal. You're not allowed to acquire a company to neutralize a competitor. You're not allowed to do acquit kills.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
In addition, what I always like to appeal to people's greed glands on this, if they were forced as a remedy to spin Instagram, you know who wins here?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
You know who wins here? Shareholders.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Because the company right now, it trades at a really healthy multiple of 7.7x times revenues. Instagram on its own, I think would trade at 15 to 20 times revenues. Instagram, just to give you, you were at my birthday in Scotland. Scotland is overrun because a bunch of Instagrammers went there and went crazy. talking about Scotland two summers ago.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And in the same summer, a bunch of Instagrammers were highlighting that a drink in Mykonos was now 30 bucks. And travel was off 30% last summer. Instagram now dictates global tourism patterns.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Oh, if we went to my window right now, we would see three or four Asian women with their Hermes bags on my cobblestone street taking pictures of one another. It is literally.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
You talk about commerce. You talk about, I mean, that Instagram is an independent company. Everyone would want to own that stock. So shareholders would do better. I would buy that stock. In addition, the competition here would lower rents. And specifically, I've argued that the rents that have gone up here are the biggest rent increase has been non-economic.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Think about the rents that parents have had to pay because of the monopoly control of Meta.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
So the fact that they wouldn't compete and coordinate with core Facebook, the fact that WhatsApp would probably be the largest telco in the world, and rather than being a vessel for finding data for better targeting for the core platform, Facebook or Instagram, they would have to figure out a way just to be the largest telco and start targeting. charging money.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
If they announced they were breaking up these companies, I would buy MetaStock because I think that ultimately shareholders would win. More tax revenue. By the way, employees win because there's more companies trying to rent your labor. So employees win, tax revenue, shareholders win.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
The only person that doesn't win is the person who wants to sit on the iron throne of all seven realms, not just Westeros. But I've always thought the two best things you could do to oxygenate the global economy are if China and the U.S. kissed and made up. We have IP. They have manufacturing. Enough already. Let's lower everyone's costs. by getting along again.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
My more substantive observation that I'd like your thoughts on is that when we get to these levels of income inequality throughout history, they self-correct through war, famine, and oftentimes revolution, right? And when the guillotine shows up, it's, okay, they come up with a crime and maybe this person committed the crime, maybe they didn't.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And obviously, President Trump does not get that. And then the second biggest way to oxygenate and unleash the global economy would be to take Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Meta and go from four companies to 15. It would create, it would unleash so much competition and innovation.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I got to be honest, I'm addicted to both Instagram and to TikTok.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Well, honestly, it's now my news source. I get really good. TikTok has figured out I want to see an economist talking about interest rates or a woman talking about social issues that forgot to put a bra on. Those are the two. That's how my feed.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And then, that's good. That's good. He's gone. Or chiropractors aggressively adjusting people.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
It's amazing. Like, oh, my God, she has neck pain. Oh, my God, what is he going to do? And then all of a sudden you hear celery. And she's like, I can walk again.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
They have figured out I love Great Danes. I could watch Great Danes all day. I do Instagram. We'll cook it in front of them and get in front of them and then slice it for them and create some amazing sauce and then just feed these three pit bulls this amazing chateaubriand.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Maybe it's late-stage capitalism, but it sure is entertaining.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
But they're essentially, at the end of the day, the crime is that the 1% have been just fucking the bottom 99% for way too long.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
There was a big announcement this week. I think the biggest story that people haven't been talking about is OpenAI deciding they might get into social.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Like I said, I think everybody wins if these companies start. I think their share price goes up. I don't know what to say other than that. Although I was more cynical about antitrust under a Trump administration. And Jonathan Cantor, who knows a lot more about this than me, sent me straight and said, you're underestimating some of the people who are at Justice and the FTC.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Well, you know, you can. There's now a website. If you go to it, you can type in your name and say, this is the clinic I donated.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And they send you a certified mail. And if you sign it, an email goes out to all your biological children saying, this is your biological father. I would do it if you could gate it, and you can't.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Well, that's why I don't do 23andMe because people get figured out. But I don't know if I have two kids or 2,000 because it wasn't regulated back then.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Yeah, I told you that. My mom made me stop because she said, I put my—I'm not exaggerating. I paid for my junior year at UCLA doing this. And my mom said, you need to stop. And her rationale was, what if your son ends up marrying your daughter?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I know. But anyways, she had a real point. She's like, you're going to go up in L.A. and you're going to come and you're going to meet. Anyways, but it's a weird thing. It's a weird thought. I thought about maybe like, I don't know, leaving him some money when I die or something like that. But anyways.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Make for a fun party. Think about what an awesome party I would throw for 238 year olds that all sort of look like me. That would be a fun party.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And apologize and give them therapy.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Oh, let's start a podcast network.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
With just their children. Why is that? Oh my God, that's so fucked up.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I think my prediction is the following, Kara. I think the worm has turned. I think that my sense is that the things that have kept Republicans quiet because of their dear leader has more power in this cult where he can vote them out of office. The fear factor of saying, I'll weaponize the DOJ against my enemies doesn't
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Donald Trump, I'm not comparing him to Hitler, but Hitler's biggest mistake that reshaped the world was he decided to open a second front in the war and he declared war on Russia. We probably would have had to come to some agreement with him where he got Europe and Britain got the empire or whatever.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
But that is what lost the war, was in addition to British brains, Russian blood, and American brawn, Russian blood, they sacrificed 20 million people. And they were allies at the beginning of the war. Trump has decided to fight everyone all at once. He's not going after targeted tariffs against China or figuring out if there's certain tariffs on dairy that are not reciprocal or asymmetric.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
He's not saying to the EU, we need you to pay more for our NATO. But he's just declared war on everyone all at once. Only we had to ally with dozens of countries to get Hussein out of Kuwait. But this guy's under the impression he can declare war on everyone.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Everyone, all at once, whether it's Harvard or Kazakhstan. He's just declared war on everyone. Yeah. And they're gonna be very creative and strike back. They're just gonna be very creative and strike back. Anyways, I think the worm has turned.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I think that so many public company CEOs who wake up in the morning and say, hello, Mr. President, that think that someday they're gonna be drafted because of their incredible leadership skills to run for president. Let me save you three classes at a business school on ethics, leadership, and sustainability. Ethics is like, think about what the right thing is,
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Leadership is do the right thing even when it's really hard. And sustainability is doing the right thing when it's really hard. You might actually make money. There, you don't need to take those three classes. You're about to see, I believe, some very high-profile business leaders and Republicans come out in the next week or two and say, this is just bad.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And they're going to get a ton of attention. I can't think of a Fortune 500 CEO who has spoken out. I can't think of a Republican CEO who has really taken a stand here. And the person I am reminded of is a guy named Martin Niemöller. And he was essentially, it was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany in the 20s and early 30s.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
That's exactly right. Very well done. He sympathized with many Nazi ideas and supported radically right-wing political movements. But after Hitler came to power in 1933, Niemöller became an outspoken critic of Hitler's interference in the Protestant church. He spent the last eight years of Nazi rule in prisons and concentration camps.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for his post-war statement, which begins, "'First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out.'" And his full quote is, "'First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist.'" Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me. I mean, that is really powerful. And what I would argue, I have a lot of faith in America over the medium and the long term. We get it wrong in the short term a lot, but over the medium and long term, we demonstrate tremendous generosity and leadership.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And I think we're at a point where people realizing that, OK, a guy with the wrong tattoo who gets basically rounded up a university or the cultural elite that are targeted under bullshit narratives of anti-Semitism coming after weaponizing the DOJ against your political enemies. I think the school is about to rise up against the bullies.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
There's been uncalculable economic and moral damage here and loss of brand equity and a loss of moral authority. I'm not in any way assuming this will repair everything. What I'm suggesting is the following. It is so obvious how damaging this is. Republicans showing up to their town halls and literally getting just absolutely ravaged.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
You mean someone who trained as an astronaut his whole life?
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
But I think you're going to see in the next one or two weeks a cadre of Fortune 500 CEOs, Republicans. stand up, business leaders stand up and say, okay, enough already. While you all claim he's playing 4D chess, at this point, we're worried he's going to start eating the pieces. This guy is making the stupidest decisions. And the first person, I love Nike. I just do a lot of work with Nike.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I'm going to call, I don't know if he'll call me back. I'm going to call Elliot Hill the CEO today. The biggest opportunity right now in the commercial consumer world is for the CEO to weaponize their creativity and their agency and to come out against this bullshit. and say, this is anti-American. This is not part of our values. This is not what it means to be an American.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Someone in the Fortune 500 is going to come out and say, this is bullshit. And guess what? The people who actually have the money to buy this shit are going to think, you know what? I like the swoosh again.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
They made Harvard. He's made Harvard likable again.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Yeah, he wanted to label people throwing shit at Tesla as an act of domestic terrorism.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
But the governor of Pennsylvania, someone tries to burn his house down with him in it on during Passover. I mean, but oh, we're just going to keep that. We're just going to ignore that. Anyways, I like to think that all of a sudden a bunch of leaders in the Republican Party and in the business world are reaching down and finding these spherical things called testicles.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
People in the administration, they've signed up for the Deere leader pack. They're in. They're in the cult. They're like, okay, maybe I disagree with Jim Jones, but I came down to Guyana. I'm going to drink the Kool-Aid. I'm talking about Fortune 500 CEOs, and I'm talking about even some Republican congresspeople. This has gotten so out of control and they're going to do it out of greed.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
The first consumer brand that stands up and says, I am standing up to this. The first Republican that stands up and says, OK, come for me. This is insane, especially in a district where like in Kentucky, where Canada being more strategic is like, no, let's just not do blanket tariffs. Let's go after red states.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I mean, this, I do think, anyway, my long-winded way of saying, my prediction is the worm has turned and we're going to see people who supposedly were part of the cult, the Fortune 500, which has been visibly absent, they're going to remember that's going to, this guy's quote, you know, first they came, first they came for the socialists, right? Okay. Be clear, folks.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Everyone could get this knock on the door. And I do think the worm has turned. I think there is economic incentive now to come out against this shit. And you know who provided cloud cover for it? Chairman Powell.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
You're cynical, you know, or you don't think, you're skeptical.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Well, they look ridiculous. Attaching it, it's vanity rebranded as feminism or adventure. But where I was headed was the following, is that I think this can be reverse engineered to income inequality.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
He's a very impressive guy. He was asked to be, again, the first non-Brit to head the Bank of England. I asked him, I thought the nicest part of the podcast, I asked him in a lightning round, I said, if you could go back and speak to someone who's not with us anymore, who would it be and what would you say? And he paused and he said, my dad. And I would tell him I love him.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Oh, my God. Well, he got emotional. It made me feel very emotional.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Trump is literally toxic for the entire world right now. The most elegant way to reduce everyone's prosperity. But in terms of popularity, he's taken Claudia Schoenbaum's popularity above 80%. Incredible. I mean, everyone is rallying against this guy.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And that is my thesis around Black Lives Matter and the Me Too movement was that these were righteous moments inspired by real concerns over systemic racism, the murder of George Floyd, over the fact that women have just been taking on the wrong end of the abuse and unjust power dynamic at work. These are credible movements.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Today's show is produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Intertide engineered this episode. Jim Mackle edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Severio, and Dan Chillon. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Then they came for me. and there was no one left to speak for me.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
But if you look at who they went after, they didn't go after sexism at small or medium-sized business. They didn't go after racism across the middle class. They go after rich people. And I think this is part of that revolution. And that is people are just so sick of rich people trying to claim the little social status they don't have. And people are just fucking angry. If they had sent up...
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
six middle-class teachers or whatever. It wouldn't have gotten any attention. But this is every revolution, and I think we're, quote unquote, rounding up people. It just takes on a different complexion. We're rounding up people and sending them to El Salvador. This is a form of revolution, but it's little revolutions. And if you look at it,
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Who people are going for, they're eating the rich because at the end of the day, they look at these people and they go, you know, this system has just become so perverted and slanted towards giving the top 0.1% everything, including some sort of false sense of adventure or heroism. And people have just had it. Again, I think this all can be reversed to income inequality.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Be rich and anonymous. Go to space on your own time. Good for you.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I have such an inability to predict what's going to happen here. There's been so many things that have been disqualifying, what I thought were red lines that they've just blown through and people are sort of, I don't know, seem fairly numb to. But if you want to talk about a move that could take the market down five or 8,000 points, it's fire Chairman Powell.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Because the separation of central banks from politics is one of the key stabilizing factors in the Western economy. Because what you have is a group of people who leaders, elected leaders who panic, and the reason they usually get voted out of office can almost always be reverse engineered to economic strain on the citizens.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And a quick kind of fix or sugar high to get you out of trouble would just be to flood the market or lower interest rates, which might be over the medium or the long term absolutely disastrous. So Western nations, I mean, I think every Western nation through central bank or their Fed chair or whatever, or I just interviewed Prime Minister Carney.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
He was the first non-Brit to be the head of the Bank of England. But they all, almost from all political persuasions, all agree that if we subject these people to political pressure, it could be disastrous for the economy. Because these people have to look at the data and make very important decisions about interest rates that affect currency, flows of capital.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
And the temptation to just put pressure on the Fed share and say, lower interest rates, I need a sugar high right now. I need the markets to go back up, whatever it is. And then you might end up with crazy inflation or stagflation. So the independents, I think he's going to back down because just the same way he blinked last week when he saw the 10-year spike, 50 basis points.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I think someone will say, you do this. Hold on tight when the market opens tomorrow at 9 a.m. So I don't even think it's I think they've decided the courts will side with them. Who cares? We get a court order to turn around a plan.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
We get a court order to bring someone back and we want to claim we can bring Katy Perry back from space, but we can't bring a person we sent incorrectly to these El Salvadoran prisons. By the way, they brought people back. Initially, they brought back women and some Venezuelans.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
So, but I don't think, I think the thing that stops him from doing that, right now, Chairman Powell is probably the most respected appointed, he's the most respected person in the Trump administration right now, if you could call him part of the administration accidentally.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
I don't know. He's threatening to fire him. I don't know what it is. I don't know. You tell me.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Chairman Powell is literally, he's going to leave, he's going to leave His tenure as someone who pulled us back from COVID, whose economic policies, the markets set new unprecedented highs. Some people would probably criticize that.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
TikTok has figured out I want to see an economist talking about interest rates or a woman talking about social issues that forgot to put a bra on.
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Elon’s Harem, Trump v. Harvard, and Zuckerberg on the Stand
Well, a little too much, I would say. Policies, although you could argue he doesn't control this. The reason we're in such a crazy corner right now is because we as Americans, and this is true through Democratic and Republican administrations, are under the delusion that we can spend $7 trillion a year while taking in $5 trillion in tax receipts and that everything will be all right.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Really smart. Hey, look, first off, it's super important that we mix. It's super important that people from the right and the left—I'd love to see a giant—I'm going to go back. As always, I like to root everything in a personal parable that's kind of relevant, adjacent— I was president of the Interfraternity Council, which is like king of the jarheads back at UCLA.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
I was, quote unquote, the head of the governing body that oversaw the Greek system. And my big idea, it was a time when there was a lot of tension between the fraternities, which were mostly, most obviously all male, mostly white.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
And we used to have these stupid theme parties that were racist and it would inflame special interest groups who saw us and the administration that saw us as an easy target. And the paper was always talking about what awful people we were. Some of it deserved.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
And my big idea was like, let's take the Black Students Alliance and METCHA, which was the Latino group, and let's all get together and have beers or get together and play sports together, but let's mix. And of course, they're like, we want nothing to do with you fucking weirdos. But I think it's really important that people from different political views get together.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
I think it creates empathy with one another. Now, what you're saying is to let just say Biden did not win the 2020, that requires a more honest, hard pushback that says, okay, what evidence actually do you have of that? And you're saying you didn't do that. But in terms of just strategically for Governor Newsom, It's super smart. He's leveraging a new medium. He's going after new voters.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
He's meeting voters and people where they are on podcasts. And also, the tension and the conflict, that's part of the reason this show is successful. We're not politically aligned on a lot of things. And the fact that he can talk about stuff, he one, shows it's smart. Two, he appeals to moderates. Three, he's very good going kind of, I don't want to say behind enemy lines.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Donny Osmond. That is literally, literally, just when I thought your flexes couldn't get any weaker, you're bragging about that?
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
I think if he wants to be president, which I believe he does, America is going to want someone that they think at the end of the day can sit down with people from pretty far differing perspectives and have a reasonable conversation. And he's showing that.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Yeah. I mean, I hear that, and I'm like, let's clutch our pearls a little harder.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Oh, yeah, it is. For God's sakes, we can have- No, these three are- Steve Bannon was a senior advisor to the president. Yeah, and a liar. Okay, let me be clear. I don't like the man. He said publicly that Trump's administration should sue me. I do not want Steve Bannon to be successful. He had a very senior role in the previous administration. He is very smart.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
And he says some batshit crazy things. The problem here was was that Governor Newsom should have been able and been more prepared to really push back and say, what you said here makes no sense. Can you please tell us what your thinking is? But we absolutely need more. OK, the platform argument, you don't give Alex Jones. a platform. You don't give the Tate brothers a platform.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
I said to Pierce Morgan when I was on the show, I'm like, why do you bring this guy on? You're just adding legitimacy, having him sit next to you on TV. Guys like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, look, Democrats, get over it. And by the way, I would like to see a lot of these crazy, you know, a lot of the more right podcasters bring on AOC. And the thing, you're a great interviewer,
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Governor Newsom is not. And what you are able to do is the following. And you guys have to thread a very fine needle. And that is people aren't going to come on and be made a fool of and get into a shouting match. So you have to show a little bit of respect. And at the end of the day, if they keep lying, you have to say, OK, I don't believe that's true.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Oh, on AC? I like AC, and I like CNN, and they do a good job. He's a real pro. I love kind of seeing how the sausage gets made.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
But you move on and you try to be hospitable and a good host and present people in their best light. And I think he erred on the side of not pushing back where he probably should have because But I think this is a really healthy thing. I think we need more of this, not less of it.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
It was how he handled the interview, not whether he should have done it or not.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
But even that, I've been asked, so one of the shows we go on a lot, sometimes the panelists, I think like, I just can't keep up with the stream of falsehoods. I'm not gonna be able to respond without fact checking real time. But even what you said, I think, is valuable to say, look, so much of what you're saying does not sound right.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
We have. We've been hanging. We've been rolling. Yeah.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
And we can't and there's so much of it that we can't keep up with fact checking. I think even that's a fair statement to say you're just flooding the zone. It feels like you're flooding the zone with non-truths.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
But really good, really good interviews are able to say, well, actually, I think of when this, you know, fairly famous venture capitalist who moved from San Francisco to Miami and started shitposting California long enough such that he could get
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
a reduction in capital gains when he sold a stock, went on CNBC and started basically lying about the earnings of Opendoor, basically saying it was profitable when it wasn't. And Deidre Bolsa fact-checked him real-time. She's like, no, you can't say this company is profitable. It's not. She was so prepared, or there was a producer in her ear going, that's not true. Push back on that.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
No. I mean, I was tired of you years ago, but no more tired of you, I should say. That's what I felt.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
She essentially real-time said, I don't want you to lie to our viewers over and over. We're talking about people's wealth and stock trades. And two or three times, she would stop him and say, that's just not true. With politics, it's harder because some of it is subjective, right? I mean, but if you're going to say, like you said, the election, I mean, that to me is just a softball.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Like, please show me the evidence. It contradicts the 62 court cases where the judges, including Republican-appointed judges and Trump-appointed judges, said there was no evidence of election fraud.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
No, it's nice to see you. I always enjoy seeing you. Last night, literally, we went to dinner and George and I just like leaned back and let you and Jess go at it.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Speaking of the apprentice, I asked my master if I shave my ass, does that mean I'm gay? And he says he who is cleaning his house is expecting visitors. Oh, that's wrong. That's really, that's awful.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
That's my way of saying we need to segue out of this story.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
You got the last word. This is called our relationship. You got the last word.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Yes, I know. Get AOC on and Bernie.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Plus, can you imagine the two of them together? Oh, my God. Don't you just hope they both get naked and go at it?
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
I'd pay cash money to see Governor Newsom and Representative Ocasio-Cortez.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Oh, God. And you know what I want? I would want them to have 40 or 50 kids. They'd become my army and we'd take over Australia. And I would be the general consulate of Australia.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Oh, really? Yeah. I think she played basketball in high school.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
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First off, I think Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is a gift and he wrote a fantastic opinion piece about how some of these corporate leaders who claim to be leaders and claim to care about America need to speak up. And there haven't been that many. And congratulations to Jamie for kind of stepping into the void and saying what's on everybody's mind. I think you're going to see more of it.
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Tariffs are the following. They're not universally bad. If China is charging a tariff on our cars, we get to charge a tariff on their cars until we both decide to lower tariffs. Free trade creates prosperity. You can also probably need a tariff to support certain strategic industries.
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We probably should have some level of domestic production of steel in case those supply chains are shut down and we need to build tanks or what have you. But when, for example, these aluminum and steel tariffs, we tried that in the last Trump administration.
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And what they found is the following, that, okay, let's assume that the additional revenue created by the tariffs, let's assume that the additional revenue captured by Cleveland Cliffs and U.S. Steel are two largest remaining steel manufacturers. Their market, their products become more competitive because foreign steel is more expensive.
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So they get more share, more money, more tax revenue, more jobs. All right, theoretically, it all works. Here's the problem. One, consumers, prices get increased.
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Consumers have to pay up to six, eight, $12,000 more for a truck with these tariffs, which takes down the demand, which takes down the gross profits of the domestic supplier because their products are more expensive relative to other people's products because we have to increase our input costs. There is a reciprocal tariff almost always, meaning that our products become more expensive overseas.
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That was comedy gold. My favorite thing was you just finally, the audience really responded when you said, sit down.
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And what you found with the aluminum steel industry tariffs is that the increase in the cost of steel made that so many products across America had to increase their prices because steel and aluminum were big inputs, that the increase in prices reduced demand much more than the incremental income gains from the companies that benefit from their products being more competitive.
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In some, in almost every case, tariffs don't work. And if you look at what companies do thousands of times a year across the market, they are perfectly trying to calibrate. Nike is perfectly trying to calibrate volume times gross margin and figure out the exact peanut butter and chocolate combination for shareholders.
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All right, if we lowered our prices and took our margins down from 30 points to 10 points, we'd double our volume, but we'd end up with less profit. So they perfectly attempt or attempt to perfectly calibrate across every market What is the optimal price relative to volume, relative to margin? And when the government comes with tariffs, what they're saying is, hey, company, you're stupid.
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We could take prices up and it wouldn't hurt demand. And it never works out that way. It usually suppresses demand and revenues in a much greater volume or amount than the increase in revenues. It makes us less competitive. It makes us less productive and it increases costs. If you're looking for an elegant way
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to increase consumer costs while reducing productivity and demand across our products in foreign markets? Congratulations. This is supersizing Brexit. This is the most elegant, efficient way to reduce American prosperity. It makes absolutely no sense. Sorry, here's a period.
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Even worse than this, even worse than the tariffs, if he said, all right, I'm putting a 10% tariff on everything from China, American companies could go, okay, this is stupid, whatever, but he gets to make this decision, but they could plan. They could say, okay, the cost of our shoes and our cars is about to go up 12 or 15%.
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We estimate that demand will fall by this and we can adjust and plan for this. But here's what's even worse than these ridiculously stupid tariffs is the uncertainty means that foreign and domestic suppliers can't plan their goddamn business. When we were at South by Southwest, a lot of the digital media companies who were off to a great start of the year, right?
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Yeah, just giving the ladies a little bit of daddy, a little bit of dessert, a little bit of dessert with their South by South, with their chicken fajitas with queso, a little dog, a little topping of the dog. Chicken fajitas with queso. Give the people what they want, Kara.
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The lack of uncertainty because, okay, we know Trump's in office. We sort of know, we think we sort of know what to expect. Let's get back to business and start spending money. The 2025 started great. for digital media companies dependent upon consumer advertising.
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And now their quarter has been blown because some of the biggest advertisers in America, including automobile companies, have all said the following. We have no fucking idea what's going on, so we're doing nothing. They have told their media planners Until there's more clarity, stop spending money.
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And the lack of certainty, the lack of consistency as a trading partner means every large organization and company in the world is trying to reconfigure their supply chain to be less dependent upon America, which means less money for America. The tariffs are bad. The uncertainty is even worse.
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Now come by my office hours and I'll help you on the hard parts.
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Here's what makes you funnier or more comfortable with being unfunny. Just the recognition we're all going to be dead soon.
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The most important thing in American history. So our decision to, at huge costs, risk to our young men, risk to our economy, turning washing machine factories into tank factories overnight, we decided for the second time to Enter into World War II and push back on fascism. Oh, we decided that this incredible prosperity and rights should be extended to not civil rights.
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Oh, I'm sorry, but these fucking tariffs are the most important thing America has ever done.
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I mean, you just lose so much credibility when you say that. And this is so chaotic. I don't even know the status of the tariffs right now. And I follow this shit.
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You know who's the big winner here? It's China. You know what China—China has literally deployed— dozens if not hundreds of their diplomats to the biggest European and Latin American companies, and they've said the following, you may not love us, but you can count on us. We like trade, we like commerce, and we do what we say, and you know what you're dealing with with us.
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You've been buying all this produce or products or finished products or whatever it might be from the US. You have no idea how to plan and what to expect from these folks. You can count on us. This is the deal. We are open for business. We love commerce. We are a dependable, consistent partner. Or even not China, Canada is going to do more business with me. This is literally a gift.
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to every major economic power that had to compete against America. What they're saying is America is not competitive because you can't believe what they say. And the greatest level of damage here isn't even going to show up in the short run. Goldman Sachs already took their GDP prediction from 25 down from 2.4 to 1.7.
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It'll be the long-term impacts of when people reconfigure their supply chain and their relationships. They're going to be somewhat like remissed to re-engage again. This is going to be a structural step down in our credibility across our largest trading partners. And trade, no doubt, if you don't If you don't think about who gets really hurt, you can end up with a really difficult situation.
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Interesting. Yeah, well, comfortable being unfunny, trying to be funny, like taking risks, right? Right.
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And that's where America, America's been really good on trade, where we're bad is helping out and showing empathy for the people who get, quite frankly, who are on the wrong end of that. But on the whole, prosperity just grows. We just continue to see that economically over time.
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And people, when they stop buying our products, not because they might, they might be the most competitive in a year, but they're like, we don't know what's going to happen in the next year or two years.
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A lot of times, as anyone who listens to this show will know, a lot of my jokes don't land. And here's the thing, anyone not laughing, you're going to be dead soon, and so am I. Oh, okay.
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Right. Economists, I don't consider myself like an economist, but quote-unquote academics have predicted nine of the last three recessions. It's very hard to tell because you could have AI finally get real traction in the economy and massively increase productivity, which results in economic growth that overcompensates for these ridiculous tariffs. And we have a tendency to
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sometimes overestimate the power of the president and his policies on this unbelievable engine called the American economy that usually over the medium and long term sort of figures out a way. So I think it's dangerous to predict a recession. What was your second question, Cara?
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Oh, the market? Look, the only thing I would consider is the following. And that is, this stat just blew my mind. If you add in corporate debt, so people have heard that the market capitalization of US stocks now represents 50% of total equity value globally, which is extraordinary.
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But if you add in corporate debt, because the enterprise value of a company is its market cap, say 100 million, plus if it has 50 million in debt, the market is saying that this company is worth $150 million because we're giving it $100 million in equity value despite the fact it also owes 50 million. We're saying it's worth 150 million.
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That's definitely some therapy for my voice.
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If you add in all corporate debt and the world is worth $100, America costs $70 right now, and the rest of the world, sans the U.S., costs $30. So if someone said to you, Kara Swisher, you can either buy America for $70 or the rest of the world for $30, you'd buy the rest of the world. And so what I'm doing is the following. First off, I think you're always invested in the markets.
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Don't try and time them. You are not Warren Buffett. And When people predict a recession, oftentimes the market goes up 20 or 30%. And also you have to take into account whether you're going to trigger a taxable gain on your, a taxable event on your income gains. What I would suggest, and this is not financial advice, but what I am doing, 70 versus 30, I am pulling money out of the U.S.
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and I'm putting into low-cost, diversified index funds, in non-US markets. Because while index funds will diversify you, if you're just in an S&P or a NASDAQ index fund, you're actually not that diversified because typically when the markets get this expensive in America, for the next five or 10 years, you have 0% returns. European stocks haven't been this cheap in a long time.
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American stocks haven't been this expensive in a long time. So what I would say is one, I don't think you should go to cash. I just don't think you can time the markets. But what I would suggest is thinking about diversifying across geographies, not just asset classes.
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Yeah. Well, you had obviously a health scare and you lost a parent very young. I'm a raging atheist. I think a very real sense of the finite nature of life is an absolute blessing.
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It's that math I did this morning.
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Look, we have a bias, but this to me just seemed fucking ridiculous that the President of the United States would decide to do an infomercial for one brand and not all other American brands. It's one thing if he and the Commerce Secretary were to stand in front of a bunch of American-made EVs, including Tesla. I think Biden screwed up not including Tesla in the EV summit.
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That was punitive the other way. That was playing favorites the other way. But when you basically do one of these bad local, you know, I'm crazy, Bob, come down to Bob's Ford and Lincoln Mercury for a crazy deal.
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Yeah, I was joking that that you can lease to own America for two hundred and eighty five million dollars. It's just this is stupid and goes back to the notion that this kind of shit should not be allowed. It reflects poorly on America, reflects poorly on Trump.
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About denying your daughter under oath to avoid child support payments?
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And the thing I don't get about Musk, who obviously has such an unbelievable feel for business, is that 75% of Republicans say they would never buy an EV. If he was just purely, quote unquote, economically driven, which I think he is, I think he would have gone blue pill.
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Because the marketplace, I always use the example, we talked about this, when Nike went political, it was a smart move because they tickled the sensors of the core market. He's pissing off his core market. I just don't, I don't understand his end game here as Gavin Newsom.
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Let's pretend he's Jesus Christ because he invented a fucking phone.
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You're part of the acolytes. By the way, I just want to call it out. I disliked Elon well before you.
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It really is. It's so passe, but money in politics and just what feels like a straight pay-for-play and all the incentives are, I mean, I've said this for a long time. The thing that's always horrified me about our representatives and our Congress is not that they're whores, not that if you give them money, you get audience with them. I've known that for a long time.
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It's what incredibly cheap whores they are. And that is, if you give 10 to 25 grand to every senator, I bet more than half would meet with you when you swung by Washington. And influence is a function of proximity and intimacy. You have audience with people who get to levy or are the arbiters of the largest person in history.
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So the incentives are, Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg, look at these investments and go, this is the best investment in history. A million bucks for his inauguration campaign and he stops threatening to put me in jail or he's going to not try and break me up or he's going to tell the FTC or the DOJ to hands off Amazon or whoever. This is the best money spent unless you have systemic
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laws and regulation that says, no, we pass laws that affect all companies. We're not allowed to play favorites. It's just a race to the bottom where everyone's like, all right, let's give him a giant medal and award and build a gold statue of him and give $10 million to his electoral campaign. And the problem is that favors the incumbents because they're the ones that have all the power.
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And anybody who says, No, I'm standing up for American values. I'm not going to take this money. They're at a huge disadvantage. And we end up with a majority of our elected officials are willing to engage in this grift, in this trade. So... As far as you can see.
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Just one example, you know who's doing this right? University of California. I owe California taxpayers a lot. I've given some money to UCLA and to Berkeley, and both the chancellors of UCLA and Berkeley called me and said, one, thank you, and two, I just need you to know this, your kid is less likely to get in now that you have given money.
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They are not only so worried about conflicts of interest and abusing the public purse, that if you give over a certain amount of money to the University of California, the chancellor will call you and say, just FYI, your kid is now less likely to get in because we have to be so careful about conflicts and not abusing the public trust. And quite frankly, I respect it. Yeah.
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Trust me, I'll call you. That's right. You went to a private school where you can still just you can do pay for play. Yeah, that's true. But this that is how government that is how you are supposed to respect the power of money you're given. This is when he when he favors industries, he's spending your money. He's abusing your tax dollars.
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I think this was bad for the brand. I really do.
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Well, that is my prediction. And that is there's not going to be a breakup. I think that essentially people keep asking us, as Anderson did last night, when does the relationship end? I don't think the relationship ends with a bang. I think he just sorts – I think Musk just fades to black. One –
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If the president is really serious about the cabinet secretaries now get to make the final decision and Musk is just an advisor to them, that means nothing is going to happen because these cabinet secretaries have a very difficult job. They need all of their staff. The savings are minimal in comparison to Trump. For example, the increase in the deficits from the planned tax cuts.
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If Elon Musk comes back, he's not going to come back with a thoughtful, you could probably cut 1,000 of the 4,500 people from the Department of Education who have overseen national mandatory testing, which most people think has not worked. Right intentions has not worked. If he came back with thoughtful recommendations, the Department of Education might say, okay, that might make sense.
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But he's not there to look at fraud and waste, which, by the way, we've got a clean bill of health on so far because I can't find as much as everyone had anticipated. But also, these are not – this isn't about an audit. This isn't about efficiency. These are – these are political actions.
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When you cut off all USAID, it's a political action, and political actions are supposed to be left to our elected representatives representing the people. So if it was, in fact, about efficiency, fine. But what he said is, if he, in fact, is honest about now he's just an advisor, he's going to have no power, nothing's going to happen. And in addition...
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He is now probably doing the math and going, I miscalculated. There are not only his Tesla sales being hammered, but what he's really scared of has happened. And that is the virus here has jumped the lab to Starlink. And that is a lot of big customers are now rethinking their Starlink relationship. So what initially was very accretive to his personal wealth has returned.
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He's lost all that money and the momentum is downward. So I think he's basically saying, going to pull a Vivek and just slowly fade away out of, and I think Doge is going to die a quiet death because he has, it looks as if his power has been emasculated and two, he's just losing so much money right now because of the negative brand halo. Well,
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So, Cara, you know what stock is up? The Starlink competitor in Europe, Utelstat, has quadrupled in the last 30 days as these small inferior product competitors are now viable again because they have an enormous increase in interest from nations and companies that don't want to work with Starlink. That stock is gone from a month ago it was trading at $1.20. Buy Europe.
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Today it opened at 682. Yeah. So you're about to see a massive amount of capital. I mean, this is so bad for Starlink. You're about to see a massive amount of capital going to other satellite and communications providers that quite frankly, weren't as competitive. They weren't as good.
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Anyways, there won't be a press announcement, but watch. In 30 or 60 days, Doja is going to be surprisingly not in the news. Okay.
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I'm going away for the weekend and then I go back to London on Sunday. How about you?
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The new tariffs on champagne, I feel bad. I'm going to spend more time in St. Barts just to be a good citizen.
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Severio, and Dan Shulon. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Kara, have a great time moving lucky.
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I think comedians doing really well is really important on both sides of the aisle. And so good for him, good for, is it Netflix that's bringing him on?
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Yeah. The thing that's more troubling is the following. There's nothing wrong with if Amazon decides in terms of programming to bring on whatever shows they want from the past that help cement their value proposition. The problem is that, okay, we have... We have what appears to be Amazon overpaying for the Melania Trump documentary.
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We have Jeff Bezos giving a million dollars in the inaugural campaign and under what feels like duress. We have also a kind of strange, ironic timing where the owner, the same guy of The Washington Post, has decided they don't need to have an opinion section. which feels very, quite frankly, like he's acquiescing to pressure from Trump.
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So the problem is that if we end up in a situation where every person in power starts to take, if you will, kind of soft bribes in exchange for possibly exonerating that company from certain regulation or tariffs, You just, you have, you end up with, one of the reasons India has not, quite frankly, kept pace with China.
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20 years ago, most analysts would have said, half of analysts 20, 30 years ago would have said, the next enormous growth economy, half would have said China, half would have said India. India's a democracy, English speakers, huge emphasis on education, strong with tech. It wasn't immediately obvious that China was going to absolutely crush India in terms of growth.
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But here's one of the big problems with India. It is wildly fucking corrupt. And local officials and politicians extract a lot of unfair rents from businesses, which makes everyone less competitive and creates incentives for more and more corruption. China, on a regular basis, finds corrupt officials and business people and executes them.
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Probably not the right way to go, but they are very serious about corruption, and that creates more robust, competitive competition. We are headed more towards India right now than we have been in the past.
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Don't forget, this is the guy that essentially opened a Swiss bank account that any foreign entity could deposit money into, and only Donald Trump gets the receipts and knows what is going into that bank account. And it's called the Trump coin. He basically set up the ultimate vessel for quiet, off-record bribes. And where do we go?
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A lot of Republicans will claim, and I think there's a real argument here, Scott, we're just less opaque about it than Democrats. We cut out the middlemen of lobbyists and and of special interest groups and of people giving speeches.
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What are you talking about? But theoretically, it's a fair argument. And this is where I just want to bust the solutions. I think the right solution here is Singapore. And that is, I believe every congressperson and every senator should be paid a million to $3 million a year. I think the president should be paid $10 million a year. But in exchange for that, there is absolutely zero, zero
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Corruption, no speeches, no payments, can't work for a lobbyist for five years after you get out of office, no trading of stocks, just fucking nothing. Because the incentives here are, unfortunately, I'm a very powerful person and I don't make enough money to have a home back in Newport Beach and in D.C. And the incentives are, quite frankly, just to kind of. File with the ethics committee.
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Maybe they say, oh, you're not supposed to trade stocks. The penalties are really low. We have to have a zero tolerance for this and dramatically increase their compensation.
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I never watched The Apprentice. I never saw it.
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It's basically, the running joke was that the guy was supposed to be gay. I mean, that was incredibly homophobic, pretty sexist. And yet you still really like John Ritter.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
You know what show disappointed me the most when I went back? My favorite show, speaking of an obsession with death, my absolute favorite show, no joke, was Six Feet Under. Did you ever watch that on HBO? Of course they did. Yeah. I remember thinking this is such incredible creative. I thought almost every show, it made you really feel something.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
And then it came back on, I think AMC or something, with commercial breaks, and it just absolutely ruined it. And you recognize, it was the first time I thought, people don't realize that streaming's real advantage is no commercials.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
That storytelling is so much easier when every nine to 11, but that's what's so amazing about Modern Family is they imagine, they're able to keep the thread, even though they have to interrupt it every 11 minutes with medication telling you you have restless legs.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And I'm Scott Galloway.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I'm doing okay. I just hauled up five flights of stairs, my 14-year-old's beverage refrigerator, because what is a 14-year-old without his own beverage refrigerator? I like a beverage.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
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Pivot
Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Behind every great business is an even greater story. And each week on Masters of Scale, you get just that. Hear stories from the founders and leaders of the most iconic brands with lessons that earned them the greatest triumphs and helped them overcome the toughest challenges. Check it out today. You can find Masters of Scale on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, you and my son. Do you know that? Yeah, but you deserve one.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I'm a big fan of bringing Elon to work days. I think it's... I was praying that the little kid would start goose-stepping. I think that would have been fitting. Yeah. Papa, tomorrow belongs to me.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
You mean the same? Oh, hold on. I think it's the same kid he put on his shoulders as he walked through the gates that said, work will set you free at Auschwitz.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
He used his kid as a prop at Auschwitz. Anyways, I think it's great when people bring their kids to work, but when you use your kids, it feels like the kid is a bit of a prop right now. He is.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And look, I don't, it all again is like the gulf of distraction. And that is the inspector general who was looking into Musk's payments and business activities has been summarily fired. Right. And I'm putting out a post tomorrow. Basically, what people don't realize is it's just so incredibly cynical because arguably one of the biggest welfare queens in history is Elon Musk.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
If you look at where a lot of these payments have gone. So a lot of this large S. So I find. Like, it's pretty obvious I have a bias against the guy, but I didn't... I thought it was smart for Trump visually to be sitting. Like, I'm more important than to have him there standing. I thought Elon looked good.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I'm trying to be... I thought he had... I thought that fashion was kind of cool, the black hat and the, you know, the jacket. But I thought... And I actually thought he handled the questions relatively well. So... You know, probably a win for them, but I have a difficult time just absorbing and processing any of this.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Oh, really? Yeah. I'm in favor of retro blue fridge. I'm actually very much an evangelist for beverages. Yeah, me too. But also... Yeah. Was it one of those like cool, what do they call it? Smeg?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
See, I think actually Trump, given the fact that he is that old, I think Trump is remarkably robust and good looking for people.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I think it was sort of a power move. But a couple of things come up. One. The kid was totally distracting for me. I do the same thing. I put out pictures on social of my dogs, one, because I think they're great and they are beautiful dogs, and two, I think it makes me more likable. I do the same thing. I understand what he's trying to do.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
The thing that propped up in my mind is I have good friends, and I got this practice from them. Every five years, they sit each other down and they say, logistics and money aside, which is a position of privilege, What could we do that would make you really happy? And my friend said, I think it was about five years ago, I'd like to sail around the world with the family.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
So they spent two years planning how to homeschool their kids on a boat, how to build a boat that could circumnavigate the globe. And they did it. They circumnavigated the globe. And there were some exceptionally scary moments. be involving pirates, rough seas, when you got like a seven-year-old on the boat. If the seven-year-old goes over, there's no getting them back.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And what they said to me was, I said, would you do it again? I tried to talk them out of it. These are good friends. I'm like, I just don't think this is a good idea. I wouldn't do it. And there's certain bodies of water. I would just take a plane. You don't need bragging rights. You're both incredibly impressive people. And I said, would you do it again?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And they said, not until our kids could give consent. Because they said there were just some moments that were very scary. And I feel the same way about this. If you're the president and you have children, it's one thing to have those moments. But I don't know. Do you really take your kid to a concentration camp?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I thought the whole thing was so fucking weird. Yeah.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, I think Sam has shown a great deal of discipline around his comms and his brand. I think he screwed up here. I think that whether it's true or not, it might have felt good to say, I feel for the guy and yes, he's insecure. I think he just sort of said, the offer isn't a serious offer and I have no idea what's going on with Elon Musk. I don't want to...
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Sam has taken so far the high road around this and he should continue to take the high road. He shouldn't take the bait and say, because that's basically saying he's insecure and it must have felt good. And I get why he would do it. He's probably so sick of this guy. I think so. That wants to deploy law for instead of actually competing against him.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And it's like this poltergeist who will not go away.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
That's absolutely fair. But Sam's brand is he's Sam comes across as the adult in the room and he's very restrained and he errs on the side of taking blows. And I don't think you should go there and say, you know, I mean, that was a that was that was a passive aggressive minus the passive part.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, but I think the bright answer would have been, of course, we had our lawyers look at it. We don't think there's any merit on it. We're focused on building great products. So I'm not here to psychoanalyze it.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, but the only thing is, if you're a public company and someone makes a bid for a certain class of shares is the way I would describe this, then you have a duty share obligation to put together a special committee and look at, and I don't know if they have debt, if that changes anything.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
But when you're basically a private company and everyone's making so much money, I just – unless there's someone on the board of the nonprofit that also hates Altman, which might be the case, and wants to create trouble.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And they can pretty much do whatever they want. They don't – a public company has an obligation. The board has an obligation to get the highest offer and look at everything. A private company is basically a private company, and they can kind of do – you know, the shareholders, the shareholders as represented by the board can kind of do whatever the fuck they want.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And I can't imagine any of them are going to go, yeah, let's bring Elon in.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
He doesn't have the money to buy, because if he were to buy it, he would have to... Actually, the more interesting kind of thing that no one watched, I actually read or looked at, which is Latin for, I had one of my analysts read, the earnings call from SoftBank. And a bunch of people asked questions about this anticipated investment in OpenAI at a $300 billion pre-money valuation.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And basically in so many words, they said, what the fuck are you thinking? Can you please explain this? And what will be the structure of the investment? So I'm now beginning to think that that investment might be at risk because a lot of the analysts on the call were, what are you doing? This makes no sense.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
So for the first time, I'm now wondering if SoftBank actually reduces their commitment to that.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
How is our player, Tesla, domestically, who has its own manufacturing in China, faring against BYD domestically in China?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Oh, I cannot tell you how impressed I am with Alice Han. She's my find. Occasionally you find somebody and you think this person is a genius and I want to give them more sunlight. And she's one of those people. Anyways, she's essentially said that, I mean, if you look at what's happened to Tesla in Europe, it's not much better in China.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
In January, retail sales of Tesla in China were 16% lower year on year.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And get this, 60% lower than in December. So, I mean, BYD, and BYD is now the number one EV car manufacturer in the world. Going to a much broader point here, I think that the most important relationship that could evolve hopefully in the next three years, let's assume that Trump, supposedly he desperately wants a Nobel Prize. And so let me go to advising the president in a hopeful way.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
The most obvious way would be to solve the civil war in Sudan, threaten both sides, work with both sides. The other way would be if China and the US kissed and made up the, I mean, have you seen these cars? These cars are $10,000 EVs and really good. They're adorable.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
For another $2,000 or $3,000, you can install a lot of airbags and a lot of safety features. And in addition, I would even go further than that. I would create a bilateral AI commission where we... Supposedly 38% of AI engineers are Chinese in the US. And when we don't cooperate with them, they develop their own chips. They have incentive to do things kind of in and around us.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I would have a bilateral AI similar to what Oppenheimer's vision was for nuclear, where we share everything with each other, but we also commit... to ensuring that AI is not used to create bioweapons by third parties or bad actors, because all we're doing is motivating the other to figure out workarounds to attack the other.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
The most important relationship in terms of a thong right now would be the first and second largest economy.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, but here's the Chinese playbook, and it's happening to Tesla. The Chinese playbook is very simple. Oh, Google, oh, Meta, come on in. And then they watch, listen, and learn, and then they steal their IP and prop up a local entrepreneur and capture the most of the value for the domestic market. And I think the same thing is happening to Tesla.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I can't imagine a lot of that IP from Tesla didn't end up at BYD. I don't know about that.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And battery, too.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
BYD sales plummet. Day after podcast. You have the worst taste in cars.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
They're super cool.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
In a second, they look like, I don't mean they're, they're kind of like the- It's like the new VW bug, but with technology.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It's the car equivalent of fast fashion. It is. We have figured out supply chain to just bring you something for dramatically less money.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, that's exactly right. The only thing propping up Tesla stock right now and his wealth is this basic, the market has said, this is now a kleptocracy and your proximity to power is more important than your innovation.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, and also firing people who are investigating the company and getting rid of them. I guess that's a plus. Yeah, it's even, unfortunately, it's even, and this isn't in the script, but I'm just curious to get your quick reaction. Have you been following what's going on with Mayor Adams?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Oh, God, I hope so.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Nobody in New York likes it. I agree. No, I said I hope so.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I mean, essentially, what's effectively happened is he's instructed the DOJ to drop all prosecution efforts against Mayor Adams. And in exchange, Mayor Adams has agreed to comply with all efforts by ICE to capture or retain or detain and deport people.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
So what you have is, I'll make sure that you are not subject to the same laws that every other citizen is subject to if you agree to go against your constituents and let our ICE people into, who knows, churches or schools. I mean, this is really fucking ugly.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
The guy who will probably win is when Andrew Cuomo actually announces that he's in the race.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It's a bunch of out-of-control progressives, one pragmatist named Whitney Tilson. who is a pragmatist, would be a great mayor, but probably doesn't have the name recognition. Governor Cuomo is going to come in and probably just lock it. But Kathy Hochul has, I believe, the power to remove Mayor Adams, and she should. She should. This is corruption at the highest level.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Hunter, this is really, and by the way, I was a supporter of Mayor Adams. I thought the case against him was quite frankly overdone. I did not think what he did rose to the level of, I don't know how the media was portraying it.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
This is but this is it's so damaging to the Democratic brand because the Democratic brand, unfortunately, has been tarred with a broad but fairly fair brush of. every democratically run city on the West Coast is a fucking shit show. They ignored drugs, they ignored crime, and the quality of life is awful.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I said two years ago, if I were Fox, I would just broadcast live from downtown San Francisco every day. And so the center of Democratic branding for politics moved to New York, which is actually performing quite well and still offers, is still the best place in the world to go in terms of a crush of opportunity, culture, nightlife.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
New York really still is the best city in the world and represents the best of America and thereby the best of the Democratic Party. And now we have this bullshit. So it's really damaging on a lot of levels. I think Governor Hochul should move in and say, do a press release and say, I'm removing him as mayor.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
No, you know who I would ask? That's a good question. I just thought of it. I would ask Mayor Bloomberg to step back in.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Six to 18 months until there's a special election.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
You saw my thread or whatever it is. I can't keep track. I just put out Gulf of Distraction. That's all this is. I don't, you know, what, who cares? I don't, fine, call it that. I just don't.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, we'll show them.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I appreciate that. Gulf of Dog.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Make America Scottish again.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
She's very calculating.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
She's not going to be on the go to the alumni cheerleading day where they have all these very cute 95-year-olds dressed up in pom-poms. She's an actual cheerleader. She's a gangster.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
They're in the background managing their brand really strongly with an eye on 28. And they're not going to like go down in some sort of like angry, near zombie apocalypse movie. Yeah, they're too smart. Yeah.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
So, you know, a broken clock can be right. I was a prediction machine last night. I wrote a bunch down.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
No, I was actually sober, which was kind of frightening. Interesting. When I was talking about, when you said that fuck, marry, kill thing, and I was talking about making sweet, sweet love to Mark Zuckerberg, and I thought I'd grab- You're still thinking about it, aren't you? Oh my God, I can't get off it.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
This could have been written by Sergei Lavrov, the equivalent of their secretary of state of propaganda. What might be interesting of the wildcard here is I'm not sure Europe is down with acquiescing to another murderous autocrat invading Europe and just saying, okay, it is what it is. What Secretary Hughes has said is probably pretty accurate.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Grabbing that chain, riding him like a dog and singing, who's self-harming now, you wanton bitch? Oh my God, my nipples are getting hard. And at that moment, at that moment, I thought, maybe I don't need drugs. Maybe I don't need drugs. Yeah. Anyways. This is all going to come crashing down, Kara. Anyways.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
If that's wrong, we don't want to be right.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I think Tesla is about to experience its real first major existential crisis. Sales off.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Here I go again. I can't help it. I'm an addict. They're off 20% to 60% across European countries. They're off 50% in China. EV demand appears to be plateauing. They are getting the shit kicked out of them by BYD. They haven't really released a new mass adoption product in about seven years.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And they have what is right now the worst brand ambassador in the world.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah. And then my more boring one is I really think Google is going to – you're about to hear a lot of stories about Google search companies. share falling below 90 percent at the hands of Perplexity, ChatGPT, and also Reddit. I was even thinking just as YouTube has become the ultimate distribution platform in 2025, I think in 26, it's going to be Reddit.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
There's just a bunch of like there's so many moons lining up right now. I'm really anyways, I think that Tesla is about to have I can't help it. I'm just going to say it now. Tesla stock is going to be below 200 in the next six months.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
At some point, I'll be right.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
We'll see, right? Yeah, we'll see.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Do you have any thoughts, any predictions?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Oh, you know what we should do?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And I'm serious about this. Alice, who I really respect, I would even call her a friend, the China analyst, Alice Han. She said, Scott, you should really, I haven't been to China since 2019. And I was saying, I was so excited about China. And I went there probably two, three times a year. And I haven't been back since 2019. And she said, I'll take you. It'll be a ton of fun.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And you'll meet with some interesting people. You and I should go to China and you should pick up your BYD and see if you can get it back to the U.S.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And pay the import. Pay the tariff and bring it back.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, the International Tourism Board, that's not going to be on any billboards. Wanastro, come to Shenzhen.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
We should do an event in China.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It's very unlikely we're going back to the traditional borders.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Reach out to us.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And I've heard that the CCP is actually a good organization because I can't find anyone who would say anything else. Bring us to China.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
After we see Wicked.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
We could see Wicked in Beijing. That'd be interesting.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Oh yeah, I'm going to, it's funny, I paused there because I feel like I rubbed my wealth in people's face. I'm going to Zermatt. I'm going to Zermatt on Saturday.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
But at the same time, the time you negotiate, you want to negotiate from a place of strength and what you've seen across Europe. You could argue that's one of the benefits of not only the invasion, of Ukraine, but also, quite frankly, of Trump, who signaled, I'm sick of supporting or giving everyone this very expensive military umbrella.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Supposedly we have this ridiculously hot ski instructor, so.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Really? Is it a concert or a showing?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
That sounds really cool.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Brose, Ms. Saverio, and Dan Shulon. Nishat Kroas, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. Have a great weekend.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
But you have seen a dramatic increase in military spending across the EU.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
So I'm not sure the EU is going to say, you know, Ukraine, if you can't, if you don't want to if you don't want to bend the knee at this moment, courtesy of whatever Trump and Hex that say, we've got your back. And what's just remarkable about Ukraine is in every conflict there's a new,
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
There's a new weapon that kind of rears up, whether World War I, it was tanks and biplanes, World War II, radar. Drones. Yeah. And this is all about drones. And it's just incredible what they have been able to do with substantially less resources. So I think you negotiate from a position of strength.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And when you start off with this type of rhetoric, you're basically, this could have been written by the Russians, right?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I heard he consulted with Jack Daniels before he made the speech.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
The other wild card people are talking about is, you know who doesn't want peace? China.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
China was a real beneficiary of the war because they get oil at dramatic, you know, on sale. Because Russia, because they've been essentially shunned by every other major oil consumer.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It felt like a rave party. It's like... I was like, let's drop some molly and turn off Russian gas.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
You brought a key point, and that is while at the end of the day, we might end up with some sort of commitment to not let Ukraine join NATO, because there is, if you talk to Professor Jeffrey Sachs at Columbia, who I disagree with on almost every foreign policy viewpoint, he would argue that we invited that Russia was backed into the corner because of the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Maybe ultimately you know that you're not going to let them join NATO and America for the most part gets to make that decision, but you don't offer it up before the negotiations. You maybe even say, in one way will guarantee their security moving forward is incorporating the new Ukraine into NATO.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And then Russia freaks out and says, okay, if you take, you know, if you give back 60, 70, 80% of the territory, you don't show up and negotiate against yourself and offer that up before you need to. So,
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
He's the most Churchillian character of this millennium so far.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I would say I have more confidence, actually, in the EU. I don't think— Keep in mind the EU is a large economy. They have dramatically increased their military budget. And quite frankly, they still remember what happens when an autocrat is let, when you give him, when you say, okay, here, you can have Poland or you can have this segment of France.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Anthony Chamberlain? Wasn't it Neville?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It's so rare. You're usually the one telling me I got it wrong.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Richard Chamberlain from the Thornburgs.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
With one of the hottest women ever, Rachel Ward.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
A love affair. His commitment to God. I'm like, dude, just tell God to put.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Oh, my God. Take that shit down and let us watch. I know. Put it on cable and let them go at it.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Well, I mean, first off, to be fair, you can't pin egg prices going up 53%. It's the avian flu or whatever it is. But if you look at, if you dig in, inflation is sort of a crude number because there's core inflation.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And if you really get to the nut of it, the thing that drove a lot of this kind of uncomfortable number, and it's probably the reason why the Fed is now pulling back on what they thought were going to be rate or the market thought anticipated to be rate cuts, is is shelter. Housing costs, including hotel and motel rooms, rose 0.4% last month.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And I've always thought that... And the Democrats need to get off their heels in whining and bitching and being outraged and get onto their toes and start proposing some really dramatic, forward-looking... Because I think one of the reasons we lost CARA was that we were seen as a party of the past and everything's fine and let's hold on to our tradition. Yeah.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I don't read anything you sent me.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It takes too much time, and it's usually exceptionally—it's like 140— Well, you're articulating exactly what that piece said, but go ahead. 140 pace smeared over very woke toes.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
140 IQ. It's very smart woke.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Anyways, so I do want to listen to that podcast here with the three economists. But anyways— Yes. The really exciting thing would be, all right, how do we implement a CHIPS-like act for housing?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Because if you unleash the real economy, there's a lot of great housing builders out there, Pulte, you know, there's a ton of... And say to them, all right, I don't know if it's 3%, 5%, 10% tax subsidy, and also make it more difficult... for residents to sequester new housing permits.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
One of the biggest tragedies in American history, I believe, was we took housing permits out of the hands of, actually, the bureaucrats were trying to fire, and we put it into the hands of housing owners, who all of a sudden decided, if I own a house, I don't want any more new houses built.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
But a dramatic—I would love the Democrats to propose a dramatic increase of tax subsidy, whatever it might be, that increases housing supply well beyond its current demand and says, within the next 10 years, we're going to bring housing prices down dramatically.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It has such a huge psychological impact on our youth because—and not only that, housing formation. I don't know about you, but when I— When I was younger and trying to figure out a way not to get married, I said, okay, let's get a dog. And then I was like, okay, let's get a house. And when you get a house, it's really a commitment to each other and you start saving.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It's a great means of creating more cementing of a bond with somebody.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Let me think. No. Okay. My housing strategy is very straightforward. It's a 0.1% strategy. Wealthy people are the most homogenous, boring people in the world. And that is, I'm convinced, essentially income inequality is only going to get worse. And the 0.1% are incredibly boring. They all wear Hermes ties, they party in St.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Barts, they drive Range Rovers, and they want to live in one of six or seven places.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Invest what you know and boner pills and two-headed glass dildos. I'm still looking for an investment there. Anyways, but back to real estate. The 0.1 percent all want to live in Dubai, London, New York, Palm Beach, Aspen, certain parts of LA, and then there's maybe two or three close seconds, and they're all crowding into a small number. Of homes.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And in addition, the secondary benefit is I want to make it such that my boys can't avoid me. It's like, well, we can go to Tijuana and eat cheap lobster. We could go hang out at my dad's place where we have to have lunch with them. Anyways, I don't know how we got here. But Trump, the Democrats need a housing act.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Well, my heart says yes, but my brain says based on all previous track records.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
If he can be found liable by a jury of his peers selected by both his defense and the prosecution and be found liable of sexual abuse, I'm not sure inflation is going to stick to him. So I would think, but what I probably know or what I feel is yes, what I know based on fact patterns is no.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
So this is what we have. We have ChatGPT and a fake economist in a book that didn't sell dictating the economic policies of the largest economy in America.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
My view is the following, is that if someone is screaming nonsense at you and threatening you all the time, it is impossible to predict What is going to happen tomorrow with this guy? So quite frankly, what do you do? I think you just you keep calm and carry on. And that is you don't change your plans. You know, you may be quite frankly diversify a little bit from this is so hard to predict.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
And my feeling is when you don't know who you're waking up next to the next morning, you just carry on with your life.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Oh, no. Well, from an investor standpoint, we talked about this last week. I won't give it financial advice. I'll just tell you what I've been doing for the last five months. Not because I have insight into Donald Trump's mind, but the trade that has paid off for the last 15 years is just put more money into U.S. growth stocks. Everything is cyclical. I think that run is coming to an end.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
When Apple trades at a P.E. of 36 and it's not growing and you can buy good companies for 12, a P.E. of 12, I'm diversifying into non-U.S. markets. So that's what I would do as an investor. I would say, OK, if you're in the S&P and you think you're diversified, you're not. You need to diversify geographically.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
What series of bad decisions led me to this? I love that photo. I saw that and I immediately said, by the way, that costs real money because some fucking Getty photographer took it. So I had to pay some, I don't know, Joey Bagadona's tech company $350 to get that image.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Jesus Christ. Well, okay. So this goes to moral. I have been so disappointed that all of these Fortune 500 CEOs who wake up in the morning and look at themselves in the mirror and say, hello, Mr. President. I bet two to 300 CEOs of Fortune 500 companies think in the back of their mind they could be president.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Well, I think most of them think there's an outside shot.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
You tell a 58-year-old man who is very talented and has been successful his whole life, which you have to be to become the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, that you should be president. He's inclined to believe you.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
for fear that it's going to take their stock price down.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
This guy out of the autocrat handbook is basically saying, if you go against me, I'm going to target your company specifically, which is straight out of the autocratic handbook. And so what the CEOs who are just focused on short-term shareholder value are doing are like saying, oh, you're a great guy. You want to see who's going to get exemptions from the tariffs, what companies?
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Just look at his lunch calendar.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
The definition of stupid is things that hurt other people while hurting yourself. There aren't a lot of winners here. If there is a long-term, a medium and a long-term winner, simply put, it's China. By the way, everyone acts... They say we could wreck China's economy. To be fair, China's economy is vulnerable right now. It will definitely hurt them.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
And by the way, the percentage of trade of exports coming into America... as a percentage of their total has gone down seven percentage points since the first Trump administration. And our exports into them have gone down four. So we're both less reliant on each other because we're not getting along. But be clear, they've diversified away from us more.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
In addition, there's a couple of things that put them in a power position. And we don't like to admit this. Americans are wimps when it comes to enduring pain. The Chinese, and especially the Russians, are a little bit more resilient. They're willing to take pain.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
If all of a sudden, if 77% of toys under the Christmas tree are from China, if these tariffs go through, which they won't, he will blink yet again, but if they were to go through, 90% of Americans on our fixed budget, if the price of toys doubles, that means instead of 10 gifts under the Christmas tree, you're going to have six. That means your iPhone's going to go from...
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
I think that perfectly summarizes our relationship. I love that photo.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
I believe we're just more dependent on them than they are on us.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
He blinked on TikTok. He blinked on this. But By the way, these tariffs, these tariffs are not going to go through. There's no fucking way Americans are going to pay $2,300 for their iPhone.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Huh? Huh? That's right. That's right.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
There you go. I'm going to be buried with this. Forever is not long at your age.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
It was so thoughtful of a picture of you.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Oh, thanks. You were the thing that tipped us over. I had all these pictures of me, and I'm like, it's like, The book is called Notes on Being a Man, and I'm like, I'm not comfortable presenting myself as, you know, the aspirational man because it's just not true. But I like the more feminine writing, like notes and everything.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
I'm fairly confident there will be no tariff on Apple products. One, I think he's going to blink around these tariffs to begin with with China when the market tells him what you've just outlined, that we're not as strong as we think relative to China, too. Tim Cook is the business person that Donald Trump thinks he is. And that is, Tim will be smart. He'll go there. He'll kiss his ass.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
And also, if you want to talk about a cult, the cult of IOS, First off, the insane notion that we want to bring these jobs back, Dave Chappelle summarized it perfectly. We want to wear Nikes, we don't want to make them. The average wage of an assembly line worker entry-level in China in an Apple factory is $500 a month. We want to bring those jobs back to America.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
You wanna enrage a cult, take iPhones to 3,500 bucks, and then you're gonna see the largest, the most valuable company in history, an American company, lose the value of the German GDP over the course of a year. You're gonna take, push back people's retirements. Apple's gonna have to withdraw all sorts of growth plans.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
And you wanna piss off every millennial and Gen X in the world, take their iPhones to 3,500 bucks. Apple is not going to have any tariffs here. Having said that, what is Apple doing? And they've been doing it for a while. They're trying to diversify their supply chain out of China for a number of reasons. And by the way, you're talking about analyst Dan Ives.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Just to get 10% out of China takes three years and costs $40 billion.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
So this notion that I am fairly confident, folks, you're going to be able to have your iPhone at the same price as now. Because one, I think these China tariffs will not last because this is what she this is how she thinks of Trump right now. The same way Logan Roy feels about his children in succession. You are not serious people. She looks at Trump and he's like, you are not serious, people.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
We are not backing down. We didn't back down on TikTok. All these extensions are serious. Now we're going to we're going to ban you unless you sell to Larry Ellison and Elon Musk. They're like, OK, hold my fucking beer. That's what they're saying now. OK, you want to tariff us this? We'll respond with the same tariffs. It'll hurt us both. They will back down. He will blink yet again on China.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
And even if there are tariffs on China, he will come up with a reason not to inflame a cult that is even stronger than the MAGA cult, and that's the iOS cult. And Tim Cook will go back, go down to Mar-a-Lago, tell him he's a genius, show him a new iPhone with his picture on it with golden crusted leafed picture, silhouette of Donald Trump, and he will find an exemption for Apple.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
The idea that the iPhones are going to go to $2,200, much less $3,500, or that we're going to bring back those millions of jobs of people screwing in little things.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Apple is the most valuable company in the world, or was. It briefly went to number two. I think it's back to number one. We have hundreds of, or they have hundreds of thousands of people working in their supply chain and factories in Foxconn and in China. Those people make between $500, between kind of 20,000 and $40,000 a year. We've outsourced those jobs to China.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Probably the most robust supply chain ever on a consumer level in history. Maybe with the exception of the supply chain of the Manhattan Project that was kind of invented overnight and coordinated to create the bomb and save the world. Anyways. We held on. Apple has hundreds of thousands of employees across the West, and here's what they're in design, product management, strategy.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Yeah, but this book isn't about me being the hero. It's mostly about my shortcomings. And it really is kind of it's a lot of data. And it's sort of like where I screwed up and what I learned about trying, you know, trying to lean into this more aspirational vision of masculinity. But I was much more comfortable not having my.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Yeah, that average about $210,000 a year.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
$500 a month, $20,000 a year jobs, such that we would have more money to invest and grow our top line revenues such that we could pay more Americans $200,000 a year. Nike, Nike doesn't want people making two bucks an hour putting together Air Jordans. They want people who understand branding and sports sponsorships and great retail that again, make about, I think, $150,000 to $180,000 a year.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
And if you want to bring back those jobs and pay people minimum wage at some plant in Lansing, Michigan.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Everyone else. They would do better at McDonald's.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
picture on the front because I've decided that publishers pretty much do nothing but argue over the title and the cover. That's their job. They do. But they came up with this, so I got to give it to them. It was their idea, so I was real happy with it.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Yeah, I feel like I said to the publisher, we need to get this out sooner rather than later. And I got done early with it because I think the window of opportunity is closing. I think this notion of masculinity and what it means to be a man and leaning in and trying to create or shape a positive image of masculinity, I'm like, the window is closing. This is the moment. We need to get this out.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
This is perishable. Everyone from Josh Hawley to Tucker Carlson are writing books or talking about masculinity.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
As a matter of fact, speaking of which, you didn't ask why I'm in a suit and a tie.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
You look very nice. Thank you. I appreciate that.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
I appreciate that. Thank you. I'm going on The View to talk about my two topics are masculinity and tariffs. How do you dress to talk about masculinity? Do you look like a professor or do I wear a Tarzan outfit? How do you dress for that? So I just put on a suit.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
I'm literally rocketing out of here. Okay, good.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
And then illegally reward your allies.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Well, I have three, but they're all related. One, blink. This guy will blink again. The Chinese, the tariffs, you know, OK, 90 day pause, more uncertainty, more reduction in the multiple awarded by global investors on every company in the U.S. because we are now Brand America is toxic uncertainty. So this 90-day pause is ridiculous. And then I think we're at 125% tariff on China.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
He will blink again. The tariffs will come dramatically down because, quite frankly, Xi looks at Trump and says, you are not serious people. Folks, this isn't going to happen. The tariffs are going to come down. way down, Trump will blink again. Even more confident, there will be no tariffs, incremental tariffs on Apple products. Tim Cook will play Trump like a fiddle.
Pivot
Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Trump will be scared to piss off the cult of iOS, which is huge in the United States. And he will not want to kneecap our shiniest, brightest, most handsome thoroughbred, and that is Apple. That's not going to happen. In addition, We're going to find out in somewhere between, you know, three years and nine months or sooner that the greatest criminal insider trading took place yesterday.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
There's just no way this administration, who is, one, telling the DOJ to drop all cases against a mayor accused of conspiring with a foreign agent because he supports the administration. Two, that creates a Swiss banking account that you can put money into with no record. Three, tells all, after getting a quarter of a billion dollars from the crypto community, tells everyone investigating
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
platforms in the crypto community for good reason to stop all investigations, to believe that this administration did not leak insider information or engage in massive market manipulation yesterday. We're going to find out that April 9th was literally the biggest grift day in history.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Nothing will happen until January of 2029 if a Democrat is elected. Only if. Only if. But in this economy, in this digital age, there'll be digital records everywhere. They can just go through – they can use AI to go through – Who was buying and selling all of these options 10 minutes before? There's phone records and digital servers everywhere.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
And they're just, I think, going to find dozens, if not hundreds of people who have a connection to the White House, who were given a wink and a nod and made millions of dollars. engaging in market manipulation or trading on non-public material information. This will go down as the biggest grift day in history, Wednesday, April 9th.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
You keep talking about taking me to a movie. I don't really go to many movies anymore. You love Mission Impossible.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
I did. I'm your private dancer. I love that song. A Dancer for Money.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Yeah. Whenever I think of that, I think of Marissa Tomei from the movie The Wrestler. I think I could have ended up with Marissa Tomei.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
She's beautiful. I love her. She's so hot. She's so good. And she's age appropriate for me. Anyway, so.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
Oh, wait. You want to go back to my college story? Someone asked me to personify Duke.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
By the way, did I tell you in the middle, like you're on these tours and in the middle of the U Chicago and Duke tours, I did the same thing with my son. Totally inappropriate. Now he mentions the person giving the tour said, we want to know the real you, DMP word. And someone asks, what's the admissions rate? Okay.
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Trump's Tariff Pause, Apple's Highs and Lows, and Musk v. Navarro
4% at Duke and the University of Chicago, which means that, so everyone is there with their two overprotective parents. Looking around. So if there's 25 people or 75 people on the tour, which is the average size of the tour, one of those people, one of those kids is getting in. So I said to my son, as soon as they said 4%, I said, let's leave the tour. And he said, why?
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And I said, let's break up with this bitch before she breaks up with us. Yes. And he looked at me and he knew exactly what I meant. And we peaced out and we went and checked out the stadiums and went and got food. But I'm like, it is so insane. Anyways, back to Duke. They're down to 4%. Duke will produce, Duke is the new Harvard.
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Duke will produce more presidents in the next 50 years than Harvard because presidents are one of two things. They're either really fucking impressive or ridiculously rich. Obama, Clinton, the former, you know, Trump, W, although I think W is actually a decent man. They're really rich. And Duke has more really freakishly impressive and really rich people than any university right now. All right.
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Why do we want to put, why would you want to do, that's like, that's like me. It's like the Hunger Games. That's like me at a bar with hot people. It's just not going to happen. It's just not going to happen. I mean, have at it. If there was Common App in a bar, I'd be all over it. But, you know, not going to happen.
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Journalism? Yes. Beautiful campus.
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Yeah, and by the way, on anything geopolitics, you know, go with Ian's view. He's very bright.
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Today's show was produced by Larry Neiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Nurtad engineered this episode. Jim Mackle edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Brose, Mia Severo, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kerouat is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Kara, the market is down. 1,100 points. Toxic uncertainty. Welcome to the Trump administration.
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I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money.
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And I turn on the camera and I think, oh, my God, she's finally done it. She's gone through transition. I'm like, it's 62, you be you. But it was your brother. It was Jeffrey Swisher. It was my brother.
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A decent term for this president would be President Blank. And he blinked on TikTok. He blinked on this. And a friend of mine, Justin, who's the chief investment officer of Millennium, which is one of the most successful funds in history, I had dinner with him Thursday night. And I asked him about this and he said, oh, yeah, no, he's going to blink. The adult in the room here is the 10-year.
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And the adult said, get your head out of your ass. And he was thinking that all of these nations... would acquiesce to the biggest customer in the world. And of course, they didn't. They all imposed reciprocal tariffs. So you think, oh, this is going to hurt Mexico. Sure, it'll hurt Mexico. They implement reciprocal tariffs, which makes goods brought in, imported from America, more expensive.
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What Donald Trump decided to do or tried to do was declare war on everyone all at once, meaning our entire, entire import economy goes up in price for Americans. The markets responded. I mean, quite frankly, that interview on CNBC just did not do her job. She was like, isn't this great? The markets are up. No, even after the rip up yesterday, the markets gave up seven months of incredible gains.
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In three days, Apple lost the value of Walmart. And unfortunately, the market doesn't appear to have knee pads and just wanna like blow this guy. We are in, at some point people are gonna realize We are in a car with a guy who's got his hands on the wheel who is blackout fucking drunk.
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And the only person in the car saying, hey, maybe you should pull over or let someone else drive is the 10-year bond in the markets.
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Credit cards. student loan debt payments, mortgages, the cost to borrow money and build another plant or hire more people. So you build fewer plants and hire fewer people. The cost of everything goes up. And when yields go up, people say, well, why wouldn't I just invest in the credit markets instead of the stock markets? And the stock market also goes down.
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So one of the many reasons for our incredible prosperity is America as a whole has access to cheaper credit. We can borrow money less to make forward-leaning investments in any country in the world. And when it spikes, it's basically saying, people are saying, you need to give us more because you become a riskier bet. And unfortunately, we talk a lot about toxic masculinity.
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The thing that's hurting America most right now is toxic uncertainty. And that is, while he pulled the knife out of the back halfway yesterday by saying there was a pause, because he blinked, let's be clear, the wound is going to take years to heal. Because what's happening right now is the entire world is reconfiguring their supply chain. around America. They don't want to use our services.
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They don't want to use our manufacturing. And initially he thought, okay, I'm going to accomplish a few things. I'm going to bring jobs back to the US. I'm going to reshape global trade. I'm going to raise a bunch of revenues. None of that has happened. None of that has happened. None of that is going to happen. And by the way, he's blinked. And he said, no, just kidding.
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There's almost nothing I can say that works.
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In addition, just to go to the comment about the rip-up here, and you sent me a text on this, and I literally had just threaded something. Yesterday, April 9th, we'll go down in history. is the day where more insider trading took place than any day in history. I've been trying to figure out how to play this market.
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And the only thing I can figure out is the volatility is quite frankly, and I don't do this at home. I have the money to do this. Most people don't. And I do it at a small extent. And I imagine a worst case scenario because it is a risky strategy. But the way I've been playing it is I sell options because the VIX has gone way up. So the price... People have to pay you to write them an option.
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A call or a put goes up. So I've been writing calls. Now, yesterday, I follow Apple. The calls at 200, right? We're trading at 40 cents because the stock was at like 170. The options in Apple went fucking crazy yesterday. about 10 minutes before its announcement. So somebody knew.
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And if you were like me and you were writing a call, I didn't do this, but if you wrote a call, someone had to pay you 40 cents because you sold it cheaply because it was way out of the money. Five minutes later, that call was worth $4. Just that one strip of options, someone made and lost a third of a billion dollars. And how did all of these people know about this before?
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So is it fair to speculate? I'm not accusing, I'm speculating. Well, when you have a guy that sets up a Swiss banking account in the form of a meme coin where anyone can put money in, I mean, this administration has just shown such a lack of-
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I would love to see. Or he just calls his biggest donors and goes, wink, wink, by the way, I just get the sense the market's going to go up today. I just get the sense. I'm reconsidering tariffs. And it's not hard to realize the market's going to rip up.
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Well, I can tell you what companies, non-U.S. companies are doing. They're rerouting their business plans and their supply chain and excising American vendors, manufacturers out of their supply chain.
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That will take years to repair. To give you a sense, the two stories that illuminate just how, what a clown car our economic policymakers are right now, is that one, it appears these strange tariffs that he initially thought he would impose on every country in the world, he declared were on everyone but once.
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So it goes back to the Winston Churchill quote, and he's credited with this, but supposedly it was Victor Hugo that said it first. There's only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them. He's decided to fight the world without his allies.
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Is that all those ridiculous numbers around tariffs that we couldn't figure it out, it ends up that somebody fed it into ChatGPT, and the exact number is fed back. So they're using ChatGPT to figure out economic policy. And then my favorite is the guy who has been the whisperer, the tariff whisperer, is Peter Navarro, a senior policy and economic advisor.
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And it ends up that the book that Jared Kushner found, Death by China, by Peter Navarro, that supposedly is the Bible for this tariff strategy, cites this economist and all his policies. And it ends up the economist is fake. This person doesn't exist.
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The politicization is just... It happens right away.
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What's happening at CES?
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So did I. No, I've only been once. Oh, really? Yeah. And the highlight was I saw Casey and the Sunshine Band at one of their parties. I found CES just remarkably uninspiring. It just didn't do anything for me.
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When I was running L2 and we would put out research reports on, you know, we were a business intelligence firm and we started out with luxury brands. Sure. And we used to collect just 1,200 data points across social, mobile, digital marketing, and we'd put out these reports saying, our digital IQ report on European luxury brands.
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And we would look for, I loved picking out this great imagery and I'd find a great image of Sophia Loren or Gina Lola Brigida or something really interesting. And I would have to pay Getty 1200 bucks to license this image. I mean, this stuff, it was a very lucrative business. And similar, the analog here is Netflix has essentially come in
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and been so disruptive that everyone else is having to bulk up and consolidate and cut costs. The equivalent here of Netflix is OpenAI and Sora, in my view. My son convinced me to upgrade to the premier, whatever it is, OpenAI subscription plan that includes Sora. I was playing with Sora yesterday,
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And I thought if I was still running L2, I would be prompting the shit out of things to get interesting coverage using Sora and also mid-journey. And so the means of production, the protection, the barriers of entry around IP, these walls are falling. And these guys absolutely... need to consolidate and you're going to see fairly significant layoffs.
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You're going to see they're going to continue to aggressively sue, but I wouldn't be surprised also for the next 12-24 months, 100 percent, one of the bigger, My bet is anthropic. Somebody comes in and takes them out in exchange for using that data. Adobe has Firefly and one of the things about Firefly, this image repository is they've said everything here has been paid for.
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A means of trying to get any advantage in what is the category that is If Anthropa can develop any sort of edge, it's probably worth the $8 or $12 billion they'd have to pay for this thing. I think this is step one to this combined company. They will let them do the dirty work of cutting costs and laying off 30, 40, 70 percent of their employees.
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right-sizing it, getting it much more profitable again, and then I think you're going to see an AI company in 26 coming in and purchase it.
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They look computer generated, but they'll get better. Yeah.
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I am in New York. I'm on my PRP shots this morning, and then I went to my dermatologist.
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The keys to a thriving democracy are threefold. You have to have strong institutions that people respect. You have to have shared stories that we're the good guys and we won World War II for the right reasons and Americans' hearts are in the right place and believe in the founding fathers and the rights of people.
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And you also have to have kind of a lot of social capital within smaller networks, whether it's your church or your neighbors, or maybe you served, you know, how you feel about people who also served in the Marines or whatever it might be. And slowly but surely, social media is eroding all of those things.
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PRP is they take your blood, they spin it, and then they take, I think, the platelets and inject it back in whatever joints are hurting, which is... What? Yeah, no, it's actually quite effective. So my shoulders have been hurting. I've been injury-free for most of my life, and my shoulders have been hurting, and I've been doing these PRP injections, and they work.
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And this is just another example of how those three things will continue to come down and be eroded. You have somewhere between a half and two thirds of Americans, depending on their age, now get their news from social media. And today when I was on Morning Joe, I called Trump an insurrectionist and a rapist. And Mika had to stop the show and say that Trump was found liable for sexual abuse.
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Now, imagine in contrast what you're going to be able to say about anything, health, elections, what you should do when a fire breaks out in the Pacific Palisades on Trump. I mean, we are all going into, we are all separating further and further. And to think that this doesn't have not only implications around candidates or politics, but violence. Look what happened in 2017.
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There was violence against the Rohingya. Myanmar. And a year later, there were rumors circulated on WhatsApp, unfettered, and people were being pulled out of cars in small towns in India and hanged because of rumors around kidnappings. I mean, remember Pizzagate? That started on social media. So four years ago, he called it moderation. Now they call it censorship. And I got to give it to the guy.
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I do think he's a brilliant businessman. He said, okay. This guy has threatened to put me in jail. I'm going to turn chicken shit and turn it into chicken salad and come up with a way to please him and potentially reduce up to $5 billion of costs in the safety and security team. The move to Texas is actually not political.
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It's a means of quiet firing 30% to 60% of the staff because they won't move. And if you take, say he saves three or four of that $5 billion, it trades at a P of 30%. 30 times $4 billion, $120 billion, he owns 50. He just made another $18 billion while managing to kiss Mark Zuckerberg's ass. No, Donald Trump's ass. I'm sorry, excuse me, while managing to kiss even more.
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No one wants to kiss Mark Zuckerberg's ass, but go ahead. And just a larger point here, and the point I made on Joe Scarborough as I've broken my indignant self, preachy self, my question is the following. Where are the fucking men? Where are the men that recognize, okay, I've made tens of billions of dollars here. I lead a remarkable life. My kids have incredible opportunity.
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I have a broader selection set of mates than I deserve. People laugh at my jokes.
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I'm going to live five or 10 years longer than most people. I get to do remarkable things because of this operating system called America and the blessings of America. And yet I have abso-fucking-lutely no fidelity to those values. What is the point of having this much money and this much power if you have to bend the knee to a kleptocrat?
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I went to my dermatologist where they literally, all he does is look at everything on my body and go, yep, that's got to come off. Yeah. And then occasionally it goes, well, we should just, just in case, we should probably take this off. I come out of my dermatologist seven, eight pounds lighter.
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Well, I feel a need to just fact-check myself and disclose that on the international markets around meta, I do believe they're going to maintain some fact-checking and safety and security, because I do recognize that there's real danger overseas for people. I mean, this has so many negative ramifications, one of which being that News Corp, when they say Smartmatic and Dominion
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have been weaponized in an election and they knew that was not true and decided to put it out anyways or promote it because they knew it would tickle the sensors of their viewers. Then Dominion says, you have defamed us because this has hurt our business and you knew you were lying. The courts say, yes, this qualifies as defamation. You have to pay them $774 million.
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And then Iger's worried about a suit from the president, retribution from the president, and ABC has to pay. The companies that are now having to spend a ton of money on moderation and are chilled and scared and have to stop an interview with me because I call someone a rapist instead of a sexual abuser, Folks, be careful, slow your roll.
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Everyone from News Corp, from the Wall Street Journal, to the BBC, to Wikipedia, to the Washington Post, they're all shrinking and going away. And there's been all these articles recently about some anchors, including anchors we know and love, having to take pay cuts. So congratulations, your lamestream media is going extinct.
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And you're gonna have to get all of your news from social media, which is a fucking food fight around whichever algorithm grabs the most novel, i.e. conspiracy, i.e. false narrative to punch out there. I mean, these traditional media outlets do play an important role and they are having, their windpipes are being crushed right now. They can't compete with companies that are have no liability.
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You don't have to cover it up.
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It's a great business model, folks. And the fact that I could go on Meta and say incredibly defamatory things about people with fake accounts and say ridiculous things about health claims or whatever it might be, and the more ridiculous it is, the more inorganic reach it gets, because the algorithms love it. I mean, we are literally moving to an idiocracy.
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And the companies that we're serving at that played a key role, whether you think it's News Corp, whether you think it's Comcast, they are having the oxygen sucked out of the room.
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From a shareholder standpoint, I hate to say this, Cara, it's absolutely the right move. And did you see the words on his video?
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It said the words were, it was like, oh my God, these guys are so good and so mendacious. It was more speech and fewer mistakes. Oh, right. Is the way they framed this video. No, it's not. It's less moderation, more misinformation. That would have been the title of this video.
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No, but as I'm getting older, everything's growing. The weird thing is you start thinking, what's growing on the inside? But yeah, and I got Botox. I'm actually crying right now. You just can't tell.
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Well, it's interesting. Blue skies supposedly raising money at a valuation of 600 million. They are. I merely thought, Jesus Christ. Now, I got off of Twitter. Now am I going to have to get off of threads and Instagram? I mean, at some point, do we have to get off those platforms? Blue Sky is raising money. It's growing. It's user-based by a million people a day.
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Yeah, I get Botox.
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I thought, wow, that seemed pretty inexpensive. But this is, I don't know. I'm kind of befuddled as to what's going to happen. It feels like any real source of information that doesn't, I mean, there's so many layers here. Quite frankly, I'm so pissed off that because we have a guy who looks like he's about to go into hospice as president, Trump and Musk are president.
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Because I'm a narcissist.
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We can't even maintain any semblance of a media presence because the people around Biden aren't confident enough to put him on stage in front of a place where he might actually have to answer questions. So President-elect Trump is basically President Trump. And they're already making public policy speeches. Elon Musk has more power than President Biden right now.
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And all President Biden can do is have a highly scripted moment where he wraps a medal around Bono. I mean, this is it is I have never.
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Yay. Yay. And meanwhile, everybody. And then we talk and then Trump gets on and starts talking about invading Greenland. And we all look over there. It is it is just insane that we have we don't have the leadership. And we don't have the balls or the charisma to get out there and push back on the narrative here. Where are the fucking Democrats here?
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I'm laughing.
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Elon and President-elect Trump are dominating the media landscape right now.
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I'm laughing right now. I'm horrified.
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It was actually pretty interesting. The kind of music, the sound drums I found really interesting. I found it. What?
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Well, look, Panama, the Panama Canal, it's a small business. It's strategically and militarily quite benign. You know, it's been kept open. It hasn't been politicized. And the total business of the Panama Canal, it made about $5 billion. It's just not... Quite frankly, unless it was threatened, it's not that strategically important. It serves its purpose, but it's not a big business.
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No. The guy's going to call me and get all pissed off that I didn't describe it correctly, but they have these sound drums or buckets and then he sings with it. I thought it was quite nice. I don't know. Shit, I don't know. Anyone who will hang out with me and I pay them, I'm down with.
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It doesn't have a lot of economic value. Greenland is an entirely different matter because of global warming and the fact that so much of the ice and the polar cap has melted. Did you ever see those shows? There was an amazing show, I think it was called The Terror by Ridley Scott about some British explorers who tried to find the passage across. I forget what it's called.
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The Northwest Passage, right? Well, Russia's lost access to a warm water port with Syria. But if all of a sudden the polar cap melts, a bunch of different countries are going to have access to everybody else for their Navy.
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And so that is strategic. Greenland is strategic. Everyone talks about, in terms of scenario planning around World War III, that Greenland would play an incredibly important role in terms of refueling bombers and submarines. So that is strategic. But what I don't get is when you start...
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On a more meta level, what you don't realize or what we don't realize or what I would say Trump doesn't realize, as powerful as we are, we're about a third of the world's economy. And without allies, we haven't accomplished anything on our own. Greatness is in the agency of others. If you want to expel...
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Hussein from Kuwait, if you want to take on Nazi Germany, if you want to implement sanctions, you have to have the cooperation of your allies. And every president has understood that until this one. So when he starts saying dumb shit like we're going to rename it the Gulf of America or starts threatening places like Greenland, all he's doing is saying, you know what?
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we're gonna have fewer and fewer allies around the world. And at some point, he's going to need allies. When, you know, if China goes into Taiwan and we wanna expel them and we wanna do it crisply, he's going to need Japanese intelligence. He's gonna need South Korean reconnaissance. And these people are going to go, we don't trust this guy.
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They're going to start coming up with contingency plans to form alliances against him. Now, having said that, there is an unintended consequential benefit here, and that is most Western nations now are massively increasing their military budgets because they don't feel they can count on the military umbrella. Defense stocks are rising. Yeah. That's right.
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Because everyone from Germany, you know, these places are all saying, we've got to take our military budgets up. Having said that, that is probably a good thing because they were too reliant on Big Brother, who is benign Big Brother. And now they're like, Big Brother's fucking crazy and is addicted to meth. We don't know what is going on with this guy.
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So there are so many different—I had Ian Bremmer on the pod yesterday. There are just so many different layers to this. We are in uncharted territory with a guy who pops up and says, we want Greenland. I mean, that's where you're focused? Right.
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Why don't you just say, we think- But just buy, but we're just, we buy them right now. It'd be a lot less expensive to continue to buy them than try and take over green.
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I mean, I don't, Advil, I don't invade the 7-Eleven.
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With my breathwork guy.
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We're the least scary duo. I'm like, let me put this drum on your chest. Lie back. I'm going to get a Slurpee. I'm going to get a Slurpee and a four-day-old hot dog, and we're going to do some sound work here.
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What did I learn? I learned that I have too much money and I'm affected.
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Yeah, but it's just such a lack of respect for people. You're an unelected rich kid's son who's, all right, and you show up in some sort of like... militant, faux government. You make us look like such assholes.
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And that I'm spending money on sound drums.
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Keir Starmer, yeah.
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I guess it's supposed to be therapeutic. And what I will say is at one moment, he does something with the sound drum to create some vibration and then he put it on my chest. And I did go into sort of, have you ever done acupuncture?
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The honest answer is I don't know. I'm in a bubble here, but occasionally my bubble at least is somewhat translucent. I can see out of it every once in a while. In London, I'm in a bubble that's totally opaque and I just don't feel qualified to.
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The only thing I would say is just looking at it from a game theory standpoint, at some point, these Western nations are going to get together and say, we need contingency plans where we don't necessarily rely on America. And it's dangerous for us because what people don't realize and they take for granted is the North American treaty over NATO has probably been the most important alliance.
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It has kept the peace since the end of World War II. The fact you attack one, you attack all of us. And together, you've seen this happen in repelling what was supposed to be this ferocious force in Ukraine because NATO and Europe and the US rallied around it. I think the reason that Xi has decided not to come into Taiwan is he's probably saying, okay, if the West
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binds together under the auspices of the West in cooperation. You know, we always, we're like siblings. We fight, but when shit gets real, we have each other's back in the West. And I worry that's no longer going to be the case.
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I worry that we're going to be divided because the biggest brother with the best job who has the most money and is, quite frankly, the strongest is just unreliable, has just gone off, is just kind of we don't know how to deal with this person. This is a huge security risk for us because I think a lot of nations will notice and think this is the time to strike.
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They're divided, they'll argue over it. We have conservative commentators who seem to be more fond of Russia. I mean, at some point, I can see certain conservative commentators, if she were to go into Taiwan thinking, yeah, that's what a real man does.
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What I'm hoping for is, and I think there's a little bit of this across Europe or when I speak a lot in Europe, what I sense is they're thinking, okay, we just got to get through the next couple of years. He's getting older. And things will calm down again. I think people, what's interesting, and I was talking to people in Brazil, they give America the benefit of the doubt.
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They seem in some ways less freaked out than we are because they think American institutions are so strong.
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Well, Elon is just a different, I don't know. It's so hard. There's so many moving parts here. They're so unpredictable. And it's not, I don't, I find myself almost sort of like resigned to like, okay, I'll just see what happens tomorrow because I don't know how to process this.
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And you know, the thing I love about acupuncture is you know that when they leave after the needles are in, that sort of conscious, subconscious sleep or relaxation? I don't think there's anything like that. I think it's really restorative.
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Yeah, catch the car.
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Yeah. So I had that kind of sleep or relaxation for five or 10 minutes, but I was just open to it. And this guy seemed lovely and really into it and really wanted to do it. And so I was, you know, why not? Should I try anything at this point? So what's our next move? Tomorrow I'm doing my, I get my teeth cleaned every three months because I have terrible dental hygiene. So I try and compensate.
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Yeah, look, I do think in podcasting there is, it's become sort of the, I don't know, it's the new lamestream media in the sense that it reflects some of the same dynamics of media. It's ad supported, there's fact checking, there is, as you said, we're liable, we're legally liable.
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If we say something false, we know it's false and it defames or slanders someone or something and it's malicious, we can incur economic harm and we have to pay for insurance. So it is similar to media that way. Also, the most popular podcasts over the last several years in news has been The Daily from The New York Times.
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There is a lot of conservative, I think it bifurcates, and that is, I think a lot of podcasts are not news, they're commentators. and people have to decide whether they find it entertaining or interesting. I think the key to trust is checking several outlets from kind of different angles.
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Like go to the FT, go to the BBC, and then check it against something more conservative, the Wall Street Journal, whatever it might be. But there is no, it used to be, I didn't get nearly as many questions around who can I trust? It's become a big issue. There are now, I think the podcasts that are sort of rising to the top are one of two things. They're either incredibly entertaining
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Or people think if I'm going to listen to the Daily, it has a bias. It's the New York Times. I hated the New York. I hated, absolutely hated the interview with Anthony Blinken. I thought the reporter that did that brought so much bias in her, the way she framed her questions.
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Having said that, they do fact check. They take it very seriously. And, you know, it's a word salad for saying I don't know.
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I literally walk in and I'm like, don't give me floss. Don't give me a new toothbrush. I brush my teeth once a day. I have shitty teeth. I see you every three months. I don't want to lecture. And I also tell them, and by the way, I love nitrous. I just sit back, I play 80s music, and I let them go at it. I do it every three months.
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Well, okay. So collectively, we're disappointed in the lack of leadership, spine, testicles, manhood that is being represented by our tech leaders, not standing up for the American values they've benefited so greatly from. Having said that, just looking at it very unemotionally, the AI company of 2025 is it's going to be Meta.
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If you look at the kind of grist or the fossil fuel for AI, it's raw training data. Meta has more unique human language data than Google, Reddit, Wikipedia, and X combined because of the amount of time and content on it. In terms of attention, nine out of 10 Internet users, sans China, are active on Meta platforms monthly.
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And in terms of compute, get this, Meta has purchased more NVIDIA Hopper GPUs, the latest and most advanced AI hardware, than any U.S. company other than Microsoft, giving it unmatched AI training and deployment capacity. And you're also going to love this one. And I just want to acknowledge this.
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While we were early, and I think right, mixed around VR headsets, you know what the tech product of 2025 is? No, what is it? Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses. They're sold out in the majority of stores in Europe. They have greater margins. They retail for 300 bucks. They look good. The Financial Times reported that Meta plans to add a small display to the Ray-Bans in 2025.
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The display would likely be used to show notifications or responses for Meta's virtual assistant. the tens of billions of dollars of investing and the steadfast commitment he's had to technology, micro cameras, and VR.
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When you match their data, when you match their consumer interface, when you match their GPUs that they're purchasing, and you match their progress in smart glasses or hardware, I think that the AI company of 2025 is going to be meta. I think this guy is really fucking smart.
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Well, that's what they do, but... I just look at the data. I look at the investment he's making.
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The data they have, the money he's spending on GPUs, and the access, the consumer access they have. And I just thought, oh my gosh, this guy is playing chess. Anyways, that's my prediction. Do you have any?
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Anyways, when I'm in New York, I do all of my acupuncture, chiropractic.
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As it moves forward. I want to run the style section. Can I run the fashion section or the style section?
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No, I'll do the movie reviews.
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I'll do the TV reviews.
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I like it. I'm on board then. I hope it works out for you. It's a great idea.
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I'm in for $30,000. Okay.
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Yeah. His and my back and forth actually got quite salty over Israel, but we're friends. He and I have a similar relationship to you and that is we can disagree and still like each other. But I'm a big fan. He's my Alec Baldwin. Alec Baldwin has hosted SNL 17 times and Ian has now been on Prop G eight times.
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It's a little hot. I don't know what that means.
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Does it involve a strap-on? Where's the battery going, the parian thruster?
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Andretat engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Emile Saverio, and Dan Shulan. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
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How's Senator Kate? What did she say?
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I don't know. She's like the biggest balls in Minnesota.
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Don't hold your breath. No, but I mean, more power to her.
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And she's a fairly young senator at 81 or 82. She's one of the younger Democrats.
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Yeah, we play by the rules and we take the moral high ground and then get our asses kicked. Yay for us.
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Yeah. Yeah, I know. I know. By the way, I don't think I've been as angry as I've been in a while until that fucking asshole decided not to shake the vice president's hand. Did you see that bullshit?
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Yeah, I got that sense too.
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Wife being embarrassed is somewhat redundant. So let's just focus on him. Like, why? You're in the rotunda. Your wife's being sworn in. I saw that, and I thought, am I missing something here? Anyway.
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Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
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Identity politics. The two women. I don't even see gender, Kara.
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You enjoyed it.
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My three favorite comedians, and I think comedians play a huge role in our society, Ricky Gervais, Michelle Wolf, and Bill Maher. I think all three of them are just incredible thinkers that really make you think about, they're not only funny, but super intelligent.
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Fantastic, yeah.
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We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
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We should come back to this, but I never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity to talk about something totally unrelated. Okay. The top three reasons why women are attracted to men. Oh, no. Do you know what they are?
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Is this a joke that you stole from me? I'm asking you guys. No, this isn't a joke. Okay. Breath work. Good breath work. Go ahead. She gives mean breath work. Number 3 is kindness. Actually, being nice to your parents, women want someone who is kind and reflects goodwill towards strangers without any reciprocal expectation because they think this person will, if things don't go well, treat me well.
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Number one is that they need to signal resources, either having a lot of resources now or have their act together.
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It's not my favorite. It's science. Okay. It's my favorite fact. And then they have to have a plan and their act together such that they show that they at some point might be able to provide for them and their families and protect their young. The number two, though, the second most important is intellect.
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People who are funny are either, you know, some about 20 or 30% of them are just so outrageous and crazy, but that doesn't last very long. 70, 80% of people who are really funny are high IQ. Oh, interesting.
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Anyway, sorry. Back to the fires.
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Especially the Santa Anas ripping through it.
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I went to UCLA and there's a thread or a chat group on WhatsApp of the nine of us who are roommates and who have stayed really close since college. One of my friends, Jeff Browdy, has lost his home. He lives in the Pacific Palisades. All of them have been sending out photos of just stuff burning down that we used to go to. The Palisades Village is gone.
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Maestro, I think it's a restaurant called Maestro, they just keep sending these pictures out. things that have been destroyed and even some videos. It really feels apocalyptic.
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Yeah, the only fire I've ever really experienced was when I was living in Berkeley in the 90s, the Oakland fire.
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And I'm Scott Galloway.
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That was devastating. But the thing that's just bringing back a little bit to technology and the state of our world, the thing I find kind of disappointing is that There's always a move to reckoning and accountability and who's at fault. And the moves keep starting earlier and earlier. And I can't help but go on threads now or Instagram reels, and one side is blaming the Democrats there.
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It's like, and other people are saying, oh, it's climate change. It's like, let's just take a beat and see what we can do to help these people out before we decide who's at fault. That's correct. And what's at fault. There will be plenty of time for that. But right now, let's just try to figure it out again. people out of harm's way and figure out a way if you can be helpful.
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They'll find someone who's like- Oh, I'm not saying you deserve a puff piece.
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Yeah, so my view is that Meta is the AI company actually of 2025. They're the second largest purchaser of NVIDIA GPUs, just behind Microsoft. So they have the most processing power other than Microsoft. In addition, what is underappreciated is Reddit, which is an amazing company and the fifth or sixth most trafficked site in America, generates 1.3 trillion tokens of data.
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And that's really the, you know, that's the, you could argue that's the rare resource here. It doesn't, it doesn't matter how much refining capability you have if you don't have the fossil fuel to put into it or the coal to put into the furnace. And so Reddit has 1.3 trillion tokens of data. And just to give you a sense for just how much data Meta produces, they have 183 trillion tokens of data.
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And I think they made the move. And unfortunately, um, Mark Zuckerberg is as brilliant as he is sociopathic, and I think he decided, okay, the train has left the station around a for-consumer subscription model. So what we're going to do is we're going to make this open source, and we're going to use this the same way we use WhatsApp as a body bag for data to feed our other paid platforms.
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I think that Meta and Lama, and if you look at Lama, Lama's really frightening because it's open source and has absolutely, as far as I can tell, no guardrails. If you go to Lama and say, how to kill your husband slowly, it literally goes, well, what kitchen supplies do you have? How often is he in the house?
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I do the same thing, but I just make sure they're assholes. I'm a big believer in what FDR said, and that is, please judge me by my enemies. I love giving out the names of some people who hate me.
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I give you that. It's got no guardrails. And it'll start helping you do whatever it is you would like to do.
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And he'll get massive traffic. I think he'll make it free. And then he'll use all of that data such that I get served ads for hemorrhoid cream at the exact right moment. I think Meta, I mean, four out of five people who aren't in China are on a Meta platform once a week. He has more data. He's making huge visionary investments with the capital he has.
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I think this guy's right. And I think Meta is the AI company of 25.
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Well, just on a meta level, though, a meta meta level, I now believe that similar to jet transportation technology or the personal computer, I'm not convinced that any one company is going to be able to sequester trillions of dollars in shareholder value. I think the big winners are are going to be open source and the general public.
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I do think that AI is going to make everyone more productive or mostly everyone.
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She interrupts me all the time. Just saying I said that. I said that.
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Yeah, Canadians are dying for our medical care system so they can be more obese, depressed, and anxious and pay more and pay twice, twice as much for their health care and pay eight times what anyone else pays for pharmaceuticals.
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Yeah, they wanted to talk about the people you've nurtured and all that stuff.
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I thought the more insightful and educational clip was how Mark Carney handled the question. And I think anyone who's in communications or anyone who handles, does speech writing or generally just wants a lesson in how you push back forcefully, but in the most dignified way. And you don't antagonize a very sensitive person who's entirely about ego and not about stakeholder value, i.e.
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the president. He, Mark Carney's comments were just such a masterclass in terms of tone of what he said. And he said, well, you know, because he gave him an opening. Trump said, well, I think of it as a real estate deal. And you look at the big, beautiful nation of Canada.
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And let's also play this other clip, which demonstrates the elegant way, forcefully dignified way that Mark Carney dealt with Trump and his ridiculous comments.
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Yes, that's right. Although I was never really in media. No, you weren't. I always say the same thing. I'm like, the most rewarding thing about our relationship is that it is very purposeful and nice to resuscitate someone's flagging career. And that has been very nice for me. I saw that you were struggling.
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And I thought that was such an insightful way to frame it. And he said, and the owners have told me that this piece of real estate is not for sale. And that is such an elegant and noncombative way of saying, yeah, go fuck yourself.
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This is a kleptocracy is you figure out a way to ascertain or usurp or attain power, and then you use that power to make a small group of people very rich who have proximity to you who then give you a vig and everybody else gets less wealthy.
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And that is what is happening across the entire country as we have an individual that is acting like a mob boss who monetizes the United States and the White House. And this is exactly that. This is he has proximity to big tech firms. He wants a he thinks of them as iconic. They give him a lot of money. He calls them and they take their their their tariff pricing down.
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He calls them and they say, oh, we're now in the business business. of quote-unquote free moderation and we call Trump a badass and we give him a million dollars for his inauguration. And okay, so we're going to give them a lead over every other tech or media firm in exchange such that we can call it victory. And small and medium-sized media firms Our shit out of luck.
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It's like, OK, they don't get this special advantage. They don't get this relief. And he can claim victory by. And this the Starlink thing is literally like, OK, this guy put a quarter of a billion dollars into my campaign. And so I am going to force countries. I'm going to mean Buffett said little countries to trade. These types of trade wars are a form or tariffs are a form of warfare.
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So the U.S. is threatening war in exchange. You have to give sweetheart deals, noncompetitive advantage to the companies owned by the guy that gave me a quarter of a billion dollars to my campaign. He's literally. And who does that hurt? It hurts everyone. We're paying unfair taxes, unfair prices.
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And the small and medium-sized businesses in this country who create two-thirds of our jobs and don't have lobbyists and can't get on the lunch calendar of the president and can't donate to his campaign or aren't going to, they lose. Essentially, look at... The biggest kleptocracies in the world, whether Poland was emerging into a kleptocracy, Russia has been a kleptocracy for a long time.
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There are some of the wealthiest people over the last 30 years have been generated in Russia. Meanwhile, there's potholes in Moscow. Senator Warren summarized it perfectly in that she said, OK, they're getting rich. You're losing your health care. That purpose that perfectly describes what happens in a kleptocracy. And this is a kleptocracy.
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If they were to say, fine, no tariffs across, you have to drop your tariffs on all of our media or all of our tech companies and have a systemic law. That's fine. But when the president starts picking winners and losers. Effectively, everyone loses.
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And I thought, okay, if Tina Fey can do this for Alec Baldwin, there's no reason that Scott Galloway can't do it for Kara Swisher.
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Our trade representatives or our commerce secretary will take a group of iconic American companies, but they will also take a representative for small businesses. And they will say, okay, we're here with Boeing, Procter & Gamble, Estee Lauder, North Face, and trade representatives for small and medium-sized businesses and manufacturers.
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And we're here and we go to China and we try and cut a deal and we speak with one voice and talk about... you know, great American companies, but they don't go over and say, oh, by the way, you know, Exxon gave me a shit ton of money. I need you to build an Exxon field here. Then everyone in oil and gas but Exxon loses. And what happens is,
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companies start allocating more and more money to the kleptocrat, which their consumers pay for. And the companies, it creates just an incentive system that's just a downward spiral. And it's a similar incentive system right now, unfortunately, because of Citizens United around companies allocating more and more capital to lobby.
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Success has many fathers and failure is an orphan. I remember working at Levi Strauss and Company in the 90s, and this is the weakest flex in the world, but the fastest zero to billion apparel brand at that point, and then the fastest one after that was Old Navy. But before that, the fastest one. What apparel brand?
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It's literally the lamest apparel brand in history, but it was the fastest zero to a billion apparel brand. And it was owned by Levi Strauss and Company. It wasn't Levi's. Do you know what it was?
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He grows taller, Kara. He grows taller. Look, when we send our young, our daughters and our sons to Serpent Uniform... They leave their families for months at a time. They forego economic opportunity and they put themselves in harm's way and oftentimes come back severely traumatized because they face such intense and incredibly stressful situations.
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And in exchange for that, we have unprecedented ability to deliver violence all over the world that has created prosperity and security for Americans for 250 years. And the reason why the U.S. military is the most impressive organization in the history of the West is because from top to bottom, people take it very seriously.
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And that is they appreciate, even if you're anti-war, anti-military, if you're in a position to help and protect our men in uniform, you do it. And you don't do anything to threaten their safety. And this is especially true.
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No, it was like screaming to the world, don't have sex with me. It was, do you remember Dockers?
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It is very hard to maintain morale if anyone within the organization, whether it's the CIA case officers on the ground feeding them bad information, whether it's the person repairing your plane, trusting they're literally sweating all night that there's not going to be a mechanical failure.
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And the idea that the defense secretary is being reckless with classified information and putting them in harm's, potentially in harm's way, and you may not even know how this manifests. Let's, you know, who should comment on this? Let's use, let's get Pete Hegseth's words on this. In 2016, he said the following when referencing Hillary Clinton storing confidential information on an email server.
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How damaging is it to your ability to recruit or build allies with others when they are worried that our leaders may be exposing them because of their gross negligence, of their recklessness in handling information? He then went on to say, the people we rely on to do dangerous and difficult things for us rely on one thing from us,
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Oh God, don't say that. Jesus, stop. Please make her stop.
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that we will not reveal their identity, that we will not be reckless with the dangerous things that they're doing for us. That's the national security implications of a private server that's unsecured. I mean, this guy, he literally defines hypocrisy. And then he went on to say, if at the very top, there's no accountability, Then there's two tiers of justice, said Hackseth.
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Yeah, yeah, Pete, Secretary Hackseth, there appears to be two tiers of justice here. And this is, you know, the people in the military have one thing in common. They all, the most patriotic people in America Our veterans and anyone who has kids knows why. When you make this type of investment and sacrifice in something, you become invested in its success.
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And that's one of the reasons I think we need mandatory national service. This guy does not appear to be invested in our success by virtue of the fact he's just so fucking reckless.
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They'll blame it on Bernie Sanders.
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I can totally see you in Dockers. I love Dockers. Oh my God.
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And they're really kind of this... this ROTC kid who couldn't go to college unless it had been for ROTC, Martin Ortiz, my fraternity brother. This guy was so irresponsible, so reckless, so crazy. We didn't shy away from crazy behavior in the fraternity, everyone was scared of this guy.
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He would come to my apartment because he lived far away from his base, and he would sleep in our room on the floor, and he would wake up at 3.45 in the fucking morning after drinking all night so he could be a half an hour early at his base. Because he knew when it came to his military service, there was no margin of error, period, no margin of error.
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This is a guy who couldn't get a D in basic English. And couldn't figure out a way to rally himself to write a paper or whatever. But when it came to the commitment to the armed services, the culture they have created is, you have to be near perfect.
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Anyone who believes being gay is anything to do with nurture, it is so nature. You were literally born in Dockers, weren't you?
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There's a popular saying that a society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. And Elon Musk is cutting down these trees. And America has been planting trees the shade of which we will never ever sit under.
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Dockers in a, I'm not even going to try and describe the kind of lesbian fashion or lashing.
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George Bush with, I think it was PEPFAR, he saved tens of millions of people by making a huge investment in rallying really competent people to try and distribute AIDS cocktail drugs to people in Africa. That had no impact on me, other than it was nice that we had the ability to do it and we used our scale and our strength and our expertise and our science and our universities to do that.
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Elon Musk is doing the opposite. He's cutting down the trees, the shade of which he will never send under, because his attitude is, if it's not providing me with shade, I don't give a fuck. And I'll call it, I'll say that I'm saving money for the government.
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There are certain investments where if you make a small amount of investment, and $75 billion is not a lot when you look at the world's issues, you can allocate that capital to places of such need that a little bit of money has enormous ROI.
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Anyways, back to me.
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No, I'm talking about USA, it's 75 billion. My point is, I think Gates, who's one of the most brilliant people, and also I think later in life, as you would hope from a man, really developed a great deal of empathy. He thought, okay, what could I do with my quarter of a trillion dollars in wealth? I could create other great companies. I could build the biggest VC firm in the world.
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Levi Strauss and Company was my biggest consulting client or profit for like two years in the 90s. And everybody, everybody would introduce themselves as the founder of Dockers because it had been so successful. There would be like nine people who were the, not the co-founder, but the founder of Dockers. Everybody decided that they had started this idea. And it's so interesting.
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I could decide who gets to be president or who doesn't. And he said, at the margin of the efficient frontier, I can save tens of millions of lives because one small pill that staves off or prevents a case of malaria is not that expensive in certain regions of the world.
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He spent a bunch of money on toilets. He's like, it's not romantic, but if I can bring safe potable water and sanitation to certain regions, I will literally save millions of children who otherwise would have died of dysentery.
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Just real quick, one of the most wonderful things about America as a society is we have created a complexion or a gestalt in our society where typically as you become more powerful, there's an onus and an environment that encourages you to evolve, to become kinder. Bill Gates has become kinder. I think guys like Mark Benioff and Brian Chesky and even, you know, I interviewed Melinda French Gates.
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You can tell as they've gotten more powerful, they really take... very seriously that I need to evolve as a person. I need to become kinder. The worst thing that can happen in a society is we create a gestalt that, okay, once I become president or once I become the wealthiest man in the world, I digress. I become an even bigger asshole. I become even more damaging to the world.
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I got to think quite frankly, and this is more of a philosophical question, what is it about our society
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where we are evolving this new species of man in the United States, where as they become more powerful, even the robber barons, who were not nice people, once they achieved a certain level of power, they did flip the switch and think, how can I build big projects and big universities that would help society? And these guys are not thinking that way.
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Go on! It's more a discussion of what kind of man you shouldn't be.
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It basically took advantage of this huge trend And that was casual work Friday was the stay at home to work from home trend in the 90s. And men had no fucking idea how to dress for it. And Docker said, just trust us.
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Well, Uber just sort of barely missed expectations. I would argue they met expectations. And what's interesting about Uber is their relationship with all the, they're striking up with all these different companies. autonomous driving company. It feels like there's an old Hemingway line. How did you go bankrupt? Gradually, then suddenly is the answer.
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It feels like the autonomous wars have been slow. And now it feels like it's about we're on the eve of war among autonomous, whether it's Uber doing deals, Waymo, at some point, Musk will enter. It feels like autonomous.
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And they don't cost you the consumer and you're used to just booking a car on them. But that's what I took away from the Uber earnings. But I didn't think they were that interesting. Really, the more interesting one was the surprise of the upside from Disney. And that is their stock popped 10%. It's after really touching kind of 10-year lows. Revenue up 7%.
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Disney Plus not only raised prices, but grew their subscriber base, which a lot of us weren't expecting. Hulu added over 1 million subscribers. But the real story here is that I think statistically they remain very smart because what are they doing? They're leaning into their core advantage and point of differentiation, and that's its parks business.
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Parks was mentioned five times more in this earnings call than the prior quarters call because they realized that Netflix isn't opening a park. It takes 10 years, 20 years maybe to build a park like this.
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Their cruise line is killing it. And they also realized, quite frankly, they're probably always going to be a distant two or three, maybe if they're lucky in streaming. but they can be number one and command unfair margins in their parks unit. And their parks unit is just killing it. And to Bob Iger's credit, this was the strongest earnings call Disney has had in a long time.
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And that is, okay, the streaming is no longer a sinkhole of capital. And we are, our parks business, which is truly differentiated and singular, is killing it. So good for them.
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Well, there's sort of the non-unknowns and then the unknown unknowns. And it's usually the unknown unknowns that get you. But in terms of the known unknowns— The fulcrum here about whether we probably go into a recession or we're stagflation is this nonsense around tariffs and what happens.
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If anything resembling the proposed tariffs actually sticks, you're going to see an increase in inflation, an increase in interest rates, and a decline in the economy. The word for that that most young people don't know is stagflation.
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And when you have stagflation, when the economy is shrinking, even as interest rates go up, which is the worst of that's, you know, that's nitro and glycerin for an economy. You have to sacrifice jobs and massively increase interest rates because basically typically what the Fed says is we will opt for lower or higher unemployment versus higher inflation. That's the real danger.
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In my opinion, if we go into recession, that's something that's supposed to happen every seven years. It brings down prices. Quite frankly, it gives young people over the medium term a little bit of an opportunity to bind to assets at a lower price. I don't think recession is the worst thing that could happen to us.
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If you look at the Fed's notes or Chairman Powell's notes yesterday, he essentially said, we're in a bit of a vibe session. And Kyla Scanlon, who I love, this young woman who does a ton of great work on economics, Essentially, consumer confidence is at a low since COVID. The uncertainty index is at a high since the 80s.
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But if you look at the underlying data, if you look at employment, if you look at retail sales, if you look at spending, quite frankly, the economy still looks pretty strong right now. And so he kept interest rates flat. So this is all about in the short term, unless, you know... Look, if there's a nuclear detonation on the Indian-Pakistani border, all bets are off, right?
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But in terms of where we are economically right now, the fulcrum or the arbiter will be just how fucking insane, how down crazy road we travel with these tariffs. So we'll see, but the thing I'm most scared of It's not a recession. I actually think that recessions, I think we're due for not an extended recession.
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Housing prices and stock prices need to come down such that people like you and me, Cara, maybe transfer a little bit of our wealth and create some opportunity for younger people who want to buy their own homes and buy their own stocks. I don't think that'd be the worst thing in the world.
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What would be nearly the worst thing for the economy would be a spike in interest rates as the economy goes down. And what's so interesting is any economist under the age of 50 doesn't even know the word stagflation. They don't even think it can happen. It can happen. It happened in the 70s.
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It's the tenure. It's the bond. If the bond market starts spiking, they all freak out.
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Yeah, my attitude is violate my privacy as long as I can see that my QX60 is one minute away. I could just get high. I could just eat edibles and order Ubers and watch how close my car is. I find it fucking fascinating. Why is he making a right turn on broom? Doesn't he know where he's going? I find that shit fascinating.
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Occasionally, I have a moment, I'm like, how do they know I have prostateitis? I find this shit fascinating.
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Look, I do a talk, I was just in Hamburg, Germany, and I do a talk on, everyone wanted to know, had questions really around two topics in the Q&A. What the fuck is going on in America? And they want to know about AI. And I've said, I'm an AI optimist for the most part. I don't think it's going to turn on us.
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I don't see any reason why AI can't be used to create defensive measures against offensive measures. I don't think it's ever going to become sentient. I think in the short run, it'll destroy jobs. But like every other technology, it'll create, in my opinion, more jobs than it destroys over the medium and the long term. The biggest threat of AI is that it's going to speedball loneliness.
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and that is I'm frustrated, I don't have friends, I can't figure out the social pecking order, I am really upset I don't have a girlfriend, so I have this incredible AI girlfriend that's a mix of porn and maybe I even have an AI robot slash sex doll, and I never develop the skills or take the risk to establish a romantic relationship. And this is the fear.
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This is what young men have fighting against them, is they have the deepest pocketed, most talented people in the world trying to convince them they can have a reasonable facsimile of life with no human contact. You need the community.
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Well, OK, it's too late for me. And not only that, quite frankly, I have economic security and people who love me unconditionally. So I'm there. I'm at the promised land. What I'm worried about is young men who are struggling to find a connection to school, to work or to other people and get a reasonable facsimile of that DOPA hit that you get from a relationship, from Reddit, Discord.
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Yeah, you can get away with that, though. It's sort of your brand.
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porn, Robin Hood, oh, I'm not gambling, I'm investing. And they spend all of their time in their basement, never going through the hardship of trying to make relationships work.
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You dress up every once in a while, huh?
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The top 25 most listened?
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It's all fucking crazy right-wingers that are in the top 25.
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Because the thing is, the people who listen to those people don't have any money unless they're looking for dental implants or trucker hats. What about the top 25 in terms of revenue?
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Let's threaten to tariff them. Let's threaten to tariff awards ceremonies.
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So much is doing a lot of work there, but okay. You fall asleep on the couch. Everyone's wondering who the nine-year-old boy who is asleep on the couch. And everyone's like, who's the guy just at the bar who won't leave?
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I think, literally, I think that we should officially, I think if Vogue ever decides we've just fucking had it with this Meg Gala bullshit and they want to jump to Shark, they should invite us. They should. They should absolutely invite us. We would literally put an end to that whole thing.
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This first hundred days of the Trump administration, mostly using the vehicle of the Trump coin, will go down in history as the greatest grift in the history of our economy in terms of the amount of money stolen and the size of it over the shortest period. Just some data here. So Trump-affiliated entities have made at least $300 million.
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This is distinct to the value of his stake in Trump coin in trading fees. The Trump family's net worth has increased by $3 billion, or a billion dollars a month, since he took office. Just some timeline. The Trump coin launched on a Friday night under cover of dark with all the news about the inauguration. By 3 a.m.
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on Sunday, it was valued at more than $70 billion, and there were a small number of coins. Small number of investors who made large investments on a Friday. Maybe they got a tip or something. They made they made tens, if not hundreds of millions. And then over the course of the next couple of weeks, about 800000 smaller investors lost billions.
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The Melania cone, two dozen traders made almost $100 million the weekend it came out, right? So one person invested 64 seconds before the project was publicly announced. Within 24 hours, it made $40 million. But since then, Melania has lost 96% of its value. Sure has.
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And this market manipulation, this what would technically be called insider trading by the SEC, we'll never know because on April 8th, Trump's deputy attorney general ordered the DOJ's crypto fraud investigation arm to disband. The next day, the next day on April 9th, the same day that Treasury Secretary Scott Besant affirmed that it was illegal. Main Street's turn to get wealthy.
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Trump posted on Truth Social, this is a great time to buy Donald Trump media at 9.37 a.m. Between 1 and 1.10 p.m., there was a huge increase in bullish zero-day S&P 500 call options. And then just eight minutes later, Trump announced a 90-day pause on all of his tariffs, and the market soared almost 10%, one of the biggest one-day gains in history. So someone knew what was going on.
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He calls them. That's called insider trading. The market gained $4 trillion while Trump media closed up 23%. Trump's 53% ownership stake in the company increased his net worth by $415 million. On April 23rd, Trump announced that the top holders of the Trump coin would win an exclusive dinner with him and the coin surge over 60%. A small group of investors have generated massive returns.
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Anna Wintour, if you're listening, if you need a reason to retire, just have.
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Just 58 wallets made more than $10 million apiece, totaling approximately $1.1 billion in gains. Meanwhile... 800,000 wallets of mostly smaller holders have lost money on their Trump coin. And this isn't just a vessel for corruption. It's an open invitation for foreign manipulations. Three-quarters of the token value held among the top 220 wallets are believed to be held by foreign owners.
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So if he's hosting a dinner for his Trump PAC and it costs a million and a half dollars, and say you're hungry and you want to get rid of these tariffs, don't you pay someone, have someone, a proxy go, spend a million and a half bucks and go, oh, just FYI, let the president know as a gift to him, we're going to buy...
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$50 million in Trump coin this week, which will increase the value somewhere between half a billion and a billion, which means he'll get somewhere between four and 800 million. And we're really hoping he's kind to us around the tariffs.
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Well, and it gets worse. Now, the kids went on it. World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm run by Trump's sons, Eric and Don Jr., 60% of it is owned by Trump-affiliated entity, and they are entitled to 75% of its revenue. It's raised more than a half a billion dollars from investors who purchased the World Liberty financial governance token.
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Back to me. So in the 90s, when I started Red Envelope and because I had a shaved head, I was white, had outdoor plumbing and a pretty good gab, I could raise tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to my crazy commerce startups. And I'd raise so much fucking money for Red Envelope. And I was the brand guy, so I thought, oh, we got to build a brand.
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And now it's being leveraged to facilitate pardons for criminals. Justin Sun, a crypto billionaire, was under SEC investigation for securities fraud under the Biden administration. After investing $75 million in World Liberty Financial, guess what, Cara? The SEC dismissed his case.
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And I get a call from this iconic media company that is doing, or a reporter there, and I won't say which company, that is doing a profile on Kara Swisher.
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But this is what fucking infuriates me. I'm a real politic guy. I don't mind a little bit of corruption as long as it's good for all Americans. I don't mind a little bit of strong-arming. But here's the problem or the tragedy. If Trump brought half the competence, expertise, and elegance to governance as he does to grifting, the country would be in a much better place. He's good at criming.
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This is what we have. This will be my last statement here.
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We have a mob family running the country. That's the bad news. The worst thing, the worst thing is that Michael Corleone is managing the crime and Fredo is managing the government. It's like, for God's sakes. That's a good analogy. You are so good at stealing. Can you bring some of that elegance, that timing, that expertise to the government, to actual governing?
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No, because mobsters are usually stupid. Fredo is in charge of our fucking military right now, and Michael Corleone is in charge of the Trump coin. So I forgive everything if you take the people managing your grift and put them in charge of our military and social security. We do not want Eric Trump running out.
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Anyways, the prediction is the biggest grift in history is happening as we sit here right now. In five years, 10 years, when this all comes out and it will, this will be the greatest grift in an economy over a shorter period of time that has ever taken place. Tens of billions, actually. This will make Putin blush.
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I am speechless.
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I occasionally clip my whole body so I can feel like a jungle cat and then I put lotion all over my body and I just love me. Yeah, I'm not a big, I'm not a big manscaper. I like Big Ed and the Twins to have a little bit of a beard.
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So my college roommate, David Carey, who was the head of magazines, I think, at Condé Nast, he'd always been just a lovely guy. We were friends. But I used to fly to New York because I wanted to hang out in New York. and spend overspend on Vanity Fair and Vogue magazine, these ads for Red Envelope. And literally the weapon was the coolest place on the planet was the Vogue cafeteria.
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My junk looks like an aging anteater. It just looks sad. It just looks sad.
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Yeah. No, I'm not. I'm not.
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Keep it clean for the ladies. My wife came in, or actually came in on me while I was landscaping once, and she asked me what I was doing. Apparently, meal prep was not the right answer. Okay.
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I love her. I love her. I love when, unfortunately, I'm like, it's terrible she's having a moment. It's like if someone writes about famine, I hope they don't have a moment. But she is having a moment.
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie and Retard engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Severio, and Dan Chalon. Nishat Kerwa is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Kara, what economic theory opposes manscaping? Laissez-faire. Laissez-faire. Golden Globe winner for best podcast.
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Did you ever eat there?
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And it was all these ridiculously beautiful women and hot gay men. And then Cy Newhouse and Anna Wintour would be sitting in the corner and you'd walk in. I remember thinking, I got to move to New York. And I would buy these $120,000 a page ads. I don't even know if they worked or not, but I just wanted to go to lunch with my friend David Carey.
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I probably spent seven or eight million bucks of other people's money just so I could have lunch with David Carey.
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And her first question was, what qualities make Kara such an amazing leader? And I'm like, oh, fuck, this is going to be rough. I'm not exaggerating, Kara. I went and made myself a drink. I'm like, okay. Okay, this is how it's going to go. This is how it's going to go. And it was literally like getting a colonoscopy without anesthetic. I just sat there and said, okay, it's going to be over soon.
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Oh, yeah. Whenever there's a border skirmish with nuclear powers, you have to take it very seriously. And on a much less substantive level, India is a big trading partner with us on the economy. You could see oil prices and gold prices skyrocket with that kind of instability. But when two nuclear powers who border each other start arguing, it's very scary.
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And it can all be sort of reverse engineered to, of course, the West's Specifically, the UK dividing up India into Pakistan in a very sloppy way that's created all sorts of religious and regional tensions and fights over Kashmir. China is a very strong ally. They describe themselves as an ironclad friend. Of Pakistan. India has very strong relationships with Japan and Israel and the UAE.
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I just hope the adults show up and diffuse the tensions because typically these types of crazy conflicts are real exogenous shocks. It's not the shit you're worried about that gets you. It's the shit you're not thinking about.
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It's going to be over soon.
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So I'd love to speak to Preet Bharara or someone who's close to the issue, but my general take on first blush is the following, and that is Elon Musk has absolutely catalyzed this. And that is just as there's lawfare, I think this is what I would refer to as nomenclature fair.
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And that is the judge, the attorney general essentially told OpenAI that their proposed transition doesn't fit the strict criteria for transition from a nonprofit to a for-profit. And so effectively what they've done is by saying, oh, no, just kidding.
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We're one of these ridiculous private benefit corporations that a bunch of VCs could virtue signal and say, I still want on the money, but I want to pretend I'm actually helping humanity. I think it's the most ridiculous corporate classification in history.
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They go back and say, no, we're a not-for-profit, but they're lifting the cap on when the for-profit is entitled to the profits of above $100 billion, which I think only three companies have ever achieved. So this effectively from a mechanical situation or the complexion of the company, the operations or the shareholder governance has absolutely no impact.
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Well, here's the thing. When you do these things, what you realize is it's entirely up to them. They can twist your words anyway.
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But I think somewhat inoculates them from the kind of the white meat of Musk's accusations in his case. I think the lawyers came back and said, OK, fine. Tell Musk and his lawyers, oh, just kidding. You win. We're still a nonprofit, but it's not going to change anything we do practically.
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It's the same. Nothing changes here except OpenAI's lawyers can say, oh, we are a not-for-profit. He has no case. That's how I read it.
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Yeah. And they could use, you know, one or two things I said to support some narrative that was negative. But I definitely got the feeling it's going to be a giant puff piece, but we'll see.
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Yeah, I think that's right.
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He has seller's remorse. One of the biggest mistakes ever in terms of just pure wealth is he said, I'm out of here. And he said he signed away the company, ironclad documents, he's out.
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My house in San Francisco is next to where Mark Zuckerberg moved. And I bought it for $760,000. And 24 months later, when I moved to New York so I could spend more time in the Condé Nast cafeteria, I sold it for $950,000. I thought it was the fucking greatest real estate investor in history. Cara, it is worth substantially more now. It is.
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Okay. It's worth substantially more. This is absolutely no different in terms of legal veracity than if I went back and said, I want my house back. I want my house back.
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I want my house back. You owe me. It's gone up. I know I signed legal documents transferring ownership of this asset and private property laws are pretty, pretty detailed, but I've decided because I fucked up selling it that I want it back or at least I want some money.
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Well, this is, I mean, it really is, this company is, but here's the thing, the argument they will make when they get in front of judges, on earnings calls they will say, temporary lag, look at this, everything's great, we're amazing, the power here is unprecedented.
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When they get in front of a judge next week, they're going to be like, oh my God, things are so terrible, you can't break us up right now, we're really weak.
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Well, nationalists. I mean, just a quick definition. People throw around the term fascist law. They use it to describe Carter, Obama. People incorrectly use it to describe certain aspects of the Trump administration. Fascism is extreme nationalism.
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It's a belief that someone you elect who, for whatever reason, his view of what's good for the nation should supersede the other party, any governance, any checks and balances, even the courts, even you refuse to condemn violence against your enemies. You condemn immigrants. That is fascism.
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It literally, this kind of the current administration and their current policies are literally the textbook definition of fascism. So it's a word that's become overused, but it's absolutely appropriate here.
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Are you still in Australia, Kara?
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There is a real void that people are stepping into, I would say Trudeau. I'd also say Macron is really stepping.
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You're drawn to these individuals.
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Power is an aphrodisiac. I get it.
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They're real. Are you hot for Starmer yet? Keir Starmer, who assembled- I love him.
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Who assembled the world leaders. Yeah, pass the head up your ass. Non-dom thing. 10,000 millionaires have left the UK in the last three months. But other than that, he looks like a leader. He's got big shoulders and good hair.
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There are people stepping into the void. The leader of Denmark, the leader of Finland, there are people making really powerful speeches.
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I'll say more about it later, but I do think the EU, and it's a silver lining here, is stepping into the morass or the crevice or the void.
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Making out with macaron?
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It's a great city. Last time I was in Australia, I traveled to New Zealand and I was driving along the side of the road and there was a guy fighting a sheep. And I said, you know, in Australia, they shear them. And he said, fuck you, I'm not shearing her with anybody. That's good.
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Support for Pivot comes from the NPR podcast, Up First. Today's news landscape can be pretty overwhelming. There are constant updates to follow, late-breaking stories to track, and never-ending feeds to doom scroll. Trying to keep up with all of it would make anyone anxious, but it doesn't have to be that way.
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If you'd like to stay on top of the daily stories that actually matter without driving yourself insane, you might want to check out the NPR podcast, Up First. Up First covers the three most important stories of the day in just 15 minutes, so you can learn what you need to know and then move on with your day. What does that all mean?
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It means that you can be informed without compromising your sanity. Simply put, whenever NPR does something, you should give it a trial because the quality control, the pursuit of the truth, and generally, they're just good actors. I love NPR. So if you're looking for more news and less noise and a way to start your day off right and informed, you can listen to the Up First podcast from NPR today.
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I'll take it PG-13. You're coming to Texas in a few days, right?
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Well, putting truth aside, and I want to circle back to truth, I thought it was a win for him, and I thought it was a loss for Democrats. I thought he came across as resolute, as strong. I thought he looked good. I thought he was forceful. I thought he was articulate. And I don't want to be one of those nations that digresses into a total fucking food fight in our addresses.
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I think that it reflects poorly on the United States.
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Well, he was just he came across as forceful. And we are now in a situation where I have friends who have become who put out reels and just adopt every talking point, no matter how outrageous it is. But just a little bit of an economic reality check. He could declare it. America is back. Meanwhile, markets are tanking and the economy is stumbling. GDP, the U.S. economy, the U.S.
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I'm bringing cheese for us so we can handle any emergency. I'm calling it my Justin Queso.
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economy is contracting at the fastest rate right now since the COVID lockdowns. The Atlanta Fed has something called a GDP Now model, which estimates annualized growth. And it's gone from 4% up, which is remarkable, to negative 2.8 in the last month. Consumer confidence has had its greatest drop since COVID. Retail spending is down.
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The markets are not in free fall, but definitely declining. The NASDAQ has lost 9% in 10 days. All of the gains since the Trump bump have disappeared. He has the greatest levels of disapproval of any president except one other at this time in his presidency. And that other was Trump's first term. 52% saying he's ignoring the country's biggest problems. And just a little word search fund here.
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He mentioned Greenland. Three times more than affordable housing, veterans, or prescription drug costs. Zero mentions of healthcare. Zero mentions of veterans or prescription drug costs. Five mentions of tax cuts for billionaires. Five mentions of illegal aliens. Six mentions of the Panama Canal. Thirteen mentions of Joe Biden. And three mentions of annexing Greenland. Don't forget Panama.
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It is just, and my favorite was, the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over while Elon Musk. Sat in the audience. And oh, my second favorite.
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Free speech. It's back. Forgetting that on a social media post, he said he would ban illegal protests at universities and that he has barred the Associated Press from the Oval Office. So unfortunately, our leadership and our politics and even our truth have become just who can lie the most with the most confidence.
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So, okay, what have you been doing in Australia?
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Can you know what was just when you thought the guy couldn't get any more craven? The emotional manipulation of that girl who had her face, her nose broken and got a concussion because of a spike from a transgender volleyball player. I just want to remind everybody before they clutch their progressive pearls.
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A couple of years ago on this show, I said that transgender women should not be allowed to be in sports where there is money or scholarships on the line. I said that early and often, much to the, I don't know, disappointment of many of my progressive colleagues. I have said that early and often.
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At the same time, demonizing a transgender girl and emotionally manipulating and using as a prop another teenage girl to try and look at her. Isn't she beautiful? And she's a beautiful little girl and she had a concussion. And by the way, I played high school sports. The sport that has the greatest level of injury in the world is high school football. High school sports are chock full of injuries.
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Wait, you're going to sell 11 books this year?
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And again, see above. I do not think transgender women should be allowed to play in collegiate level. You can't have a 6'4 swimmer showing up and saying, I present as a woman and take every medal.
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My point is that was just craven to create that sort of emotional manipulation and to demonize. You don't think that that transgender girl who is the one who spiked the ball is probably getting fucking death threats right now?
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No one wants to hurt someone else. You don't use kids as props like that.
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Purely orchestrated by Putin.
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Purely orchestrated by Putin. I mean, just that was planned. Vance, who doesn't have, I mean, the only thing that gave me any sort of joy there was watching literally Senator Rubio lose all of his last final specks of soul and respect for himself.
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Knowing that TikTok would come up with every time he's presented himself as a cold warrior and he just sat there literally melting into a couch.
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That reminds me, what's the difference between a garbanzo bean and a chickpea?
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I'm not going to pay 50 bucks for a garbanzo to bean on my face.
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Think about it. Think about it.
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I pay 50 bucks for a chick to pee on my face. I really don't.
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There you go. We'll get you there. We'll get you there.
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I'm not that person. I don't think very many of us are that person.
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We treated representatives of the Viet Cong with more respect in negotiations around the peace agreement. You don't provide a world leader and then ambush them. It's just bad manners, and you lose credibility.
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He should have showed up with a big medal. We are giving you the nation's highest honor. Here's a statue made out of six karat gold. Look how fit and trim you are. We're giving you an honorary gold medal just for being awesome.
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And by the way, just a few facts about Zelensky. His grandfather fought in World War II. He lost people in the Holocaust. He's Jewish. He was reelected by 70% of the people. They complain about a lack of free press. He has not banned any other press unless it's Russian propaganda, just as the UK did. They wouldn't allow fascist papers to run anywhere.
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pro-Hitler ads while they were getting the shit bombed out of them. This guy, the greatest ROI, the greatest venture investment in history is America's mild, modest $60 billion, 70% of which is spent in the US mostly red states that has done the following. It's taken out a third of the kinetic power of Russia.
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Everyone would live in Australia if it wasn't so far.
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It has given China pause recognizing a small motivated army that's technically literate and backed by the West. Think twice before you do it. And it is the best thing about all of this is that it is unifying He is unifying Europe and he is saying to people around the world. And by the way, just a quick tangent. I heard from this kid. I apologize. I apologize.
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I just, I got to get something out of this.
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Go for it. I'm on a roll. No, this is just personal privilege. There was this lovely young man in my fraternity at UCLA named Greg Townsend. Just everybody liked this guy. We used to call him Townie. We went to the same high school. He was a year younger than me. Out of the blue, I get a message out from saying, I have a friend who's a human rights lawyer. I'd love for her to come on the pod.
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You know, every day people are calling us with ideas about who they think is fascinating and should come on the pod, right? And I say, what are you up to? And he goes, well, I went to law school. And for the last 20 years, I've been working for the UN, tracking down and prosecuting war criminals. And I'm like, it's just so funny.
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All I remember is listening to Led Zeppelin with this guy, and he's fucking hunting down war criminals and prosecuting them through- Impressive.
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Ooh. I had one of the best nights of my life in Australia. It involved the ex-girlfriend of the drummer of NXS. I'm dating myself. I was at the W Hotel, I was out alone, and these two women came up to me and said, hi, you're alone, and they took me out. We had a great time. I just, I had the best time. The water taxis, that polar place with the pool and the polar bear club, whatever it's called.
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This guy, I was so moved. I'm like, okay. I immediately went off and said, how can I party in St. Barts and make as much fucking money as possible? And he decided to go to Switzerland and get a law degree and then work with other good people to try and ensure that the- All right, and how are we going to knit this together?
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And try and ensure that the incentive system is that think twice before you start murdering children and raping women under the context of war. And he tracks these people down and he prosecutes them. And then the cherry on top is that funding for his entire group has been stopped. And so he's not sure what he's going to do next. And you know what?
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The majority of him and his colleagues are continuing to work. Anyways, Greg Townsend, good for you, my brother.
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One of the most powerful things about the presidency is they get the bully pulpit and they get to stand up in front of the vice president and the speaker and the cameras and the music and the majesty. and they get to win every time they do it.
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And I think the whole thing reflected really poorly on Hakeem Jeffries and democratic leadership because they clearly have no control over their constituents and their messaging is awful. We looked terrible, Cara. We looked reckless, immature, beside ourselves, you don't think that emboldens Republicans when they see us acting this way? What could they do?
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The bottom line is there's not a lot to do. You sit there, you're polite. There's probably a couple of things you can clap for when they welcome whatever, a war veteran, you can stand up and applaud. And other than that, you just sit there and you take it.
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Fine. I don't even think that's a good idea because I don't eventually we're going to digress to only half the chamber shows up for every presidential address. And I think there's a certain level. There's a certain level of decorum. But they this is, again, the Democrats have consistently shown they do not have discipline and they do not have leadership and they do not have.
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good messaging right now. They haven't gotten their shit together.
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It disgusted me when one of the squad put up the sign saying genocide when Netanyahu spoke. You just don't show up with signs.
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Well, there's tactical and there's strategic. On the tactical, you just show up, you're polite, you're the adults in the room, you nod, you get someone fantastic as we did to give the response. The response is a thankless job because you just can't command the majesty of the lighting and the camera angles. She did a competent slash good job.
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You sit there, you're polite, you have more respect for the flag and the rotunda than you do your tribal censors, and we did not do that. We showed that we were reckless and we're like, a kid coming home who is polite all day and then just vomits his or her emotions, speaking for a friend as a parent, and give mom and dad just like, who is this terrorist who just walked through the door?
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And by the way, in the parent-teachers conference, everyone's, he's just such a good kid at school. He's so polite.
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Yeah, and then you read all these child books saying, it's because they trust and love you. I'm like, well, I wish they trusted and loved me a little bit less.
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On a strategic level, you pick one or two issues, don't go after all these ridiculous DEI, transgender, Greenland, Panama. You go after a small set of issues, a surrender, to the American brand now means surrender, measles, and inflation. I would focus on those three things. I'd bring in experts, I'd be thoughtful, I'd be data-driven, and then I would fucking shut down the government.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
I would go upstream of Elon Musk and saying, no, we're not raising the debt limit. No, we are shutting down the government. You want to play hardball, Fine, let's dance.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
She understands the decorum.
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She was distracted. She was trading options on Robin Hood.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
You know what the Republicans have that we don't have? They have synchronicity. The synchronicity between think tanks, between their media and their leadership and their talking points, they are a well-oiled machine.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
We are flailing around. We are, you know, we define the term seizure. We're just out of control, our limbs flailing in different directions and have no control of ourselves. And you watch it, you watch what's going on, our response, and it's just sort of uncomfortable. It's like, okay, we got to be able to do better than this.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
But your analysis is the right one, and that is, who's our target audience? And the people who like a 70-something-year-old congressman from Texas waving his cane and walking and go, yeah, people, we already have those people. They're voting Democratic. Those aren't the people we need. Who we need is the person who voted for Trump and is now having second thoughts.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And you need to be thoughtful, and you need to be measured, and you need to show, we're the adults in the room.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And we're adults. We're reasonable. We're going to lay out the facts. We're not going to have an emotional response. We have emotional control. Because the people that loved and will applaud for this type, who are saying, you know, Stand up, walk out, yell them, good for you. Those people are on board with democratic policies. We don't need to convince those people of anything.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
We got to go after the people who voted for Trump.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
You want to hear it? Sure, go ahead.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Yeah, my recommendation around what she should do is nothing. She's a reminder of how badly we fucked up. It would be bad. I'm sorry. And by the way, I saw Secretary Clinton last night at Chez Margot in New York. She just out of nowhere, I'm like, I know that woman. I wanted to go up and say I love you.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
I'm going next Christmas or next holiday. I'm taking my boys before we head back. I mean, it's really a tourism giant and some of the best wine in the world. It's got more kangaroos than people.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
I was doing my favorite thing. I was drinking at the bar alone. No joke.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And I thought that her Secret Service people were going to attack like that tall, weird looking dude who's alone drinking. Anyways, but when you lose, you take a break for a while because all she's going to do is remind people, quite frankly, of why we lost. And this is what Vice President Harris should do.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Abso-fucking-lutely nothing until we have a Democratic president who appoints her to the Supreme Court. She's just not from a, quite frankly, no mercy, no malice brand perspective. She should do nothing.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
I think Biden was the problem. Agreed. Everything you're saying is true. And the reality is she's a reminder of the policies and reasons we lost. And she should just stay out of the line. In terms of just what's good for Democrats right now, she should, quite frankly, just be under the radar.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
You know who's having a moment, and you were right on this and I was wrong, is your guy, Fetterman.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Well, then we vote him off the island. He doesn't align perfectly with my ideas.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And they did something that I think we should do here in the U.S., and that is, well, they're very paternal, and they take some of their— mineral wealth, and they invest it on behalf of people, and they have something called the Superannuation Fund, and it's essentially a pension program, and it has over $3.5 trillion under it, making it one of the largest pension funds in the world.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Put the moral arguments aside, we have established amazing economic trade relationships and trust and rule of law and reciprocal. When I'm in the Gulf, I have a speaking gig in the Gulf and then October the 7th happens and I make some comments that they find disagreeable and they cancel the speaking contract. we have a contract.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And nowhere in that contract did it say, you're not allowed to say certain things. And then we point it out and they say, you're right, we respect rule of law. We've got a great trading relationship. We're gonna come to a settlement. We have established really strong economic relationships with the world's largest economies over the last 80 years that benefits them and benefits us.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And one of the key tenants of American capitalism democracy is we believe in lifting up people all around the world, that economic prosperity, if it's shared, we all do just much better. And we have amazing trading relationships with the world's largest economies.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And we are taking them and saying to those economies, figure out alliances and relationships and trade routes and supply chains and legal agreements with each other and go around us and exclude us and be less inclined to trade with us moving forward. Because even if he drops these tariffs, They can't trust us.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
They can't start clearing off all Jack Daniels off of all shelves and figuring out how on earth are they going to reconfigure the supply chain of cars. By the way, with these tariffs, cars are going to cost, if these tariffs hold, an additional $12,000. Each car. People don't realize cars, General Motors cars, those big American trucks,
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
The parts go back and forth across the Mexican and Canadian borders numerous times. So you're talking about another $12,000. More than half of America's produce comes from Mexico. Everything's about to—99% of shoes in America are imported. You're going to see this everywhere.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
The average U.S. household is going to see prices go up by $1,200 each year. And when the average household makes, what is it, $68,000 or $70,000, call it, $55,000 after taxes, that's the difference between being able to go on vacation or not.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And by the way, it started with Tim Cook, who kissed his ass, and all of a sudden the iPhone was exempt from certain tariffs. So basically what he's doing is saying, okay, who's willing to give me money? Who's willing to kiss my ass? And then I'll figure out a workaround for you. This is what a kleptocracy is. This is corruption.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
It's just like... I was a graduate student instructor in macroeconomics for Professor Christina Romer at Berkeley back in the 90s. And we used to talk about tariffs. It's like... An obvious example of just how stupid we were. We'd bring up tariffs in the early part of the 20th century. Smooth holly.
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And we'd all, it was just so funny. We would kind of laugh at like, okay, this is, wait, hold on kids. This is what they decided to do.
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As if we had gone, it was like we literally tariffs were the economic equivalent in the world of medicine of leeches. Like, can you believe they did this?
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Can you believe they thought this would work?
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And here we are again. Makes absolutely fucking little sense.
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It's not a vacation. It's Survivor. Yeah, something like that. Why do your fantasies always involve something where I die?
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Jack Zhang, I think it's Zhang, he's a professor at the University of Kansas, summarized it perfectly with respect to tariffs are essentially, yet again, another regressive tax because lower middle income households spend 100% of their paycheck on these products. So again, they're the ones that get hurt the most. And he summarized it perfectly. He said, it's a rich man's war and a poor man's fight.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
These tariffs, yet again, really target lower and middle class homes. It is a regressive tax. Low-income Americans spend all of their money on these, think about this, produce, saving for a car, eggs. I mean, these are the people that get hit the hardest.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
If you do this, it's just... But moving to facts, all right? We get outraged. It's extortion that we're demanding rare earth minerals from Ukraine. Okay, I get it. But now let's quickly pivot to facts. Trump has said he wants $500 billion worth of rare earth minerals from Ukraine in exchange for continued military and political support. All right, let's just, a couple of facts.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Well, you always ask this question, and it's obvious. I would just honorably kill myself. I would just find several pros and a bunch of fentanyl and just say, all right, I'm out. Game over. By the way, some bands from Australia, ACDC, In Excess.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
The entire global market for rare earth minerals is 10 to 14 billion. A rare earth mineral mine takes at least 10 years to spin up. So let's just look at, okay, well, You're right. It's extortion. Let's get angry. But let's look at the actual data and show just how ridiculous this is. This makes no sense.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Well, this is going to be a shocker.
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This is going to be a shocker. By the way, did you see my, did you hear my appearance?
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That's ACDC. Jesus, didn't you have a childhood?
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
You really didn't smoke pot. Anyways, yeah, ACDC. One of the great actors, not arguably a great guy, Mel Gibson.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
I just have a win. I'm trying, just because I'm such a glass half empty kind of guy, I'm trying to focus on or having some discipline around. If you look at the world, actually, the world over the medium and long term, despite some severe hiccups in the short term, the world gets better. And so your default setting should be Or you should always have in the back of your mind what could go right.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Because generally speaking, over time, the world has gotten better. And I'm trying to think, looking at this mess and how upsetting it is, what could go right? And I think what could go right here is that I do believe a real silver lining the size of the cloud here is I do think that Europe is threatening to be an actual union.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Yeah, lost it there, didn't I?
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And if you look at, most recently, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, I think it is.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Go ahead. She unveiled a historic $840 billion plan to increase EU defense spending. They're now looking at going past the 2 percent number, they're looking at coordinating. What they've decided is that, and this is the unintended consequence of recognizing they can no longer depend upon American consistency in the military umbrella.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
It really doesn't make any sense that Europe would, and they're recognizing this, that they would need to back down to Russia because Russia's GDP is about 2 trillion. The combined member states of the EU is 19 trillion. You know, Germany, France, and England all have bigger economies. Russia is just barely ahead of Spain. It's smaller than Canada. Both Britain and France have nuclear arsenals.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
They have very sophisticated manufacturing intellectual property. They have decent AI. They have fantastic communications technology. I believe, and this links to investments, if you look at European value stocks on a scale of 1-100, 1 being the cheapest they've ever been, 100 being the most expensive, U.S.
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growth stocks are at 98, and that is only 2% in history, only 2% of time have they been more expensive than they are now. European value stocks, big companies like Mercedes, L'Oreal, are at 2%, meaning 98% of time they've been more expensive. I think... that Europe is finally saying, okay, we believe it. We can't count on our rich, crazy uncle. He's gone just fucking insane. We can't count on him.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Yeah, that's Meryl Streep. Now, the best independent film to come out of Australia. This is a gorgeous little film that introduced Nicole Kidman and the most beautiful woman in the world is in the film.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
But we as siblings are actually very strong when we coordinate. And we're a bigger economy. We have fantastic technology. And they have already stepped up. They immediately called a meeting in the UK. They're about to call another one in Brussels. And Europe is really stepping up. And my
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
This really goes to not only my win, but my prediction, and that is I think you're going to see the European economy and European stocks rip. Because if you look at military spending, there really is some spillover in terms of technology. The most valuable companies in the world, Cara, are basically thick layers of innovation on top of technologies developed in the military.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Apple is a function of a Cold War technology where we wanted to make sure we could put a missile in someone's pocket in terms of GPS accuracy. All of the internet was the Americans trying to figure out a nodeless or hubless communications network post a nuclear attack from Russia. The drone technology coming out of Ukraine could have unbelievable applications in the consumer economy as could AI.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Anyways, my win... is that Europe is finally becoming a union, commanding the space it occupies. They're going to massively increase their coordination and their military budget. And I believe the stimulus of that spending and the new technologies it'll spend over to the consumer economy are about to set European markets on a tear. And it's already happened. They're up
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
12% this year, largely on the back of European defense contractors that their stocks have accelerated, while the U.S. is flat. So I think we're about to see, my win is that Europe is finally a union, and that I think it's going to have huge economic benefits, both stimulative and in terms of technology spillover.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
That's it. That's all I got.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Jesus Christ, you're awful. Anyways, Thandie Newton. It's a movie called Flirting, and it's about a boarding school in Australia, and it is so touching and so well-known.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
That's two great tastes I didn't see going together.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
That sounds fascinating. Can I go around here? I've been thinking about this a lot, that a lot of people came up to me at Mobile World Conference to talk about this. And there's a specific addiction that I haven't spent much time thinking about because there's not a lot of good research on it. And in the last two weeks, I've had three men, two young men, one older man.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And the most recent was at Mobile World Conference. This kid came up to me, a kid, he's like 34, he's killing it. Great family, married two kids, just killing it professionally. And he said, would you mentor me? And I'm like, boss, I don't mentor people who have their shit going well. The kids I mentor are really struggling and really need it. You don't need it.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And he's like, well, I have an addiction problem. And three men have said the same thing to me. And I said, what's your addiction? And he said, porn. And it's really interesting. Porn is probably the least studied addiction because there's very little peer review or academic research because very few people want to be known as a porn professor. You could do that.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
I'm not sure that's a good idea. I am doing a lot of research.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
But it really is something that we don't talk about a lot. I could see all three of these men when they said it to me, there was real shame in their voice. There's much more shame. If you say I have an addiction to alcohol, it's like, okay, if you say you have an addiction to porn, people are a little bit scared of you.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
It's creepy. They're like, keep their kids away from you. Anyways, I've been thinking a lot about young men and where I go to around this. is I think that, and this is more advice, is that I think the best thing in life, hands down, you know, economic security, relevance, that's all important, but it's a means to an ends.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And the ends, in my view, are finding someone and having kids and having a loving, prosperous family. That is the whole shooting match. That starts with, in my view for a lot of men, with wanting to have sex. I think that's a wonderful thing and I think we've pathologized it. I was thinking I wouldn't have graduated from UCLA
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
if I didn't think there was a non-zero probability I might meet someone on campus and eventually have sex with them. And I know that sounds crass, but it was the truth. That was a big motivator for me to get out of the house, take risks, endure rejection. If I'd had porn on my phone and on my computer, I'm not sure I would've gone on campus every day. That's what young men are dealing with.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And that is a total loss or a near total loss of mojo and risk-taking to develop the skills they need. Here's the problem. You don't know. What you know is that your son and young men and some older men aren't getting out of the house as much, aren't taking risks, aren't developing skills, humor, kindness, demonstrating excellence. And as a result...
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
It's this low-risk, low-entry means of a reasonable facsimile of a relationship called porn.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And it creates unreasonable expectations on women. It creates an illusory vision of what a relationship actually is.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And you don't, and I think about it, I spent so much time enduring rejection from women and developing skills such that occasionally, I could get lucky in taking risks. And guess what? Those skills have served me well my entire life.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Well, thinking of, just speaking of Kate Hudson, the reason romantic comedies are two hours and not 15 minutes is this shit is hard, and it's worth it, and where I end up with is where I tell young men, modulate, I can't tell young men not to engage in porn, but modulate it such that you have the fire
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
to develop the mojo, the effort, the skills and willingness such that you can make your own bad porn. That's the key. Porn is great as long as you're involved with another being.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
No, you know what I mean, sex. I get it, I'm not a fan of porn. To a certain extent, we've sort of demonized or chastised or pathologized young men wanting to have sex. That's a great thing. Want sex, have it.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Today's show was produced by Larry Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Intertide engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Severio, and Dan Shulan. Nishat Kerwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. I will see you in the great state of Texas.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Yeah, they've been great. But the most, I would argue, comedians have always played a pretty big role in culture and highlighting the injustices of culture. I would argue the most important in that group is Bill Burr because I think Bill has so much credibility across the conservative ecosystem.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
and he was constantly setting progressives hair on fire with very funny, provocative, and whatever inappropriate to say about comedian. He's just gone off on Musk. I think for me, it represents the Nadir of the peak or whatever, where the dialogue has really flipped. I do think there's been a reveal. By the way, I wonder if Elon's going to bring one of his kids as a human shield to Jon Stewart.
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By the way, I don't think that's ever going to happen.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Oh, no, never mind. I have a herniated disc. There's no way he's going to go on that show.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
By the way, just because you didn't ask, I've been in Barcelona, Miami, New York in the last 48 hours. You're not the only one who looks 110.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Oh, thanks for saying that. Basically, my rap now is the cowardice domino that is big tech, that these individuals don't realize the damage they're having and they're enabling. They're the mortar and the bricks of fascism. And because the biggest companies were there sponsoring it, I'm like, these individuals are playing a really key and terrible role in our march towards fascism.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Support for the show comes from UserTesting. Your brand is only as strong as the decisions you make behind it. UserTesting's human insight engine helps marketing product and business leaders make smarter, faster decisions with real human feedback, AI-driven insights, and the world's strongest participant network.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And that's all we talked about.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
But there's a couple of reveals here or points, and that is one, and I've said this, this is one of my big themes for 2025, democracy and rights have now become the R is almost one. They're almost perfectly correlated with how much money you have. Because in almost every election in America, it's kind of 48% vote one way or 49 and 48 or 49 vote the other way and one or 2% swing the election.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And lately, because of gerrymandering, it's 0.1% that swing the election. And it's pretty fairly obvious that Musk and his ad targeting and a third of a billion dollars in key states leveraged by a platform, he's probably decided the geopolitical priorities for the next four years globally. So if you don't think that rights are directly correlated to money, case in point, Elon Musk.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And then when you look at Doge and what he's doing in Wisconsin, There are people on the right and they are intellectually honest. It's about politics for them. It's about a belief system. Whether you agree with them or not, you have to respect their ideals and they're putting their money, their time, their treasure and talent behind those ideals. I don't think it has anything to do with it here.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
And that is, if you look at Doge, Doge isn't about fraud and waste. The first thing they thought they identified on their wall of receipts at $8 billion was $8 million. And numbers two, three, and four, people can't even... verify. They seem to be false. But what they've managed to do really elegantly is remove regulators in autonomous driving.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Equip your team with the power to validate every decision, co-innovate at scale, and build digital and in-person experiences with confidence. The best brands don't guess, they test. See how at usertesting.com.com. Pivot.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
This isn't about ideology. It's about money. And by the way, that judge that he was trying to get elected, Wisconsin, you need an exemption to directly own car dealerships like most states.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
The regulators or the lobby for car dealerships have made it very difficult for car dealerships to be vertically owned by the manufacturer because there's a lot of wealthy people and they think that it's good for competition. You have to get an exemption in Wisconsin. He has been suing in Wisconsin for this exemption. And if he gets his guy on the Supreme Court there— It'll likely be overturned.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
Folks, wake up. Money equals power, full stop. And this guy, it's all about money. It has nothing to do with his views politically or this all reverse engineers to I want my cars put on the road regardless of safety standards. I want Verizon kicked out of any bidding.
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I think people— I mean, the Koch brothers have a lot more intellectual honesty than this guy.
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Yeah, they're doing what they're doing. They're trying to figure out a way not to be broken up. What's counterintuitive is I think shareholder value would actually go up if they were broken up.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
But the problem is the people in charge want to sit on the iron throne of all seven realms, just not Westeros, and they get to decide. But Alphabet, while having probably more, maybe with the exception of Apple, more separate independent $100 billion plus independent companies that you could spend, they probably have four or five,
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They do have an existential crisis, and that is their search share or their share of search fell below 90% for the first time. And AI is starting to eat away at their share. And it is the ultimate example of the innovator's dilemma where they essentially... invented much of the original IP, yet they sat on their hands.
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And as a result, Alphabet's Gemini, their LLM, is vastly beaten by OpenAI, Anthropic, and even DeepSeek. And it's just, they got to be really kicking themselves at how did we let everyone get out ahead of us? In their latest earnings report, the stock tumbled by nearly 9%. And their revenue growth has slowed since this time last year.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Well, we have very talented smart people too with smartphones. I would create... a group of people, elected representatives, that go to these places where they are and say, I believe you are breaking the law. You are not an elected official. You need to leave this federal government building. Respect the law. If the Capitol Police show up at the order of the president and say, you need to vacate,
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I would not vacate. And if you get arrested, fine. I'm not a fan of breaking the law. I think the law is on our side here. I think these guys are breaking the law. And just because you have permission from the president, let's fight it out in court and find out, well, can the president break the law? Because as we have seen, The president has been stopped.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Anytime this shit gets in front of a judge, it usually gets stopped. So do you have the right as a citizen or an elected representative, or do you have the obligation to get in the way, legislative, verbally, legally, and quite frankly, at this point, physically? I'm not suggesting violence. I'm not suggesting these elected representatives have license to walk into any federal building.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Millions of people have elected them. Find out where this shit is going on and go down there and say to these people, what you are doing is illegal.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
You're my junkyard dog. I like that. Thanks for saying that.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And I'm thinking of doing ketamine recreationally tonight. Why? Well, I used to have this incredible ability as a young man to disassociate. I was basically sleepwalking through life. I didn't care much about anything. I'm having trouble disassociating from all this bullshit.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
But this is, but just moving to what we can do, the Democrats at this point, I mean, I remember talking to Ray Dalio about elected officials and he's like, and by the way, this is, he was like, this is war. Take the gloves off. I mean, this is like, this isn't try to understand or empathize with the people who elected this guy. In my opinion, this is war.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And they essentially, they're challenging the constitution of democracy. I don't think it's time for us to try and figure out, like understand them. What I would say is, and I've heard from a lot of Canadians who appreciate our thoughts around the tariffs,
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And one person called me who, Canada's actually strangely like, there's like 12 families who kind of, I don't want to say run everything, but kind of own the majority of stuff in Australia. I mean, I'd like to think that America came to the aid of a lot of nations in real times of crisis over the last hundred years. And we want to keep doing that.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I mean, at this point, I believe that nations need to come to the aid of America at this point. And to the extent that people feel frustrated or worried about America no longer being the shining beacon leading democracies all over the world or setting the tone, what Canada did was it, I think you need to be very Machiavellian strategic.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
A province in Canada has canceled $100 million contract for Starlink. They've said, we're just not going to continue to fund the lead of a coup. I'd hit them where they're in their soft tissue.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And that is, if you think America plays and should continue to play a vital role in our democracy and be that shiny beacon on a hill, and you are using Starlink or your government is in negotiations around subsidies, whatever it might be for EVs or Tesla, I would make it clear
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that you are not going to support an individual who's leading a coup in a nation that has, for the most part, been a really staunch ally. I'm now at the point where I can't call them Republicans.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And so I think I'm going to a fashion week party tonight. I don't have my kids. I push my meetings back till 10 a.m. tomorrow. So that all spells ketamine for the dog tonight.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I think they are both kind of surprised and giddy that they're getting away with this and also scared of crossing Elon for fear they'll be primaried by Twitter and his hundreds of millions of dollars, which he can do now, given the fact that we let one man amass $400 billion in power. And two, you know, they're surprised. And also, quite frankly, Cara, I think Senator Murphy's fantastic.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
We come across as neutered and feckless at this point. We are like, well, look over here. Oh, I can't believe you would say it was DEI around a helicopter. You are exactly right. That is a sideshow.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
So I'm going to try it. Yeah. I don't even know how you take it, though. Do you know how you take it?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Now, your house is on fire. You shouldn't be arguing over the pattern of the couch. It's just, and all of these things are important, but this really is, again, I think our elected representatives who have contacts overseas should be calling them and saying, you need to put pressure on Elon. And Trump is doing the same thing that Zuckerberg did to Sandberg.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
That was a medically supervised ketamine trick.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
He's using him as this very powerful and effective heat shield such that If he does go too far, and in fact, they do find this is illegal and they start Trump can back away and say, oh, I didn't know they had done that. Yeah, they went a little too far. He's done that.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
There's a big difference. Tonight, I'm going to do it to like me more. What?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
So he's basically I mean, to a weird extent, Elon Musk is a 400 billion dollar media platform weaponized Sandberg. He's a heat shield. And he's like, you understand this technology and how to go in there and shut off payments. And what they're hoping is it resets or recalibrates the playing field for negotiation.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Let's start from you're getting zero, despite the fact that our elected representatives passed this law that says Head Start is a good thing. And this is, they went right to the mechanism for the payment. I mean, And it's, I don't understand. This is illegal. I would just, very simple. This is illegal, and I believe the people involved in this will be prosecuted. That is what I'm planning to do.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Again, another weapon of mass distraction. That's not gonna go anywhere. What could go somewhere, in my view, legally, is to say, these are the laws, and I believe you and these 25-year-olds have broken, and I plan to do everything within my power to enforce these laws.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
That is not tomato-tomato. Me at a fashion week party, hitting the moves, thinking I like me a little bit more than usual, doing ketamine with some strange person. By the way, as opposed to going to Washington, that is not tomato-tomato.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I like calla lilies and you don't touch me anymore.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
That is huge. I want to have a good time tonight. I don't want to forget everything. I want to disassociate.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Do you snort it? Do you inject it? Or what I'm hoping, do you shove it up your ass? Hello, ladies. Who's got a glove? Who's got a glove?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Well, okay. But before we even get to the notion that Egypt, I mean, look at the borders. Look at the Gaza border with its neighboring nations. No one wants to take these refugees, whatever you want to call it. I understand the argument. It is an interesting argument.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The notion that we're setting up a situation where nothing's really going to be different and eventually we're going to face the same problems in two, five, 10 years again, that's a powerful argument. The notion that we need to be creative and thoughtful, fine. This is not the time, if you go into the emergency room, okay, the term stop the bleeding originates from a very logical place.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And that is if you go into the emergency room with a gunshot or you've fallen and hit your head and you're hemorrhaging blood, they don't take your PSA. They don't talk about, they don't say check his or her cholesterol. They stop the bleeding. Everything else at this point is a worthy conversation that should be had by our elected representatives.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
But if we let a coup be successful and change the complexion of the negotiation, whereas opposed to arguing over who is prosecuted here and under what laws and how do we immediately arrest this coup? such that we're not negotiating, well, will you give us 50 percent of the funding back for Head Start, dear person who wasn't elected to make these decisions? Focus on stop the bleeding.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The bleeding here, America is bleeding out. in a small building somewhere that has access, that is being remotely accessed by different locations, by a group of people under the cover of dark to stop payments based on programs that were passed by laws by our elected representatives. This is a coup and it's not a slow moving coup, it's a fast moving coup.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And everything else is an ER doctor saying, okay, they lost their leg and they're gonna be dead in three minutes if they continue to bleed out. Let's find out what their good and bad, let's figure out what their blood pressure. I mean, no, none of that's important at this point. Stop the bleeding. This is our focus.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
So let me answer that. That's called MDMA or X, and I took it a couple times in college, and I remember thinking to myself, I don't have an addictive personality, but I remember thinking, this is so good, I cannot do this again.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
No, it makes me happy. It does make me fucking crazy.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Do you know its initial use case? It was psychiatrists in couple therapy who wanted them to open up to each other.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
It's the least expressed. I don't need drugs. Well, I do because of people like you.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Disney Plus has added $13 million. The big thing comes down to churn, and that is there's this really uncomfortable dynamic where everyone but Netflix has to reinvent their entire customer base every 10 years or two years because they go on and they download the entire season of Ted Lasso, and then they cancel Apple TV+. And Netflix has so much, so much gross tonnage that their churn is only 2%.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Disney is number two, but it's at 4.8%. And then the other guys have even higher churn rates.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
But to your point, total share of video viewership is like 8% or 9% for Netflix. YouTube is 11%. You could argue YouTube is the number one streamer, but it's still categorized as a different sector.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Disney's parks, cruises, and resorts continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. Revenue up 3%, but the operating income was up 6% to 8%. Disney's done a good job incorporating ESPN into a pretty compelling bundle with Hulu. Moving on to Google.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Their full year revenue grew 14%, but people are freaked out about slower than expected cloud growth because they see that as a proxy for their AI offering. So they took the stock down a little bit. They're also worried about the amount of CapEx. Their capital expenditure is supposed to increase to $75 billion.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The thing about Google, though, is that they have five separate businesses that do more than $30 billion in annual revenue. If their stock were to go down I mean, look at it this way. That's like saying they have the revenue power of five different Starbucks or five different visas with different businesses.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
They are just a cash, a series of cash volcanoes, seven products and platforms with over 2 billion users, search maps, Gmail, Android. They're just doing incredibly. Spotify is probably the most impressive performer from where it was, say, 12 or 24 months ago. And that is they essentially set quarterly record highs for revenue, gross margin, operating income.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The stock has tripled in the last year. Their platform growth is accelerating. Their total monthly active users hit 675 million. their premium subscribers up 11%, their average revenue per user or ARPU is up 5%. And now kind of what I'll say, and I'll come back to it in a second, but the big theme here or something hopefully resembling insight is the following. If you look at the acceleration
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
In Spotify stock and in Netflix, I believe that that's more than just growth in the category. So Netflix now has more than 50% of its production overseas. And if you look at Spotify, less than 1% of its artists garner more than 95%. 2% of its streaming revenues.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Effectively, with the scale that these companies have, and by not sharing analytics or information, what Netflix has done is it has transferred a massive amount of capital, earnings power, money from the means of production, specifically artists, to Netflix shareholders. And that is when you put something on Netflix, they don't tell you how successful it is.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I heard about this. I won't spoil it for you, but good for you. I'm convinced you're pulling a Scott when his kids were little, and that is you're coming up with a lot of reasons to leave the house right now.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
They might produce it in Spain or in Seoul, but they basically extracted a shit ton of capital from California based employees, from actors, from producers and said, we're kind of the big dog here and you have to operate under this new religion or this new operating model.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Because by the way, if you don't want to be in our Netflix drama, there's 179,000 other SAG-AFTRA people that are looking for work.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I've got to go to San Francisco. Oh, my God, it's terrible. I'll miss you guys so much.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
there's two ingredients to the secret sauce here. And it's an asymmetry, they both have to do with an asymmetry of information. If Deadpool does $1.3 billion, the agent for Ryan Reynolds and for Hugh Jackman know that, and the next time they wanna do Deadpool meets Fast and Furious 18 or whatever, the agent from WME goes to the studio and says, I know how important Hugh Jackman is.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And they extract a shit ton, a pound of flesh. In streaming, the only evidence that Ben Stiller has that Severance got more than one viewer is they order seasons three and four. So the asymmetry of information always benefits the person that has symmetrical information. When Jennifer Aniston's agent knew that the Thursday night lineup counted, depended, was resting on the pillar of friends,
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The people producing and acting in Friends could extract a lot of revenue. No one in streaming has any fucking idea. And then the second big number out of the Disney earnings that fascinated me and explains why Netflix trades at 11 times revenue and Disney at two times, is that now more than half of Netflix's content budget is spent overseas.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And some of it's done to be more multinational, but the majority of the reason they do it and the reason why they're building big studios in New Jersey is because New Jersey just supersized their tax subsidy. They realized if we can produce two eights in Spain or Seoul, instead of producing one possible eight or nine in LA, Go with the aides overseas.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Over 50% of their content budget is now spent overseas. Do you know what percentage of Disney's content budget is spent overseas?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Like none. So essentially what Japan did to Detroit, Netflix is doing to Los Angeles. And I don't care. You want to talk about nuclear code secrets. Right.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
When we launch our series on Netflix and I say, if I call them and say, I am not working with you again unless you tell me how many people downloaded this relative to your other dramas, they're going to say, well, it was nice working with you, Scott. Because they don't want anyone to have that leverage. So asymmetry of information and the globalization of content production.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Fantastic product. Right. But all of those benefits, I mean, this is a straight line. There's a lot of innovation, a fantastic product, but you want to talk about a massive flow to the bottom line and who it's coming from beyond the natural growth, organic growth of the sector.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
It's coming from the gaffer, the lighting guy, and the woman who wrote season four of SpongeBob SquarePants and used to make 200 grand a year. And Netflix has said, you know what? I figured out a way to pay you 40 grand. And all of that capital coming out of high production states and people has moved to Netflix shareholders. And it represents a much broader trend in our society. And that is
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The notion that we give a shit about stakeholders and not shareholders is just not true. Everything is run for shareholders. And by the way, there's some upside to that. I'm not arguing that it's the wrong way, but be clear, folks. Everything is now optimized to transfer as much capital as possible from states, from workers. The workers here are not being prioritized.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Production in Los Angeles was off 40% year on year, not because they're not talented, but because they're too goddamn expensive. And Netflix has found a way to keep them in the dark and then hire 80% as talented a person overseas for 30 to 40% of the price. It's a transfer of wealth from artists at Spotify and from-
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The creatives in Hollywood to Netflix and Spotify shareholders and Spotify has made the jump. So they have so much leverage. They are now extracting revenue from the bottom 99.9 of artists. They're going to make less and less money.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Well, I'm glad you're back and you need to stop taking red eyes.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Incredibly well managed. I just think you got to give it to Dara. He and Apple were the ones that said, no, I'm not going to jump into the shallow end head first here and make huge capital allocations to autonomous.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I'm going to wait. I'm going to rent other, just as, I mean, they're good at this. Uber's innovation is Airbnb's innovation, and that is I'll build a thick layer of software on top of other people's capital expenditure, on top of their apartments, their houses, and their cars, right?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
When you turn 70, such as yourself, you, as a gift to yourself, you need to stop doing red eyes. I don't do red eyes anymore.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
So it's in their DNA to say, why don't we just ride, why don't we just be the remora fish off of Google's multi-decade, multi-tens of billions of dollars investments and autonomous? that's where we should be riding. That's where we should be playing the game. He is doing a great job of managing that company.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Well, if you think about the three layers in AI, there's the infrastructure layer, the NVIDIAs of the world, there's the LLM layer, the anthropics, the chat GBTs, and then there's the application layer. And the entire infrastructure and LLM world was thrown into disarray when shocker, China came up with something cheaper, right?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
But I think what you're about to see is kind of a golden age or dozens of new unicorns in what I'd call the application layer.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And I met with this incredibly impressive young man yesterday who founded a company called Rogo, which is essentially they take all of these financial data streams, whether it's Cap IQ or Bloomberg, and then they put a layer of intelligence, AI weaponized intelligence on top of it, and they turn...
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Your sleep, your nutrition, your sleep, your nutrition, and your exercise are the three pillars. And you need to prioritize sleep. You don't sleep while I'm playing. I have no more red eyes for you.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
they turn an investment banking analyst into someone fighting on horseback to someone in a Panzer tank. So you can type into this AI that's customized for financial services or institutions, put together an IPO roadshow deck for a fast fashion company that does this revenues and these are the concerns. And it'll put together a 60 slide deck of which 48 are pretty good.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
So you can basically do the job of three analysts and they'll say that it's making people more productive, but it's going to result in massive layoffs. Anyways, I think you're about to see dozens of unicorns in the application layer. I do think that the infrastructure and the LLM layer is about to shed tens of billions of dollars as people realize the moats aren't as big as they thought.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
That if Sam Altman can copy everything out there, someone's going to be able to figure out a way to copy Sam Altman's shit. But the additional customization or artisanal AI application layer in healthcare and in financial services and fitness and all sorts of things is going to create a bunch of branded consumer AI applications. I mean, that's what Airbnb is, right? That's what Uber are.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
They took existing infrastructure and breakthroughs and they branded it and they created interesting vertical niche applications. I think that you're about to see a bunch of companies. I mean, this guy, I had breakfast with this kid, 25, Jesus Christ. I'm like, can I come back as you? By the way, I'm going to be him tonight under the influence of Ketamine.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
No, by the way, you're not my call. Preet Bharara is my call. I literally, I have him. I'm about to make him and his phone number tonight my screensaver.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Tonight, it's like, this is the guy. Here's his number. I've told Preet this.
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You can ask me for anything, but if you see my name come up, I need you to answer. And I'm not calling to say hi. I'm not calling to say hi.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I've told him I'll send millions of dollars of money to this law firm he's now like the rainmaker for. Anyways, but, you know, I'm not calling you. I'm calling Preet.
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I'll look up as a scold from you.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
By the way, I have an aura ring and I just downloaded my data and it says one thing. Try ketamine tonight.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I like that. Thanks for saying that. Get away from her. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Anyways, this is, I mean, this is insanity or crazy, but I would describe it more apt as like late stage syphilis crazy.
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I can't wait. I just think I'm going to like me more tonight.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
But the thing is, that can go on for years.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
No, unfortunately. The good news is I'm so unattractive and unappealing now that you have to have someone else to engage in giving you syphilis, and that's just not going to happen.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I used to like the word encephalitic, but that's not syphilis. That's a brain disease, cloudiness, but syphilis. I do like syphilis.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I'm going to feel better about everything. It's not an insurrection. It's a dance party. Anyway.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I wouldn't mind her. Your texts are mean. If she calls me and says, you meant this, I'm open to that.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
He's a very thoughtful guy. Mogadai, I really enjoyed the conversation with him. And basically, you should listen to the conversation, but basically summarize, like, Sam Altman is reshaping the way we think about things, the way we approach problems, potentially what types of weapons are developed. And he was kind of like, who the fuck is Sam Altman to get to do this?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Nishat Kurwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Who is that guy in the corner at that Fashion Week party?
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I get the sense he likes him a lot. That's the dog.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
You said something that really resonated with me, and that is I've been – I've fallen prey to what is a really smart strategy on their part, and that is the invasion of –
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Greenland or somehow some fucked up weird strategy for clearing out or the ultimate, I don't know, apartheid or whatever they're planning to do in Gaza or invading the Panama Canal or accusing a helicopter or saying that the people responsible for helicopter crash are somehow a function of DEI. You're exactly right. And it struck me what an idiot I was being.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
That's nothing but weapons of mass distraction from what is effectively a second insurrection by the same president. And insurrection is probably the wrong term. It's probably more of a coup. But you change the entire negotiation between someone, two people, when one person holds a gun to the other person's head. And what they have done, they're very smart and elegant here.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Instead of a bunch of Duck Dynasty mobs with trucker hats and goatees getting out of their RAV4s, It's the wealthiest man in the world who, in my opinion, is trespassing in federal property and has enlisted a bunch of acolytes and has stopped making payments for things like Head Start or the funding of AIDS programs or malaria treatment.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
There are people being carried out in stretchers that are in hospitals because they don't have funding. And these programs and this funding, whether you agree with them or not, or think they should be subject to review, are a function of laws that were passed by three branches of government.
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And they figured out a way to say, look over here at this helicopter crash, or it's DEI, or we have a plan to clear out Gaza. to distract you from the fact that we now have an insurrectionist or a coup being led by the world's wealthiest man. I think the Republicans are thinking, I can't believe they're letting us do this.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And as long as we're kind of in favor of this, and now they're in a position, when you hold a gun to someone's head, it changes the complexion of negotiation. It's no longer, oh, you need laws to do this. It's like, well, we might turn the payments back on for Head Start, but let's talk about it. Well, no, we're not going to discuss it. I don't think they're going gangster enough.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
They probably just unmasked. because of their recklessness, the names and identities of CIA officers, which is an incredible act of treason and stupidity.
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So I want to know who are these young, highly intelligent, highly motivated people zealots following them into these buildings and shutting off payments to schools and Head Starts. I want to know their names.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Oh, yeah, but they can unmask CIA officers who've put their lives in harm's way. to try and keep our Americans safe. I want to know who their names are. And I want to see Democratic governors saying, I'm going to do everything I can in my power to use the full faith and to the letter of the law to put you folks in prison. I think what you're doing is trespassing. I think this is a coup.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And be clear, just because the new insurrectionist who was elected, I don't believe this is legal. And I'm going to hold the people accountable who are trespassing and part of a coup accountable. To just sit back and say, this is horrible and this is unlawful, we need to go gangster here and say, look, we are not negotiating around this stuff. This is illegal. This is a coup.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
This is the unlawful seizure of power. We are not gonna engage in these bullshit, ridiculous arguments over, you know, Gaza and Greenland. We are going to hold the people accountable. Here are their names, here are their faces. And we have contacted the local authorities in where these kids live, these young adults, and we are going to hold them accountable.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
We need to start hitting back in a way that disrupts what is the unlawful seizure of resources that have been leaked. You might disagree with them. Fine. That is not anyone's right. Our elected representatives pass these laws.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I've had, we've been critical of Democrats, and I've heard from about six Democrats, one senator, five representatives. And he says, well, what would you do? And we talk a little bit about messaging. He's like, but that's not enough. And he said, well, what do you want me to do, walk down there and stop them? I'm like, yeah, I'd like to see all, whatever it is, 48 or 49 U.S.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
senators and any Republicans that want to join, I'd like to see a couple hundred members of Congress go to the fucking building where this is and demand to go in and physically stop this and let them arrest you. I'm like, fine. Let America see that there are still people who believe in government in the US and democracy. Let them arrest you. I'm like, go down there.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
This guy I'm talking to is a former, this representative, a newly elected guy, former service member. I'm like, Dude, if someone attacked our shores, you put yourself in harm's way. I mean, march down to wherever this fucking building is where all these acolytes and the high sparrow are and walk in there and demand they stop and let them arrest you.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
For Democrats, this isn't the time to come together. This is a time to come to the rescue. get together, all of you, wherever the building is, wherever they're actually shutting off payments to veterans.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
It outs them as so partisan. It undermines their credibility. Exactly. Even if he thinks that, why would he say that?
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Well, he's hoping that people... So Sam is a very bright guy. And Sam's complexion or posture, I think, is very smart and, quite frankly, much more mature than many of the tech executives that are 10, 20 years a senior. And that is He never makes personal attacks.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
But they're passive, passive aggressive.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
But OpenAI was basically started, and Musk wanted out, or they couldn't come to an agreement.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Right. Musk wanted to control it. And Altman said no. And Musk said, I'm taking my ball and going home. Signed airtight legal documents saying he was out and he no longer had ownership or control over the company. And now that it's the leader in open AI, he's decided that, oh... I'm angry and I'm going to, you know, I'm going to burn the village to say that.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Yeah, that I want, I want to kneecap the leader here. And if the shoe were on the other foot, I mean, Musk would be on Twitter every day accusing Altman of pedophilia and everything. And saying that this company is anti-American, it's been weaponized by Putin. I mean, it would be. Yep. He would be turning the algorithms of anything he could on this guy.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I don't think he thinks that. I think he's trying to come off as the good guy.
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And hope that politicians and people see open AI as the innovator and the leader and put some shark repellent around them, say, no, this is bullshit.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
No. If you lived in London, it would be 50 and dark already. Yeah. And you'd be thinking, a spa of tea. Ask where the dog is, Kara. Where's the dog?
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I think it's all reverse engineers to the same place as most of our problems, and that is massive income inequality. And the people, let me be clear right up front, this is murder. And I hope they find this person, pursue him to the four corners of the earth and bring him to justice. And my heart really does go out to the family. The people who
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empathize with this or can, not empathize with it, can understand why it happened, are the 41% of U.S. adults that currently have some form of debt caused by their own or a family member's medical or dental bills. Absolutely. Healthcare expenditures in the U.S. are $12,500 per person, about $4,000 more than any other high-income nation with worse outcomes. The number one cause of bankruptcy
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
is medical debt. So what you have is a massive regulatory capture. You have a healthcare system. You and I get the best healthcare in the world because we're wealthy. But that top 10%, the bottom 90 has been optimized for regulatory capture and shareholder value across the medical industrial complex.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And the people who've done the worst are the bottom 90 and also quite frankly, frontline medical workers. But when you find out your wife has lung cancer, that's the bad news. The worst news is it probably means there's a decent chance your family might go bankrupt. And so there is so much despair. And one of the charts circulated. And again, this in no way justifies murder.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Where are you? I'm in the Cotswolds. I'm in the Cotswolds. We're moving. And my job when we move is to simply put, get the fuck out of the way. And my value add is to bring the dogs out to the Cotswolds. Here, let me do my impression of me moving. I'm in a room. packing my stuff, and occasionally you just hear an expletive and then, where are my edibles? I can't find my edibles.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
But one of the charts being circulated shows that the greatest number of claim denials is from, you guessed it, UnitedHealthcare. And if you look at the bullets – when I first heard – we do an editorial call to talk about what issues we're going to talk about at Prof G. And I said, let's not talk about this because we don't know – as far as we know, this is just – an insane person.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
We just don't know what happened here. Let's not connect it to a broader theme. The thing that made me change my mind and feel like you can connect it to societal issues is the following. The casings on the bullets had inscribed in them, deny and delay.
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That's not to say this person isn't mentally ill, but this was clearly rooted or inspired by some weird notion of restoration of societal injustice.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And so the Panzer tank commander who is organizing this move has decided- Your wife, yeah. I am not a value add, and my job is to leave and take the dogs with me. So I'm out at Heckfield Place- Oh, that's useful. Taking long walks with the dogs and having farm, all organic breakfasts and- Oh, okay.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I think it's linked to the vile messages you're getting. And I know this sounds paranoid, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong. But if I were the head of the GRU or the CCP or the security services in the Islamic regime, I would think, okay, we can't defeat them economically. We can't defeat them militarily.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Let's leverage their capex, their hunger for shareholder value over everything, their inability to regulate these platforms to And let's use AI to create millions of bots that get people fighting with one another.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And when we see a powerful yet controversial figure who's a journalist who weighs in with an issue, let's just automatically try and start fights and get people hating each other and get people depressed and upset. That's what I would do if I were the head of the GRE.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Well, okay, so what you have across the world is every incumbent party is being kicked out because everybody hates everybody. No one is satisfied. Everybody is, and it goes back to the same thing. Get every democracy arguing and believing that their country is doing really poorly.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
If you just read the media, if you just went on social media, you would think that America is just a fucking mess right now. No, it's not. I mean, we have issues, no doubt about it. But show me almost any special interest group, maybe the exception of pregnant women and trans people. I would argue gay people, non-whites, the poor, almost everybody.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
is doing markedly better than they were 10, 20, 40, 50 years ago. But you would believe that there needs to, every spark here turns into a five car alarm because they are smarter than us. And our superpowers are optimism, but the externality of the Achilles heel of that is that we're easier to fool than convinced we've been fooled. Cara, I think in 20 years, we're gonna look back
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
and see the information war of Goebbels, of Nazi Germany, of whether GRU did. And I think they're going to look at America and how these platforms were weaponized to get us hating each other such that we no longer talk to our neighbors, we no longer went on dates, we hated every incumbent person in power thinking that they were the problem.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Almost every Western nation has seen turnover in their leadership. Does that mean they're all bad or is something else going on? And it's the same thing here.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
But I just hope Trump isn't taking notes.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I'm sure there's quite a few people who-
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
It's really... National service, final five voting, ranked choice voting. All of us have a personal... Obligation to take the heat down. I mean, there's just a lot. And also, wake up. Our platforms, our media, Americans, two-thirds of Americans get their news from social media. It has been weaponized. This is no different than if the Kremlin had controlled CBS, ABC, and NBC in the 60s.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
To the Cotswolds? Yeah, apparently. Huh. I did not run into Ellen on my walk today, but.
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And yet we've decided to let it happen.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
No, we have true dysfunction. It's not the GRU or the CCP coming between us.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
By the way, I am absolutely exhausted from my French self-defense class. I have never run so far in my life. A little World War II surrender humor there. I know.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
He's out. This has just gotten too far. When his mom goes on Fox to say she didn't mean it, and... He had a nonprofit that he was bilking for his own personal expenses. When he showed up, he was drunk.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Hitting on people. I mean, he's toast. There are already five Republican senators that have said they're concerned, which means basically, don't make me vote no, resign.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
He was negative, and now he's— Yeah, because Trump called him and said, I'll tell you when to be negative. He's out in the next 24, 40 hours. The good news is, with respect to the SEC pick, I do think something rational comes over, washes over Trump when it comes to these picks. And then you can't say that about Peter Navarro. Peter Navarro struck me as a total fucking nut.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Accidentally drop my scarf or she drops her scarf.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
But anyways, the SEC, I think it's an important position. This guy seems very credible to me. Also, You know, Governor DeSantis, I'm a resident of Florida. I don't like his policies.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
He's a competent individual. And also, the people I know who work with Governor DeSantis have always said he's very data-driven. He was a lawyer for the Navy. He's qualified. And...
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
He's certainly qualified. What do you think of Senator Ernst? I don't know much about her.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I think I'm more into her wife, Portia. She was great in Arrested Development. I thought she was hilarious. Yes.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Anyone in recovery, anyone who knows anything about addiction says, okay, first you got to fix the underlying problem. And saying you're going to quit if means you haven't even acknowledged you have a problem. You know, if he'd said, I've struggled and I've quit, and with the help of God and my wife, you know, I'm going to. but saying, give me this, don't stop drinking.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I mean, you know, it was the wrong day for me to give up meth. I mean, what?
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
No, I think one of the problems that I drink, one of the downsides, is it a downside, of me drinking a lot is I'm a better version of me, a little fucked up. I'm friendly, I'm nice, I'm smart. I'm just a better version of me. People, I remember in college in the fraternity,
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Occasionally, not often, but occasionally guys would get drunk and they get violent or mean and immediately you're like memo to self, stay away from this person. I think how people behave when inebriated and how they treat their pets or looking glasses into their souls. You can really tell a lot by a person by the way they act after a few drinks.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
You know, my cue does not include Ally McBeal.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Interestingly— Oh, some women get very mean on alcohol care.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
When you say he takes the trash out, are you saying because- That's an expression in Washington. Oh, see, I thought there was a double meaning there, and that is they release bad news on Fridays because it doesn't get as much coverage.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
D.C., but do you have sunshine there? Like, has the sun been out in the last seven days?
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Yeah, I think she got it wrong. And I think she's eventually going to get his money.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
The word the judge kept using was fair. And if you want to talk about CO compensation, come over and we'll smoke cigarettes and eat ice cream and talk about fair. I think the board got it wrong. But the way corporate governance works in a corporation is that the shareholders nominate and elect directors and the directors get to decide CEO compensation. And this is outrageous.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I think that no person should be worth a third of a trillion dollars. I think power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts. But if you have a capitalist society, the way it works is the board gets to decide compensation. They decided it and the shareholders effectively approved it.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And so when judges start saying what type of compensation is fair or not fair, I believe it's government overreach. So as ridiculous as this is, I think the board got it wrong. The way I think you handle this is through a more progressive tax policy. I think anyone making over a billion dollars should pay an alternative minimum tax of 80%.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
But the moment judges start talking about what is fair or not fair in compensation, I just think it's government overreach. I think she got this wrong.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
The majority of shareholders have approved this pay package.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
If you own a building and you pay the maintenance people or the person running the building an outrageous amount of money, that's what you get to do if you own the building. And the majority of the owners of this company have decided he's going to get a hug.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And also, I hate defending Elon Musk, but when they awarded the options package, it was worth single-digit billions. Yeah. So in the analogy I would use is that if Tim Cook- I think it was always 40 billion.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Anyways, if Tim Cook went to his biggest shareholders and said, we're worth 3 trillion, I think I can make this company worth 20 trillion. But in order to do that, and I'm the singular person who can do this, I want a trillion dollars.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I think at that moment, a majority of shareholders might go, a trillion dollars is ridiculous, but sure, if you can make this thing worth 20, we'll give you a trillion. And that's kind of what he did here. So, again, I think fairness and the support of the greatest innovation in history, the American middle class, is through a progressive tax structure.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
But a key component of capitalism is the owners of an asset get to decide what to do with it, including the compensation.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Well, just stay home and self-harm. Same, same. Yeah. That's funny. That invitation must have got lost in the mail for me. I didn't get invited to the Metta party.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
They've made tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars for just nodding their head and saying he's great.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
That's because you're powerful. They don't need to be nice to me. I hate them, but I have no power, so they can just not invite me. They hate you, but you have power, so they pretend to like you.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I would go, I like the whole cable news as a cabinet strategy. I'd have Dana Bash, except I'd go another cable network. I think the people at CNN are so impressive. I think it should be President Dana Bash. Her vice president is Anderson Cooper. And we laugh, but these people would be a hell of a lot more competent than some of the people he's proposing now.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Peter Hegseth and Peter Navarro, give me a fucking break or whatever. Or Kash Patel. Michael Smirconish, I'd like to be secretary of commerce. I'd like to see, I would, there's so many outstanding, I'd love to see Michael Bennett as secretary of education. I think Vivek Murthy as head of health and human services.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I think he is the most consequential surgeon general in history, bringing up loneliness and the stress on parents. There's a ton of fantastic. Oh, I would put together the hottest and most competent cabinet in history. And I give AOC a job just because she's ridiculously fucking hot. And it's important to have good looking people. But Ro Khanna would have a spot in there.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
That's the problem. A lot of them are super smart. That's the whole problem.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I think Amy Klobuchar, I put it the head of the FTC or the DOJ. Is she a lawyer?
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
You're right. She's a fucking gangster. She's not afraid of anybody. Yeah, I would have a ton. I could. Oh, my God. Give me the chessboard. I will put the pieces in the right place.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
We do exactly what we're doing right now because our lives are really nice.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Oh, easy. I'd want to be secretary of education. Oh.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
You do spy on me. You fucking text me at three in the morning. You know what I'm doing at all moments.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I was eating alone in the Cotswolds after taking an edible and listening to Tom Petty and then taking my dogs for a long walk at night.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Are you going to get drunk and make out with anybody? No. Or be like stumbling drunk and then run for, and then be a nominee for the cabinet?
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Oh, that'll be great. That'll be great.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
No way. 100% no. No. Oh, I'd also give, speaking of Fox, I'd give Neil Cavuto a position. I like him.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Okay. I'd give Cavuto a position. God, this would be fun.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Oh, she'd be ambassador to our most important, like, I'd make her ambassador to, I just like, I'd want her to be an ambassador to France because she would throw amazing parties at the residence in Paris.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And she's got great style. I mean, Ambassador to France, that's an easy one.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I need you to be president so we can do this.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I'll be the puppet master. I'll tell you exactly what to say, what to do, and you can just be... So you're like Steve Bannon?
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I gotta admit it. I'm coming out of the closet as someone who's kind of excited about Doge. I don't like those guys, but I'm curious to see what they come up with.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
That's unforgivable, naming people. That's the dumb.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I'm like, you know, I'm glad you finally acknowledged that across all your relationships, Kara.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I'm going to hold my judgment for the recommendations. You know, there's just some interesting, it's catalyzing an interesting dialogue. We have five air forces in the military. Do we need five air forces? I mean, there's just some interesting conversations here.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Oh, yeah. I keep getting forwarded people who say that we're one of their top pods.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Oh, no, it's one of these weird bottles that, you know, they can't just give you water. It has to be something kind of classy and stylish. British design actually really stepped it up in kind of the aughts. And it even says on it, still water. Well, thank you. And I tried to make tea with, like, free-range leaves or whatever it was, and it tasted... It tasted like ass.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Ooh, my rap. I just pulled it up. Do you want to hear mine? Okay, hold on.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
All right. Top artists. Number one, Electric Light Orchestra. Number two, Calvin Harris. Number three, Fleetwood Mac. Number four, Fine Young Cannibals. Number five, Supertramp. Your top songs.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Wouldn't you? Have you seen pictures of me in the 80s? Seriously, that shit worked.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
That's how I relax, is I pretend I'm in my junior year at UCLA. Right. Anyways, my top songs were the Safety Dance, Men Without Hats. That's a great one. Enola Gay, but I think that's Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark. Oh, You Get What You Want by the New Radicals. She Drives Me Crazy, again, the Fine Young Cannibals. And Give a Little Bit by Supertramp.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I'm shocked that Don't Bring Me Down or even The Losers by Tom Petty.
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Former London Symphony musicians who kept seeing each other in studios and doing serial commercials and said, let's start a rock band.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Another example of how the U.K. dominates IP, name a great American band, and I can name you five U.K. bands, and yet all the money is made in the U.S. Anyways, the original AI, they invent it, and we monetize it.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
No, Taylor, yeah, no. I'm stuck in the 80s.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I've been taking these ridiculously long walks with my dogs. I have weird predictions. The first is sort of a serious one. I think that we're so focused on some of the stuff domestically that the biggest news are usually things we're not thinking about. I think you're going to see an uprising in the beginning of potentially what is a revolution in Iran soon.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Iran's proxies, of which they've invested tens of billions of dollars over the last couple of decades, the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, and now Syria, which is in the midst of its own uprising, has essentially had their hands cut off.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And I think a lot of the people within Iran, you know, you shouldn't say Iran when you're talking about the leadership there, you should talk about the Islamic regime or the Islamic Republic, because the Iranian people In my view, this is a leadership that is corrupt, incredibly—I think the Ayatollah is sitting on a house of cards right now, or Khomeini, I should say.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And I think that the Bashar al-Assad's weakness, the second largest city, Aleppo, has been taken by rebels or HTS—I don't know how to pronounce his name— But I think effectively Iran is more vulnerable right now than they have been in a couple of decades. And I imagine adversarial parties within the country sense that and will strike soon.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
So 2025, I think the biggest or one of the biggest news stories will be an uprising in Iran.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And I'm like, I'm just going to order a latte from room service.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Well, I mean, Hamas has the support of the Palestinian people. The Islamic regime does not in Iran. And I think that all of their proxies being weakened and also all of their buffer states, you know, Iranian air defenses are really vulnerable right now. Israel, it's really weird. The Middle East is being dictated by three non-Arab nations. It's really...
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
It's really Iran, Israel, and you could argue Turkey right now, which is kind of filling that vacuum. I mean, and Assad was going to turn to Russia. Russia has its own issues in Ukraine. I think all of the cards, all of the tea leaves are turning up really bad for Iran right now. And I think domestic markets.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
domestic rebel forces or people who want to overthrow this regime, which I think the West would like to see, probably feel more jonesed up and confident right now than they've been in a while. That's a serious prediction. I have a less serious prediction.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Go ahead. I'm dumb. It doesn't mean I'm wrong. Oh, Fareed Sicario, Secretary of State. Boom. I'm so good at this.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Oh, Farid. Farid, that guy's a genius. Yeah, sort of. I don't care. That guy's a genius. Surround him with a few buffers, fine. But that guy, that guy's a clear blue flame thinker. Kind of. Nice man, too.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Who is every time? Anyway, so my second one is a little bit more, I don't know, trivial, but equally profound. And that is, I think that you're going to see a strike, another strike, but I think it's going to be by the world's top football players.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And that is... Because of the outrageous explosion in value of these teams, a lot of the owners are trying to monetize it and meet the demand of the sport, which is growing exponentially by creating more fixtures and more international competitions. And there's this weird dynamic in football where a 22-year-old can basically play every fucking day.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
But by the time you're 26 or 28, which is what the best players in the world, when they peak... They're getting fed up and they're getting injured and they aren't playing around the calendar. And I think that that's hit a bit of a breaking point because the best players in the world are the ones with the most demands on them physically.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And I think with the announcement like FIFA, which has always been a tad corrupt, if tad means a lot, has just announced another tournament, another fixture. I think it's at a breaking point. You're going to see the best players in the world decide we've had enough and go on strike. Anyways.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
It is ridiculous. This notion that somehow the NC2A, which pays themselves a shit ton of money and then wraps himself in some bullshit purity of college athletics, figures out a way to pay the 55-year-old white guy on the court 3 million a year. But all the black kids on the court, no, no, it's the purity of the sport. It is, I mean, enough already. Absolutely let these kids get paid.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I'm going as Holly Goodhead. True story, true. That was a true Bond girl, Holly Goodhead. It was the woman who was in, I forget her name. She was in broadcast news. She played the anchor that threatened Holly Hunter. So they sent her to Alaska. I forget her name. Tall drink of lemonade.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
The number one, the best performing stock in the S&P, number two is Nvidia, number one, MicroStrategy. I mean, this guy took a business intelligence firm that was worth, I don't know, a couple billion dollars, and he levered up the company to buy Bitcoin. And then now he's just issued zero coupon bonds, which means he doesn't have to pay interest to buy even more.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And his stock is up sevenfold this year. And you listen to this guy speak. I'm skeptical of the whole space. I think partly one, because I've missed out on the bull run. And two, I don't like the idea of the de-dollarization and replacing the dollar. I think it's like the kind of invisible aircraft carrier for us. Dangerous.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And also I do think there's some real downsides that Bitcoin maximalists, including Michael, don't acknowledge in terms of the danger of it funding. I think it's good occasionally where we see the flows of power and money, but anyways. But I've known Michael for 20 years.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
The thing I like about him and he is the voice the space needs because he's not only a very effective cheerleader, evangelist, whatever you want to call it, advocate, I have known him for a couple of decades. He's a nice man. And he doesn't start calling you a pedophile if you're not a Bitcoin maximalist like the rest of the Bitcoin Taliban or the crypto Taliban. He's not in jail.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I've known him long enough to say this about him. He's a generous, nice man. That's the voice they need right now. Because the other folks hyping this thing or evangelizing it are not nice people. They generally don't acquit themselves well. You're either... You either sign up for their religion or you're an apostate.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Still best Bond girl, Dandy Newton. Most beautiful woman in the world. Dandy. Yeah. No, if she's ever on your pod.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
So anyways, but the conversation, it's already, I think, our most downloaded pod so far this year. But this guy, you want to talk about balls of steel. He's kind of the Elon Musk we want. He took this enormous risk that paid off enormously, but he didn't start accusing people of sex crimes along the way.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and your Todd Andrews knew this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Severio, and Dan Shulan. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
You can subscribe to the magazine at nomadmag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Oh, my God. How many people have called you in the last two weeks saying, hey, what's going on? You know, I think we'd have a really interesting discussion on the pod. I'm like, yeah, boss, get in line.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
There's a bunch of those guys. Pluto, what's the other one? Oh.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I was just going to say he's filled a vacuum left by, you know, what is it? A very small man can cast a long shadow.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
You have cast a very long shadow and you have left the stage. Oh my God, Bitcoin's at $103,000. Jesus Christ.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Raise your hand if you don't own a single fucking coin. Anyways, I generally believe that you left a void in the market and Andrew, who does a great job on his own, but that, and I would argue the Milken Conference have kind of become, well, actually there's still Sun Valley, but I think the Milken Conference and Andrew Ross-Horkin's thing.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
So I spoke at one of those breakout panels that Andrew has, it was kind of like, they pretend they've asked you to speak on the main stage and you show up and you're in a room with like eight other people. And then I was asked to speak, because I know you wanted to bring it back to me.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I was asked to speak at the Milken Conference. And I said, I sent them my speaker sheet with my fees. I'm like, boss, we don't pay anybody to speak. And I wrote back and I said, okay, they want to put me on a panel on like, I don't know, media and tech. And I'm like, I'm sorry, I only do keynotes. And they wrote back, I guess it's not going to work. We don't have keynotes, just panels.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
So I am literally the Karen of the Milken Institute.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And I screwed up. I'd like to go. It's supposed to be amazing. Anyways, whoever curates the milking thing.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
No, they don't want entertainment. They want like real like brain power. So don't buy you. That's not true.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
He's a Canadian spy. Do I have to remind everyone again?
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Thoughts? There's a couple things. One, I agree with you. If you're going to take over a national treasure like The Washington Post, which plays an outsized role relative to its actual business, in the policing, in the truth to power, neither fear nor favor, it really does play an important role. I do think that Bezos saw that and bought it for a song, 250 million you said?
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Bought it for a song and generally was thought of it as, I don't know, a goodwill gesture towards the community. At least that's how he positioned and framed it.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
A lot of billionaires buy media companies or control them because they're thinking, if anyone comes after me, I can defend it with this heat shield called my own media network or I can I can evangelize my own political views. Media is just so goddamn powerful.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Eventually, almost every billionaire either has an interest in or decides to control a media company recognizing that's the ultimate prophylactic and the ultimate offensive weapon. So when he gets involved... When he makes editorial decisions, choosing to not endorse anyone was an endorsement of Trump.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Yeah. It was an endorsement of Trump. And that is terrible for the culture. It was a really low what I'll call management EQ move. You're creating dissent across a group of talented people where there's already strain because the business is strained. So you're adding chaos where there doesn't need to be. So you're right. He's the wrong owner.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
He should put it in a trust such that he can say, guys, I have no influence. Mr. President, I have no influence over this thing. I know that article they wrote about you saying that you're a felon, that you've been found guilty by jury of your peers of rape. that you actually coordinated and inspired an insurrection, you know, true or not, I can't help it.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
They're going to report the way they're going to report. When he weighs in, that means he's the wrong owner because he has a conflict. And that is the right thing for him to do as a fiduciary for Amazon shareholders is to unnaturally kiss Donald Trump's ass because it works.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And I think Mark wants to sell Time, no? He wants out.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Oh, yeah. A lot of people want to own Time magazine. Yeah.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Yeah, that's... He's not trying to sell it.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
That's someone selling, trying to get a decent number and get out of Dodge. He could have said it's not for sale. The guy doesn't need to sell it. So even being open to it means anybody, I want to sell it. Like... Billionaires mind media companies is like when you buy a boat. It's a ton of fun for a while, and then you just— Yeah, until it's not. Until it's not, yeah.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
Musk would do it. And unfortunately, America has shown an ability to tolerate it recently.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
kneecap every AI legislation in California that Governor Newsom correctly vetoed. I mean, of course he would do everything within his power to kneecap open AI to hope that XAI catches up such that he can control every technology. And unfortunately, I no longer have the confidence I once did that this couldn't happen.
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CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
You do spy on me. You fucking text me at three in the morning. You know what I'm doing at all moments.
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Liberation Day, Elon Exit Rumors, and Guest Co-Host Jon Lovett
I think he's basically going to pull a Vivek and just slowly fade away out of, and I think Doge is going to die a quiet death because he has, it looks as if his power has been emasculated and two, he's just losing so much money right now.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Support for the show comes from BetterHelp. Good mental health resources are more available than ever, but for many people, getting help is still a challenge. This Mental Health Awareness Month could be a great time to check in on yourself. BetterHelp has over 10 years of experience matching people to right therapists from their diverse network of more than 30,000 licensed therapists.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts. Cheech and Chong, what is the likelihood someone's going to spark up?
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
They could go more design or more cool product or something around manufacturing, pick someone from the cloud or something. But I think the automobile sector is so much about, I think it's such a unique industry and so complicated and so much about supply chain that I think they would want someone from the automobile sector. This is a long-winded way of saying I don't know.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
He should do what you're suggesting. He should do a sleight of hand and merge it with XAI and pretend that it's not an automobile company to get people to look away from the fact that his automobile sale, his pipeline is weak and his sales are crashing.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
The thing that struck out for me was, first off, Terry Moran is a world-class journalist. He's been covering the Supreme Court and, I believe, the White House for a while. I thought he put on a master class, and I think the big winner here was Terry, because This is an impossible position. You have to maintain some decorum and dignity and respect for the office.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And so when the president says, no, you got to trust me on this, it's this, it's hard. It's really hard to push back. And he was forceful yet dignified. And attempted to show grace and not just say, okay, Mr. President, stop fucking lying. Stop lying, please. See, that's what I would have done. I would have had the picture. But that's why you'll never interview the president. That's correct.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
So these people have to walk a very fine line, and that is they get criticized if they don't push back on obvious lies. At the same time, they have to maintain a certain decorum that respects the office. Terry thread that needle perfectly.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
It reminded me of that interview on CNBC with Deidre Bolson and Keith Rebois, where basically Keith committed securities fraud over and over and over about Opendoor, claiming it was profitable. And she real-time fact-checked him in a very kind of dignified, noncombative way. By the way, I think that stocks off like 70% or 90% since he went on. Journalists who...
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
want to give people the benefit of the doubt, want to show some decorum. And you have to show the president a certain amount of grace.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I'm an interviewer.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Yeah, but he got... Don't you think Terry made it clear to anyone with an IQ over, I don't know, 40, that he is lying or uninformed?
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Did you... But it's so interesting. It's interesting what the media focuses on. The media focuses on that. I thought by far the most interesting and damning part of the interview was when he asked him what the Declaration of Independence meant to him. Oh, yeah.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And it was hilarious. And the look that Terry Moran gave was the same look. And Desi Lydic said this, that when a schoolteacher decides a kid needs to see an adolescent psychotherapist— It was the look he was like, he's like, oh, my God, we're in worse trouble than I thought. Like, this person needs help. You know, break glass. This is an emergency.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
What's interesting, though, is that I just call some of balls and strikes here. The people around Biden clearly knew he was cognitively impaired and they hit him from the media. I think the people around Trump would probably or anyone smart would like to say, let's let's pull back on the media appearances. But there's no way he thinks he's doing great.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Where did you come in from?
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I think, you know, with Biden, they said, no, don't go on, Jon Stewart. We're just going to reheat your soup. And Nana's coming home. And he listened. And with.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I ordered soup. He's the guy leading water aerobics.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Joe's leading water aerobics today. And regarding the stories of Korea. Yeah, and how he fought a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Oh, you're in your favorite place, San Francisco.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
No, he thinks he's killing it. He thinks he's killing it.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I think he feels crazy. I don't see the physical impairment you see.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And you're collecting a bunch of awards and you're also, look what I'm wearing.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Just again, shout out. Terran Moran was fantastic. He handled a very difficult situation very well, I thought.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I'm wearing a Bill Maher shirt because I know you're going on Bill Maher. I am. It's hugely jelly. And I'm also wearing my Beverly Hills Hotel hat. And I need you... To go down to the pool, go to the polo lounge, have a few makers and gingers, say hello to Jorge, the concierge there. And any Russian woman that gives you eye contact, return her eye contact.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
the biggest toll booths in the world are google and arguably apple's app store and to think um your buddy um barry diller summarized it perfectly this is like a credit card company the app store provides infrastructure payment technology security safety a certain level of assurance that if if something goes wrong they vet the stores they've got the consumers
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Credit card companies charge between 1.8% and 3%. Apple charges 30% or 15%, I think, if it's recurring revenue. But they have such a lock. Even though they have, I think, about 40% or 50% market share in the U.S., I think they have closer to 80% or 90% of actual revenue volume because anyone with any money has an iOS or people with most money have an iOS. Oh, I wish.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
So I've been saying this for a while. The best ways to oxygenate the economy would be to, one, for China and the U.S. to kiss and make up because everything would get 10% cheaper around the world. But two, to basically bust up these toll booths and have other toll roads or other players. I mean, I don't know if you saw in the wake of just monster earnings from Meta and Alphabet.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Pinterest and Snap are just dying a slow death. Yeah. I mean, no one can compete with their scale. So in the app store is just another example. I mean, you could easily break a great company in terms of a breakup would be Apple Services, which would probably be the app store, their media.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I don't understand. What do you think? I think you know them better than I do.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
But another real winner, though, and a player in this is, and I've been investing in them, is Epic. And they went up against Apple and sort of, I don't know if you'd say they won, but they didn't back down.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Go down to the counter for breakfast, go to the pool, put on a big pair of black sunglasses. And any modestly attractive woman that walks by and put an unlit cigarette in your mouth and go, Jackie, marry me. I make you very happy, woman.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Staggering. Revenues on a big base up 13%. Their cloud revenue is up 20%. And what you have here, and also Microsoft is probably, I don't want to say it's a defensive stock, but it's least, it's kind of most recession proof. And also it doesn't seem to be subject to real damage other than a slowdown in the economy from 2020. from these tariffs.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And keep in mind, the majority of their biggest customers are global. So even if the U.S. gets hit, they're pretty well insulated. You know, Apple is going to take a hit if the tariffs continue, you know, continue to escalate. Amazon will absolutely take a hit. Microsoft Meta and Alphabet are more insulated because they're digital marketing. But Microsoft has exposure to the cloud.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
It's a very diversified, robust business. It's really well managed.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Plus, BetterHelp is completely online, helping people access affordable, convenient therapy wherever they are. We're all better with help. Head to betterhelp.com slash pivot to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash pivot.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
So by the way, Cheech and Chong and Kara Swisher, that was not the crossover I was expecting.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Oh, revenue increased 16%. And even, I think even more impressive, their price per ad was up 10%. If you're looking for how AI is impacting our economy, their ability to talk, I mean, don't you increasingly have more of those moments where you're thinking, my shoulders have been bothering me. And all of a sudden on reels, I'm getting served ads for bands to help with my shoulders.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I'm like, how the fuck did they figure that out? And the amount of time in terms of serving you up incredible ads, their recommendation engine is contributed to a 35% increase in time spent on threads, a 7% increase in time spent on Facebook, 6% on Instagram. He predicted or Zuck predicted AI would be able to handle half of Meta's developer work.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
So he's able to maintain, other than CapEx around data storage and AI, their human capital costs have decelerated and aren't growing nearly as fast as their top line revenues, meaning that, quote unquote, earnings are going to explode. And just to give you a sense, I do this deck on AI. I think the AI company at 2025 is meta because...
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
First off, if you look at it, 80% of people in the world outside of China.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Kevin McCarthy. Well, at least one of you has a dick and it's not the former speaker.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Well, the peanut butter and chocolate or chocolate and peanut butter of AI is, loosely speaking, the chips of processing power. They're the second biggest purchaser of chips. They're in line with the second biggest purchase order of NVIDIA chips. And then the chocolate is the actual data, the input, the coal in the furnace, whatever you want to call it, right? Grist to the mill.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And just to give you a sense of just how much data is produced on meta platforms, Reddit, which is unbelievably accelerated, has the fifth most traffic of anyone in the U.S., any site in the U.S. Reddit is the source of roughly 1.3 trillion tokens of text, right? 1.3 trillion tokens of text. Meta, 180 trillion tokens.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
So Meta has more coal to throw into the furnace to process and learn from, and they're going to have the second most traffic. In addition, they not only get the benefit of saying, all right, we're going to use that to have a consumer-facing product.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Instead, or in addition to, we're going to use AI to give advertisers such extraordinary targeting at the right time for the right person in the right place that advertisers are going to be helpless not to just reallocate more and more of their budgets to meta. Yeah.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I'm saying that you bring more masculine energy than Kevin McCarthy and that he lacks a bad backbone and testicles that produce testosterone, which make you more risk aggressive and have certain leadership skills, which he brought none of.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
He is, yeah. Brilliant businessman.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
There's only just one thing in the Microsoft earnings that I thought were interesting in the earnings call, and that is their data storage expenditures coming down. And I wonder if some of them are thinking... the deep seek, maybe there's an opportunity or maybe the data storage and the power consumption won't be as great as initially forecast.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I think a lot of them are looking at the deep seek innovation and thinking, how does this impact our CapEx moving forward? But you're probably going to see in the back half of the year, even more staggering earnings because it feels like they have so much momentum on the top line and yet on the expense side,
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And it really paid off for the guy. All that ass kissing really paid off.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I think they're going to maintain, I think their CapEx is going to go flat or maybe even down, which is just going to be like nitro and glycerin for their earnings.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
From a guy that golfs every third day and banks porn stars, he's talking to us about consumption.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Yeah, but she's getting paid. They all find their backbone when they're out of his orbit, which does us no fucking good. You watch tomorrow he'll be, or Friday, he'll be really reasonable. Yeah. Because they all find sanity and all realize, I want to be a guest on MSNBC.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Americans, we are the most conspicuous consumers in history. America is sort of, you'd argue, an insurance company with a military, but really what it is, it's a platform for prosperity where people get material and hopefully emotional benefits. you know, gains from an incredible operating system.
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And you could argue that Biden was kicked out of office because the price of eggs went too high, but he doesn't think people are going to notice. 90% of America is on a fixed budget. And if toys go up in price, 30, 40, 50%, that means a third to a half fewer toys. You don't think that's going to hit home emotionally? When the kids start noticing, wait, you know, that just really hits you hard.
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It hits on an emotion where... When you feel like you're not providing for your kids on key moments, it really rips at your soul. And people are going to get angry. Just the notion that, oh, Americans, that these people, that him with his tacky, retrofitted 757... that somehow Americans don't need all this stuff. Well, okay, folks, Americans love their stuff. America is the land of stuff.
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We love our shit. There's nothing wrong with it, our Nespresso, our Netflix. We love stuff. And loosely speaking, actually, if you were to pick one thing that impacts America, the majority of elections in America for the last 50 years, it's kind of your safety and security around your ability to buy more stuff. It's the economy. And so that's just a ridiculous statement.
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There is some truth to the notion that this GDP, so GDP was off first negative quarter since I think 2022, first in three years. We had a contraction. I don't think it's fair to lay that at the feet of the Trump administration. GDP is a lagging indicator. The surge in imports because of these ridiculous tariffs took a large portion of the GDP down.
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I want a corporate board to hire me and realize I'm not as fucking crazy when it actually mattered when I'm supposed to be saying.
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Next quarter, there's just no excuses. He owns it. And you're going to see a contraction. I don't like GDP. I don't think it's a good measure. But you're going to see the economy contract. And it's on its way. I'm doing a lot or a decent amount. I have a lot of friends who are impacted by the tariffs. And essentially, business has come to a standstill.
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And they're sitting around trying to guess, do we try to move? Do we go to our bank, borrow a shit ton of money, cut 20, 30% of our workforce and spend the next three years trying to reroute our supply chain through... Vietnam or Indonesia, or do we hope this guy pops up, wakes up tomorrow morning and goes, just kidding. But in the meantime, they're in a state of paralysis.
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They have stopped all shipments from most of my friends from China. Shipping volume is off anywhere, depending on how you account for it, between 35% and 65%. The port of Los Angeles is less crowded than it's been in recent memory, and it's the largest port in the Western Hemisphere.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And there's a lag effect, but when the ships coming into the port are empty or they're not coming in, that means in about four to 12 weeks, the stores are going to be empty, and also you're going to start to see layoffs.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
It's like that Borat film, you know, 33 different types of cheeses. That's just who we are. The weird thing is, just going back to the earnings for a moment, you're probably going to see an increased bifurcation between the magnums and seven and the rest of the economy because these firms... So Amazon...
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is the most subject to this trade war than anyone because two-thirds of their business comes within the U.S. and a lot of their products are subject to tariffs. A company like Meta gets only one-third of its business from the U.S. and the majority of its products are not subject to tariffs. Apple, two-thirds from outside the U.S.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
A company like Microsoft, half their business comes from outside the U.S. So these companies... I don't want to say they're insulated, but the big guys and the big tech companies are much more insulated. A, most of the vast majority of the products are not subject to tariffs. And B, the majority of their business comes from outside of the U.S.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
So who's going to get really hard here are kind of the mainline traditional.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
The Main Street economy is really going to get hit hard.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Oh, the guy who said that when he was a child, there were no kids with diabetes. My favorite one was that the Spanish flu was a vaccine-induced pandemic.
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Well, yeah, but let me ask you this. Do you think there's any veracity to the notion that Trump says, all right, I want people to look away from the fact that I'm crashing the economy and deporting four-year-olds with stage four cancer. So just be as fucking crazy as you want. If If people want to have their hair on fire about the stupid shit you say, have at it.
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Well, when the White House press secretary, she immediately said this was a hostile and political act and why didn't they put what the prices were because of the Biden inflation. I mean, that's just such a ridiculous statement. One, in terms of Biden and inflation, that's so intellectually dishonest because of all the G7 countries, our inflation was the lowest.
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There was tremendous supply chain shocks from the invasion of Ukraine and COVID.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And two, these guys all claim they're such free speech warriors, putting what the terrible... Airbnb and Amazon have all come under criticism for not putting on... When I ordered from Caviar, which I love in New York, it used to piss me off that I wouldn't see up front how much delivery charge and service fee and all that. Airbnb came under fire. So Airbnb said, okay, we're going to put
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the true cost, and they started breaking it out. That's transparency, and it's also free speech. It is entirely reasonable for Amazon to say, all right, this is how much the tariffs are costing. It is a bit of a political statement. It's also called free speech. And two, when you start having...
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Biden came under fire for having one-off conversations with Meta about misinformation around COVID, and he got huge criticism. There's some veracity to the notion that the president should not be having one-off conversations and putting pressure on individual companies. It's supposed to have systemic solutions and laws that impact the whole industry.
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Otherwise, it just ends up being corruption as it is now, where I don't know if you saw the latest, auto companies are now going to be exempt from a lot of these tariffs. If you're a big company that's on his lunch calendar, or you have a popular brand, or you're gigantic, or you get to have lunch with them, you get exemption from this ridiculous behavior.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And the problem is, is that small and medium-sized business, which account for 98% of the companies that depend upon export and import, are shit out of luck, because they can't afford lobbyists, and they're never going to go to Mar-a-Lago. So these individual one-off conversations... are corrupt. You're not supposed to have them. And also, I gotta be, I mean, you saw me.
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Anything that distracts them from the fact that I am crashing the global economy. The U.S. is literally going to be like in a state sale where there's no will and people just show up and fight over mom's Sub-Zero refrigerator. Every country in the world is now saying, oh, we want that part of your trade. Oh, we want your PhD students.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I was so excited about Bezos. I went out with all these threads saying, good for him, good on him.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And I was so excited. And then you texted me and you're like, he caved. He caved. And I'm like, oh, fuck. And I had to go back and was like, well, false alarm. No way.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Yeah. I don't know. I'm actually excited and we'll talk about it maybe next week, but I'm excited about he's about to put a competitor into space. Yeah.
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He's changed. He sent an Uber for me. He sent an Uber.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I haven't been to a strip club in 20 years. I don't like strip clubs.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
No, we shouldn't.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
We should do pivot, live pivots at a strip club. No, I'm not into strip clubs. Oh.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I don't know if mine's very good, but basically one of the wonderful things about our economy is once a company establishes something resembling or supposedly monopoly power and can start implementing those rents on consumers, there's so much profits that that's like chum in the water and other sharks show up. That's the basis of competition. And hopefully...
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If a company gets too far ahead of another, the FTC and the DOJ move in, break it up such that it can inspire more competition, lower prices, more innovation, et cetera. Competition really is one of the secrets to America's success. And my internet went out. In London, I have to have crazy fast broadband.
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And I spent, I'm not exaggerating, I think I spent $50,000 or $60,000 to have fiber run across Regent's Park to get the kind of broadband I need. You're that guy. Yeah, I'm that guy. I don't have satellites. It went out this weekend. Everyone's scrambling, including Drew, to try and figure out a solve. They went out and they bought one of those portable Starlinks.
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They set it up in about four hours. It's an incredible service. I've used Starlink on a plane before. You can do FaceTime. It really is an amazing product. I think now close to two thirds of the lower satellites are owned by Starlink or SpaceX. I guess it's Starlink. And it really is an incredible product. And I'm just thrilled to see.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And I think another reason why I think Amazon is going to continue probably to to outperform is that they launched their first, I don't even know how you pronounce it. Is it Kuiper? K-U-I-P-E-R?
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Yeah, Cooper. So the first batch of a planned 3,300 Cooper satellites launch from Florida. The mission kicks off a race to rival SpaceX's massive Starlink network. And Amazon can launch five more Cooper missions this year. I think the promise of that is going to take their stock up because Starlink is just such an incredible company that essentially has monopoly power right now.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Anyways, we talk a lot about in brand strategy, the first kiosk in brand strategy is awareness. About 98 percent of our purchases, At least until, it's actually recently, I'd like to redo this data, but up until the social graph, 98% of your purchases are from brands you've heard of before. Just think about it, you're just less inclined to return the email of someone you don't know.
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Just having heard of somebody or having heard of a brand makes you much more, your purchase inclination or your purchase consideration goes up exponentially. And so I would often say the first step in any brand is just to be known.
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And unfortunately, we live in a society is the philosopher, Italian philosopher Umberto Eco said that being famous and having awareness is more important than what you're famous or have awareness for. So awareness is enormous. And it's a decent proxy for future value to be monetized. And I think the brand that's about to go from zero to 100 in the next six months is Cooper.
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Because it's a $10 billion project that was unveiled in 2019. It's had a lot of delays. And it's finally starting to get its kind of mojo. And I think you're going to see, they're going to start doing a good job of showing real-time footage of every launch.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And then when you think about if Amazon can offer a Starlink-like service with their interface, I mean, at some point, you know what they're going to do? They're going to roll it into Prime. Anyways, Cooper from Prime is about to become one of the biggest brands and also be the most formidable competitor to the most valuable private company in the
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I don't know. I'm excited to see you with Speaker McCarthy. He reminds me of my dog, and that is when I ask him to speak, he will, but it doesn't mean fucking anything.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
So, anyways, my prediction is the brand you haven't heard of as of May 1, 2025 is going to be ubiquitous in the investment and consumer landscape by the end of the year, and that is Project Cooper, which is a $10 billion satellite effort from the good folks at Amazon.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
That was in high school, right? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And then he decided, no, not for me. Interesting, but not for me.
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Oh, Starlink. To be fair, Starlink's an amazing product. It's an amazing product.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
That's the media competition. That's why, folks, we need an FTC and a DOJ to break companies up. You need these small, scrappy stars. Anyway. Project Cooper.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Oh, I think you're going to be outstanding on Bill Maher. I think you're going to be outstanding. Thank you. That's a good prediction. We'll see.
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You didn't even give me a laugh on that?
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
When... Go ahead, go. Speaker McCarthy is similar to my dog, and that is when I ask him to speak, he will, but it doesn't mean anything. I think that's really good. I do. I think that's really good. I expected a laugh from you. I need your affirmation, Kara Swisher. By the way, I want to go to that Bill Maher after party with Cheech and Chong. What is the likelihood someone's going to spark up?
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
You know, how can you not love David Brooks?
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Spiritual, smart, big talk, community.
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He's fantastic.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I really enjoyed my conversation with him. I found him to be very spiritual. By the way, when you're out there with Bill Maher, say hello to my favorites. Bill doesn't hang out with me, but the executive producers do. Sheila Griffiths, I think, and Mark Gervitz and Dean Johnson. They're literally Friday Night Lights parents. They're like handsome people.
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They're handsome people, like good looking people in their 40s who feel like if I ever have a big problem, I'm just calling them and saying, can you just pretend to be my parent right now? And they are so nice. And they come in into that little green room and they're like, we're so happy to have you. They're so nice. And I get nice emails from them.
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And beer. I shotgunned a beer before the last one because I got so fucking nervous. Oh, you're kidding. I'm not going to do that. I think that's called alcoholism. And also my Sherpa there is a woman named Susan Bennett, who's wonderful.
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She's so lovely.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Greatness is in the agency of others. And that is a... He has a team.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
The key to success is the ability to attract and retain people more talented than yourself. That is it. Full stop. Full stop. And having a big Cooper. And having a really big Cooper.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
That's funny. The pivot team is nodding right now. They feel nice.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Today's show is produced by Larry Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie and her tight entry into this episode, Jim Mackle, edited this video. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Miss Averio, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of Auto. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Tune in to see Cheech and Chong, Speaker McCarthy, and Kara Swisher.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
That intimidates me.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
No, no, no, but they get high. Bill gets smarter when he gets high. If I got high, he'd want to talk about transhumanism. I'd be like, dude, you got any frozen snicker bars? I just don't. I get dumber.
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He intimidates me. I don't really know the guy. He doesn't hang out. He hangs out with everyone after the show but me.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And I don't really know him. He kind of intimidates me. Just stay muted. Yeah, yeah.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Oh, you think? I think. What, you think? You think Amy Atkins not letting me French kiss her and then going to the prom with some other guy that was three years older, you think I still remember that? You think that still makes me insecure? You think the four women I asked to prom who said no, you think that doesn't have resonance?
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Here we fucking go. Here we go. In between collecting awards and having sex with straight men.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
That was my problem. I'm way too straight. How awesome a gay man would I make? Oh, my God. I know. It's like my ex used to say, gay by day, straight by night.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I do agree that more has been accomplished. It's just how you would define accomplished. I think in 100 days, the entire world economy is being reshaped around. I mean, the kind of post-World War II order has absolutely been, is being reshaped. And you're going to see, I mean, first off, Prime Minister Carney was elected because of Trump.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And you're about to see the same thing happen in Australia because the other party has become associated with You know, the other party went on kind of this DEI. They were trying to take a page out of Trump's notebook and they realized, oh, this isn't working out well.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And we talk about him as if he's a teenager. He's about to start getting AARP mail.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Yeah, I don't. So I don't know. Obviously, we don't know if this is true or not. And if it is true, it reflects a couple of things. One, there's someone leaking it.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Two, it probably means the stock is, and this isn't financial advice, is a really great short right now because it means that they're going to cut this guy a lot of slack because he's built an incredible company and they've all made a shit ton of money because of Elon Musk. And so there's got to be a ton of goodwill just based on what they've put up with so far.
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They have put up with more aberrant, unacceptable behavior from a CEO than any board in history. And so for them to cross the line means that there's absolutely nothing in the product pipeline that is going to stop this company from crashing. Sometimes it's darkest before it's pitch black. It feels like
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If they are, in fact, looking for taking the bold step of looking for a CEO, it means that they look at this company like, wow, there is we are we are in really big trouble. And I mean, it just the thing I didn't agree with is that people said who would take that job. A lot of people would take that job.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
The vice presidential candidate?
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Leaks usually are, okay, are stocks getting, so on a meta level, it is amazing how much boards will put up with when the stock is going up. And it's amazing how much unfair blame they'll put on the CEO when the stock is going down.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
This notion that boards, this bullshit virtue signaling narrative that they adopted and the odds that it's about stakeholder value, it's not, it's about shareholder value. If the shares are going up in price, you know, he can be banging his assistant and her dog and we'll find reasons to, you know, say you're going to rehab, but it's better now.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And, you know, we'll figure out a reason to bring you back and maintain you're the CEO and call you chairman. When the stock's going down, you're in trouble. You're on the green mile all the time, at least for two or three years. The new CEO gets two to three years. And a lot of CEOs that are there for a long time will populate the board with their golf buddies. And the board becomes ineffective.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
In terms of actual leaks, Sometimes it's a board level thing where they say, all right, there's a narrative out there that we're an irresponsible board and that we need to find a new CEO. And so let's leak it that we're looking for a new CEO. I don't think he would have wanted this message to be leaked because it makes him look bad.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
When you have, I've been on boards where there's leaks, where there's a proxy fight and the board is at each other's throat and then one or more people start leaking shit. That's when boards start to really digress and dissolve into chaos because nobody trusts each other. Everyone's like, okay, who the fuck here is leaking?
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And most of the boards I have been on, generally speaking, they don't leak. They realize it's bad for the governance. It creates tremendous distrust within and among board members. They don't want to work with each other. There's two board meetings, one of the people on X side, one on Y side. So I'm confused a little bit by this because they don't want to announce this until they have a new CEO.
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So someone leaking this, I don't think it's on the board. I don't think it came from the board.
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I did, which isn't easy to do. Yeah.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
Who should run it? So first off, he shouldn't have been CEO two or three years ago when he started committing securities fraud and started getting really awful accusations and decided that he wanted to be CEO of three or four companies who shouldn't have been CEO. They should have said, all right. He has many hats in case you're interested.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
If you want to do this, you can be chairman and have huge input, but we need to bring in a full-time person who's CEO and has the license to make decisions and has accountability for these decisions. In terms of who should be CEO, I think it needs to be someone from the automobile sector. And there are a lot of great leaders in the automobile sector.
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Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being someone from outside of the US. I think that person in their contract says, I have total support of the board. And if something goes wrong and you fire me because I'm not getting along with Elon, I'm getting the most ridiculous fucking severance package because this guy's going to need, or gal, is going to need the mother of all. kind of parachutes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Yeah, such a hopped-up owl. Look, I personally—they're all running for president. It's just that they've decided that it's premature to announce. And they might be right, but my view is at this moment, the Democratic Party is just so void of leadership. from a centrist candidate or someone who could be president. I'm really inspired by Bernie and AOC's tour.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Anyways, in today's episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing Trump's second term, marking 100 days as he continues a global trade war, starts arresting judges, and continues Ukraine-Russia peace talks. Then we'll talk about the state of the press after the White House Correspondents' Dinner. I've avoided all information about the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
I just don't think there's any fucking way they would, that would be the worst thing that could happen to us is we fall into the illusion that they become the Democratic nominees. That would be, we lose by 15 points. They're just not where America is.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And I think they're fantastic surrogates, fantastic kind of bulwarks for, you know, by the way, I just think your buddy Tim Miller as a bulwark has been outstanding. But, I believe any reasonably competent person who announces they're running for president right now gets on every show and can start to coagulate or gestate a powerful message and be seen as a person to push back. Because right now,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Whenever they want to call or get someone to talk about something, they're reaching out to just anybody in this grab bag. And there's no cohesive vision. There's no real what I call cogent pushback. Senator Schumer says stupid shit that makes us just weak. It's just awful. It's sort of, okay, maybe I was right to vote for Trump.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Leader Jeffries is good, but he doesn't have the kind of fleet of foot forcefulness that we need in a leader. There needs to be—literally, you can't name who the Democratic leader is right now. And so any credible person that announces they're running for president right now immediately becomes that spokesperson and can start hitting back. And every time one of these stupid things comes out—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
That person can put out media and they don't need to go on these shows. They can establish their own media now, which is exciting about you basically build your own mic. We need that. We need somebody. Look, Mayor Pete, you're running. We all know you're running. Just announce and make things easier for you and everybody else. You know, even I'm starting to see Beto pop up. He's back, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
You don't think so?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
I was asked to go, and I didn't. I would love to go sometime. Anyways. I sound like Kara Swisher right now. I was asked to go, of course, but I didn't. I would have gone. All right, let's jump right in. On Wednesday, Trump will hit 100 days into a second term, where his first one was really about disruption. This one is more about domination.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
To your point, this is what won't work. This notion running against Trump and just saying, we're not Trump and we need to go back to where we were. That's not going to work. It's got to be, I think, a series of bold policies that people get excited about. Whether it's lowering, okay, we spend $13,000 a year on healthcare, we're more obese and we die earlier.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
How do we take it down to $6,500 like every other G7 country? We're going to lower the age, the qualification for Medicare by two years for 30 years till we have nationalized medicine. It's time, folks. Our healthcare system isn't working and it's time to take a different approach. We need mandatory national service.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
We need to bring our young people together from different sexual orientations, different income groups, different genders, and get them to realize that when you serve in the agency of something bigger and greater than yourself, specifically your country, it's good for you and it's good for us. You need to see what wonderful people are out there that may not look, smell, and feel like you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
We need a tax holiday for everyone under the age of 40. We need a progressive tax policy that funds universal childcare. We need nationalized healthcare such that 40% of America doesn't have
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
We need $7,000 given to every baby, only 40 billion a year, such that in 65 years, we can do away with this transfer of $1.3 trillion from young people to old people, which will take our interest rates down, which will take the third largest expenditure interest on our debt down. There's just a series of big, bold programs the Democrats should be putting out there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
We should have an adult conversation around reducing our spend and increasing our tax base. An alternative minimum tax for corporations that are paying the lowest tax since 1929, an alternative minimum tax of 50, maybe 60% above anyone making more than 10 million, because guess what? There's research showing you get no incremental happiness for more than 10 million. There's a variety
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Minimum wage of $25 an hour, universal kind of unity of everything or unifying theory of everything. We're going to have a series of policies that I'll reverse engineer to anyone under the age of 40 can live in dignity, have access to health care, can find someone to mate with, more third places, tax credits for sports leagues, religious institutions, bars.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
From mass deportations and sweeping trade wars, unprecedented power grabs, and government purges, Trump has set a breakneck pace that's left allies rattled, critics reeling, and the rule of law under pressure. With markets jittery and public confidence sinking— The big question isn't just where the presidency is headed, but what kind of country it will leave behind.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
whatever gets people together and starts mating again, a child tax credit. But we need a series of big, bold ideas, but just running on, well, we're not him and he sucks, and we need to go back to the Biden years, that's a loss. This is an opportunity to be really bold, really visionary, get people excited about a series of new ideas that's grounded in pragmatism, but also is visionary.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And just call things out. The industrial medical complex needs to be disrupted. We need to have progressive tax policies. Enough already. We need to have a strong military, but there's probably real waste in there. Again, we're not going back. This is an opportunity to say, all right, let's come up with a series of really big, bold,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
kind of new ideas such that we get people excited and say, okay, this is a new Democratic Party. And I've said, I've been giving money out, well, like a drunken sailor to anyone who's under the age of 40 who's running for office. We need more youth. You know, we need more young people. We need more vigor and more ideas. But All a long-winded way of saying I agree with you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
The campaign mantra can't be, we're not Trump. That's not a winning idea. And that we're going back to the policies of the 80s. People don't even want to dig up Obama. They like him, but they don't want those policies back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Jess, let's start with the big picture. A lot of Trump early support came from voters who wanted to kind of shake things up. But polling shows his approval rating is slipping. His approval at this point is lower than any president in seven decades. I know you're really into polls. What is your sort of general meta view of his first 100 days?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Mating, vocational programming, 7 million homes in 10 years, manufactured housing, which costs 30 to 50 percent less than on-site housing, create little hip communities for young people such that we bring down the cost of housing. I mean—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Exactly. YIMBY, National YIMBY Program.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
We don't bring prices down. We're going to break up these four companies, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. We're turning into 11 companies and the rents on third party marketers trying to sell their products on Amazon. for advertisers. These are the biggest toll booths, the biggest tariffs or taxes in history is the concentration of big tech.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And the moment we break these guys up, the economic rents and the rents, the extraordinary rents that parents are paying to Meta because they have no other choice as a platform and their kids feel ostracized if they're not on these platforms such that they start self-harming. It's like everyone, people have been calling me about Tesla, can Tesla come back? I'm like, yeah, how do they come back?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Easy, great fucking products. The Democrats can come back if they come up with a series of visionary programs and they outline them. This is how much it would cost. This is how we would get the tax revenue. This would be the economic growth that it would inspire.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
If young people can afford to find somebody, mate and have children and have a home, they won't be as anxious and depressed and likely less obese, which will create less of a tax on our healthcare system. They'll be more prosperous. We won't have 3 million able-bodied men exiting the workforce. We just need a fucking argument other than,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
We're not Trump, and every American should have the right to the American dream. Well, okay, so what, boss? We're done with the flowery language. There are so many interesting programs that different people have promoted and are available to us from around the country, a hotbed. The great thing about having 50 individual states has been a hothouse of innovation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
In all of these cases, everyone just wants to talk about what we might or might do with a strongly worded letter. There needs to be, and I'm hoping that it's Governor Newsom or Mayor Pete or Senator soon to be Governor Michael Bennett, who I'm a big fan of because I like wonks, who's probably never going to be president because he's not good on TikTok.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Christ, even if AOC announced, I would be grateful because I think she is very forceful and people would constantly go to her for pushback and she's really good at pushback. But the notion, great brands in a digital age, are about products. And products in this instance are programs that will affect people every day. And we need to start pushing out more products. Okay, let's take one quick break.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Stay with us. Support for the show comes from the podcast Democracy Works. They examine a different aspect of democratic life each week from elections to the rule of law to the free press and everything in between. They interview experts who study democracy, as well as people who are out there on the ground doing the hard work to keep our democracy functioning day in and day out.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Listen to Democracy Works wherever you listen to podcasts and check out their website, democracyworkspodcast.com to learn more. The Democracy Works podcast is a production of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Welcome back. Another story caught our eye. Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested Friday and charged with helping an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest. A major escalation in Trump's crackdown on immigration enforcement and local officials. Jess, what's your take on this? Can you give us some color here?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Yeah, again, it goes back to it's not what you do, it's how you do it. There is something chilling about arresting a judge. And I don't know the specifics of the case, and it sounds like we still don't know
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
It sounds to me, yeah, no doubt. The question is, did she break the law and should she be arrested? And it feels to me, again, it's how you go about something and saying, look, what you did here, if you were facilitating the escape of a criminal, you should be defrocked or whatever it is they do to judges.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Well, that's what they do to priests, right, when they take a bunch of little kids on camping trips. Anyways, whatever it is they do. But it feels as if, all right, trying to send a chill across the judiciary, do you really want to do that? I don't.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
It feels as if, again, it's sort of government overreach and this more of this sort of, I don't know, a lack of respect for our judges, generally speaking, are really well respected. And it's important that we uphold the There's a reason they sit higher up, you know, and they wear a robe because they've gone through a lot of vetting.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
These are people, generally speaking, who make good livings, but not great livings and can make a lot more money in private practice and do hard work, sometimes very boring work. And to just, again, it feels as if we're sort of digressing into one of those countries that We have a difficult time finding people to come be PhD students, go to law school.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
We're having a difficult time getting good people to run for office. And is this going to help people decide to volunteer or to decide to be judges and give up
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
private practice, but she should be, if she's, and you're right about ICE, whether we like it or not, ICE is a federal agency, and when they're commanded to uphold the law, you know, vote for a new president, but you have to comply with ICE. At the same time, I also think history is filled with a certain level of civil disobedience, and civil disobedience has played a key role
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
in progress in America. Now, having said that, if the judge decided to engage in civil disobedience and history might judge her well, she will pay the price. And quite frankly, that's part of the heroism of civil disobedience is I'm going to protest and I'm going to refuse to leave or whatever it is.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
I'm going to join hands in front of, you know, I'm going to refuse to whatever it is, not comply with the government's order or to leave my seat that's for whites only. A certain amount of civil disobedience, I think, as long as it's nonviolent, I think people can engage in that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
I don't know if this even qualifies as civil disobedience because I'm not entirely sure she thought she was doing anything that was illegal. But there is something chilling. And again, it goes back to how they're going about this. So speaking of defrocking or someone, and by the way, I keep getting emails from friends of mine who just love this guy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Yeah, just love him.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
I'm seeing all these wonderful quotes from him. So overseas, just moments before Pope Francis's funeral at the Vatican, Trump and Zelensky had their first face-to-face since that disastrous White House meeting back in February. Afterward, Trump questioned whether Putin actually wants a peace deal. Zelensky called it a good meeting on social media.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
We talked about this a bit last week, but what do you think things are now? And do you think this meeting changed anything?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
I don't know if you saw Secretary Rubio's interview on Meet the Press, but it's just like, it just drives me crazy. They highlighted this interview where he said, you can't give in to Putin that he did two or three years ago. It creates terrible incentives. We have to push back. And they're like, what has changed? He's like, well, we need to stop the killing. It just doesn't answer the question.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
It just starts blathering away on whatever the most recent talking point is.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
and trump was asked well what are the russians willing to give uh ukraine between asking about 20 20 of their territory it's a guarantee that they will not join nato they've even been asked by the russians or demanded that they disarm such that if they want to take the other 80 at some point they could with no resistance and trump was asked well what are the russians willing to give or concede and he said well they're willing to stop the war and stop killing people
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And when you think about just how fucking stupid that is, that's like saying to the entire world and every autocrat, every murderous expansionary autocrat, you gain something when you invade another country. You get collateral, you get something to leverage and trade if you go in and start killing people and taking over land. That, according to Trump, is what Russia's bringing to the table.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Is they're willing to stop the illegal invasion of a democratically elected or a country with a democratically elected leader. It's just so strange at such strange times. And I've said this and I have no evidence in this, but if we found out that Putin was buying a ton of Trump coin and propping it up such that the president would now be worth another $3 billion.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
He's basically $3 billion wealthier since he took office. And let's look at the timing. The Friday before the inauguration, when there was just a ton of noise at night, He said, oh, announce the Trump coin. 33 people, likely insiders who know him, who got a tip off, made $800 million.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And since then, a ton of people, about 80,000 smaller investors, have lost several billion because it spiked up, the insider sold, went way down. He then decided, I know I'm going to neuter and close down the unit of the Department of Justice that is investigating crypto scams. I'll just get rid of the whole department. Oh, I know. The lockup is about to expire, which is when insiders can sell.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And a lot of insiders probably go, this is a fucking pyramid scheme I'm going to sell. So he announces this meeting with the biggest owners of Trump coin around that time. I mean, this is such we've never seen grift on this level. And wouldn't Putin be stupid not to buy all these coins and then say, you know, Donald Trump?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
FYI, I'm gonna make you the wealthiest man in the world because I just love the Trump coin and nobody needs to know I bought and you don't need to tell anybody that I bought. And by the way, can you help us out with Ukraine? Wouldn't this all make sense? Because everything it appears that Trump and Vance are advocating for, is literally a talking point of Lavrov.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
He's even said, he's even intimated that somehow Ukraine started this war. So it's not, and when I see them, I think Zelensky has put on a masterclass here and that despite, can you imagine this guy every day, people are trying to kill him. Every day, he's getting notes from comrades and people he knows about how their sons and daughters are being killed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And under constant threat of death, his nation is being literally torn apart. And then the nation that was supposedly gonna be, you know, was the biggest backer of democracy and had the back of any freedom-loving nation is all of a sudden turned on him, embarrassed him at the White House. And he has had the discipline not to be insulting, not to be snarky.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
He realizes the best thing for his people is he can do is just trying to remain calm and establish some sense of a normalcy in the relationship because if Trump just likes the guy, distinct of the political ramifications, maybe he won't cut off aid as fast, or maybe he'll start sharing intelligence again such that maternity wards aren't shelled by the Russians.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
But this is, for me, this is, I mean, the Trump coin's right up there for me, the deficits are right up there, but the number one kind of thing we're gonna look back on and think this was really a strategic mistake in terms of creating a post-World War II order that we have torn up and created a series of incentives. It says to autocrats, you know what?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
It kind of pays to invade your neighbor if you get the opportunity. Because then America might show up and just force both sides to negotiate and give you what you already, what you have conquered. I mean, it's like the worst game theory, the worst strategy in history in terms of forward-leaning incentives. So I like them being in a room together.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
By the way, it looked like something filmed at the set of Naboo from, remember the Star Wars film? It looked like they were about to break out lightsabers or something. But I like the fact they're getting together because Trump is a man child and his decisions are largely based on two things, his blood sugar level and who he spoke to last.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
The best thing that could happen to the American economy right now is if someone chained Peter Navarro to his alcohol cabinet at home. because every time he talks to Navarro, he starts thinking, oh, we should feed into chat GPT. Yeah, like, okay. I realize I'm all over the place here right now, but just so you know, just to remind everybody, the tariffs, the amount of tariffs,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
We're fed into chat GPT to normalize or bring equivalence or equanimity to the trade deficit. People don't understand, and this is part of the problem of having a shitty K-12 education system in the U.S. We have a lack of critical thinkers. I have a trade deficit with my barber. That's not a bad thing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
There you go. Well, hello. I mean, come on. You'll see it on YouTube. And then to relate tariffs back to Zelensky, this is how fucking insane we become, putting in office someone who is now allying himself with our enemies who do not have our best interests at heart. Tariffs on every nation except for a small number. And who are those small number of nations who are exempt from tariffs? Russia.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Belarus, North Korea, Iran. Oh, but guess what? Ukraine was not exempt from these tariffs. I mean, that kind of tells you what is the mindset. What side is our administration on? And the question is, is America on the same side?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Again, timing, understanding the space-time continuum is a real advantage, if you can think critically. And that is, every day that this war continues, it costs Putin $500 million to a billion. In addition, if you look at how Russia interfaces with our economy—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Its two primary services of attack for interfacing with our economy are cyber attacks, which wreak havoc in our economy, and stealing our IP.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Now, when they are losing half a billion to a billion dollars a day fighting this war and sending their young men into a meat grinder, it's logical to think they do not have the resources or at a minimum are distracted from the havoc they try to wreak every day. in our economy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
So the longer this war goes, and this is a terrible, macabre thing to say because it is a meat grinder, the better it is for the United States.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
In addition, long term, if we don't want China to invade Taiwan, if we want fewer and fewer border skirmishes that could erupt into a regional conflict and then ultimately erupt into something much, much worse, we want to create an incentive system where when you invade your neighbor, you regret doing it. So
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
All of the game theory adds up to the notion that the best investment we could make is to figure out a way to continue to let the Ukrainian army, the brave men and women who have pushed back with incredible technology, including drones, and then adopt some of that technology for the West, use it as a stimulus program for the United States weapons manufacturers, which mostly go to red states, for about 8% of our military budget.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
The president is a capital allocator, similar to a CEO, and his job is to allocate capital to its greatest return. There are few ways you could get a greater return on capital than giving Ukraine $60 to $80 billion a year to continue to diminish the viscosity and the tensile strength of an adversary. Now let's talk about the great quote-unquote dealmaker, the art of the deal.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
The dealmaker, right, has managed to lose his dad's money. If he'd invested his dad's inheritance in ETFs or index funds, he'd be wealthier. If his dealmaking skills have left a trail of 11 bankruptcies and a ton of unpaid subcontractors, he's an amazing reality TV show host. I think he made hundreds of millions, maybe even a billion. from The Apprentice. He's amazing. He's not a deal maker.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
So the notion that he's gonna come to some sort of like great, amazing deals with these people and all of this nonsense that 160 countries have lined up to do deals with us. I interviewed the prime minister of Canada. That's our biggest trading partner. There's no discussions there. She is our third largest trading partner after Canada and Mexico.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
She has stated publicly, we're not talking to this batshit crazy weirdo. We're not talking. And he's, quote unquote, the great dealmaker. Nonsense. Nonsense. He's a terrible business person.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Jessica, it is literally sweltering here. It's 73 degrees.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Yeah, and just a quick shout out to all the incredible leadership from our Fortune 500 CEOs. Everyone ranging from nobody to absolutely fucking nobody has spoken up against this madness. And you know all these guys wake up and look in the mirror and say, hello, Mr. President. Most of them think they should be in the cabinet. or president themselves.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And leadership is the primary characteristic of who needs to be or who should be president. And leadership is doing the right thing when it's really hard, and none of them are doing anything. They're all doing these backchannel, these conversations, because they're so worried about shareholder value. None of them have stood up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
This is the biggest commercial opportunity in decades would be for someone to stand up and say, this is wrong. Our immigrants are an incredibly important part of our world. Declaring war on our trade allies is just stupid. The way we're going about this is not in line with our American values. And we at Nike or Walmart or Apple, stand by American values.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
We're an American company and what's going on here is wrong. You would see a flood of business into that brand because here's the bottom line. The people who are hardcore MAGA don't have a lot of disposable income. When Nike supported Colin Kaepernick, it was genius because two-thirds of their business comes from outside of the US. We don't care about race relations.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And two-thirds of their revenues within the US come from people under the age of 30 who are very progressive. And this is the same opportunity. The first company that comes out against these reckless, cruel actions is going to get a flood of capital, because the bottom line is the people who are against these policies and this overreach are one thing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
They're consumers, meaning they have extra money to spend. And he has declared war on so many people all at once, he might get angry and threaten to sue Tim Cook or get mad. At the CEO of Nike, he's running out of ammunition to fire in a million different directions. He's literally declared war on every front.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Biggest consumer brand opportunity in a decade will be for a CEO to come out against all this bullshit.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Well, and the Costco CEO.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
All right. We'll take one quick break and we'll be back. Welcome back. Before we go, this year's White House Correspondents Weekend captured the tension between Trump and the press. The roast was scrapped, the mood was tense, and once again, Trump skipped a dinner, keeping up a tradition from both his terms.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
This all unfolded as his administration tightens control over press access while the media tried to frame the night as a celebration of a free press. But now with more MAGA-friendly media in the mix, they're walking a tightrope. Jess, I know you weren't there, but what did this weekend say to you about the state of the press?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Yeah. My first inclination was like the media is so obsessed with itself. I could kind of care less about this thing, but what you said is pretty powerful that it's just a shame that a lot of these people are really talented. They're really hardworking. You know, he's taken away like one night of fun. I mean, it's just kind of give them their party, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Let them poke fun at each other and the president shows up and shows good humor. You're right. It's sort of All right, what a fucking killjoy. We need more parties. We need more reasons to get together and laugh together. We have a note here to talk about George Santos. I could give a fuck about George Santos. He's a trivia question. Good luck, enjoy prison.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
What I'm gonna do is take this time to talk about, I read something that Pope Francis wrote when he was in the hospital that I thought was really nice. He wrote, The walls of hospitals have heard much more honest prayers than churches. They have witnessed far more sincere kisses than those in airports.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
It is in hospitals that you see a homophobe being saved by a gay doctor, a privileged doctor saving the life of a beggar. In intensive care, you see a Jew taking care of a racist, a police officer and a prisoner in the same room receiving the same care, a wealthy patient waiting for a liver transplant, ready to receive the organ from a poor donor.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
It's in these moments when the hospital touches the wounds of people that different worlds intersect according to a divine design. And in this communion of destinies, we realize that alone we are nothing. The absolute truth of people, most of the time, only reveals itself in moments of pain or in the real threat of an irreversible loss.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
A hospital is a place where human beings remove their masks and show themselves as they truly are, in their purest essence. This life will pass quickly, so do not waste it fighting with people. Do not criticize your body too much. Do not complain excessively. Do not lose sleep over bills. Make sure to hug your loved ones. Do not worry too much about keeping the house spotless.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Material goods must be earned by each person. Do not dedicate yourself to accumulating an inheritance. You are waiting for too much. Christmas, Friday next year, when you have money, when love arrives, when everything is perfect. Listen, perfection does not exist. A human being cannot attain it. because we are simply not made to be fulfilled here. Here, we are given an opportunity to learn.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
So make the most of this trial of life, and do it now. Respect yourself, respect others, walk your own path, and let go of the path others have chosen for you. Respect, do not comment, do not judge, do not interfere. Love more, forgive more, embrace more, live more intensely, and leave the rest in the hands of the Creator. Isn't that wonderful?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Yeah. So my friend, Dov Seidman, was actually a fraternity brother of mine, and we reconnected after not really staying in touch for 20 or 30 years. And he wrote, they were basically the two smartest guys in my fraternity, Jess. Let's talk about me in college, were Lauren Mason, who is this philosophy major. They're both philosophy majors, Lauren Mason and Dov Seidman and Lauren.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Yeah, agreed. All right, let's leave it there. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday and Friday. That's right, its own feed. That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds you won't hear anywhere else.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
This week, Jess is talking with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss an episode.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And they were both, I think they were both Broads or Fulbright scholars. And Lauren was the first guy I ever met who did a shit ton of shrooms. He was just very much about psychedelics and talking about the universe and metaphysics and just the kindest, gentlest guy. And then Dove was a guy who used to come home and do a hundred pull-ups and wouldn't, of course, smell alcohol.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Yeah, but everybody's out. It feels strange. I just had this odd sensation I've had maybe three or four times in London, and that is I'm sweating. That feels really good.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And he would lecture us all on how the membrane in the brain would be contaminated by alcohol. He was just constantly optimizing for health and perfection. He looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger. and incredibly bright. Anyways, yeah, ahead of his time.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And I caught up with him recently, and he wrote a book called How, and his big thing, and, you know, most books are sort of like, there's one insight, and then there's 12 chapters coming up with analogies and metaphors to drill home, you know, this insight. I always found, like, Malcolm Gladwell, read the first chapter, and you get the joke, and you can go to the next book.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
So his whole thing is, it's not what you do, it's how you do it. And if you look at his policies on immigration, on tariffs, on Doge, there's actually pretty broad public support. And he had an opportunity, he had a big mandate coming into the office. He had a big opportunity to have an exceptional 100 days, even if it was something that set the media and progressives' hair on fire.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
But the way he's handled it has just freaked everybody out. You know, it's one thing to deport people. It's another thing to send them to a hellscape prison and then have evidence that you're not willing to correct your mistakes and to basically lie and say, we can't get them back or round up people with the wrong tattoo. It's one thing to impose tariffs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
I think a lot of the American public, incorrectly, I would argue, our GDP has grown faster than anybody, if not more consistently. And yet somehow people want to believe that we have taken advantage of other countries and that GDP growth a lot of times has been on the backs of global trade.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
So it would appear to me that the economics of the data show we've taken advantage of the other countries, not the other way around. But anyways, there was support for tariffs and people believed that we were being taken advantage of. So some kind of mild targeted, thoughtful tariffs would have been, I think, appreciated, even if they were sort of harsh or punitive against China.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
These are just stupid. We've seen shipping volume from China is down 45 percent. If all of a sudden the stuff we get from China is down 45 percent, folks, you're going to find that restaurants don't have tablecloths or that you're not going to be able to find a garage door opener or that the costs are going to skyrocket and thousands of small businesses are going to go out of business.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Back in America. What's going on with you? What did you do this weekend?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And with respect to things like immigration or deporting people, sending out errant letters that are mistaken to PhD students saying you need to self-deport, the bullshit around the attacks on universities. It's just, he had a mandate, and I would argue that it's not what he's doing, it's how he's doing it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And if he just scaled back somewhat and just been, if they just said, oh, this is, you know, we pretend to, you know, a third of our hardcore Magna base uses Jesus in every other word. And if Jesus came back and saw what we were doing, he'd find us and puke all over us. That, of course, we're not going to deport in any way.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Of course, we're going to come to the aid of a mother and a child who is suffering from cancer. Of course, we're going to make special accommodations. And we did. To not have someone go down and pose in front of, you know, shirtless prisoners in El Salvador prison and like it's some sort of fucked up snuff porn from Cinemax. I mean, this stuff is just, it's kind of success.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
They always say, or I've said, success isn't the last 10%. And that is the way you establish yourself at work if you're a young person is if the all hands meeting is at 8 a.m., show up at 7.50. Always be 10 minutes early. Always stay 10 minutes too long or stay 10 minutes longer than everybody else. When you're almost done with a project and you're tired and you just want to turn it in,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
The next 10% of going through and proofing it, adding a couple more charts, being known as the person who's a perfectionist, and even when everyone else is really tired, saying, okay, I've got a new idea. Let's just get this in, and it's really going to be awesome. Success is in the last 10%. In this case, failure has been in the last 10%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Oh, what concert did he go to?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
And that is while I disagree with a lot of his policies, generally speaking, his core policies and the way or the direction he's moved about, America agrees with, he's just gone way too far and now it's being seen as cruel and reckless. So this has been, I would argue, a lesson in how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And that is America largely believes
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Oh, he's one of those cool guys.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
or his constituents that he had a mandate and that directionally he's correct, but that he's been so reckless, so aggressive, so unnecessarily cruel and or stupid that people just don't trust him any longer. Your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Strongly worded letter.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
That'll show him.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
I'm the same way. I go to hotels, not cities.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Yeah, I would go to, I would pretty much see anybody play at the Sphere. I've only, I've only saw you two there, but I would go see, I don't know.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
I think Governor Pritzker is fantastic. And he's sort of like similar to Donald Trump. He inherited his money. I think it'd be better if we had a self-made billionaire.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
There you go. Perfect. It's not on the menu. He comes across as thoughtful, strong, not easily rattled. He's a great voice. He has that kind of... And I think that it's sort of a bomb or a neosporin of like... serious dad energy would be very well received. And also, Pete Buttigieg has done a great job on these podcasts. He's just so articulate and forceful.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s 100 Days of Power Grabs
Yeah, and he's just very good. And I don't know if he'd get through the Democratic primary, but I think that's neither here nor there. I love, did you see Al Gore, his kind of fiery speech? I thought Vice President Gore was fantastic. Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
But I want her up there to, under oath, to say, yeah, I knew that he was creating thousands of bots, pretending to be humans, and we were elevating information or lies, even though we knew they were lies, such that it would influence the outcome of the election. I just want her to go on record saying that so Americans know what they're dealing with.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And they have very effectively, even if it's Umberto Eco, the Italian philosopher said, along the lines of the attention economy, that it's not what you're famous for, it's just about being famous. So say something incendiary, and as long as you're dominating the news cycle, I mean, I feel like Republicans are dominating 90% of the news cycle right now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Jess, this is the part of the show where we banter.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And unfortunately, we have Senator Schumer, who brightens up a room by leaving it, just kind of doing nothing or saying nothing. We have Speaker Emerita Pelosi, who just purchased $50,000 to $100,000 worth of call options recently, on Tempest AI. And when that was disclosed, the company had its best one-day performance in history at 35%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
So she's spending more time on Robinhood, engaging what is effectively insider trading than actually paying attention to real issues. You know, my question is, where are the fucking Democrats? I don't agree with a lot of AOC's policies, but at least she's out there. At least she's trying to push back. Where is Senator Klobuchar talking about
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Well, let's bring this back to me. So, ask me what I did this weekend.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
you know, antitrust and competition and inflation and talking about how the tenure is surging and that these policies are incredibly inflationary. We have, we're literally fighting fire with fucking squirt guns.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And when I say squirt guns, I mean senior leadership in the Democratic Party that is too old, too tame, thinks they're in a PBS drama where they, good sir, and they like hit them with their glove. I mean, enough already. This is insane that we don't have – I want to see hearings on – let's immediately have a hearing on this new crypto AI community.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And first thing is we need them to come, this committee organized by the president. We should have the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to investigate legal implications of Trump's meme coins. I want – and bring the new head of this AI and crypto community to explain – The Trump and Melania coin. Let's have him go on the record and say, what is this and is it good for the economy?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Well, Jess, I don't like to talk about me or my personal life, but on Saturday morning, I had my 14-year-old, just me and him. And so I said, what do you want to do? And I knew it involved something in football. So we jumped on the Eurostar on Saturday morning, which is lovely.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And we'll be able to invite dozens of the 60,000 people who bought this coin and are now off 70 or 80 percent in about 72 hours. Instead, we just sort of sit there and give this bullshit. Well, it's time to come together. There's things we can work on together. Work on together. We had an immigration bill. that the president basically from Mar-a-Lago killed so he could take credit for it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And we're all sitting around thinking, it reminds me of the movie, The Mission. I don't know if you saw that movie. With Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons. But Jeremy Irons plays this, I don't know what to call him, priest or religious figure. And the British are coming basically to slaughter this indigenous community. I don't know if it's Argentinian or Brazilian. They're missionaries.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Anyways, and the priest, Robert De Niro, is trying to get everyone they know they're coming to prepare for war. And the priest says we're about nonviolence. And they're slaughtered, of course. I just watched a movie called 24, which is about the most famous Norwegian spy of all things. And a woman stands up as he's speaking to this university saying, why didn't you try nonviolence?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
I feel like the Democrats have decided to try nonviolence. And I'm like, Cersei, I choose violence. This is not working. Sitting around trying to pretend we're taking the higher ground and we're going to work with the president and It hasn't worked, folks.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
We need to be calling balls and strikes here and saying that this is when you have the president saying things like polluting blood, and then you have the person who, in my opinion, weaponized a platform to get him elected, telling the far right party in Germany, you shouldn't dilute your culture. I mean, this is pre-Hitler shit.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And yet I don't see a single Democrat with anything resembling a following of social media out there saying, fuck all. So, yeah, right now, as far as I can tell, we have one party and another party that thinks they're a cotillion training their kids to be polite and that peace and love will win out. Thank you for my TED Talk. Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
It takes two hours and 20 minutes. St. Pancras Station is about 10 minutes from where we're living. Two hours and 20 minutes later, we're at the Gare du Nord, which is, I think, train station of North or something in French, just for those of you out there. And then we're at the hotel. We went and had an amazing, our favorite lunch. We had steak frites.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Yeah, and women in World War II.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And we're in the news. Right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And then we went to the most amazing little stores, mostly chocolatiers and grape stores. And then we went back and napped and went to the pool. When you have a 14-year-old, you got to go to the pool. I've learned that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And we're driving the World Health Organization to your point about sticking our chin out. You know, I believe Biden's first executive order had to do with transgender athlete athletes rights. And it took him three years for an executive order on immigration to your point. illegal border crossings had dropped to about 45,000 in December of 2024.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
But in December of 2023, a quarter of a million people came across the border illegally. What I find sort of ironic and telling about these, I don't know what the term is, roundups or, you know, when the ice shows up, they've decided the most efficient place to, quote unquote, find these unproductive people who are freeloading is at workplaces, I thought. So if you wanted to deport
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
you probably go to McDonald's or to their basements where video games are. But with undocumented workers, you go to places of work because that's where they are. I thought that was sort of ironic. But we had this coming. We ignored the problem. It got out of control. And just as you can never actually visually spot a pendulum at the middle, they have swung.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
They have taken advantage of this and they've swung back. And quite frankly, I don't have a problem with deportations of undocumented workers. Let's start with those who are in prison. Let's start with those who've now committed two crimes, one crime coming over here illegal, the second one. I think that's absolutely... Fair game.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
I mean, some of the other issues that we really screwed up on, we talked about transgender. We took just a, I don't want to say irrelevant, but an issue and gave them just a free gift with purchase for parents all over the nation who don't want to have their daughters kind of run over. The macro, the biggest issue, hands down, in my opinion, is that a mix of identity politics,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Weaponization by special interest groups essentially had the Democrats implicitly and explicitly turn their backs on the group that has struggled the most the last 40 years. Everybody feels that. when young people aren't doing well. They're parents, society, and these are the people on social media saying, okay, great, NVIDIA's worth $3 trillion. I can't afford rent.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
That they're into going to the pool? You know, his only criteria for hotels is, do they have a pool? And we always go to the pool. And then we went and then we had a dinner at the most fabulous restaurant at the top of this new restaurant. fancy hotel called Cheval Blanc, and we got dressed up. And then we got dressed down, and we went to the PSG Paris Saint-Germain football.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
So instead of focusing on policies like inflation, how to build more houses, bring down costs, lower enrollment, instead of being weaponized by these universities that are I mean, essentially, some of the most corrupt organizations in the world are seen as the center of democratic politics, specifically my industry.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
What is more of an epicenter of kind of democratic ideals than elite institutions who—I just interviewed the president of Dartmouth. They have an $8 billion endowment, and they let in 500 kids. Okay, excuse me? You're not this elite—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Cast enforcer talking about big, big fancy ideals, but you don't want to give people this drug that decreases obesity, anxiety, gives them a shot at getting married, making money. No, you'd rather hoard it just for you and your elite friends. So let's create a misdirect of DEI. University of Michigan has 200 DEI officers.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
60% of Harvard's freshman class identifies as non-white, but we need to have DEI on campuses such that we can discriminate against, what, white kids from rural states?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
I mean, it's just, we got so out of control with the identity politics, the DEI apparatus, not focusing on inflation, not focusing on young people, that we just gave them a layup to become sort of, you know, just go overboard, flood the zone with a ton of shit. I get it. We deserve it. We had it coming.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
What I'm really disappointed about is why we're all taking it and calling on people to work together. As far as I'm concerned, it used to be about a certain level of mutual respect. Democrats and Republicans at the end of the day thought, well, if they get in power, I want them to show me some mutual respect. It seems to me like we need to move to mutual destruction and say, look—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Marjorie Taylor Greene and Stephen Miller, if you want to start revoking security details, just be careful what you ask for. Because once you're out of office, my guess is you're going to be real fond of a security detail. You know, if you want...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
I mean, if you want us to stick the DOJ on you after our guy gets in office, but right now we're giving them the impression that if you hit us, we're Gandhi and we believe that peace is going to work here. And I think it's to our disadvantage. I think we come across as total wimps and there's no incentive here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
for them to say, well, maybe we shouldn't be cutting the security detail of General Milley in case our generals that we like are under threat after they leave office. I don't think there's any sense that we'll ever hit back, so to speak. Your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
The Democrats' response post-inauguration or the complexion, I would, for me, defines the term flat-footed. Just on our heels, responding, not even responding, just kind of paralyzed. Just incredibly encephaletic and not counterpunching at all. It feels to me like in terms of the viscosity or strength of the Democratic Party right now, I've never seen us this weak.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
That's the major team in Paris. Someone's going to say, no, they're not. Ty Renz, which was a big disappointment for PSG. But we went and saw the football game, came back next morning, woke up, had a lovely breakfast, and then went to Notre Dame, which is spectacular. Spectacular.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Spectacular. And then caught the US star back. I mean, 24 hours and just, it was one of those incredible weekends with my son. What did you do?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Yeah, it's definitely, I mean, we say this a bunch that we're sort of in uncharted territory. It seemed like, you said something that sort of, I don't know, piqued my interest because you know more about this than I do, but that you believe Kash Patel will be confirmed and that there's a chance that Tulsi Gabbard won't be. And I would have reversed that, but I don't know the latest.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
What's going on there?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Do they rent a place or is it one of those where it's rich people in Tribeca or do they have to rent a place?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
I love someone said that Mitch McConnell voting against Hegseth would be like Hannibal Lecter going vegetarian on his deathbed. It's just like, don't, don't, uh, don't hold your breath. But yeah, it's, it's, yeah. Again, he, you know, he's got very little to lose at this point, right? He's totally, he's leaving. He's old. I mean, uh,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
But you think Kash Patel is going to get through? That's super interesting.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
It's all about branding, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Yeah, don't send them on JetBlue. Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back. Before we wrap, we got to address something we've been hearing from some of you. Apparently, there's a feeling that we're not quite living up to the moderate in our show name. Maybe we're leaning a bit more into the raging side. People say we're more raging than moderate. That's a fair point.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
So what does being a moderate really mean to us, especially during this new administration? Jess, you kick us off. What do you think it means to be a moderate?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Don't look at the comments. I mean, read the first five, learn from it, and then ignore it. Just your own mental health.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
I would define myself as kind of ground zero for moderates. And that is what, as far as I can tell, moderates are basically people that everybody hates. And essentially, I mean, the generous or the actual Webster definition would be someone who has tempered views and is somewhere in the middle on the political spectrum.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And the way I see it is I've tried as I've gotten older to not be lazy and sign up for any political orthodoxy. When I hear something crazy on the left, I like to call it out. When I think our democratic leadership is too inefficient, feckless, cowardly, I call it out.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
When I think DEI is out of control, when I think that immigration is out of control, when I think that social security spending is out of control, you know, some of their favorite policies of the left, I call it out. And when I am, you know, I'm vigorously pro-Israel. It's like I don't bark up any one tree. I try to have my own views.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
In this environment, based on where the political spectrum is, I'm now seen as center-left. In the 70s, I would have been a Rockefeller Republican. I would have been in that party. But I think it's also just saying, look, I'm going to be a critical thinker. I'm going to look at issue by issue.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And regardless of the political orthodoxy you're supposed to sign up to, you say, OK, I'm not down with this. And it's almost like you become, unfortunately, to a certain extent, the left is much harsher on moderates. They treat you like an apostate. Scott, I thought we could trust you. People from the Biden campaign sign up. Don't you understand the assignment? Sign up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Well, no, he's too fucking old. What are we doing here? And then people on the right are just like kind of write you off as a libtard. But they don't come after you the same way the left does when they thought you were, quote unquote, when we thought you were one of us. So I see a moderate as someone who says, okay, I'm going to go issue by issue. I'm going to use critical thinking.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
I'm going to be unafraid to say this makes no sense, regardless of the cult dynamics of pressure to sign up for the full orthodoxy and narrative. Because when the narrative gets crazy or makes no fucking sense, you say, okay, I don't buy this. I don't have a problem with deporting criminals. I get the symbolism of it. I don't have a problem with a surge of troops. at the border. Fine.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Deficits, you know, anyways, my point is, I'd like to think a moderate is someone who says, I'm a critical thinker. I'm going to look at the issues, and I'm going to decide one by one what I think is the right view on this. I'm not going to sign up and just say, okay, I'm a fan, I'm a cultist, no matter what they say. And this is true of both the left and the right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
But I will say as someone who's seen or identified as a Democrat, that I get more hate from the left than I do from the right. The right has just kind of written me off. And that's how it is in our society. You got to pick a side. You can't say, well, I want to go issue by issue. Do I believe women should have the right to terminate a pregnancy? Yes. In the third trimester?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
So for couples, that usually gives everyone permission to drink more is what I find.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Okay, that's worth a discussion, right? If the woman's health or the baby's health is not in danger. At the same time, nobody trusts each other, so nobody wants to have anything resembling kind of a moderate conversation. In addition, with Citizens United, In gerrymandering that has hard right and hard left districts, there's no political room for moderates anymore. They can't get elected, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Because basically every election now with these hard blue and hard red districts is decided in the primary. So it's basically who can be craziest, who can be more crazy left or who can be more crazy right. And a moderate is just a recipe for not getting elected. So I think in the media or as a commentator or whatever you want to call yourself, a thought leader,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
I think it's especially important that we demonstrate it's okay to be a critical thinker and occasionally have your followers on threads or blue sky come after you because you say, yeah, I don't get this democratic policy. I think the vice president was a great senator. I think she made a great Supreme Court justice. I don't know if she'd be a great president.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And then, boom, everyone comes for you. And I'm not willing to sign up and bend the knee for, see above, an insurrectionist and a rapist. Critical thinking. Look at every person, look at every issue, and decide where you are on it. Anyways, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
That's nice.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Yeah. So I'll give you a little bit of a heads up on what's coming your way. In about seven to 10 years... You're going to freak out about the fact that you've spent so much time just raising kids and that you're losing your youth and you and your female friends will start partying like fucking rock stars diagnosed with ass cancer. You're going to start drinking like crazy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Yeah, something I think the Republicans have done much better than Democrats. And your buddy, Tim Miller, I thought made a great point on from the Bulwark podcast that they kind of a coarseness and the. I don't know, just the provocative, sometimes stupid, sometimes weirdness that's come out of the right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
It came across as authentic, whereas Democrats, it's as if they're reading off a press release or believe that they're crossing the Delaware or giving an inauguration speech. I mean, they're just so like, it's like, speak like a regular person, for God's sakes. And the Republicans do that better than
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Also, it strikes me that a big component in terms of what impacts people's lives and gives them the impression of the respective brands, we have to get our shit together around on the ground running some of these democratic cities. A bunch of my friends lost houses in the Pacific Palisades, and they basically all said the same thing. They're like,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
I keep hearing these excuses for the reservoirs weren't full, the water pressure was down, whatever it is. And he's like, we pay 13% a year in additional taxes. If I'm going to have my house burned down, I'll move to Florida or Texas where I pay 0%. It's like, we should have the supersized gold-plated VIP, you know, a white glove government when you're paying 13%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And instead, some of the highest tax... Highest taxed states are offering, I mean, they're expensive but bad, which isn't a recipe for a good product.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And the most expensive but bad metros right now are governed by Democrats who seem to be weaponized by unions or whatever it might be, special interest groups, and are just taxing the shit out of their local residents and doing head up your ass enforcement like you're talking about, where if you steal less than $900, they don't even prosecute you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
So I think until and by the way, I think I don't think that's true of New York. New York has 12. I think it's a total of about 12 or 13 percent also on taxes. But I would argue Manhattan is worth it. I think it's actually I think Manhattan is well run. And I don't I don't know about you, but I do feel I do feel that the subway feels a little bit different. I've noticed that more aware.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
You're going to start doing girls trips all the time. You're going to abuse alcohol. You're going to experiment with drugs and you're going to make all the guys trips that movies have been depicted on seem like a tea party. They talk about the midlife crisis that men have. I think men's are longer but less severe.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Yeah, you really feel it, don't you? Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Yeah. And also, in terms of crime...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
If I don't feel safe on the subway, if I can't have my AirPods in because I have to feel like I'm more aware. All right, that's all for this episode, Jess. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right, Raging Moderates on its own feed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Jess, have a great rest of the week.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Thank you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
The midlife crisis for women happens earlier, specifically, I think, when they leave kind of their birthing years and they're worried they're losing kind of their
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
You're so fancy. It's like a modified Paloma. Not really. Here's another prediction. You're going to start getting unsolicited bottles of Tito's. When I started talking about how much I love Zacapa, I'd show up to events and they'd have a bottle of Zacapa. So everyone, Tito's. For the lady. Good, good. All right, enough of that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Yeah, that worked. Check that box. In today's episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing Trump's whirlwind first week in office, how Democrats are responding to Trump, and what it really means to be a moderate in today's political climate. Okay, so let's bust right into it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Donald Trump has hit the ground running in his first week back in office, signing nearly 50 executive orders and actions that are already sort of reshaping politics in our country. These include escalating immigration crackdowns with deportation flights and a southern border troop surge, as well as targeting birthright citizenship and freezing asylum programs. On Sunday...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
He also got into a feud with the president of Colombia over deportation flights. Meanwhile, he has halted foreign aid worldwide and revoked security clearances from former officials critical of him.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts. If you're enjoying our content, just a quick ask.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Add to that his controversial pardons of January 6th defendants, the confirmation of cabinet appointments, including Pete Hegseth, despite numerous allegations against him, and threats to eliminate FEMA while visiting disaster zones, including Hurricane Helene's wreckage in North Carolina and wildfire-ravaged California.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
It's a whirlwind start that is already redefining how America governs, communicates, and is viewed globally. Jess, there's a lot to unpack here from Trump's first week. What stood out to you the most?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
It feels as if one, you could argue this is leadership that he's had kind of four years to prepare for what he would do and just hitting the ground running and has decided, okay, I'm going to, you know, promises made, promises kept, and it's going aggressively at everything he talked about and moving, you know, their fleet of foot, signing executive orders on the dais.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
So you could argue it's leadership. I like what you said, the world's largest branding event. I hadn't thought of it that way. I think that's really interesting. At the same time, you're sort of flooding the zone, which is so much shit or actions that wouldn't have flown before.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And one of the things about our government, the reason why we have three branches, is it's meant to have this wonderful intransigence where we sometimes to a fault wrestle stuff to the ground and really examine it. And there's just none of that now. I would give more points to the Trump administration than I would give to the Democratic Party right now, who appears to be just caught flat-footed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
In this mixed of, can you believe this shit? We don't know what to do. And trying to sign up for this PBS Hallmark Channel bullshit of, we need to come together and we need to cooperate with the president. And they're all trying to, they're all in such shock about this win.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
And, you know, while it was a small number of votes, it went kind of seven for seven in swing states, they're all trying to pretend to be more moderate about and say, I'll work with the president, and they don't want to come right out of the box shitposting him. I think that's a failed strategy. I think they wanted war. I think we should have it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
I'm not up for normalizing an insurrectionist and a rapist, so I guess that doesn't make me a moderate because I won't sign up to this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
But I would argue that there's this—we have this sort of notion it's time to come together— I don't agree. I think Democrats and moderate Republicans need to come to the rescue. I think some of this stuff is just so over the line and so un-American, you know, rescinding the security detail of people who he doesn't like.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Please right now hit that subscribe button on YouTube and also hit subscribe in our dedicated Raging Moderates feed. Jess has two young kids at home. Be supportive.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Well, he wants a security detail when he's out of office.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Hit it now. Please help us out. And in exchange, we will do our best. Maybe we won't be as moderate as you like, but we promise we'll be very, very.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Oh, that's a new term, attention economy. Let me think. I started using that about 15 fucking years ago. Anyways, what did Chris Hayes say? He's discovered the attention economy. What does Chris have to say?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
That's right. And it will be both raging and moderate. Please hit the subscribe button. Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
Well, just starting there. So first off, I would like to see the what committee would it be? We need immediately, in my opinion, to get probably not Musk because I think it would be too much of a spectacle and just bring him more power. He's like one of those villains in a comic book that the more you throw shit at him, he absorbs it and becomes more powerful.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
But the Commerce Science and Transportation Committee— Should, in my opinion, have hearings in the tech industry's influence on democracy and its elections, because there, I think, is now emerging evidence that basically Musk and Iaccarino weaponized Twitter, including creating thousands and thousands of accounts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Immigration Crackdown and the Democrats' Muted Response
to elevate misinformation and essentially spread just a ton of propaganda misinformation that had a real impact on the election. I'm not sure it's illegal. It's a private company. He can do what he wants with it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
The headlines this week have been dominated by the news that President Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. That comes on the heels of a week already full of questions about his health, and a Quick question.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
The one big beautiful bill enshrines into law and funds President Trump's promises.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
Did Biden's narcissism and entering into consensual hallucination with the Democratic Party that he was the best candidate for president, is that a big part of the reason that we reelected an insurrectionist?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
So, Ram, something we talk a lot about here is, along the lines of young people, is, you know, my view is that the group that's fallen furthest fastest is the one that gets the least empathy, and that is young men. Yep. Four times more likely to kill themselves, three times more likely to be addicted, 12 times more likely to be incarcerated. Right. What is your view on the plight?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
If A, do you see it as an issue? And if so, how do we address it from a social policy? Can you point to any programs that you're in favor of? I know you've been an advocate for national service, but what do you think we do to help lift up our young men?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
Welcome back. So just some recent news here. Two Israeli embassy staffers were killed in a shooting outside the Capitol Jewish Museum in D.C. Obviously tragic and heartbreaking. What are your thoughts on this sort of light sleeper, which is anti-Semitism, what appears to be an increase in anti-Semitism in the U.S.?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
More visible then.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
Brahm, I see you as, I don't know you well, but I've been following your work more closely recently. I think you're a brilliant messenger, a great strategist. Will you call my mom? Well, she's clearly done an impressive, a pretty impressive job. I think you're like the case family. It's like, who's more successful than the other in terms of kids?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
Your mom's clearly done something. She should definitely write a book on parenting. So what about, again, repeat what you think the one kind of puncturing message should be from the Democratic side right now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
Rahm Emanuel is two-time mayor of Chicago, former White House chief of staff, and most recently U.S. ambassador to Japan. Rahm, really appreciate your time and your message. Thank you. We're glad you're on our side, Rahm.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
We'll just follow up and then just moving to solutions. We've decided that a 34-year-old does not have the cognitive ability or the judgment to run for the highest office. Do you think we need age limits on the higher end? Why wouldn't we have age limits, say, of 75 to run for office?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
So you're on board with an age limit at the high end, that someone who's above a certain age should not be able to run?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
Hey, folks, we took a break from Memorial Day, but before the long weekend, we sat down with Rahm Emanuel for a conversation recorded last Thursday. We got into the issues surrounding Biden, the Republican transfer of wealth to the rich, and what Democrats need to focus on. Here's the episode. Enjoy. Welcome to Raging Moritz. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
So, Ron, House Republicans just passed a massive tax and spending cuts package. A lot of think tanks have said this is going to be the greatest transfer of wealth from poor to rich in history. I'm curious to get your thoughts on this on this bill and these tax cuts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
Jess, joining us today is someone who's worn a lot of hats in American politics, two-time mayor of Chicago, former White House chief of staff, and most recently, U.S. ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel. Rahm, welcome to the show. Thanks, Scott. Thanks, Jess. We're going to jump right into this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
Okay, Jess, a few more cabinet announcements worth discussing. Howard Letnick was tapped as Commerce Secretary and Scott Passant was picked as Treasury Secretary. which the market's like. Lynn McMahon, a longtime ally and donor, was named to lead the Department of Education. McMahon's background is light on education policy. Okay, as if that matters.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
And she also co-founded the World Wrestling Entertainment Federation with her husband. Is it World Wrestling Entertainment? I think anyways. And the most surprising pick, Dr. Oz as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. What are your thoughts on these picks?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
It's very nice here. I go there now. Yeah, you're a newbie. You're excited and ambitious to actually do the right thing. So you haul down to what is arguably the most uninspiring part of Manhattan. to where my guess is they're paying Vox to occupy their office space. But they are very nice studios, and it's a lot of young people running around.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
I don't think there's any getting around it. They need a reformer, but this whole Doja over-reductives thinking of, let's just get rid of the Department of Education, just burn it, burn the village to save it. There are a few investments, maybe outside of R&D or some science programs that show that are technically investments. Social security is a cost.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
We've decided to tax young people, to transfer money to older people, to eliminate or attempt to eliminate senior poverty. And it has largely worked. I would argue it's become too expensive. And now seniors are the wealthiest generation in the history of the planet. There should be means testing. It should be pushed back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
You know, it used to be when social security was first invented, 80% of the people would never get it because they would die now. Now more than 80% get it. And it used to be 12 to 1, you know, people your age supporting people my age. Now it's 3 to 1. Anyways, that is a cost.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
Department of Education is an investment, and you might argue that the investment is not getting the ROI it deserves because it is poorly allocated. And I agree with you around school choice. Competition works. There are some teachers, as someone who went through public schools all the way through graduate school – I remember certain components of my education.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
Emerson Junior High School, they were just warehousing us. There was 35 kids per class. I was there the first year they integrated the school. So all of a sudden, out of the school of 1,500 kids, 600 black kids from Compton showed up. After being on a bus for an hour, they were pissed off. And we all, and it wasn't a Hallmark movie. We all hated each other.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
Get this, Jess, we used to have black against white softball games and the faculty allowed that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
Oh yeah, we hated each other. Absolutely. It was everything integration was not supposed to be. That's the bad news. was that by high school, something wonderful happened and we were all getting along.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
My two best friends were, one was a Mormon kid who ended up going to Stanford, and the other was a black kid who got a football scholarship to Linfield, I think, a university in Oregon who lived in Baldwin Hills and his father was a minister. I mean, these two kids couldn't have been more different, except they were both really good kids. They were actually great role models for me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
But anyways, my point is it was absolutely awful. And I remember the teachers were so overwhelmed, just trying to keep a lid, 35 kids, sometimes 38 kids per class. And all my friends, my nice white friends, quote unquote, air quotes, their parents pulled them out of school immediately when integration started and stuck them in this hippie, dippy private school called Windward.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
Okay, you say that like it's really old.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
And I remember it was one of the first moments where I thought, oh, things are different for me and my mom. Because I went home and said, oh, I need to go to Windward. And she's like, sit down. We don't go to private schools.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
Yeah. But the Department of Education, in addition to Title, I think it's Title I, where they ensure that schools in rural poor areas get the funding they need to deliver an adequate education, they also are responsible for Head Start. And they also, I'm here with you now because the Department of Education, or specifically Pell Grants,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
And that is Pell Grants, basically, if you're in the lower third of income earning homes, you get money, not even loans, which also student loans, the Department of Education oversees, which I believe needs drastically reforming. And I'll come back to that. But I could not have gone to UCLA. Without Pell Grants.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
And this makes my point while also giving me the chance to do my favorite thing, and that is boast. I pay a lot of taxes. So these Pell Grants are an investment that pay off. I think there are a few things that you could look at and think a dollar invested in education, well-delivered – I'm not saying there isn't reform that's required –
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
not only gets you additional incremental income because you can occasionally produce people who do really interesting things, go into teaching themselves, start businesses, create tax revenue, but you avoid a lot of costs because without an educational system, you're going to end up paying for these folks one way or another, whether it's through incarceration, mental health, homelessness.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues
Yeah. Because you're not going to make it. I'll be 55 in five years. All right, so what are we going to talk about today? Today, we're talking about Matt Goetz withdraws from AG consideration. Gates Goetz. I'm happy he's like— Going into hopefully political oblivion just for that. I mean. Can't pronounce his name.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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welfare, food stamps, unemployment. So the Department of Education is arguably the place where you're going to get the greatest return on your investment if it's handled well. And it's just, it's sort of It sort of is depressing, although I guess you could argue her background. She was, I believe, head of the Small Business Administration. So maybe, I mean, she strikes me as a competent woman.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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She's the least or one of the least bad picks, but I wish they would stop this bullshit notion that we're just going to get rid of the Department of Education. And what's interesting, or I find interesting, I interviewed a guy named Roy Stewart, who's the co-host of The Rest is Politics, which is, he was a former member of parliament, really bright guy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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He was actually the tutor, the private tutor for Princess Harry and William. And he said, when they look at America, when Brits look at America, they can't quite figure out the following. And that is, we absolutely under-prioritize and don't talk about K-12 education. And we have some of the worst K-12 education ever.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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in the world of the g7 but at the same time we have amazing graduate schools and at the same time we keep figuring out a way to grow the economy and he acknowledged that maybe that's the way the economy the natural order of an economy is you have shitty schools and it's like a hunger games and then they get to go to the best universities and that struck me as a very upsetting you know rubric or lens through which to look at education but maybe that's because we just there's no doubt about it k through 12 were awful and yet our economy continues to grow like crazy but
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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Anyways, your thoughts on the Department of Education.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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That's right. More Trump cabinet picks. Great. Season, episode two of Dancing with the Stars. Whether modern family or family guy. And the transgender bathroom ban in Capitol Hill. Can't believe we're talking about this. I know. I can't. Anyways, here we are. I love legislation that is focused on one person. Yeah.
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Well, look, I said this early on. If I went to Royce Hall or the Quad near Royce Hall at UCLA, or I went down to my universities in front of my building at NYU, and I held up a Confederate flag, and I passed out bans to white kids, and the kids without bans couldn't enter the university. they would have called in the fucking National Guard.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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But I mean, what was clear coming out of this zombie apocalypse of useful idiots on campus, free speech is never freer when it's hate speech against Jews. And this was a really low moment for universities. And I advise the regents of the University of California, and we did a couple of calls over the summer and they said, okay, they were very worried about fall.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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What happens if this flares up again? And I thought the solution was pretty easy. If there are students who are protesting or putting up anything resembling an encampment and it turns to hate speech or they try and build... I mean, basically, they tried to build a mini... you know, a mini city, if you will. They were trespassing. You ask them to clear the area. You give them 15 minutes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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You warn them they will be punished. I mean, you expel the first six or 12 students to violate this. And when word gets out that shit's just got real and you may have to call your folks and say, hey, mom, dad, you're spending 50,000 bucks a year for me to get expelled for hate speech. This will stop right away. And then the thing that didn't get much press that I have no tolerance for
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I think you cut a 19-year-old a pretty wide berth. You're supposed to be stupid when you're 19, and sometimes that stupidity moves society forward, whether it was the protests on campus against Vietnam or Iraq. Sometimes kids are meant to push the boundaries, and sometimes they're thinking wrong. more forward and more correctly than their parents.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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You cut them a wide berth, who I think should have absolutely been summarily fired with a faculty that showed any empathy for this genocidal death cult. And there are still faculty at the University of California who put out exceptionally good vile tweets, said they were inspired by the activities of October 7th, who are still shown up at the faculty cafeteria.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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And most of them, it ends up, can't teach the way out of a paper bag and do irrelevant research, but are in this ridiculous guild that is nothing but student debt called tenure. So there not only needs to be reform up and down, you know, In K-12, there needs to be reform in schools.
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Yeah, it's nice.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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And specifically, the first place I would start is that all universities should be on the hook for a quarter or a third of bad student loan debt. Because what's really mendacious about my industry is a really good kid shows up and he meets with a woman who's in a nice pantsuit who has a big college logo behind her and she says some bullshit like this. Education is an investment in yourself.
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It's a good look. But first, we want to remind you. That's right. It's that time in the show to please follow our Raging Moderates podcast on your preferred platform. Please follow us. If you're listening on Apple, we know that about a quarter of you aren't subscribed. So don't be that person. Hit the follow button so you never miss an episode.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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Here, sign this paperwork for $50,000, $100,000, $200,000 in student loans. And then the kid, like many kids, finds out that he or she is not cut out for college, leaves without a certification of college, but gets to keep that debt. And it haunts this person the rest of their life. The most dischargeable form of debt in history should be student loans.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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And instead, because my colleagues wake up every morning and ask themselves, how do I reduce my accountability or increase my compensation? I'll access cheap credit. And if I don't deliver on my promise and the kid gets nothing for the money that's been lent to them, I'm not on the hook for it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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So if you put colleges on the hook for 10%, 20%, 30% of bad student debt, they'd stop loaning someone getting a fucking philosophy degree from Joey Bag of Donuts University to go be a barista. So my industry needs radical reform. But the notion that you're going to get rid of the Department of Education is, again, another key theme in what appears to be both parties are guilty of it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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Let's optimize America for the top 10% at the cost of the bottom 90. The top 10%, they're right, doesn't need the Department of Education. My kids don't need the Department of Education. They won't benefit from it. It's the other 90. And just looking at it purely economically, it's an investment that saves money.
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Yeah, go ahead.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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Yeah, so I have a bias. I've been friends with Mehmet and Lisa Oz for 25 years. And I find Mehmet to be— We got some bias. Yeah, it's a huge bias, and I'm going to disclose it. In that time, though, and I know him well, and I knew him before. I mean, I know him in just a variety of—he was literally taking hearts out of cadavers and putting them into other people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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He's a cardiothoracic transplant surgeon. And he's a real dude. And what I would say about Mehmet, we don't share political views, but I've decided to separate the person from the politics. And this person is a really good man. And when he was contemplating positions like this, when he was running for Senate, he's really thoughtful. And he knows we have different politics.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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We don't, quite frankly, we don't register in the rankings. We don't register in Google search. And most importantly, we do not get paid if we don't have people actually subscribe to our feed. So if you're enjoying the show, please follow our Raging Moderates podcast on your preferred platform. All right. Enough of that. Thank you for enduring that. What are we talking about?
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And so he would call me and ask me for my view on things. And I say that because it makes me feel important. But also, it reflects well on him. Mehmet is a high character person, and I know he got a lot of grief for being... for not respecting the science around some of these supplements and how blueberries can save your life. He got blowback that he deserved for that. But this is a good man.
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And you want to talk about some of the bullshit around Gets and infidelity. He's been married for, I think, close to 40 years. Wonderful father. And the first thing he did when he got this, I congratulated him. He called me and said, give me your views on Social Security. He really wants to get to go deep here and really try and be thoughtful and helpful. So I'm a huge fan of Dr. Oz as a man.
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He's a good man. Okay.
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It's great that you brought that up. And also just want to use that as an excuse to recognize who I think has been the most consequential Surgeon General in history. And that is Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who brought up loneliness, who brought up young men. This is someone who put out thoughtful research.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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elevating the awareness around some really key issues, brought up how the mental health struggles of people with parents right now, which directly relates to the fact that we keep figuring out a way to vote in more seniors who vote themselves more money. So that's at I Stay Rich at the expense of people your age who are trying to get by with kids. All right, Jess, we have one more quick break.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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Stay with us. Welcome back. Over in the House, Congresswoman Nancy Mace introduced a resolution to ban trans women from using women's restrooms and locker rooms on Capitol grounds. Thank God for Representative Mace. Thank God, specifically targeting incoming Congresswoman Sarah McBride. This is a shift for Mace, who once supported LGBTQ rights.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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Speaker Mike Johnson supported Mace, emphasizing single-sex facilities. McBride responded, saying she's focused on lowering costs for Delaware families, not bathroom debates, and she hopes colleagues will see value in her work.
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So what do we think of Representative Mace?
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Last week, Matt Goetz lobbied hard on Capitol Hill for his confirmation. But by Thursday morning, Trump apparently called to let him know he didn't have the votes in the Senate. By the afternoon, Getz announced on social media that his confirmation had become a distraction from having sex with minors. A few hours later, Trump announced his new pick, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Is it Bondi?
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It's the same thing, though, and it's the same thing I would argue around gets. And that is, it feels as if I'd like to see two classes that are mandatory or three. I'd like to be secretary. I'd be the most qualified secretary of education in, let me think, 18 months. Effectively, there needs to be a class on adulting.
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My kid can do integers, but he doesn't understand the interest rate on his credit card. I think there needs to be part of an adulting class to teach young people, especially young men, how to express romantic interest while making the other person feel safe.
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In basic kind of life skills, I'd like to see a class on communications where it says, all right, storytelling, you have to understand mediums and how to communicate your ideas. I'd also like a course in critical thinking because there are different levels of mendacious fuckery. Infidelity is one thing, all right?
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Scandal or abusing, if you will, or taking advantage of a White House intern, that's worse. That's worse, in my opinion, than having sex or relationships outside of your marriage. And then in an entirely different fucking universe is having sex with minors. These are not the same thing. And the problem is the populace goes, oh, it's just scandal. It's just scandal. No, it's not.
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There is a difference. And when people correctly say, in my view, or I think it's a point worth arguing, that people born, I was born, I didn't have the height nor the body mass to play collegiate level basketball or football. I was born with or without certain attributes that disqualified me from playing certain sports.
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Bondi? Bonda?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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I think there is a solid argument that if you are born with a penis, it disqualifies you from playing women's sports or girls' sports. I think that is a a honest, thoughtful discussion we should have. Passing legislation that is meant to do nothing but attempt to weirdly shame or show how anti-trans you are by saying to an elected member of Congress,
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Bondi? She's a Bondi girl?
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you cannot use the same bathroom as me, that's a different level of mendacious fuckery. And my fear is there's so many points of weirdness coming out of DC that they all get grouped into the same level of mendacious. They're not. And kids need, and young adults and adults,
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A Trump loyalist who has ties to Susie Wiles and Boris Eferstein. These people got to get similar fucking names.
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need to understand that your whole point or our advantage of a species is that we see different shades of gray, and when they go, they turn very dark, or when they're worth a discussion, or we should just have a gag reflex. But this is my fear, and that is we now live in an intention economy, and it doesn't matter how stupid or how mean The content is that created attention for you. It pays off.
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And that she is now a Republican, a rising Republican star because she's a leader. There's parents out there worried about their daughter being run over on the field hockey field by someone born with a penis. I think that is a tangible, legitimate concern. But they're saying, oh, Representative Mace, she's our woman. No, she's not.
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She's a mendacious, weird woman who is taking her precious capital and resources to actually do good things for her district, to just be blatantly hostile and mean towards an individual. Your thoughts?
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No bueno. OK, Jess, you know, as always, you're going to have to carry this show. What does this signal that there's is there a limit? Is there an actual limit in the Trump administration that gets actually crossed the line here?
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I do think the Democrats invited some of this bullshit by being so insane on some of these issues. I go back to the cycling race The women's cycling race in North Carolina where a transgender woman, Austin Killips, who was 27, basically finished five minutes before anyone else on a 137-mile-long race. And the woman who had been born a woman who had been training her whole life came in second.
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She should have won it. And then immediately the far left started talking about it. you know, all these very, basically was scared to come out and say, this is ridiculous. This is insane. What I didn't get is where feminists were. Let me get this. Where does this all go? If we allow this, it means that every dollar, medal, and scholarship ends up only going to people born with penises? Yes.
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So where were the feminists? I just didn't get this.
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It's almost as outrageous as the last thing we're going to start or finish with. And that is, I got to be honest, I find this really fun. What do you think of this idea? Elon Musk buying MSNBC. Oh, why does that make me happy, Jess? That makes me happy. What do you think? Really?
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Yeah, I think it'd be fucking hilarious to have Stephanie Ruhle and Rachel Maddow, like, every night meet each other to smoke cigarettes and eat ice cream and talk about Elon Musk being their new boss. I find it funny.
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A seven-year-old white woman got to find another show to listen to. I think MSNBC is quickly becoming irrelevant.
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All of these things are going to be rolled up into a bad bank structure. Comcast has started it. These can be really good businesses. They're shrinking businesses, but they spin off a ton of cash flow. What you need is a different approach where you cut costs faster than revenue growth. They can still be really good businesses, but...
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This is the pivotal moment, in my opinion, or as it relates to the intersection between politics and media, is that you're going to see – I mean, a really good show gets a million viewers on MSNBC, average age 70, mostly white women. Those folks know what they buy, know what they don't buy, and they know who they're voting for and who they're not voting for.
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So advertisers and political campaigns are going to take all of that money and put it into yours truly, into podcasts where the average age is 34. It's mostly male. Those people are up – Those people are up for grads because they're more about the economy and economics are a much more dynamic situation. It kind of pings back.
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Democrat, Republican on who they think will be better for them economically. But these companies are now distressed assets. They are melting ice cubes. I know a lot of people at MSNBC, the anchors are like pilots in the 70s. They're hugely prestigious. People like them. They're banging stewardesses, but they're pilots for Pan Am. They know their numbers are limited.
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They know that in about 10 years, They're going to be flying Amarillo to Dallas for Spirit Airlines at 68K a year. These are really declining assets. They can still make a lot of money. They still get incredibly talented people. But anyways, back to this. I just think it's fucking hilarious, the idea that Elon Musk would buy MSNBC.
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Everyone would leave, or everyone of any talent would leave, and he would try to make it into something else. I don't know. I got to be honest. I think it would be fucking hilarious. Your thoughts?
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That's called raging moderates. It's called podcasting.
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Yeah. Great. Help me out. Subscribe. You are the economic bellwether here. Right now, a 34-year-old Jess Tarloff has more options. than almost any person in media right now. And you chose a podcast with the dog. That's right. That says it all. You could have literally been primetime, and don't lie to me. You could have been primetime MSNBC, and you decided to do this Joey Bag of Donuts podcast.
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Because here's the thing. We're going like this. This is me making a hand signal up. And MSNBC and even even even your good friends at Fox. I mean, they're the I used to say the tallest midget. And then I found out that all Democrats think that's hateful. You're the fastest tortoise. That's the more politically correct way to say. Yeah, you're the fastest tortoise. But anyways.
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I didn't think it was that bad.
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They did the right thing.
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That's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are Caroline Shagrin and David Toledo. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. Raging Moderates on its own feed. Please go there and subscribe. Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Just have a great rest of the week.
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I listened to the Daily Podcast, and they were talking about Gates. And basically, the reporter had done some work where he had found some of the evidence that was going to be included in the ethics report that the Republicans managed to squelch, saying that it should not come out now that he's no longer a member of Congress, which makes absolutely no sense to me.
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Let's spend a bunch of time looking at a report. And if Goetz claims or is innocent as he claims, then I would imagine that the report would state that and that he would want the report to come out. This is the thing that absolutely strikes me. He wasn't worried about people finding out that there was evidence that he was having sex with minors.
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He wasn't worried about what people would think about him. He wasn't worried about his inability to be America's top cop with this type of cloud. He was just worried he wasn't going to get the votes. In my view, this really represents a new low that we have a government and we have people who would even entertain this type of nomination. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this.
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I'm not a historian. I'm trying to think of the last time there was a nomination. There was this brazenly inappropriate, stupid, and insulting to America and this general notion that when we elect people and they have the power of putting people in power, that there is some fidelity to decency, to the Constitution, to the actual goddamn job description.
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We just seem to be setting new lows every damn day. Anyways, that's my rant, Jess.
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Let's talk about Pam, new AG probably. She comes across as fucking Thurgood Marshall right now. My sense is she's going to sail right through. What are your thoughts?
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And just with going back to gets, let's be clear, Democrats have had their own struggles with scandal and especially around, it used to be the Republicans stole and Democrats had affairs. Now just everybody's doing everything it feels like, but infidelity, weirdness, scandal, that is not sequestered to the Republican Party.
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But I do think it's important that we discern between scandal and real criminal activity, such as having sex with minors. And I got to believe that that report, I can't believe it hasn't been leaked, was pretty damning, but- It'll get, it'll be out. You think so? I'm sure.
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Says one of the co-hosts of The Five. Okay, yeah.
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Are you kidding? You look like Hillary Clinton at this point. You would be the least, you would be the most qualified pick in the cabinet right now. You would, I mean, yeah, I don't, you would look like Lloyd Benson with better hair. Anyway, on that note, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
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Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
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Jess, where are you today?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I have a, as usual, I always enjoy incorporating my own personal parables into all of this. When my mom passed away, I handled all her affairs, you know, only son. And so we had her bank account and I kept it open for a while such that we could pay any remnant bills. And I just left the money in there for a few years, mostly because I was too lazy to figure out what to do with it.
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How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And it wasn't a ton of money. And when I was reviewing it after year one, I noticed that $3,600 or something had been just taken out. And I said, what was this? Did we pay this? And it said it had some government thing on it. And it ended up that the Social Security Administration had continued to pay her Social Security for three months post her death. And they recognized it.
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How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
They have some system of figuring out. They look at death certificates or something. And then they just went in very cleanly and then pulled it right back out. So they were pretty efficient. and immediately figured out she was no longer living nor entitled to Social Security payments.
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How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
GEICO, her insurance company, obviously I'm not very meticulous, I noticed something like two or three years later, I kept saying, what is this $120 payment that keeps going out of her account every month? And GEICO continued to take money out of her account for her car insurance. And so I called them and said, okay, my mom died. It might've been in four years. I'm like, my mom died years ago.
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How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I sold the car years ago and you have been taking money out for her auto insurance for years. And they said, well, per your policy, it's incumbent upon you to notify us. And they wouldn't give me the money back. So there's Geico, private sector, and there's government. One of them is corrupt, amoral, and inefficient, right?
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How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
That makes the government, the other guys, they were honest, very efficient, So the notion somehow, people got to stop shitposting government, right? And what I figured out is you can shitpost everyone in government unless they're carrying an assault weapon. We're pretty benign towards cops or an ax, firemen.
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How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And if you're carrying an M15 with a uniform, then all those people are heroes and everyone else working for government is incompetent. Well, how can that be possible, folks? And we just don't give enough credit to the rank and file.
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How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And one of the things that's most discouraging about all of this is that in the next administration, which I'm convinced is going to be a Democrat, because I think people.
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How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Well, and I usually get this wrong. So let's be good news. I should caveat that. But I think that essentially Trump and the clown car here. is revealing itself every day. And I think even, not even moderate Republicans, but I think Republicans that are, Jesus Christ, we did not bargain for this. And I think the next administration will fill their administration with talented people.
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How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
People want to serve, they can attract really talented people. We'll have no problem should we retake the White House in three years, in nine months to get competent people. The hard part is the millions of employees that work in the engine room and make this shit work. Because when you fire the people overseeing your nuclear stockpile, and then you ask them to come back, a lot of them don't.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And guess who doesn't come back? The people with the most external opportunities, which is Latin for the best people. Imagine you're run, I can't even imagine. I've run organizations my whole life. If I said to the entire tech team, you're fired. I did it via email. I don't care how long you've worked. You're fired. Go all your emails been turned off.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And then a couple of weeks later, I said, Oh, I fucked up. I realized we do need technology. You're rehired. They just, most of the most talented ones would not come back. They'd be like, no, I'm, I'm sorry, boss. You can reach me at You know, lisam at google.com. I'm now at Google. So the hollowing out of what is, in my view, the most impressive organization in history, and that is the U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
government, specifically, I would argue it's probably the U.S. military, but in general, the U.S. government. that gives delivered unbelievable prosperity, rule of law, rights, for what are some of the lowest taxes in history. You just look at it as a product, the shit you get from America, from the US government, and how much you pay for it. This is the best product for the price in history.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And you have to credit some of the people in the engine room doing this. And we are essentially saying to them, this is a bad place to work. And it's going to be very hard to bring back the morale, the standard. How are you going to get young people? How are you going to convince the best and brightest?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Some of our government agencies, specifically our security apparatus recruits out of my class at NYU. I don't think a lot of them are going to want to go to work for the government any longer. I'm like, I don't want to get summarily fired for no reason. I don't want to be overseas and find out. I just heard, I don't know if I told you this, a great kid, Greg Townsend, who was in my fraternity.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I hadn't heard from him in 30 years. Four years. Anyways, and he said, I've been working for the UN, and I basically, he's in Switzerland, and then he was in Africa, and he said, I hunt down and prosecute war criminals. And he makes a good living, not a great living. He made much more living in private practice as a lawyer. Met a woman, fell in love. She does something similar.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And he said, overnight, a few weeks ago, all payments were stopped. None of them are getting paid. And they've decided to continue to do this work. And if you think about, you know, it's probably a good idea that if people decide to go into remote villages and start killing women and children, that there might be a price to be paid down the road. That's a good incentive system to have in place.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And we've just decided to remove that incentive system. And when Greg finds another job, which he will, because he's a very talented guy, and at some point he has an obligation to support his family, if we call him back in four years and say, you know, we're sorry, we're firing up. whatever it is, the UN Rights Commission on, or the, I forget what it was, the UN, I forget what organization it is.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Are they going to get people like Greg Townsend back involved in government? So this is yet another example of how we are not thinking, how we are taking, we have taken for granted what an outstanding organization and people are so angry that they don't understand that organizations like this, the culture, the engine room is really hard to replace. It's not like turning off and on a switch.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Even if we get the right people back in charge, the damage here is gonna be lasting for a while. Any thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
So I'm dying to be relevant in Miami, in New York, in LA. I could give a shit about being relevant in the Beltway. I think the Beltway is literally the... Name a cool bar in DC. First off, the people aren't that hot. Secondly, no good bars. Nowhere to go out after midnight. I mean, I could literally give a shit how relevant I am in the Beltway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Tim Miller's been great on this. Yes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
His mother? Yeah. Go to his Instagram page and decide if you think he's a Venezuelan gang member.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah. So I couldn't get past your career journey from academia to the private sector. And now you're on The Five and doing a pod with me. What went wrong? What went wrong? Okay. Let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Welcome back. President Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education, a long-held conservative goal. While he needs Congress to fully eliminate the agency, his administration is already moving key functions, student loans to the Small Business Administration and special education programs to health and human services.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Critics argue this will gut protections for students, especially those with disabilities, while supporters say it will cut bureaucracy and return control to the states. Jess, what immediate impact do you think this will have on students, schools, and families, especially... with layoffs hitting the department's civil rights office?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Not even the hotels are that cool. The hotels are lame. It's inspiring. It's where you take your kids. But if you want to roll, if you want to have some fun, if you want to meet super interesting people. Yeah, the people from D.C. Anyone who's lived in D.C. for longer than 10 years, pro tip, they brighten up a room by leaving it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
So they don't do that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah, I went into ChatGPT and I asked if you wanted to destroy America or undermine democracy, what would you do? And it gave me, it was really interesting that things that came back with, including have algorithms on social media to get people fighting with each other over non-important issues.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
But one of the things that came up was said, slowly erode public education such that people aren't critical thinkers. And I'm like, I started reading all these things and it was sort of frightening that, okay, that kind of feels like what we've done the last 20 years. So I'm of two minds on this. First, just a bit of a tangent on unions.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I acknowledge that unions were an important part in American history. I think they've become ineffective with a sprinkle of I don't think we should have unions. I think they are a failed construct. People have the right to organize, but I think they're ineffective.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And the states that allow them are the states that need them the least, and the states that don't allow them are the ones that need them the most. We should have one union. It should be the federal government, $25 an hour minimum wage, get rid of all the corruption, the waste. UAW, current CEO, super smart, first last CEO in jail, one before him in jail.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And most of the people are from different districts, so they're from different areas.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And Randy Weingarten, in my opinion, used teachers as drug mules to try and exploit schools during the weakest moments during COVID rather than focusing on the kids. Anyway, thank you for my union TED talk. The Department of Education, I would argue, needs to be radically reformed and possibly reduced. And it's about 4,500 people right now. It's in charge of enforcing civil rights laws.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And there are some really important things here. If your kid's disabled, the Department of Education makes sure that a bus that's handicap accessible will show up and get that kid to school. They ensure that there are the laws enforced that a kid will get a hot loan. I mean, they do important work. They also oversee student loans. I would argue that system needs to be reformed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I think one of the reasons you've seen an escalation in student tuition at Forex, the price of inflation is the access to cheap capital. And I know that sounds harsh, but I think offering kids cheap, easy credit for shitty schools does not have good outcomes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And then suspending student loan payments just creates moral hazard where a nice lady in a pantsuit with a logo behind her saying, you always get a return when you invest yourself, just sign here because they get a check right away. And now putting schools on the hook for student loans has resulted in just a massive escalation in tuition costs. So I think the Department of Education
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It starches them of all their cool once they get there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, I'm torn here because I'm also the beneficiary of Pell Grants, and that kind of saved my ass. I came from a household that was in the lowest or lower quartile or lowest quartile of income, so I got unfair advantage. I got grants. And so I feel some obligation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
But the DOE of all of these or many of these institutions, I would argue, if you have a thoughtful argument for pushing funds out to low-income areas that needed help, Okay, I get it. And getting rid of federal bureaucracy. And also, the Department of Education oversees this mandatory national testing, which was a good idea, and it ended up not working. Teachers hate it. Parents hate it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Students hate it. It kind of isn't working. And it's taking valuable time away from just trying to lift kids up. So I do think that's a department that warrants a radical audit. The problem is you don't trust them. They're bad actors. They're not trying to help kids.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Clearly. All right, today... In our episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing what's going on with the Social Security Administration. Trump tries to dismantle the Department of Education in the 2024 presidential election autopsy report. All right, let's bust into it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
They're trying to just gut the system and do away and implement their own sort of, and they say they're going to replace it with vouchers, which is nothing but a transfer of wealth from the lower middle income households to you and me who don't need money for our kids to go to school.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It even reminds me of the debate on a woman's rights to pregnancy where we're not even willing to have a conversation around whether there should be restrictions in the third trimester because we can't trust the other side. They're using that just as a cudgel to outlaw all of it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And the Department of Education, in my opinion, is probably a department that if they put in place more local assurances around funding, especially in low-income areas, you could see, quite frankly, doing away with it. But no one trusts them. No one thinks you're actually concerned about our children.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
No one says, all right, are you really being an honest broker here around ensuring our kids have access to some decent education? And again, the mother of all own goals The districts that need this the most are the ones that are like rooting them on. It's like, I mean, I hate to say it, but look at what happens when you're no longer getting your Medicaid.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
There's no longer a school within driving distance and there's no one to enforce it. Your kid that is severely autistic, they're to enforce that this kid has a place to go to school. It's like, folks, Be careful what you're asking for here. So I don't – I feel like the Department of Education was ripe for reform, but this is just people who aren't sincere about helping kids.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
The head of the Social Security Administration, Leland Dudek, threatened to shut down the entire agency over a court ruling, only to walk it back after a federal judge called him out for misinterpreting her order. This all started when the agency gave Doge broad access to Social Security data to supposedly root out fraud.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I think that kind of the strategy or the thing that unifies everything they're doing is the following. I think they're trying to turn America into an operating system that just transfers wealth from the bottom 99 to the top 1%. And this is yet another example, because if you send your kids to private school,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
A judge stepped in, saying that was a major privacy violation, and Dudek responded by claiming that limiting Musk's team also meant limiting his own employees, essentially making it impossible to run Social Security. The judge wasn't buying it, and now Dudek has backed down.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
you want to literally starve all public education of all funds so that you have more money for other things that you benefit from, whether it's tax cuts or investments in technology or investments in infrastructure. So I think about 10% of U.S. households send their kids to private schools, which is probably less than most people think.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
But once you get into the top 1%, see above the tail wagging every dog here, about half those households send their kids to private schools. And that's even misleading because if you're a household in Woodside, if you send your kid to the public school in Woodside or in Portola Valley, it's a private school folks, let's be honest. They have an auction, they're so overfunded.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And one of the great inequities in the US is a disproportionate amount of funding levels are based on local property taxes. So this is just transparently saying, we don't want to pay for anything that will primarily affect the bottom 99. And the top 1%, this doesn't mean anything. Your kids don't need a public school.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Your kids, you have the resources to ensure that your kid has the special ed he or she might need. You don't need to worry about how your kid gets to school. And literally everything they're doing is like, okay, how do we tilt everything from the bottom 99 to the one? I just see that as another example here. It's the strategy behind everything. It's the explanation of
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I think almost every activity has decided America is an underlying engine to try and create prosperity or more prosperity for the top 1%, which, folks, spoiler alert, I mean, the NASDAQ and the Dow Jones, which we're obsessed with, they're basically just a litmus test for how the top 1% are doing, who own 80% to 90% of all outstanding equities. And guess what? They keep hitting record highs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Everything we do right now, I would say in America and Trump to a certain extent, encapsulates this. is how do we cut services from the bottom 99 such that we can provide more money and more opportunities for the top 1%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
But this whole situation raises big questions about what's really going on with Social Security under the Trump administration and Musk's involvement. Meanwhile, protesters, retirees, and union members are sounding the alarm about potential cuts and disruptions to benefits, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested that only fraudsters—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Well, to your point about, and this is my favorite thing, taxes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I know. I'm fond of parties. But what other department do you give $1 to and within a year they give you $12 back? And the Republicans don't want to claim that they're harassing people. They're not harassing anyone. IRS agents are overworked and trying to figure out a way just to get people to pay the taxes they owe. And what happens when the tax code goes from 400 pages to 7,600?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Those incremental 7,200 pages are there to fuck the middle class because what they are is full of all sorts of loopholes and Byzantine means. of corporations in the top 1%, being able to engage in massive loopholes and tax avoidance. And when you have an IRS, AI will help, but AI will be able to start from the bottom and audit, in a millionth of a second, someone's fairly simple tax return, i.e.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
a middle-class household. Once you get to people who are in the top 1%, making $700,000 a year or have net worths of over 10 million, their tax returns purposefully get really complex. And you need highly skilled, well-resourced, and expensive groups of people to hold those people accountable. And this is what's happened with our tax code.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It's created an incentive of the following, an incentive structure of the following. If you're really, really wealthy or you're a corporation, the incentive is to be absolutely as aggressive as possible. Because if you've got a parking meter in front of your house that costs 50 bucks, but the ticket, is 10 bucks, you're gonna break the law, or you're gonna be as aggressive as possible.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And our current tax system, as it relates to the wealthiest Americans, basically incents them to be as aggressive as possible in terms of what they write off, because A, probably there's no sheriff in town, there's a lack of agents, and B, even if the sheriff shows up, the penalties are fairly minimal. So the notion – and then this trope that somehow the good people of the IRS –
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
are mean or harassing people. No, they're not. They're trying to make sure that people pay what they're supposed to pay so that we can afford SNAP food payments and the Navy. So again, another example, cutting funding from the IRS. Who does that benefit the most, cutting funding of the IRS? Does it benefit all taxpayers who are aggressive? No, it benefits the top 1%, full stop.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
See above my unifying theory of everything, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
would actually notice if Social Security checks just didn't go out one month. I can't even get past that statement without saying, Jesus Christ, talk about winner of head up your ass. That statement, as you can imagine, did not go over well. Let's have a listen. Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this month.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Break it down. That's why I'm here. All right, let's take one more quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back. I just want to call out, you are entering that stage with little kids where you are going to be, you're going to have a cold for about the next 10 years.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
No, but their parents had a lot of meltdowns, so it's really a— I think mothers, I think women may know this is going to happen. I don't think most dads realize the panic— and stress you're gonna feel when one of your kids is not doing well.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, something God really does reach into your soul and turn on a switch that says, not only are you gonna love this thing, but you are not going to be able to relax for a millisecond when your kid isn't doing well. The few times my kids have not have had a health issue
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, I remember when my son had a breathing issue or a respiratory issue and he would do go on this, I forget what we call it, a breathing mechanism that they would put medicine in it and he would breathe through this thing. And I was so freaked out that the medicine had gone bad and somehow I might be like- Poisoning him. Yeah. You get so paranoid, so neurotic.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And I'm not someone who, at least until the last few years, was ever neurotic or worried about anything. And then Ted Sarandos' wife wrote this book, and I love this statement, that grief is the receipts for love. I think anxiety is the receipts for kids, because you do get a lot of joy from them. But anyways, I feel for you, because I never, ever anticipated the type of crazy stress.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, when your kid does break out on hives, there's no like, oh, it'll probably be fine. It's like, what the fuck? Like, get to the emergency room.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I'll just go to work, right? Whatever. Man up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
One of the lowest, actually, of course, one of the lowest paid providers. Let's back to me. Did you know when I applied to UCLA, I thought I was going to be a pediatrician? That's what I put in my application.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah, and then chemistry disavowed me of that when I got a D in it. Sent me from South Campus to the North Campus.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Thank you for that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I'm good with kids, actually. I'm shockingly good with kids. Anyways, but it sent me from North Campus- I'm sorry, from South Campus to North Campus, where the people were much hotter and the parties were much better than the South Campus.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Everything worked out. But I actually thought, I actually believed I was going to be a pediatrician for about a year. Anyways, before we go, we're getting clear insights into what happened in the 2024 election.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Blue Rose Research's analysis shows that key voter groups, including Hispanic, Asian, young and disengaged voters, shifted towards Trump, mainly due to his perceived strength on economic issues, including inflation. and the cost of living. Despite concerns over democracy, voters felt Trump was the better option.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Now, with Trump's popularity dropping, the Democratic Party is left scrambling, unsure about their identity and next steps. The analysis reveals that if those who stayed at home had voted, Trump would have won the popular vote by almost five points. While Trump's favorability remained steady, Vice President Harris and the Democratic Party saw significant drops.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And voters cared most about issues where Dems lost trust, like the economy and inflation, though they still trusted them more on health care. Jess, this is kind of your wheelhouse. Which findings from the Blue Rose data really caught your eye? Any surprises or patterns that stood out to you?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
My dad is 95. He's struggling. And he is in hospice. He no longer recognizes anybody, including his son and his daughter. If his Social Security check didn't show up, I'm pretty sure he would come to and head down and protest. The notion that this wouldn't immediately cause massive panic for anyone whose son isn't the head of an investment bank and magnificently rich, I couldn't get over.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Jess, we are literally bigger than the NVIDIA conference. We're maybe even bigger than Taylor Swift. We have sold out in minutes the 900-seat auditorium. At the literally the Cathedral of Wokeism, the 92nd Street. We are sold out, Jessica Tarloff. I know. We are sold out.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Well, I love this stuff, but I like to bust the solutions that... In my view, even the poll is the problem of the Democratic Party's platform. And that is, in my view, how you get Latin voters back or Hispanic voters back is you stop talking about them. The way you get Black voters back is you stop talking about them. And what do I mean by that?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
The Democratic Party has to make it verboten to continue to engage in identity politics. And they should focus on the economy through the lens of the middle class. There's been too much advantage... crammed into the most, the most advantaged group in America right now are non-white children of rich people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Because we have based affirmative action on race and our entire politics in the Democratic Party through identity. And it made sense 20, 40, 60 years ago. The academic gap between black and white 60 years ago was double what it was between rich and poor. And now it has flipped. And the swing voters have one thing in mind. Swing voters have the economy in mind.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And this is the opportunity because it's dynamic, meaning some cycles people see Democrats as better on the economy, some Republicans as better on the economy. And what the Democratic Party, in my view, needs to do is say, look, we are going to restore the middle class. The most prosperous nation in the world should have the following table stakes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Young people need the venues, opportunities, and means to meet someone, fall in love, and should they desire, own a home and have kids. So we're gonna have mandatory national service, more freshmen seats, vocational programming, more interaction for less anxiety. We're gonna have 7 million manufactured homes in cool little areas that cost 30 to 50% less. then homes built on site.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
We're going to make it affordable. We're going to have low interest rate loans for anyone under the age of 40. We're going to have a tax holiday for anyone under the age of 30. We're going to have $25 an hour minimum wage. And if you don't want to get married and you don't want to have kids, fine. You can spend all that money on brunch and St. Barts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
But we are going to get out of this lens of trying to shove advantage and talk about the needs and the wants and the injustice of people based on their gender, their sexual orientation, or their race. And we're just going to say, we are here to reverse engineer everything we do to the following.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
The middle class in America and young people are going to have the opportunity to be able to have kids and have a home and live in relative prosperity. And these are the 8, 10, 12 programs. And stop rolling out every special interest group, which all it says to the 24% of people that don't qualify for a democratic special interest group, that we're not going to discriminate against you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
This was tone deaf even for the Trump administration. Your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
We're about the poor and the middle class rising up. That's it. That's your only identity politics. Because even these polls are like, how do we get Hispanics back? No, you don't want Hispanics back. You want the middle class back. And you want to stop telling people you should vote for me because you're Hispanic and I'm better for you. Hispanics don't want you to talk about them as a group.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Try and group Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles into the same group as Cuban-Americans in Florida. They have entirely different priorities. And the notion that the daughter of a Taiwanese private equity billionaire needs affirmative action is just fucking stupid. All of our programs should be focused on color, specifically money. If you don't have money in America, you need more.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And corporations and the top 1% should be paying a lot more, lowest taxes in history for corporations since 1939, 25 wealthiest Americans paying an average tax rate of 6%. And everything that has happened over the last 30 years is an attempt to cram more money into the top 1% of corporations. But for God's sakes, get away from these polls and this discussion of how do we get Black voters back?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
No, how do you get the middle class back? Stop the identity politics.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I think you have your sister soldier moment. And I say, you grow the fuck up. I'm not here to play identity politics. I'm here for young people. Programs to focus on young people would right now disproportionately impact and benefit young men who are struggling. It would disproportionately impact young men of color who are really struggling.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And look, Democrats need to come out of the closet and acknowledge the following data and truth in America. And that's the following. You would rather be born today, and this is a victory we should celebrate, you'd rather be born today non-white or gay than poor. And that's great. That's a sign of our victory. So who are we going to help?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
We're going to help the poor and we're going to help young people. And by the way, the way you calm special interest groups down who are used to Democrats showing up and pandering to them is you say, folks, do the math. There's a 70 percent overlap. between many of the special interest groups who count on the Democratic Party to represent them and poor and middle-income households.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
As MLK said, if you don't bring along the white poor, you're never going to make that much progress because it creates resentment. It also creates accidental racism where when you're at a school or anywhere, you immediately look at someone left and right and think, okay, did they get in? 54% of gay men are attending college. It's 38% of straight men.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, at some point, we just have to acknowledge the data and be the party of the middle class instead of rolling out every special interest group and having Michelle Obama, who I adore, go, who's going to tell them this might be a black job? That is not helpful. That is not helpful. And the only people that don't parade on stage are young men.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
when they're in fact are the ones who have probably fallen further faster than anyone. So get away from the identity politics. The discussion around how we get back Hispanics is only going to alienate more Hispanics. It's to say we've made tremendous progress.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
We are here to lift people up who are poor and make sure the middle class is the most prosperous middle class living in the most prosperous country in the world. And here are a series of programs. And if you want me to talk about what goodies you get because of the color of your skin or your sexual orientation or whether you have indoor or outdoor plumbing,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
other than protecting a woman's rights to family planning, I'm not going to engage in that conversation. I'm here for the middle class, full stop. I think that message really resonates. It gets a lot of moderates back in the fold, and it gets the white poor back in the fold. And I think a lot of non-whites are absolutely ready to have that conversation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
They're sick of being categorized and taken for granted that I vote for Democratic because you're going to throw more goodies at me because of the color of my skin.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
No. And Trump can point to a bunch of data from 16 to 20 that non-whites actually did okay during his administration. Now, granted, it was all debt-fueled, which is a tax on young people, but that's the argument. We've got to stop these deficits. They're going to fuck our children in 10, 20, 40 years. It doesn't matter what color you are, what sexual orientation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
If we keep running up deficits, you're all going to be fucked. That's the argument.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Right. That's not a bumper sticker, is it?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
We sold out the Y. We sold out the Y. Oh, my God. I'm so excited about that. I keep rubbing it and Kara switches face. I don't know if you heard.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I'm like, I don't know if you heard, but me and the much younger Jess Harloff sold out the 92nd Y in about three minutes. I'm like, we've never done that, have we, Kara?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
There you go. Actually, now all of a sudden I feel a little threatened and a little jealous.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah. I think you guys, yeah, that's an interesting thought. Don't get any ideas. Remember who discovered you. All right. That's all for this episode. Actually, I think Rupert Murdoch discovered you. All right. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burroughs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. What a thrill. Its own feed. Folks, we're doing great, but we need you to subscribe to our own feed so we can hit certain benchmarks and bring in the big advertisers. That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds you won't hear anywhere else if you subscribe to our distinct feed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
This week, Jess will be talking with Senator Gallego. Make sure you follow us wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss an episode. Jess, I'm glad... that your little girl is doing just fine. And again, I don't know if you've heard, we're doing an event at the 92nd Y and we're sold out.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Thanks, everybody.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah, I mean, there's so much here. First off, one of the things that's really disappointing was I think in the first Trump administration, he did find really talented, bright people and surrounded himself with talented and bright people. And I don't think that's the case here. I think the litmus test is, will you do anything I say? well, are you willing to go out and lie?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Are you willing to go out and just speak non-truths? He's looking for acolytes and cult members, not for competent professionals. I mean, just looking at the last commerce secretary under Biden, Gina Marie Raimondo, she was a venture capitalist, a lawyer, the governor of Rhode Island. She was outstanding.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And anyone who dealt with her thought, this is someone who does an outstanding job of representing U.S. commerce interests domestically and internationally. And this guy's going off and saying that Just stupid shit. First off, if you're guilty of Social Security fraud, I doubt you're going to complain. I think you'd probably want to stay under the radar.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And if there's anything Doge has proven is that there's a lot less fraud and waste initially theorized, including Democrats. They're having trouble finding fraud and waste. And just a few things about Social Security. It arguably is the most successful social program in American history. It's taken senior poverty from about...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
They think it would be somewhere around 38%, and it's taken it to below 10%. So it's been hugely effective. Now, what I will say is, and we might differ a little bit on this, and I'm looking for points of friction because we're usually in sort of violent agreement. I do believe, well, you said that you paid into it, it's yours. I don't agree with that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Well, I don't know, but I reserve 50 tickets and daddy needs new shoes. So we'll see. Daddy needs new shoes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I think the reason they call it a social security tax, not the social security pension fund, is I don't think you or me have rights to Social Security when we hit 65. And the notion that I paid into it, I should get my money back. Actually, the majority of people take out well more than they actually put in.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And if we're going to, I believe that nobody over the age of 65, or maybe even under the age of 65, should live in poverty. And I'm absolutely not against cutting Social Security benefits for anyone who needs it. I believe Somewhere between 10 and 30 percent of people who get Social Security right now should not receive it because they don't need it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And that is the wealthiest generation in the history of this planet are senior citizens. And the fact that every year we affect a $1.2 trillion transfer from young people who are not doing as well as they have in past generations to the wealthiest generation in history means something is wrong. And I do think that the initial instinct around reforming social security is a good one.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It's something I would like to see someone take on because I think when the program was started, people were living on average 10 to 15 years. They were dying much earlier. They weren't making as much money. They weren't working as long. So to means test it and slowly but surely increase the age limit or the age qualification, We just need to do it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Let's be honest. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. One of us is quirky and interesting. The other is smart and hot. I'm going with smart and hot sold us out. And I hope that doesn't trigger our feminist followers. But yeah, I've done a lot of these events. I've never had. it sold out for this big an auditorium this quickly. And I think you're the variable here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
There used to be, I think when the program was initially conceived, there were 12 young people paying into the system for every one person taking money out. Now it's three to one. And if you were really serious about this, this is how outrageous our economy has become in terms of the transfer from young to old. So it's a program that should keep seniors out of poverty.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It shouldn't continue to be a wealth transfer from the young to the old who are already, as an aggregate, the wealthiest generation in history. We need serious reform. We need to dramatically cut the cost. It's been way too politically dangerous to get near. $40 billion child tax credit gets stripped out of the infrastructure bill.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Old people have figured out a way to vote themselves more and more money. It needs to stop a good, I'll go as high as a third of senior citizens should not be getting Social Security. Your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Basically no one.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Anyways, we can't say who we have, but we have someone who's probably a likely contender for president and a huge power player. I didn't want to guess, Jess did. I thought we could carry the thing. I want more opportunities to talk about me. And he'll take some of the oxygen or she, he or she will take some of the oxygen out of the room because they're a playa, a playa. But you wanted a guest.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Going on a war footing sometimes or preparing for a war footing can actually be good for an economy. People are disappointed that the Russian economy hasn't sunk as fast as some people thought because actually a war footing helps juice an economy, at least in the short term. This bullshit that the Ukrainian... Ja, es ist ein bisschen teuer. 60, 65 Billionen pro Jahr. Okay, gut.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Militärbudget ist 800 Billionen. Again, that the Brits realized they have more in touch or more in common with the continent than they thought. And maybe maybe do something like a backseat move where they become more integrated again with the EU. They increase their military spending and they put up a front that says, OK, we've got this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think this is an opportunity for leadership in Europe to say, Ukraine and Germany has said this, we've got your back. We recognize that this is a huge loss, but be clear, you don't need to surrender and fold right away. And the other silver lining is,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I don't know if you've seen any of these Republican town halls, but there are enough people who have grandparents who fought in the war, who remember how terrible Russia has been in terms of our own interests, and hate the idea that America is surrendering. Ich glaube, die Mehrheit der Amerikaner, die von diesem Daten beurteilt werden, denken, wow, das ist einfach zu viel. Ich bin nicht unten.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And yeah, it's great. And I enjoy that. And time with my boys. So it was wonderful. What did you do last week?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ich verstehe nicht, warum wir uns zurückgeben. Es macht keinen Sinn. It is not good for the world. Even the far right is having trouble. I mean, okay, Tucker Carlson goes and gives Putin a lap dance and can't get over those amazing shopping carts at their grocery store. Folks, I have been to Russia. I mean, we are not going to have an outflow of American citizens going to Russia.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
You can be sure of that. It is not a great place. They have nothing on us, folks. Nothing. This is not a society, an economy... or a leadership to look up to. And I wonder if the silver lining here is that Europe becomes a union again. NATO actually hopefully comes back stronger, because I think it'll take some time, even if the Americans try and unwind it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I don't think they're going to be able to. And Europe puts forward a more unified front against... And they've been doing it. They've been spending more than us. But I hope this is the wake-up call. And I was thinking about... You know, this blitzkrieg of information to try and confuse everybody. DI, Doge. I read this morning they're trying to like partner, bring back Andrew Tate.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
It's all a fucking sideshow to get you to look away from the fact that they are trying to recalibrate the world order. And this is unacceptable. And I think it's unacceptable to most Americans. And I hope this Well, let me put something out there, which is...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
How do you think that manifests? Like if you were to guess what the on the ground, how do you think that shows up in today's electoral politics? What do you think happens?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
economy, back in red states. Und die Art und Weise, wie ich es positionieren würde, ist, dass es ein Stimulusprogramm ist, um die Produktion in den USA zu helfen, um Jobs zu schaffen. Und dass, egal, was du über die Ukraine denkst, wenn wir das nicht mehr tun, wird es eine dramatische Reduktion in Geld und Jobs und Prosperität in den meisten roten Staaten führen.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Dass das nichts anderes ist als, okay, wenn wir Gräne für die Nahrung für die Nahrung anbieten, wenn du das nicht mehr tust, würde es die Landwirte in Iowa schaden. Und nur um es zu akzeptieren, es sind 62 Billionen Dollar. Und was haben wir erhalten?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Lassen Sie uns die moralen Argumente entfernen, weil die moralen Argumente sind, warum geben wir eine Scheiße über Trennwaffen in der Ukraine, wenn mein Sohn einen Job nicht finden kann oder ich meine Diabetes-Medikamente nicht bezahlen kann. Ich denke, das ist eine faire Argument. Okay. Let's just look at it from an economic standpoint.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
For approximately 1% of our spending, we spend $7 trillion, so less than that, the majority of which comes back to red states, comes back to US manufacturing. We get to take out a third, or have so far taken out a third of Russia's kinetic power. We've destroyed a third of their tanks. We have put their economy on its heels to a certain extent.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We have defanged what was supposed to be one of the most ferocious armies in the world. We have reduced the likelihood of terrorism against Western allies and terrorism domestically because a lot of their proxies, who they were supporting, have been castrated.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
They do not have the bandwidth to wreak havoc, which they have done since the end of World War II across different satellite countries because they are bogged down in a war. And it shows that essentially our enemy can be pushed back when the West gets attacked together and unifies without, by the way, without a single American boot on the ground.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
A manager's charge at the end of the day is to allocate capital to its greatest return, to a greater return than your peer group. The president is the greatest allocator of capital in history, thereby the greatest manager in history. The best ROI, the best example of great management over the last 10, 20, 30 years is the $60 billion stimulus program in the U.S. that has resulted in the defanging
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, like that was, that feels a little creepy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Das ist ein guter Deal für uns. It is a great deal.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Would you rather have Russia with this superior fighting force that the whole world is scared of, or to have a third of its army taken out, to have a ton of its soldiers, and I hate to say this, killed, to have China thinking twice about invading Taiwan, saying what a small motivated army can do that's technically literate and backed by the West.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
The West is a much safer place with the pushback that the incredible Ukrainian army has provided. Kind of at very little cost to us. I mean, this is chump change. This is just not a lot of money when you think about the fact it ends up back in our economy. It's not as if, this is not the problem, folks. Social Security is going to be 1.3 trillion dollars this year. This is 60 billion.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Elon Musk hat seit der Wahl 210 Billionen Dollar gemacht. Das sind 60 Billionen, um die Welt in einem viel sichereren Ort zu machen, mit einer starken Botschaft, dass wenn der Westen zusammenkommt, ist es eine unvermeidbare Kampfkraft und kann auf einen mörderischen Autokraten zurückgehen. Das geht um Botschaft. Geh weg mit den moralischen Argumenten.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ich denke, diese werden auf sie selbst gemacht, aber sag einfach, das ist ein großartiges Investment. Es wäre dumm, nicht weiter zu machen, dieses Investment zu machen.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ja, definitiv. Ich habe bemerkt, dass wenn Frauen, nachdem sie Kinder haben, etwa sieben, acht Jahre später, besonders Frauen, die ich glaube, viel Vertrauen aus ihren Ausgaben haben, wenn ihre Kinder etwas älter werden und sie bemerken, dass sie zehn Jahre lang nichts mit Kindern zu tun haben, Everyone talks about dudes' midlife crises.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Welcome back. We're just one month into Trump's second term, although it feels like an eternity. Trump's approval is sinking. See above, silver lining, with polls showing him underwater and his aggressive budget cuts aren't helping. Doge is slashing jobs at the TSA, FEMA and even the NIH unit researching Alzheimer's.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson is cheering on Musk's crusade to shrink the government. But he's also throwing cold water on Musk and Trump's idea to send Americans $5,000 rebate checks with the supposed government savings. Some Republicans say it's unconstitutional, others call it a political stunt, and budget experts warn it would need congressional approval if the savings even exist.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But Trump and Musk are plowing ahead, promising that Doge Dividend will put money in voters' pockets. I feel like I'm old enough to think that there is never a breaking point with Republicans. There are little spurts of pushback or where you think someone...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I have never seen midlife explosions across some of my partners and their friends. Oh my God, they go crazy. So you got that to look forward to. I love how you brought that up and you kind of liked that. You didn't mind the pervy As long as it was a little bit. It sounds like you kind of didn't like it, kind of did.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
aggressive topics issues inbound missiles that you're overwhelmed and become flat footed i suffer from this i don't even know where to start and the way you respond is the following is okay you don't need to respond to everything online you don't need to take up everything with emotion and anger uh you should cite experts you should bring in other bring in data and then pare down what you're going to focus on in terms of your pushback so
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
For example, I think Doge is a giant fucking weapon of mass distraction. Fifty billion dollars, fine. They want to try and right-size government. People are understandably concerned that there's a lot of waste. Government needs to be right-sized. I think the wrong messaging is all this quote-unquote injustice.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I get these national forestry people are wonderful and that there's going to be diapers on the side of your favorite trail and that they got an email and they've been fired after 18 years of service. But I think a lot of Americans say, welcome to the fucking work week. This happened to me or it happened to my cousin.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Private Equity came in and bought out our chiropractic clinic and we got our phones shut off. I think what is happening to a lot of these workers has happened to a lot of people in the private sector. And to be blunt, there isn't a groundswell of sympathy or empathy they were hoping for.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And people think the government needs to be reined back in as it has been on a regular basis, including under Clinton and Gore. Now, having said that, what I would focus on is the incompetence. Ich fokussiere mich auf den Fakt, dass sie nicht 8 Billionen Dollar gespart haben. Sie haben 8 Millionen gespart.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, sie haben die Menschen, die den nuklearen Stockpil überstehen, gefeuert, um sie wieder zu verheiraten, was es mehr teuer macht. Oh, man kann klar sein, dass die Menschen, die die Regulierung Tesla's self-autonomous driving unit, they've all been fired, right? That this is essentially corruption and incompetence at very little money.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And the thing they should link this to is, okay, while they're off here playing Keystone Cops and playing incompetence, you know, incompetence girls gone wild here, they want you to look over here at 50 billion in savings. Okay. They're planning with with the tax cuts that will benefit me. I ran, I looked at the new tax proposal and I ran my W-2 through it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I'm going to save a million dollars a year with Trump's tax cuts, right? Fine, government's too big, save us that 50 billion. But be clear, you're not fooling anybody. You're planning to increase taxes on future generations by the biggest tax increase in history. It's 900 billion here. Let's just come together and agree on
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Somewhere between 12 and 18 times the amount of the 50 billion we're arguing over in terms of Doge. That while everyone is obsessed with Doge, because it makes for good TikTok and people know people in the government, the real story here is somewhere between 6 and 900 billion dollar a year increase in taxes on future generations. I think that's what we should be focused on.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I traveled a lot. I made a lot of excuses and left town.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, no, I was out. So, along those lines of children, today we're going to be talking about Trump turning on Ukraine, Trump's honeymoon coming to an end, and Mitch McConnell's retirement announcement and legacy. Let's bust right into it, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
One month into his presidency, Trump is making a dramatic pivot toward Russia, upending decades of US foreign policy, while previous Republican leaders championed a tough stance on Moscow. That was kind of their go-to. Today's GOP is largely silent as Trump moves to cut support for Ukraine and cozy up to Putin. His administration has even floated, excluding Ukraine from NATO.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ja, wie Medicaid, 80 Millionen Menschen, 1 in 6 Haushalte oder 1 in 6 Kinder, 40% der Erwachsenen, die Älteren, die verletzt sind. Ich meine, das ist, und auch, es ist tatsächlich ein wirklich gut gelungenes, kosteneffizientes Programm. Es bietet Gesundheitsversorgung für Low-Income-Amerikaner bei einem niedrigeren Kosten pro Person als Privatinsurance.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
So Medicaid actually helps the economy because unless you're going to decide you're going to let people die of their cystic fibrosis or you're going to let old people, the disabled, wither away.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
What is the most cost-effective way to give people some dignity, to make sure that kids can actually, you know, we can provide their medication, we can provide their in-home physical therapy for the disabled? Well, this is a lower-cost way to do it. And it is very popular.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And the fact that they're, you know, hey, look over here at 50 billion in Doge savings and we'll give you a $5,000 check, but we're going to cut, what, $600 to $800 billion from Medicaid? I mean, this really is, it is, in my opinion, showing their true colors. And that is, at the end of the day, the most remarkable thing about the Republican Party is that it serves not the 1%, it serves the 0.1%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Und die Tatsache, dass das alles ein riesiger Rauch ist, um zu sagen, schau mal hier, während wir die Taxen auf die sehr reichsten Amerikaner zahlen. Und ich denke, dass das wahrscheinlich zu weit ist. Ich denke, sie werden wahrscheinlich wieder auf Medicaid schauen.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ich hoffe, dass sie nicht, weil ich denke, dass das wahrscheinlich der Anfang eines ziemlich seriösen, sauberen Schweppes oder, du weißt, nahe zu einem sauberen Schweppes, once we have the midterm elections. But Medicaid is, I would say, maybe with the exception of Social Security, is the most popular social program in America, maybe even more popular when you look at its effectiveness.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But this is great messaging for the Democrats that, okay, do you know anyone on Medicaid? This is who they're coming for. And if you think, if they can cut, you know, 16 times what they say they're going to cut in Doge, that's what they're planning to cut from Medicaid. It's not like that. It's like at some point,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ist jemand, und wir brauchen einen Republikaner, der ihnen sagt, dass sie keinen Sinn für Dissens-Sprache haben? An einem Punkt muss jemand aufstehen, und ich denke, dass jemand sein Hintergrund hier finden wird. Der Budget, den wir vorgelegt haben, hat nur 900 Billionen Dollar für die Medicaid-Kosten eingeführt. This is just, this is extraordinary.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And he's blaming Zelensky for a war Putin started. Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac poll shows that 81% of Americans, including 73% of Republicans, don't trust Putin. So why is Trump ignoring them? Jess, Trump's team is pushing for a peace deal on Putin's terms, which European leaders say would weaken Ukraine. If this strategy backfires, what are the long-term consequences for US influence and alliances?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Okay, we're a household that makes $50,000 a year. That's our tax receipts. We spend $70,000. That's our government expenditures. $7 trillion on 5 trillion tax receipts. And we are $350,000 or $35 trillion in debt. But we're going to cut our expenditures by $500. Ich glaube, es wird genug Leute sein, die weitergehen werden.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
social and say, this is just stupid to start sending checks when we're planning to run up the deficit another $900 billion a year to send checks to people for $5,000 rather than paying down the debt. That absolutely, again, to your point, that just makes no sense. All right. One more quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Before we wrap, last week Senator Mitch McConnell announced he won't seek re-election in 2026, marking the end of a four-decade career that reshaped American politics. As Senate GOP leader, he cemented a conservative judiciary, steered his party through shifting ideological tides and clashed with Donald Trump in recent years.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
His exit raises questions about the future of the GOP and the battle for his Kentucky seat with former Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Rep. Andy Barr already in the race. Jess, what do you think McConnell's legacy will be?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
So I'm a full-blown ageist. And do you know who else is ageist? Biology. My son had a Halloween party, he was 14. There were 15-year-old girls in my house that are more qualified to be senator than Senator Feinstein was in the last year of her senate. They would have done a much better job. They would have had a much broader grasp and understanding of the issues than Senator Feinstein did.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Put these people on a fucking ice floe. Enough already. You have to be 30 years of age to become a senator. Why? Because a 29-year-old, they believe, does not have the experience, the maturity or the cognitive ability to make decisions on behalf of a country.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But someone who doesn't know where the fuck they are and freezes on a stage when asking questions, someone who literally, there is a, I believe it's a Republican female representative who literally doesn't know where she is. It's tragic. She's suffering from late-stage Alzheimer's. Biologie sagt, holt mein Bier, wenn die meisten Demokraten darüber sprechen, Ageism zu schreien.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh no, I'm calm, I'm fine. I'm just fine.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And because we have a system with Citizens United where the incumbent almost always wins and these people must get great reservations at great restaurants in D.C. and they decide to never leave. We need age limits for both the Supreme Court and for our elected representatives. Enough already. I mean, make it something low like 80 or something like that. But at some point it is time to go.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
His legacy will be the following, in my view. showing to the world just how much Senator Schumer sucks. And that is this guy, call him Machiavellian, call him evil, he outplayed Democrats every step of the way. While our leadership decided to send a strongly worded letter around all these outrage around Merrick Garland, he always won. He managed to pack the courts up and down.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And when a 14-year-old girl has to carry a child from incest to term, when a woman is bleeding out in an emergency room parking lot from sepsis because a doctor is worried about going to jail, it is because our leadership were fucking neutered and didn't want to go gangster the way McConnell did. McConnell was shameless. He is the graveyard digger for democracy and he was highly effective.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We need more Democrats like that. I want to see the same sort of shamelessness that Speaker Emerita Pelosi brings to her fucking corrupt insider trading. I want to see some of that gangster corruption, some of that gangster backbone, some of those big fucking balls to negotiations with Republicans. His legacy... Maybe he was right, maybe he wasn't, but he sure as hell was effective.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And this is the problem that the Democrats suffer from. And what I have suffered from my entire career is they cannot discern the difference between being right and being effective. He was much more effective than Democratic leadership. Yeah, can we disparage him and say that he was evil and that he did the wrong thing? Yeah, hold my beer, bitches. He outplayed us days one, two and three.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, Senator McConnell voting against Hegseth and Patel is like Hannibal Lecter deciding he's a vegan on his deathbed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, he did?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
He voted against Hegseth and Gabbert. You know, great. These folks seem to develop a conscience after they leave Congress and then go on Bill Maher or when they decide they're resigning. That doesn't... I don't think he deserves any, quite frankly, any props for that. All right. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Jess, by the way, I hope for you this week that at some point in the park with your kids, someone comes up to you and says the following. Gott milf.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
That's good. I've been waiting. I haven't been able to focus on anything else. Our producers are David Toledo and Chenenye Onike, our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. What is real? Our own feed. There you'll get exclusive interviews with smart voices in politics and ours.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Just have a great rest of the week. I hope you have a ton of inappropriate comments coming your way.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think that we take for granted that The number of people who have not died or the number of people who have died at the hands of another human being declined dramatically post the World War II order. That the number of children who died because of hunger or infectious disease has absolutely plummeted.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
That the number of people who get to be with their dying partner because we embrace civil rights. That the opportunity for
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
a black girl to become a lawyer or a doctor based on her merit without being held back based on her ethnicity, the color of her skin, her gender, her sexual orientation, that the post-World War II operating system in the West has been the most prosperous, decent, righteous era in history. And central to all of that was this post-World War II
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
in einer Ordnung, in der westliche Demokratien einander zurückhaben würden, dass wir Ziele hatten. Aber am Ende des Tages erkennen wir, dass die Wahlen, die Rechte, die Regelung der Regeln, ein gewisser Niveau der Dezimalität, keine dämonisierenden Special-Interest-Gruppen, dass wir ein Gruppe von Leuten aus der Dunkelheit gebracht haben, Deutschland,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Und die Alliierten haben unsere Feinde in unsere Alliierten gesetzt. In diesem erstaunlichen Wandel der Vision hat der Marshallplan unsere ehemaligen Feinde investiert. Und wir hatten diese neue Weltordnung der größten, prosperierenden Nationen der Welt, die einander zurückgebracht haben. Und wir haben dieses Operationssystem verabschiedet. Es war so unglaublich.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
It yielded such incredible fruit for so many people that we kind of took for granted that, well, of course, that's a default operating system. Why would we do anything else? So when Trump decides to ignore history and give in to a murderous autocrat that is invading Europe and lie to say things like Zelensky is a dictator or that Ukraine started this war,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think even the Russians are shocked at this shit. I think they're like, what? Yeah, how did this happen? And you just can't help but think, okay, so is this essentially Trump saying to Putin, let's carve up the world, let's have spheres of influence. You have these rights to Antarctica or to the, you know, to the North Pole, not that all the ice is melting. We have...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Du kannst ein Domain über diese Nationen haben, ob es die Ukraine oder die Türkei oder die Crimea ist, und du machst dein Geld, ich mache mein Geld. Europa, sie sind fucking Wimps, ich bin müde von ihnen, ich bin müde von ihnen, die mich leuchten, was auch immer. Wir werden einfach die Welt öffnen. Und du bekommst deins, ich bekomme meines.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Und wir sind Diktatoren und wir sind Autokraten und wir werden beide ein shit tonne Geld machen. Other than that, I can't find reasoning for it. Is there a silver lining here? I think Europe is saying, okay, we can no longer depend on the US and we can no longer depend on their umbrella of military support. That might be a healthy thing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Europe is substantially increasing their own military budget. But this is an upending of the world order since World War II that has been the most prosperous. The North Atlantic Treaty has been the most prosperous operating system in the history. So this is in my view, while everyone's focused on all this bullshit and this misdirects of DI or Andrew Tate or even Doge, I think is a misdirect.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
This really is the story. This is the thing we should be focused on. And that is, do you really want to break up what has been the most successful Alliance in history? Do we really want to have a reputation for abandoning our allies and saying, okay, History is wrong. When a murder side of crowd invades Europe, we shouldn't be worried.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
How much did you miss me? How much did you miss me? Is it tough?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I can't believe that. It's not easy to make Nazis less likable. And we figured it out.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
My trip was great. I was in Zermatt. I'm basically now... If someone told me I could never ski again, I would say, well, how much will that cost me? All I can think about is the ACL I'm going to tear. And it's cold. And I don't know, skiing is not my thing anymore. But it's a good way to trap my kids on a mountain. And European skiing is all about the lunch. And you go and you drink lunch.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ich liebe dieses Wort, was könnte richtig gehen? Und ich frage mich, wenn ich das sehe, und ich war einfach überrascht. Ich meine, erstens, Senator Marco Rubio, wer the fuck bist du? Aber literally, und wenn ich das meine, ist es nicht so, wer du bist, um diese Dinge zu sagen, aber ich habe keine Ahnung, wer dieser Individuum ist. Er war dieser kaltere Krieger.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Das ist, wie er seine Außenpolitik stand, dass er ein kaltes Krieger war. Und jetzt sagt er, er bezieht sich auf die Wahrnehmung, dass die Ukraine den Krieg begonnen hat. Das wäre wie FDR zu sagen, was würden diese Schiffe in Pearl Harbor tun? Die Japaner, ich kann sehen, warum sie uns getötet haben. Es ist einfach verrückt, dass wir uns verabschieden würden.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Dass wir sagen würden, okay, das ist es. Wir verabschieden uns. Und ich frage mich, ich versuche hier die silberne Linie zu sehen. Ich denke, Europa ist mehr beeindruckend, als die Leute ihn kritisieren. Dassault macht unglaubliche Flugzeuge. Die deutschen Tiger-Tanks und die Verarbeitungsfähigkeit dort sind unglaublich.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Die Ökonomien von Italien und Frankreich sind immer noch relativ große Ökonomien. Die UK hat einige der besten Universitäten der Welt. Europa, das ist ein Wachstumspfad. Haltet eure Sachen zusammen und unifiziert euch.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
and put aside your petty stupid fucking differences because this is an existential threat because you no longer have a sane and quite frankly decent ally that I don't want to say you shouldn't have I'm not saying you took them for granted but quite frankly they realize now a big brother is not going to save us here we have to develop our own unified approach to an economy our own unified approach to a war machine and I think it might actually be very unifying in addition
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
So, OK, just for lack of a better term, come out of the closet. And say I am planning to run for president. I think what's going on here is outrageous. I'm going to be talking to you every day about some of the issues at hand and what I think we should do. Instead of just complaining, it needs to be an update.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
All right, we have the person who's the father of the guy who owns a disproportionate share in Trump's crypto coin running around to foreign leaders. Why is that happening? What do you think they're talking about? And then move to policy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
We're gonna move to a Singaporean model where we're gonna pay representatives a million a year, senators two million a year, but there's absolutely no tolerance for any corruption, any stock trading, any movement to industry. You need a five-year sunshine period. This is what's going on. This is why it is so fucked up and so contrary to every American value we hold dear.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And here's the policy recommendation I would suggest. Please comment below. In the comments section, we go absolutely crazy with interesting ideas and bad ideas and bots and all kinds of shit. And this person could say, oh, by the way, if you're interested in donating, I'm not taking money from PACS, here's the link. And they would raise millions.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And then every goddamn station would start calling them every day and they could pick and choose where they wanted to go. And they would also start getting in shape for the fight. They'd figure out their talking points. They'd figure out what works, what doesn't work. And they're all just sitting around waiting for fucking leadership from the Golden Girls. I mean, come on.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And the synchronicity between their think tanks, their media, their elected representatives, they really are finely tuned. I would put forward that in my eyes, The leaders of the Democratic Party right now are Tim Mueller at the bulwark. He's the only one with any fucking testicles coming out and saying this is bullshit. And David Hogg.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
David Hogg's the only one to stand up and say, get these— Don't David Hogg me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Get these seniors out of here. I mean, at least he's got a plan. I'll outline what we're doing here. The Supreme Court blocks Trump's immigration policy. Ukraine war talks and David Hogg's plan to target older. Democrats. We'll take one quick break.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
All right, let's get into it. Over the Easter weekend, while nationwide protests broke out and Vice President J.D. Vance was shaking hands with the Pope hours before he passed away—can't wait for the conspiracy theory on that one—the Supreme Court stepped into one of the most explosive immigration battles yet.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
In a late-night order, the court temporarily blocked President Trump from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law from 1798 that's rarely been used in modern times. Trump's legal team had argued the law gave him sweeping authority to remove non-citizens from enemy nations without the usual legal review.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
But the court had paused, prompting a furious dissent from Justice Alito, who called the move unprecedented, hasty, and legally suspect. This comes as Trump faces mounting legal challenges not just over this case, but over the wrongful deportation of a man to El Salvador. And as critics warn, this could open the door to mass deportations with limited oversight.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Justice Alito called the court's intervention unprecedented and slammed it for acting without a full briefing or lower court input. How unusual is this kind of late-night order? What does it tell us about how the court is handling Trump-era immigration cases?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
That's funny because I think what you do on The Five is actually a lot more difficult. You're dealing with—you're overwhelmed by people who are either batshit crazy or I think totally fucked up on their third bottle of wine, and you manage to—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Don't be sexist. I wasn't immediately saying it was the judge. I could say Greg Gutfeld is drinking wine. I love how—I didn't bring her name up. I think that's really telling.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
So I love, first off, I love, I appreciate the gender stuff. I think that the majority of us have certain predispositions and sentiments that are, I don't know, somewhat dictated or influenced by our gender. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I think that I understand how you feel as a mother and as a woman, and I would argue anyone who's a human, and a lot of men have wonderful feminine instincts around care and nurturing and protection that's horrified by this. As a man,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
When I see Kristi Noem sitting in front of a prison cell with all that surgery and what looks like a Sephora that exploded on her face and the expectation it's about to turn into a Cinemax film where she brings one of them into a private room and asks them if they want more prison yard time and then they start fucking. Gotta be honest, I kind of like it. I kind of like it. Is that wrong?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Is that wrong?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Is it weird that my mind goes to that place?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
You're too young and honorable, but there was this genre of films, these women prison film, or they were Andy Sedaris films. And it was all these women with, I'll just say, a great deal of surgery with guns, just shooting anything and walking around in short shorts. Kristi Noem, it's like, next thing you know, she's going to be killing dogs. Oh, wait, she did that. She did that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
This is her standing in front with guns and her full eye scar. It's just so... But seriously, folks, back to the law here, both Alito and Scalia have said, and I forget which one is credited with these basic themes, but I think it was Scalia who said, every nation has a fantastic Bill of Rights. Everyone always refers to the Bill of Rights. and reads it, and we have this fidelity to it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
What are your general takeaways— I think that was one of the longest interviews I've seen Leader Jeffries do. I always feel like he does two or three minutes. You don't really get a sense for him. I feel as if if people watch it, they would get a sense for him, good or bad. Stack rank the positives and the negatives of your impression of Leader Jeffries coming out of this interview.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Russia actually has a really strong Bill of Rights. It says you're allowed to protest, and anyone who gets in the way of free speech or protest will be locked up immediately. That's not what makes a nation great. What makes a nation great is your willingness to enforce the Bill of Rights. And that's kind of where we are right now, is we're not entirely sure. We're now not even...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
It used to be that when a judge made a decision, that was the judgment and it was over and everyone complied. That's no longer the case. We keep calling it a constitutional crisis, but it's more of a zeitgeist where it appears that the Trump administration is sort of saying, well, maybe we'll live up to that decision, maybe we won't.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
So our willingness to support our laws and our constitution for the first time, I would argue, is no longer a given. It used to be, oh, they made a decision, it's done. We can expect them to comply or people with guns and badges will show up and force them to comply. And that's no longer a given.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
The other basic norm about our constitution and our justice system is the following, that we have decided to err on the side of rather than locking up unfairly, one or two innocent people, we'd rather let dozens of guilty people not be locked up. We've had that bias. It's the burden of proof, the presumption of innocence. It's not the presumption of guilt and the burden of innocence.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
It's the other way around. We've decided that occasionally, you know, OJ gets off. I mean, we have decided that we would rather err on the side of some guilty people not being in prison than having wrongful people in prison. And a lot of people will push back and say, Scott, now do black Americans, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
That there's a lot of people in prison, probably likely unnecessarily, unjustly, and there are a lot of nonprofits trying to work. on what is obviously an enormous issue. But in general, some basic tenants of our system are one, we enforce the Constitution, and two, we're willing to err on the side of making mistakes around innocence as opposed to guilt. And this is exactly the opposite.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
We're saying, well, you know, people are actually, Republicans are actually going on media and saying, well, if a few people get locked up that shouldn't have been, it's worth it. No, that's not. That's not how, that is not the decision we as Americans have made.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
We have decided that if we're gonna make mistakes, it's gonna be around some people don't get incarcerated that probably should be, as opposed to locking up people for having the wrong tattoo or because the administration never wants to admit a mistake and say they can't bring them back. These things are totally contrary to how America has operated for the last 250 years. Yeah. All right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Senator Van Hollen visited Obrego Garcia in El Salvador and said his main goal was to check on Obrego Garcia's health and rights. But he was blocked at the prison gates before meeting him hours later at a hotel. What does it say about the U.S. and our relationship with El Salvador and our leverage when a sitting U.S. senator is denied access like that?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Well, there was a, there was a TikTok that really struck me and at first I didn't get it. And then I thought about it and the guy said, he said, just keep in mind one thing Auschwitz was in Poland.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And me being kind of thick, I didn't put two and two together, and I thought, wow, you know, suddenly I figured it out, that it's easier to escape any sort of moral standards that have been, or barriers to maintaining or preventing you, or guardrails from excising those moral standards by putting centers of depravity outside of your borders. And it takes a different complexion.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Rounding people up takes a different complexion. The targets are obviously different, but this is what we're doing. We are rounding up people and we're sending them to the equivalent of kind of black sites outside of the jurisdiction of the U.S. And this is where I am so disappointed in the Democratic Party.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I believe that Senator Schumer and Leader Jeffries or someone running for president should say the following on their media platform every day. Okay, dear El Salvador, you get a billion dollars in aid from us. You get tremendous help fighting rebels and terrorism. You have tremendous economic aid from us. We are a trading partner.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
you continue this shit and you don't acknowledge, you don't acknowledge or at least invite some democratic representatives to express their concern and you don't show any respect or reverence for those opinions, in 21 months, I am gonna so fuck with your nation. You wanna see inflation? You want to see what it's like when I literally turn off?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
This is, in my opinion, Leader Jeffrey should have the legislation drafted. The El Salvador—call it something flowery and wonderful, like we're helping them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Yeah. In 21 months, if we take Congress, which we will, this is the legislation I'm passing— And I'm going to fucking bankrupt your country. And when countries go bankrupt, they come for their dear leader. And that's you, my friend. This is my phone number. Give me a call. But in this nation, we have elections. And if you think what he's doing to you feels good, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
The reach around he's given you, I'm about to snap it off and eat your fucking testicles in 21 months. Who is saying that on the Democratic side? Instead, we're talking about liberty and constitution and these guys with, you know, these poor men. I get it. It's time to go gangster. This guy's not gonna respond to AOC talking about humanity. We are going to incite a revolution against you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
You don't think we can do this? When we're in charge of the CIA, do you know how much really fucking crazy, nasty shit we have imposed and levied on Central American and Latin American leaders? That's going to look like a fucking Easter Day parade compared to what Democrats are going to do to you in 20 months, three weeks, and three days.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Enough already. Let's actually... Let's actually, it's like, okay, do they make that for a man? And when I say a man, I mean, Senator Klobuchar or anyone or AOC is showing more balls than anyone right now. Someone has to stand up and say, all right, all right, El Salvador, this is what we have planned for you. This is what is coming your way.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And we absolutely have, you think this feels good right now? Enjoy it. Anyway, and we don't seem to be capable of doing that. When the Germans rolled into Poland, they met the Polish cavalry. The Polish army decided to fight on horseback. That's us. We're the Democrats fighting on horseback right now. Enough already. Enough already.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Yeah, I think he's fantastic. I had David on The Property Pod last week, and he's a role model of mine. I think he's just so eloquent and has such humanity. And I love a guy who talks about economics and then his, like, you know, I always ask people who they'd want to go back and meet, and he'd like to go back and meet Jesus. And he had sort of a reawakening spiritual.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I just think he's just such a... He just kind of reeks of humanity, and he's so fucking smart. He's literally everything we don't have in our leadership right now. Ridiculously high IQ coupled with this peanut butter and chocolate of humanity. But the thing about—I was really heartened. The protests— Symbols are important. Visuals are really important.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And all the protests that are sort of organically busted out all over the nation are really inspiring. My fear is it's just a different horse, though, in terms of the cavalry initiative. And that is, look at where these protests are breaking out, right? New York, Chicago.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
It's just the thing that's more effective, I think, is these videos of what's happening in some of these Republican town hall meetings. But also, I'm I'm just more of the—I want to be more gangster. I want to figure out a way to crash the tenure unless he starts showing up. I want to figure out a way to shut down the government.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I want to figure out—I want to outline the exact laws that were going to come for these folks under the exact law. I'm not talking about— prosecuting your political enemies. I'm just saying, start completing a list of, we believe this, a law has been broken here. I mean, basically Adam Schiff did this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
He was the first one to say, oh, you realize there was a ton of insider trading today and we're going to investigate it. I don't think they're going to respond to anything else. I think a big turnout of a crowd on the streets of Chicago, I almost think that kind of tickles their senses. Like, look how outrageous people are. It's fucking hilarious. I think they actually enjoy it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I think they believe that that is confirmation that they're doing something right. And we have a tendency, again— to move to peaceful protest, to meet with nonviolent protest. And my attitude is at this point, no, no, we need brass knuckles. We need brass knuckles. Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back. Big developments and even bigger ultimatums on the war in Ukraine.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. could walk away from peace talks within days if there's no progress. It's the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration is losing patience with stalled negotiations.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Meanwhile, over the weekend, Putin announced a surprise 30-hour Easter ceasefire, but Ukraine says Russia broke it almost immediately using the pause to reposition troops and clear routes for heavy equipment. That's so unlike Putin to lie. President Zelensky called the move a PR stunt, pointing to a spike in attacks by Sunday. All of this came just after the U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
threatened to walk, raising questions about Putin's timing and intent. And yet there are signs the U.S. isn't fully stepping back. Vice President Vance remains optimistic and a U.S.-Ukraine mineral deal appeals to be moving forward. Jess, how seriously should we take Rubio's threat and what would moving on actually look like?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Well, so are you familiar with Jessica Yellen, News Not Noise?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Yeah, so do I. And whenever I see her pop up on Reels, I immediately watch it because it's kind of the quickest way to get an overview of the world in two minutes or less in a fairly non-noisy, you know, just the facts. I think she's fantastic. And I love that. And by the way, if you want to, just a quick shout out, I signed up for, I think I bought 50 memberships or something.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I think it's only a hundred bucks a year. Anyway, Jessica wrote up something and it made sense to me that I heard the term taking out the trash that essentially the current phase we're in with Secretary Hegseth is he's lost all kind of faith and supposedly he didn't build any goodwill with his team and they're leaking like crazy against the guy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
that clearly someone leaked this, this whole second signal gate, that the guy is just incredibly sloppy. And I love all these videos of him saying that Secretary Clinton would be tried and put in prison for exactly a fraction of what he's doing on a regular basis. It's also kind of the best out in the world for signal. It appears that
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
people have decided signal is nearly as good as a skiff, but it is striking that essentially it seems to me his entire staff has turned on him. And some, remember in Animal House, the guy, I forget, was it Niedermeyer? They show what happened to them and it was like killed by his own troops in Vietnam. I think Secretary Hegseth is being killed by his own troops right now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I think his entire team is clearly turned against him. They're like, this guy's an incompetent and an asshole. And it appears that there's just leaks everywhere. And supposedly, once that happens, there's no recovery. You can't plug that hole, right? And then as it relates to Ukraine, I just see stuff as, when you think about what a manager does, A manager's only charge is the following.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
He or she has to allocate capital to a greater return than his or her peers. So the cruel truth of capitalism is every organization entity in the world has a finite amount of resources. Even if you can print money, that money is supposed to be represented by something that's a transfer of work and time. And there's only so much work and time globally. It is finite at some point.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And your job, if you're Tim Cook, is to figure out a way, how do I allocate my finite resources that I'll get a greater return than the CEO of Samsung or the CEO of Apple when they allocate resources or the CEO of Meta to their own devices and their own operating systems? The president... at the end of the day, is the largest allocator of capital in history.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
He is allocating $7 trillion a year on 5 trillion of receipts, I would argue, but he's allocating $7 trillion. And part of the reason that we've been able to allocate capital more efficiently to a greater ROI is because we have better information, we have better culture, we have better human capital.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
But I would argue that Ukraine at 60 billion a year, 180 so far, is one of the best allocations of capital in history. And that is, and I've said this before, we've taken out a third of the kinetic power of the Russian army, we've defanged their brand in this ferocious, this brand of this ferocious military We have distracted them from essentially any sort of foreign adventures elsewhere.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
We have unified Europe. NATO's out of a brain coma. And we've done this with less than, what, 8% of our military budget and with no boots on the ground. And by backing a group of people who, the Ukrainian army are literally a dream come true for the West. And that is, they're incredibly brave. They're willing to make enormous sacrifices on the behest of the West.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
They're incredibly technically sophisticated. And all we have to do is essentially give them some money, some drone technology, and get out of the way and let them do their thing and provide them with intelligence. And to give you a sense for just how unreasonable Russia must be in these negotiations, essentially,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
vance and trump appear to be on the side of putin and even they can't figure out a way to have bring this to an end when they are willing to they threatened ukraine pulling intelligence pulling arms which really neuters ukraine we thought maybe not as much as they'd hoped because i'd like to think europe is filling the void but even with the withdrawal of the premier ally
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And siding with Russians, we can't figure out a deal because clearly Putin's demands are just so over the top. They include for Ukraine to drop its ambitions to join NATO, for Russia to control the entirety of four Ukrainian regions it has claimed as its own. Currently, Russia controls about 20% of Ukraine. Over 3 million live under occupation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
So, Jess, you kept texting me over the weekend, and I know exactly what was going on. You were looking to debrief and do a victory lap of our 90-second why. You were so hungry to, like, just kibitz with your girlfriend, Scott.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
For the size of the Ukrainian army to be limited, Ukraine's forces are already smaller than Russia, with about 900,000 soldiers for Russia's 1.3 million. I've heard he's demanded they basically de-arm or de-escalate. By the way, this has just been a terrible lesson.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And the incentives are every nation should rush towards a nuclear bomb because people remember Ukraine had some of the greatest cash or armament or number of nukes, and they agreed to give them up. And they're probably regretting that now. Putin would have invaded Ukraine if they'd had nukes. He just wouldn't have gone in.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
So the fact that you have what was the premier ally of Ukraine now on the side of Russia and Russia still isn't able to come up with what are seen as acceptable conditions of surrender just show you how unreasonable and difficult it is to negotiate with Russians. And it was like Churchill said, you can't negotiate with a tiger when its head is in, when your head is in its mouth.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And just along the same lines, and it's a bit of an adjacent around capital allocation, This shit for brains is the worst businessman in the world, the worst manager in the world. He does not understand capital allocation, both in terms of foreign policy in Ukraine, but also in terms of innovation in business. And I won't even talk about tariffs. Everyone's been talking about tariffs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
They understand it's the most elegant way to reduce prosperity. His going after universities and withdrawing their R&D budgets is
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
We get between 20 and 60% ROI on investments in our universities because if you look at some of the world's greatest innovations, whether it's vaccines or HIV cocktail or splitting the atom, the greatest innovation in history, probably the last, not history, last hundred years, most people would have to zero in. Maybe it's, I don't know, something that helps malaria or maybe it's vaccines.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I thought about it a lot over the weekend as I was just dodging your texts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Most people would probably zero in on the fact that we figured out how to split the atom before Hitler did. If Hitler, with his scientists who were outstanding, had gotten there first, the world would look like a very different place. We might be having this conversation in German right now. And what did we do? We brought together the following.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Oppenheimer's about great scientists, but the only place Oppenheimer, in my opinion, fell short historically is that the Manhattan Project was this concerted, coordinated project that brought together, and I'm gonna miss some, Caltech, Berkeley, University of Chicago, WashU, Purdue, Rochester, Princeton, I believe it was Columbia,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
We had the University of Minnesota, and all of them were doing different things, looking at the effects of radiation, looking at the risk of turning into a firestorm and lighting the atmosphere on fire that would ruin the world. All of these universities had the brightest people in the world focusing on a very narrow topic, and basically the government
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
First off, I think character matters. And the guy reeks of character. And the little time we had backstage with him, you know, I asked him what he's doing in Brooklyn. And the next two days, he's going to church. You know, he's just, he's been married for a long time. He has two boys.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
with the private sector, with universities, said, we're gonna coordinate all these incredible centers of excellence, and we're gonna do the most amazing thing in history with respect to science and innovation, and then save the world, and then we're gonna go on to create a very cheap source of energy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
That continues to happen every day in this private-public partnership where the government gives money for R&D to universities. And it has continued, continued to yield enormous economic benefit in areas where private sector can't justify to their shareholders that we're gonna go really deep around mRNA vaccines. We're gonna go really deep around LED lighting for flat screen TVs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
We're gonna go really deep around the ability to triangulate signals off of a satellite such that you can have video uploaded to a handheld device really efficiently. This is the greatest capital allocation in history. And this is
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
in addition to the depravity and the cruelty, this is the real, in my opinion, Achilles' heel of this current administration, is at the end of the day, they're just shitty managers. This is a rich kid who continually leaves a trail of bankrupt companies and unpaid subcontractors because he does not understand the most basic thing a manager does, and that is allocate capital to its greatest return.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
He doesn't understand the most basic premise. in business, which is capital allocation. Anyways, thank you for my TED Talk.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Oh, go on. Go on. That's right. That's right. Did you hear we've adopted a small child from the Bahamas? He literally looked like our little brother, didn't he?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
He was raised by, in a fairly kind of middle, if not lower middle class household, by a dad who served and was a social worker and He saw the crack academic up front. I think a lot of his friends were impacted. And he kind of, for lack of a better term, made it out. And you just get the sense the guy's heart is in the right place, that he has good values, that he's a good man.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Yeah, again, I go back to the economic argument. The way you garner the most capital and are able to create margin and then allocate those investments is you attract the best human capital. That's kind of job... I would almost argue it's job, is it communicating a story to attract low cost of capital?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Probably job number one or job number two for a CEO or a leader is to attract and retain the best human capital. The team with the best players wins, full stop.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
That's where I focused the majority of my time, whether it was giving a lot of reviews, showing empathy for people, getting to know them, establishing fake friendships with them, whatever it was, pretending to like their spouses, anything to hold on to the best people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
America, having spent a lot of time in school and graduate school, as you did, and then seeing it from the faculty angle for the last 25 years, the undergrads in an elite university are essentially the freakishly remarkable, the children of rich people, and then some... really talented and sometimes wealthy people from foreign countries.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And I think that counts for a lot. And I've seen him lately. I think he's starting to get his footing around the issues and talking points and being a little bit more forceful. I like the fact that at 53, he feels like he's 14, rest of the fossils pretending to be elected representatives walking around the rotunda. I don't know if you saw that picture of us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Once you get to business school, it's Americans, I can just speak for MBA, I can't speak for the other, it's MBAs, the MBAs are what I call the elite and the aimless. Good kids, smart, know they want to make a lot of money, have no fucking idea what they want to do, so they go back to business school to try and figure it out because they hated their first job.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
They hated investment banking and they hated consulting. So the investment bankers think they're going to be consultants. The consultants think they're going to be investment bankers. You'd think over the course of those two years, we'd get together and say, hey, it sucks over here too.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
But anyways, but the foreigners, the foreign students in the business school, I always say I have them stand up and I'm like, you want to get to know these people because they're the richest people in the world. Their dad owns the brewery or the license for Unilever in Paraguay. And they're smart kids and they're going to run their country.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And it makes sense that they're here, but they're the funnest to party with and they're the richest, which is a lot of fun over the holidays to get to know them. And then there's the PhD students. And the PhD students are some of the most impressive people in the world. We're not cashing the $72,000 check of the kid who's in business school from the dad who has the Unilever contract in Paraguay.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
We have decided that this person is so fucking impressive around a very narrow topic that we're gonna bring them here, ask them to teach the children of rich kid, and we're actually gonna pay them. And we're actually gonna pay them, we're gonna give them a special visa. PhD students, you wanna talk about a selective process, These young men and women are so ridiculously fucking impressive.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
They are the number one draft choice out of their college, if their country was a college. And the team that gets every number one draft choice in terms of PhD students The University of Wisconsin and Madison can compete with Oxford. It can compete with INSEAD. It can compete with the Baconi. It can compete with St.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Andrews because people know if they come as a PhD student to the US, they're gonna slipstream into what is probably one of the best jobs, a society that really, really protects and values intellectual property. And the idea that we have said to the number one draft choices
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Yeah, come here, but there's a good chance we're going to clean out your locker in the middle of the season and arrest you and tell you to go back to your hometown. It just, again, couldn't be more fucking stupid from a management standpoint. These people, the fact these people want to come here, it's like, oh, Tom Brady wants to come play for our NFL team.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Oh, no, let's create a level of insecurity where we might disrupt his and his family's life for no real reason, for some sort of political statement. It all fundles at all reverse engineers to the fascist playbook of go after the cultural elite, go after institutions that represent progressive thought, as opposed to thinking, well, how does this impact economically?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
It doesn't matter how it impacts us economically as a nation, because I got the Trump coin. And those of you who are loyal to me, I will figure out a way to get you your tens of millions of dollars. I mean, it is so void of any sort of empathy for the economic prosperity of not even the lower 99, but anyone who's not in on the grift.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
First of all, you're tall and very striking. I'm tall. And he sat in between us, or he stood in between us, and it looked like we had just adopted a child from the Bahamas. I mean, he just, he looked like our child. He's very youthful looking. He's very handsome. I remember thinking, wow, this guy's really good looking in person. And I like the fact he showed up kind of dressed down.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I've had something similar happen. I got a tech talent visa to come here to the UK. I just sent them some links to my media stuff and some of my books and they're like, oh, we're thrilled. Here's a five-year visa. And also the UK, the last UK government put in place a program that if you graduated from any of the top 100 universities in the US, you can immediately get a visa here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
What does that tell you? What does that tell you about the strength of our universities, right? And do we wanna start cutting the funding? From them, it's really, it just, distinct to the moral arguments which the Democrats are good at, they're not able to connect it to economic issues and prosperity.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Anyways, before we go, David Hogg, the Parkland shooting survivor turned Democratic National Committee vice chair, is stirring up waves inside his own party after pledging $20 million to support primary challengers against older Democratic incumbents in safe seats. Hogg is now extending something of an olive branch
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
His outside group, Leaders We Deserve, just donated $100,000 to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a gesture some see as an attempt to ease tensions. But the move isn't stopping the blowback. Critics say he's putting his own agenda ahead of the fight to flip the House and that his plans to shake up seniority politics could undermine Democratic unity heading into 2026.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Jess, Hogg said his push isn't about age, but effectiveness. But critics, especially those in swing districts, argue his plan pulls focus and resources away from winning back the House. How do you see it?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
You're going to spend any time with this guy, you're going to like him. And I think that's important in politics because I think people are more inclined to work with people they like. The issue I have is that
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
That's a good argument. And I'm thrilled we finally found something we disagree on. He's more eloquent, but he's doing—essentially a couple weeks ago, I said any candidate under the age of 100 who's running to unseat an incumbent— I said, unseat an incumbent Republican, reach out to me and I'll give you a thousand bucks. And I've had about, I don't know, 30 people reach out to me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I'm a former Marine. Yeah. And I've been, but I'm running out of money. I'm giving away about 20 grand. So I'm going to, Hogg's doing this in a more thoughtful way. I abso-fucking-lutely love this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And a lot of the arguments and the tone, the very logical, the very practical, we agree with you, but hold the course, stay the course, is kind of the same tone I got from people who told me to sit the fuck down when I was saying Biden was too old to run for re-election. I cannot tell you how many party elders reached out to me directly and said, do you understand the assignment?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
He is going to be our nominee and all you are doing by highlighting his age and your critical comments is you're gonna put Trump back in office. And we're at 25%. We have decided that the prefrontal cortex of a woman or a man at 34 does not have the cognitive ability and maturity to run for president. 30 for Senate, I think 25 of the US House of Representatives.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And this is more of a general issue around our leadership kind of broad strokes is that Donald Trump, I think he's taking the prosperity of America down, defying the Constitution, acting in a means, you know, with a texture of cruelty that just doesn't reflect well on our brand and has stuck the knife so far in the economy's back at this point that even if we're able to get it to pull it out, the injury is kind of there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
But we can have a guy who looks like he's about to go into hospice run for president. We can have the people who are supposed to push back on incredibly complex issues and work 17 hours a day and weaponize new technologies and new mediums. Oh, it's okay that they're 73. What is Schumer now, 73? Used to have to retire at 65. So I am totally down with this. I also like David Hogg.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
He reached out to me right after the Parkland shooting when I went on, I forget what it was, MSNBC and COVID and said, And young people need to get off their phones and get outside. And I got a ton of pushback. And he called me and said, there's something nihilist about all this. I thought he was very impressive. And I am totally down with this. And if it forces if it forces Democrats.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Status quo is not working. That is what basically the Democratic message is. We're the good guys. We want to go back to where we were, stay the course, wait until 2026. And we're going to take things back to where they should because we're not him. That is not the message. The message they're putting out there has us at 25%. We need to shed skin. We need disruption within our own party.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And it's not only about youth as it relates to age, but it's about ideas and youthful thinking. And some of these people are just not up to the task. I absolutely adore and love this. David Hogg, reach out to me. I think we should bring him on to talk about this. I'm going to give him some money, but I am done.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I am done with this weak, neutered seniors home where the most they can do is get outraged that Jell-O night's been canceled. I just, I'm done. I'm an ageist. Enough already. We need churn.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I think those are really powerful points, and I agree.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And at the same time, he's much more popular than the Democratic Party. And I think the Democratic Party has hit a new low in terms of popularity. And right now, there really isn't a leader. There's no one sort of—I mean, everyone was excited about the senator. Who was the senator who went on every talking head show this weekend?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
The whole point of evidence in our research and being civil with the other side is so we can shape better solutions. But I think a lot of what you said there was really powerful and makes a lot of sense. All right. Jess, spoken like a person who's six foot one and a half. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday and Friday. That's right, its own feed. That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds you won't hear anywhere else. This week, Jess is talking with Representative Jared Moskowitz. He's from my hometown. He's from Florida, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
He's such a troll. I loved when he proposed that they impeach Biden after a year and a half and no one would second it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Who wants to second? Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss an episode. Jess, have a great rest of the week. You did so well at the 97th.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
We're inviting little Jess up to give the show or whatever it is, our bar and our bat mitzvah. It was so nice for us. We're now a man and a woman. We have the rites of passage. We've had our moment.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Thanks for saying that. Likewise. All right, everyone. See you next week.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Van Hollen. They're just excited to register a pulse, right? Okay, there's some life in there. And AOC and Bernie's tour— And I'm not sure, I think Jeffries could be not the one-two punch, but the two punch, and that is he's thoughtful. My guess is he's good at wrangling votes. But I think right now the obvious leaders of the Congress are Senator Schumer and Leader Jeffries.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And quite frankly, I just don't think they're what we need right now. I think Jeffries is a good actor. I think he could be the two and the one-two punch. It just struck me that we are not up to the task, that we are not hitting back hard enough, that it was a lot of very rousing kind of Obama-esque flowery rhetoric, but not enough specific solutions and not enough
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
strategy for how to more immediately counteract. The entire thing can't be, our response can't be, we're the good guys and we're not him and just wait till 2026. It's just not enough. And I would like to see, I think Senator Schumer has been a disaster for us. I think it has been Mike Tyson versus, I'm trying to think of a really weak boxer. Chuck Wepner was rocky. I can't say that. I
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Yeah. I'm emotionally distant and unavailable to everybody. So let's talk about it. So just FYI, Jess and I, as you've probably heard a million times, hosted Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at the Y. The 92nd Street Wire, which is basically like, I don't know, Jewish Mecca, Jekka, I don't know what you would call it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
But this is, I think that Mitch McConnell was the aircraft carrier and we're apples. And I think Senator Schumer has been a disaster for the Democratic Party. And I think Leader Jeffries could be a great sort of internal behind the scenes person wrangling votes. But in general, I think our leadership is not up to the task. It has not really outlined anything other than we're not him.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
We're good folks. Everyone should have access to health care. I mean, all the same shit we've been hearing for a long time. I thought it reflected well on him. I was happy because I think he was happy he showed up because I think it gave him some running room.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
One of the things I like about podcasts is that while we did provide pushback, I think, at some critical moments, I generally find the thing I like about the podcast medium, and this bothers some people, is that we're not there to create a TikTok moment of calling people out. We're trying to present them in their best light. And I think we did that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And then just overall, just personally, it was a nice moment for both of us. I know you were really excited to be there. I was really excited to be there. I didn't, you know, I didn't, I'm not sure what is ever going to make it to the 92nd Street Wire. Because for those of you who don't know, in New York, that is like, I don't know, that we really are, quote unquote, the cultural elite now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
We are the enemy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Oh, love it. It's like, I hate Harvard. I got in. I'm going. I'm going.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Yeah, who would say no? Why would you?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
There you go. So I was really excited about it. But trying to bridge to talk about today's news, my 14-year-old came in and woke me up last night and said, Dad, in my group chat, it says we're attacking the Hutus at 1400 hours. Should I be concerned?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Yeah, he's in the chat.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
By the way, I think that from this point forward, anytime, I'm doing this on every text and chat now, anything I'm signing off with, and also supposedly F-15s are coming in from the southeast and attacking Yemen. I'm signing off every text, every email with military coordinates and in the specific cache.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
I got so many text messages from my Jewish friends who are like, my parents are coming. So give me your sense of what went down, what you thought of Leader Jeffries, kind of, anyways, your cliff notes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Yeah, I think in World War II, we were fighting a war on multiple fronts, and we had FDR, and he had his generals.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Yeah. I was going to ask you, who's the leader of the Democratic Party right now?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Yeah. The Senate. You're right. Okay. Senator Schumer, do you think he's the leader of the Democratic Party? Do you think he's showing leadership?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
The guy brightens up a fucking room by leaving it. Literally, Senator Schumer, go home.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
He's awful. He's awful.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Your idea is the right one, in my view. I'm sorry, let me interrupt you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Your idea is the right one. I think Representative Khanna, AOC, Wes Moore, Governor Newsom, I think they should all announce they're running for president and do daily firesides, take an issue every day. This is the latest thing. You know, Witkoff's meeting with Putin, his son owns 75 percent of the Trump administration. Crypto grift. What do you think they're talking about?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And then if they announce they're running for president, they immediately become, quote unquote, the de facto leader of the Democratic Party, because I don't think either leader Jeffries or Senator Schumer are. Although if Christian Gillibrand can run for president, I guess anyone can. Look, they somebody needs to stand up and say, I'm ready to lead.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
Mayor Pete would be great at that. Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And these guys still haven't learned. They're all waiting to go on Jimmy Kimmel or Colbert. That's not what you do here. You raise a few million dollars and you get two turntables and a microphone. And I'll come back to why I said two turntables and a microphone. That's a bit of a tease. And you create your own media and you go on every day.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And if these people did something with a reasonable amount of production value, a great producer and writer, you know, like we have here and every day came out with three, five, 20 minutes and just hit these guys hard in the nuts every fucking day. And it would be hard. You'd have to absorb all the news, distill it. It's a full time job. Yeah, it's a full time job.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Deportation Efforts
And all these guys are looking for jobs. And every day came out with something. And also, I think Mayor Pete, Mayor Pete has already announced he's running for president. He's not fooling anybody. He's running for he's been running for president since he was eight.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Yeah. Let's start rumors. I am a birthing person. So one of the great—I guess you could do this for your daughters—decent education and power and history and politics and culture and also, oddly, sex education is to have your 16-year-old boy—and I'm about to do it with mine— I did it when he was 15, but I did it two years ago with my 17-year-old.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And then the thing that was on display that I saw these pictures of that was so disappointing for me was the kind of—the knee-bending of all these tech billionaires. And I know what they're thinking. The smartest thing to do—this guy's pretty easy to manipulate, and that is if I show up and I give a million bucks to his inaugural committee—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
It's worth tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars to my company's shareholder value because I'll stay in his good graces. This is just a good trade. At the same time, where are the Americans? Where's the fidelity to competition? These guys don't like him. They don't like each other.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
They don't want to sit next to each other, which brings me back to who is the most powerful person on the planet right now, and stick with me here. I think Lauren Sanchez, I've met her two previous husbands, and they're both amazing guys. One, I think his name's Tony Gonzalez. He's a NFL player. I met him in F1 Vegas. He's tall. He's handsome. He's super funny. He just seems like a wonderful guy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Her second husband was a guy named Patrick Whitesell, who's like 6'4", handsome. He's kind of the Ari Emanuel that's lower key. He's this super agent, incredible businessman, you know, the guy you want to be. And then her third husband, Jeff Bezos, is obviously a very impressive guy. So this, Lauren Sanchez, I would argue, is one of the most skilled people in the world.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
I don't entirely know what those skills are. I think she's got a magnetic personality. Everybody I know says she's, she's just got to be a captivating person. When I saw the Zuck staring at her chest, it dawned on me. that if she really wants to do the world a solid, she should give, her fourth husband should be the Zuck. And then Priscilla Chan would get half the voting shares.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And I think you'd see a dramatic spike in mental wellness and trust in our institutions. So I think Lauren Sanchez is the leader we need right now. Your thoughts on the impending divorce energy of Mark Zuckerberg?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
So Bezos' wife or girlfriend got in, but not Zuckerberg's wife?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
I guess because Trump likes her look. But anyways.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
I thought she looked great.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
It's funny you said that. That's one image I would have liked to have seen. That sounds really adorable.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
I'll do it in a year with my 14-year-old, is to watch the entire Game of Thrones series. It just touches on everything. And it's very bonding. And in one of the episodes, Stannis Baratheon decides to burn his daughter, Shireen, at the stake. And it is so incredibly uncomfortable. And I decided for my mental health...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
I don't think it's fair. I think there's a lot of family energy with Biden. His great, great, great, great, great grandkids were everywhere. Get it? Great, great, great, great grandkids.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
My humor is not landing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Or put them in the rotunda versus someone elected to be governor of a huge state.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Well, they do understand optics. I'll give that to them. The thing that kind of summarized what's happened here and that I found incredibly discouraging and the most underreported story of the last few days was that the day before he was inaugurated, he launched the Trump coin. And this is essentially a meme coin.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
It's a means of supporting the president on its first day it ran to, I think, $11 or $12 billion in market cap. And I don't think I'm being an alarmist here, but the conversation I see will happen or may have already happened is something along the following. President Trump, congratulations on your great Victory, this is your buddy Vlad.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Just FYI, I'm thinking about putting 600 billion rubles or 10 billion U.S. dollars into your amazing Trump coin as a means of stabilizing our currency outflows. We want to have more crypto. And my economists have done the math, and guess what? If based on the limit amount of float, if I just put $10 billion in, which is nothing for me,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
controlling the 12th largest economy in the world, I think it'll take probably the price of the market cap of the Trump coin to 50 billion. And based on your stake, this would make you one of the five wealthiest men in America, just FYI. And oh, and unrelated news, could you please seize arms shipments to Ukraine? I mean, the potential here is,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
We thought Donald Trump media was a conflict and a bad idea, but they have to file forms with the SEC, making it sort of transparent when they sell shares that would crash the stock. All sorts of conflicts of interest. He's tried to distance himself by that by putting into a trust controlled by his sons, which makes no fucking sense as if he doesn't control his sons.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
But now they figured out the ultimate grift, and that is a meme coin. that they can basically say they need another vote to have a federal ban on abortion. And a few, Susan Collins or whoever it is, are holdouts pretending to be moderates.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
You can call them and say offline, say, by the way, I can put $10 million in your account for your campaign or your personal account, and nobody even knows because I can do it with the Trump coin, which, by the way, has a $12 billion market cap, although it lost half its value yesterday. The level of frictionless grift
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Going through the second run through of it because we're watching it again together. I would not watch that scene. Yesterday was Shereen Baratheon being burned at the stake. I didn't watch it. So you've got to carry this show because for my own mental health, I just couldn't watch this shit. I just I couldn't do it. So you tell me what what happened yesterday real quick.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
That was slipped under the cover of night, the day before the inauguration, while the news cycle would squeeze it out. I mean, it feels to me that this is a full, the shape-shifting of America from a platform for, among other things, prosperity, economic growth, all great things, producing very wealthy people, also, I think, a wonderful thing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
But it also used to be a platform for rule of fair play, civil rights.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
a lack of corruption, an electoral process that sent people that were supposed to think about preventing a tragedy of the commons and think long-term and deny the rights of special interest groups, specifically corporations and rich people such that we didn't end up with such great income inequality that it leads to revolution, that we projected democracy and women's rights and freedoms and humanity and no...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
no forced weddings or honor killings, that we would project that power around the world. It feels like all of that is now an asterisk on a giant fucking dollar sign.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And that is we are now a full platform for figuring out a Hunger Games economy where you can take the most prosperous platform in the world, the United States, and either figure out a way to make the jump to light speed to become very, very wealthy, at which point you have political power, the power to get wealthier and wealthier,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And everything else has been crowded into a small corner that occasionally gets a nod. But we've gone, I mean, we have gone, and to your point, I sort of admire how brazen and upfront they are that we are now a kleptocracy. But the Trump coin for me and the Melania coin perfectly embody that we no longer seem to care about that, OK, the U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
has been for sale for a long time, including Democrats through Citizens United and health care lobbyists who have weaponized both people on both aisles. But now the world is for sale. And effectively, he could call He could get the warring parties in Sudan.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
I talked to Ian Bremmer, and he said the way Trump gets a Nobel Peace Prize, and he's supposedly obsessed with getting one, would be to go in and solve the civil war in Sudan. More people are dying in Sudan every day than in Gaza or Ukraine combined. But no one gives a shit, right? But I don't see him trying to solve it. I see him calling both parties and say, who's going to buy more Trump coin?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And whoever buys more Trump coin and takes my wealth up one to $10 billion, I'm going to weigh in with U.S. military intelligence, some heavy equipment, and this side is going to win. It's going to be like eBay hits geopolitics. Who is the highest bidder in an elegant, non-traceable, totally opaque method through this new vehicle they have figured out?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And it's sort of, there's an insidious genius around this called the Trump coin. And I just didn't see that much coverage. I saw a lot more coverage of- Zuckerberg staring at Lauren Sanchez's chest than I saw of all the potential scenarios that are very, very bad for the Trump coin.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Let's start with let's start with the important stuff, your toddler's life.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
You went to the inauguration as part of Fox? Well, yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Well, when you have Nancy or Speaker Pelosi trading stocks, which you shouldn't be able to do with what is the world's most privileged insider information, it's the beginning of this corruption. And hotel rooms, booking hotel rooms, occurring favor around patents from China, that is all just... versus the chess of this. Totally. Those are all slingshots. This is an elephant gun.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Even after a 30% decline in the price of the Trump coin, it has a market cap, as we record this, of $7.5 billion. They own about 80%. So he basically made $6 billion on paper. And as far as we know, he's already borrowed against it. He's already given it to Supreme Court justices to uphold a ban. And if you don't think Clarence Thomas would take $10 million in Bitcoin...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Well, that's like saying he wouldn't go on a yacht or a cruise with someone who had issues before the court. I mean, this is and it's sort of we're sort of turning into, OK, like they say to unfortunately some law enforcement people in countries with big drug cartels. you know, either lead or gold.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And that is he's demonstrated power to kind of run people out of politics or sick online trolls after them, death threats, people showing up at your house, which puts a chill on free speech and his critics.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
But at the same time, he now has the ability to not only become the wealthiest man himself through grift in other countries by selling foreign assets and foreign interests to the highest bidder, he can start doling out money to other people very covertly to get essentially what he wants. I mean, this is just so... I got to admit, the thing I like most about it is it's just so brazen.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
They're not even trying to hide it. All right, let's take one quick break. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Biden chose to focus on economic inequality and take a final shot at the tech oligarchs. He opened by addressing the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas, an agreement he worked on with the Trump administration. Hours before the transition of U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
leadership, President Biden issued pardons for General Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, members of Congress involved in the January 6 investigation, and members of his family. What do you—Jess, any thoughts on the ceasefire deal, the timing of it, and kind of, if you will, Biden's sort of last sort of actions on his way out?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
It was pretty cool. Give us a sense for the vibe. Give us some on-the-ground, sane vibe check. You said pretty cool, so immediately I disagree with you because I can't imagine anything about that would be cool, but I'll defer to you because you were there, I wasn't.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Yeah, so I think you've got to give credit where credit's due, and that is the upside to Trump's unpredictability. This just had so many echoes of when Reagan came into office and then Iran decided to release the American hostages. And that is, I do think there's just no getting around it, despite what are probably heroic moments.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
nonstop, very well-orchestrated, intelligent efforts of Secretary Blinken and the Biden administration. I just don't think it's any accident that on the eve of inauguration, this deal went through. And I do think that Trump's unpredictability and quite frankly, also his resolute backing of Israel played a role here. So I think, you know, who gets credit for this? I think the answer is yes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And I don't think it's a zero-sum game around this. It is time, or it feels like it's time for the war to come to something resembling an end. I found that image of the transfer of the hostages and all of those folks in mass Hamas just looks as strong as ever. And just to see that kind of level of chaos there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
It just was a very chilling, frightening scene to me that we're nowhere near a resolution. I don't know what that says about the way the war was prosecuted, about the future of that region, but that was frightening to me. And I'm glad, I'm really glad those folks are home. I'm glad, I'm hoping that death and destruction... Let's up here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
You know, Gaza has become ground zero, the greatest concentration of child amputees. So, you know, it felt like this just needed to come to an end. And my kind of Yoda on this is a guy named Dan Senor, who has a wonderful podcast called... call me back. And he's basically said, this was a bad deal for Israel, but a deal they should take. And I thought that kind of summarized it perfectly.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And again, people didn't talk much about that because it was sort of overridden.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
So let's just briefly, I'm just going to brattle off these executive actions. And I got to be honest, I think that sends a very strong signal around leadership and governance to almost like practically on stage on the day.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
There you go. So ending birthrights, I'm going to go through all of them and any specific ones that stand out to you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Ending birthright citizenship, leaving the World Health Organization, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, revoking electric vehicle targets, reclassifying federal employees, making them easier to fire, declaring a national energy emergency, creating a policy recognizing only two genders, pausing the TikTok ban.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Rescinding 78 Biden-era executive actions, declaring a national border emergency, issuing pardons for January 6th defendants, withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement. I'll stop there. Anything especially stand out to you as especially good or bad?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
When it's us transferring it. I'm sorry, go ahead.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Yeah, some of it is more meaningful than others. The renaming stuff, you know, some of it declaring the border a national emergency, the lifting the bans, you know, this stuff around, the rhetoric around energy strikes me as especially just... I don't know, inaccurate. So all of this drill, baby, drill, it should be build, baby, build. We're the number one oil producer in the world.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Biden okayed a bunch of drilling permits. That's just pure rhetoric. The naming stuff is bullshit. The— You know, I don't necessarily agree, but I can understand declaring the border a national emergency. I get that. Yeah. And saying they're going to expel or deport criminals who are undocumented workers. Technically, they've committed two crimes. I get that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
But the birthright stuff, pulling down the Spanish language, that feels more like, fuck you, I'm a racist. It's unnecessarily mean and waving your middle finger in the face of people. I don't understand. I think he loses a lot of... credibility and most, you know, he creates a lot of unnecessary enemies when he does this stuff that seems just more coarse than effective.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And I, you know, some of it revoking electric vehicle targets and, Okay, fine. The thing I like is reclassifying federal employees, making them easier to fire. I don't see any reason why government employees shouldn't be subject to the same pressure and accountability as private sector employees.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Now, having said that, this notion that government is out of control, you might find the government spending is out of control, but that's mostly around entitlements and the... ballooning interest on our ballooning deficit, the number of people who work for the government has ranged over the last 50 years or six years between 14 and 17%. And it's actually towards the low end right now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
So, and the majority of our employees who work for the government work for state and local. So the notion that all of a sudden the government state or the social welfare state has just ballooned, that's not really true. You could argue that government spending has ballooned, But it's not, you know, anyways, I like that. I think that I think that made sense.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And that's declaring a national energy emergency. That's just bullshit. It's just not true. We just don't. Yeah, we don't need creating a policy recognizing only two genders. I'm sort of of the mind like give it to him so we can stop talking about this because it's been such an effective cudgel and weapon against Democrats. Yeah. And that is, I don't—you know, OK, fine. Have at it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Let them decide that there's only male and female. That's fine. I do think the Democrats served up the mother of all fastballs by deciding that, oh, a six-foot-four swimmer can show up in a unitard and win everything at the Women's Nationals or that—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
A transgender woman can cross the finish line in a bike race five minutes early and everybody, all the Democrats gather around and say it's inspiring. So I'm always sort of like, give them that, let them move on, stop demonizing. this group of people of which there are less than the number of people probably paying PEDEL in California.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
But some of this just felt, yeah, I don't agree with his economic policies. The tariffs thing, I actually think is being, I don't think tariffs are a good idea, but I think he's more pragmatic. And if you look at his first term, he was seen more, he proved to be more of a pragmatist than an ideologue. I think he's trying to, he sees himself as a dealmaker here and
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And I think he's trying to send a shot across the bow of these nations saying, you need to come to the table and give me something or I'll implement. Because he could have implemented those tariffs today, but he decided not to. So I do think he's being pragmatic around that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Yeah, 100%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Well said, Jess. Okay, we have one more quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
users after major app stores removed the platform following the enforcement of a 2024 law banning TikTok unless it divests from Chinese parent company ByteDance. Less than 24 hours later, TikTok flickered back to life, credited to President Trump.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Trump said he wants to delay the enforcement of the ban for 75 days, aiming to negotiate a deal to protect national security while allowing TikTok to continue operating in the U.S. What are your thoughts on this, Jess?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
So the mere fact that on a dime, TikTok could have their algorithm push out and elevate a ton of TikTokers who are understandably upset because they make their living or they just plain don't like it, 170 million Americans, if they can find 1% of them, 1.7 million.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And then I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that they massively elevated the distribution and viewership of that content that inspired massive political pressure and discourse and occupying the news, i.e. propaganda. The fact that on demand, in real time, a platform that is obviously influenced by law and has to do with the CCP wants.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
The fact that they could inspire a real-time influence on our government is exactly the reason it needs to be banned. When do they do this again? When they invade Taiwan? Or when they just want us to get angry at each other? And this has a larger theme, and that is, are we as Americans a serious people? We're in the Paris Accords. We're out. We're back in. We're out again. We're in the Iran deal.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
No, we're out again. We have 79 U.S. senators, 350-odd congresspeople sign into law something banning it. They had... They had six months to figure this out. They decided not to. And on the eve of the banning, we blinked. President signed this into law. It was a law. But what did the Chinese and the CCP say? Hold my fucking beer. And we blinked.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And now we're trying to figure out how to get out the knee pads and fillate the CCP. What happens the next time we have real negotiations with any adversary or competitor globally? We are not a serious people. We blink. We sign laws and then we repeal them. We enter treaties and then we leave them. We fund NATO and then we start threatening other NATO countries. This...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
This embodies or epitomizes the fact that we are losing currency and credibility around anything we say, any threat we make, even if it's a law that passes overwhelmingly. Well, will it really happen? I wouldn't take us seriously. So what happens when we threaten to reciprocate or to defend Taiwan? Do they take us seriously?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Or do they now feel like between our ability to turn Trump into a deca-billionaire and the fact that even when they vote for a law and vote on something, they don't seem that serious, does anyone take us by our word? We are no longer a serious people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
What is their motivation to get a deal done? Oh, we really mean it this time. We gave you 180 days and you didn't listen. But now we're going to give you another 75. But we really mean it this time.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
There's a word for that. Socialism. We've decided, he's decided that the U.S. government should own 50% of a private enterprise. I mean, how is that any different than the U.K. deciding to invest in DeLorean or Obama investing in cilantro?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
That is, socialism is when the government controls the means of production, when he decides certain businesses and he thinks he has a better business perspective. He decides we should own 50% of that and he's going to make us rich. That is socialism. That is the basis of, OK, we're going to now become the means of production and own businesses because we know better than private enterprise.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
I'm going to finish where I started. I see this as Shireen Baratheon being burnt at the stake. I just am not down with this. I refuse to normalize it, Jess. I am not coming together. I am not.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Is it?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Well, I think I am being a moderate. Well, let me put it this way. We're raging. We're raging. How's that?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
All right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
There you go. All right. That's all for this episode. Thanks for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. Raging Moderates on its own feed. Please follow us wherever you get your podcast. Jess, I hope you and your daughters are well.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
I won't even go there. Anyways.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
No. Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
I think that could save America and I'll come back to that. But as Jess is talking about, we're going to cover Trump's inauguration. We'll come back to this. Biden's 11th hour legacy and TikToks. ban reversal. So I did see, I have seen some clips, and my favorite one is all of your colleagues going insane over Michelle Obama not showing up about how selfish and outrageous it is.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And rumor is that Trump didn't show up to Biden's inauguration and maybe even inspired- I read that somewhere. Maybe even inspired kind of a Duck Dynasty insurrection that was a low point in our nation's history. But yeah, Michelle Obama, First Lady Michelle not showing up, that's really outrageous. Yeah. So, all right, let's bust right into it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States in a ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda. Wasting no time, he signed a flurry of executive actions, including revoking 78 of Joe Biden's policies, withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, and ending birthright citizenship.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
He also issued sweeping pardons for over 1,500 January 6th rioters, including members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys convicted of seditious conspiracy. For supporters, it's the fulfillment of bold campaign promises. For critics, it's a troubling start to a presidency pushing the limits of executive power. So it feels like you were excited and caught up or appreciate the majesty of the moment.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Any surprises or anything that you found sort of out of the ordinary or interesting in your couple days in D.C. ?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Yeah, hedge fund managers and tech CEOs bumped out or pushed out, shoved governors.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Agreed. Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Jessica, I've decided after this kind of two-week free trial of 2025, I want my money back. I'm...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
How do you get 100 drunk Norwegian fraternity guys out of your pool?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Hey guys, would you please get out of the pool? I mean, Norwegians are— Oh, because they're so nice. They're just so nice. Get it? Anyways.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
That was, I thought, one of the weirdest parts of his inaugural address. He made statements about expanding America's borders and bringing our flag to— Gulf of America. Yeah, but even—that's a renaming thing. That's just a weird—I don't know, whatever that is. That's his rebranding. Let's call it—I don't know. Let's call it Altria instead of Philip Morris. Whatever. That, I think, is unimportant—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
But when he says—it strikes me that his role model here, hands down, is Putin, both in terms of his kleptocratic inclinations, but also this sort of new, we want to withdraw from the world in terms of military aid, but we might invade you if we can raise a flag. It's very—well, who does he have designs on? Well, okay, he has designs on Greenland. Like, who's— Who's next?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
We're going to start invading other nations? That I found very strange, but it's striking how much he seems to be parroting or kind of mimicking what I would call Putin's sort of approach to governance, if you will.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Oh, did I use it? I'm with you. I recycle my stuff. So, by the way, when your kids are a little bit older, especially your son, a decent means of— I don't have a son. You have two daughters. I knew that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
And they're lovely.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
I think a lot of us are struggling with, so do we sort of come together and recognize the election has been decided, it's time to all be Americans, versus an inclination I think I lean on, and that is, I just sort of refuse to normalize this shit. I can't kind of come together around a guy who inspired people to attack Capitol Police. and refuse to show up at the last inauguration.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
Oh, my God. Yeah. You have kids?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
It doesn't believe in the peaceful transfer of power. I don't, you know, I'm just sort of, look, I purposely didn't want to watch the inauguration because I wouldn't be able to resist shitposting it online. And I thought, well, at least give them 24 or 48 hours of grace.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s First Moves, Biden’s Final Words
But I do struggle with the tension between being more graceful and trying to come together and also thinking, you know what, I'll do about, I'll show half the grace they showed us. Which is none.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
It's like people who are cursed with families and paying that price. You need to go over here and then adults only over here. And it seems like Europe does a much better job of integrating or of a hybrid model, if you will.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Yeah, so I'm the original ageist. Bill Maher called me an ageist. And I said, yeah, and you know who else is ageist? Biology. I think my 14-year-old makes really bad decisions. And I think my dad, left to his own devices, would make even more bad decisions. And at some point, we had to tell him he could no longer drive because he was going to kill someone.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Do you realize that people, I think it's people over the age of 75, are dramatically more dangerous behind the wheel than a brand-new 16-year-old? We always talk about how dangerous new kids are and they drink.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Yeah, they're really fucking old. My reflexes aren't what they used to be. I'm like, I can't get over the fact that how my reflexes are degrading. Anyways, in addition, the other benefit of having age limits is that we need to clear out more room for younger voices, right? I see this every day in higher education.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
There are so many young, outstanding academics who can't get traction in their career and oftentimes end up leaving the profession because some 84-year-old who was the bomb and gapped one accounting in 1973 won't get the fuck out of the way because of tenure and won't go home. And it creates more uncomfortable conversations. I mean, Goldman Sachs and McKinsey are great at this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And that is once you literally hit 45, they start politely nudging you out of the firm. A, the firms are incredibly profitable, but they start creating basically retirement funds and you can access them once you retire.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
They want you out because the only way they can continue to attract the type of human capital that continues to make their organizations perform at the highest level is it creates room for young people. And one of the nice things about D.C. is it does attract a ton of young, incredible talent at a staff level.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
But there are too many great young people in the Senate and the House who are thinking about running. who don't run because some fucking 85-year-old won't get out of the way, who just shouldn't be there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
But because they've been taking money from special interest groups forever, because the party will always support the incumbent because the incumbent does have the biggest chance of winning, we end up with a cross between the walking dead and the golden girls deciding public policy. So I hope this inspires a more serious conversation, not about, oh, the Biden family, they did something wrong.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
No, they didn't. They do what every family does. They were trying to protect their loved one and they saw the best side of him. But we need to have an honest conversation around age limits, which won't happen.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Oh, you think it's a big deal. So I think it'll come and go.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
We didn't list. The election was rigged.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Well, here's the thing. This is a pretty safe prediction. Age and cognitive decline is not linear. And Donald Trump presents as more robust. The next three and a half years are not good years for people that age.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
If you just look at actuarial tables, an obese, what is he, 78 or 79? There's like a one in three chance he dies while in office. So the same things they were trying to cover up, the Democratic machine and the Biden family, are likely going to show up in this White House. Because guess what, folks? Biology always wins. Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Tables for five are much harder. Four is much easier. And by the way, just along those lines, I'm convinced that you'd get much more passive hostility If you bring your kid to a restaurant where I live in Soho, then a dog.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Welcome back. Let's turn to Congress. What do you think is the path forward for Trump's mega bill or is there a path forward?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Because dogs are cool, right? It's like, oh, we have water bowls, but no children allowed. No children allowed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Anyways, today we're discussing Biden's cancer diagnosis and a new book about his cover up, The Future of the GOP's Megabill. And we have Preet Bharara. Preet, my good, good friend, my one call. Also, I got a story about Preet. Do you know that scene from Tootsie? You're probably too young to have seen the movie Tootsie.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Yeah, and I think that's the correct framing. What I have seen is that it's a tax cut for the top 5%, and it's a tax hike for the lower 95%. And in addition, the thing that I harp on about is it's going to add what I've seen, about $4.5 or $5 trillion to the deficit. I've seen numbers that are much bigger. I'm taking the more conservative one. That's about $30,000 per household.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And keep in mind the deficits that we're racking up are not being used to fund education or fund technical development or make investments in infrastructure that could ultimately pay off for future generations. It's essentially to extend corporate tax cuts. And they're trying to minimize some of that deficit reduction by cutting social services or, you know, as you said, Medicaid.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
I uploaded my W-2s from last year into three different LLMs and said, how does the proposed Trump tax bill going to affect me? And they came back with things. I'm going to get wealthier. And one even started off with good news. So essentially, this is young people get to borrow money, four and a half trillion dollars, because the thing is, our credit is fine for probably 10, 20, maybe 30 years.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
People are crying that. Oh, yeah. Interest rates will go up. They already are. We just lost our AAA credit rating from, I think it was Moody's.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
So we saw the 10-year go up, which means student loans, mortgages, everything, companies' ability to borrow money to pay for additional factories. So basically, everyone in America is going to pay slightly more money for everything. That's what an increased interest rates do, such that we can fund a tax cut for the top 5%. and where credit will be fine for a while.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
I don't think that there's going to be a failed treasury auction for a while. But effectively what this is, is people under the age of, call it 40, have to borrow an additional $5 trillion to pay for tax cuts for the old and the wealthy. And people say to me always at the time, Scott, it's not young versus old, it's poor versus rich. They're the same fucking thing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Because if you look at the people who would benefit most from this tax cut, yeah, they're the rich, but they usually are people in their 60s and 70s. I think the Democrats need to do a better job of, you realize this is like a household that's taking on, right now the household makes 50 grand, spends 70 grand, has 370 grand in debt and is about to take on another 50 grand in debt.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And Bill Murray is like, just got such a great rap and all these people are surrounding him and raptured and rubbing his shoulders. And all these women are just like looking fondly and adoringly at him. Vox had this, or was it a code conference? Something careful together where she got Tim Cook and Jeff Bezos and I don't know, everybody.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And by the way, when mom and dad die, they'll have spent all that time going to Cabo and partying and buying a Lexus. But that debt is going to be inherited by their children. It strikes me as just such a criminal act against the young. And we don't frame it that way. We say, OK, we need to lower taxes. And also, I think if you came to the table—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
and said, there are really some hard decisions to be made around our biggest entitlement programs, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. We have to make really ugly, severe cuts, and we're gonna match those cuts
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
proportionate or two to one with tax increases on corporations who are paying the lowest taxes since 1929 or in the very wealthy who continue to see a regressive or enjoy a regressive tax rate, I think you could make a moral and an economic argument for making those types of really deep, terrible cuts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And then said, okay, because there's some hard decisions to be made and we're going to start a path towards fiscal responsibility, which will ultimately lower the interest costs on our debt, which will ultimately lower the costs for everybody. But folks, we can't afford to keep spending the way we're spending and we can't afford to not bring in more revenues.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
I think I could have gotten on board with that, but instead they're like, no. Let's cut people's health care so we can give the top 5% tax cut. And the Republicans pushing back on this thing for their TikTok moment, they did talk about the deficit, but it was all through the lens of the cuts don't go deep enough. And I'm like, Jesus Christ.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
You don't think these cuts are going deep enough? That's where you're going with this?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And there was a party afterwards, and I saw this semicircle of people enraptured by this guy. And I walk over, and there was Preet in his suit and his dreamy blue eyes swirling around a glass of wine. And I'm not exaggerating. It was like that scene. Everyone was just hanging on his every word. I don't know.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Yeah, so just let me cement my reputation as an ageist. It really is old people fucking this country. I mean, first off, if passed, this tax bill would be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in U.S. history. And it's much more fun to create a class war. But who are the rich again?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
There aren't a lot of 26-year-olds thinking, wow, this tax cut's going to be great for me. If you look at who owns shares, who benefits from these tax cuts, it's the old. And here's the problem. The old continue to have figured out a way to vote themselves more money. Oh, and guess what? We're talking about cutting Medicaid, but we're not talking about cutting Medicare or Social Security, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Because that's old people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Well, yeah, they still love their Medicare. It's great health care at a low price. They still want, you know, I paid into it. By the way, the majority of people who, once they take out Social Security, take out more than they put in. And it's not called a Social Security pension fund. It's called a Social Security tax, meaning it may not benefit you directly.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And then people say, Scott, but it's not a deficit issue. Well, of course it's similar. It's a tax on young people. When Social Security was initially conceived, there were 12 young people supporting every retiree. Now it's three to one, and people are working and living 20 or 30 years longer, and Jessica Tarloff and Scott Galloway should not get Social Security.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And here's the problem, going back to we need age limits in Congress. Say we're able to continue to live irresponsibly and live beyond our means and continue to take advantage of the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, which has been earned through hard work and fiscal responsibility over 225 years. In 30 years, 75 percent of Congress will be dead. See, above, they're too fucking old.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
So they don't have a vested interest. I'll be dead by then. I mean, I know this firsthand. I believe where I live in Florida will probably be underwater at some point, but it's probably going to be 50 years and I've done the math. I'm just not that damn worried about it. Whereas a 25-year-old is more concerned with climate change. I understand that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And we need more 25-year-olds in Congress such that we can be a little bit more future forward, such that we can be thinking about the requisite long-term investments to ensure our kids and grandkids have the same types of opportunities we do. So what is the incentive for people in Congress who are really fucking old? Well, whatever.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Future generations will deal with warming oceans and an unsustainable debt load. As long as my credit card continues to be accepted and I can continue feeding at the trough until I'm dead, I'm down with these ridiculously short-term policies.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
He's like the sexiest man alive or the sexiest former Southern District head of the Southern District.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
These tax cuts, which largely benefit the wealthy, Republicans aren't cutting defense spending, Social Security, or Medicare, all which would be unpopular with the constituents. Instead, they're going after the health and nutrition programs for the poorest Americans, which again is Latin for the youngest Americans. So, again, this is the bill just it goes from bad to worse here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
The bill proposes cutting SNAP spending by 30 percent. I can't imagine a better investment than SNAP. OK, stop a kid from being obese such that he doesn't have to spend a thousand bucks a month for a Zympic, is not clinically depressed, is able to make more money. People who are obese make less money.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
They're more likely to need knee and hip replacements and be on kidney dialysis when they get older, which is really, really expensive. SNAP beneficiaries only receive about two bucks per meal. The federal government spent $113 billion on SNAP in fiscal year 2023. Making the 27 increased AMT exemptions permanent will reduce revenues by $140 billion a year.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
So you could essentially, if you just made the AMT exemptions, if you said they're not permanent, If you had an alternative minimum tax that said wealthy people had to pay at least a certain amount—by the way, that amount isn't high—it would fund SNAP.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And the thing about it is, distinctive of the moral argument, you know, distinctive of the sob argument which Democrats scream into TikTok about, we'll have more money. We won't have to spend as much money if we have a semi-healthy populace. I'm done with the morality argument. They're just stupid. We've literally decided, okay, guys, give us your credit card. We're going to run up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
It's like that film Leaving Las Vegas where Nicolas Cage says, I'm such a fucking raging alcoholic. I am so addicted to alcohol that I've given up any hope of rehab. I'm just going to cash my last check for my severance pay, and I'm going to hang out with a prostitute and party like there's no— You know, like it's 1999 because I'm going to be dead soon.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
That is how we are approaching our government right now. We are Nicolas Cage and leaving Las Vegas.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Oh, I feel so old, me and your dad.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
That's bringing the conversation down. She just did make a comeback, though, in the karate. What's it called? The Karate Kid 100.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
People attracted to smart men.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Sapiosexual. Okay. We could have spent two years with this uncomfortable pause and I wouldn't have gotten to sapiosexual. So I'm fascinated by mating. Just a quick review. The three things that women find most sexually attractive in a man are one, his ability to signal future resources, not even just current resources. You have to have a plan. Two, Intellect, to your point.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Our producer, David, gave us some great data here. So essentially, one study found that children with access to Medicaid grew up healthier and less dependent on government benefits. Medicaid spending delivered a 2% to 7% annual return on investment. A sphere of the children ended up receiving disability payments.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And studies also show an association between SNAP participation and a reduction in health care costs by as much as $5,000 per person per year. So in sum, these are great investments.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And then on the other side, the other thing that really pisses me off and people just don't grasp, the estate tax exemption is going to be increased from $15 million to $30 million. for married couples next year. What that means is if you're wealthy, you put stuff in an estate and it transfers tax-free down to your heirs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And one of the things that distinguishes America from Europe is that we've always been somewhat against dynastic wealth.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And we tax estates such that we can make forward-leaning investments that give a ton of young people incentive to work hard such that they can make it because the government is able to make great investments in technology, whether it's the internet or GPS or education, they give them a shot at being rich. And Europe's always been about kind of inherited family wealth.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Europe is now less dynastic on many levels than we are. And the thing that is so insane about this is that if you look at studies on the relationship between money and happiness, once you get above, call it $30 million in wealth, you have no incremental happiness. And what people don't understand about these trusts, they value it at $30 million based on the value when it goes into the trust.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
If it grows to be worth $100 million over 20 or 30 years, which isn't unlikely, it all transfers tax-free. And here's the thing, and there's empirical and anecdotal evidence here. I know a lot of rich kids in New York. Trust me, folks, they're not any happier than wealthy kids.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
So as someone who's worked really hard and has aggregated some economic security, one of the things I want as a reward for my good fortune and my hard work is I want to give my kids a better life than the average kid. Let me just come out of the closet. I want to give my kids enough money so they can have a house and know that they don't have to worry about education costs. All right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
You can easily do that. Easily do that. With $10 million, you don't need 30. You don't even need really 10 million to give your kid a head start because you think I've worked so fucking hard. I want to give my kids advantage. I think that is a natural instinct. All my friends who talk a big game about, well, I'm going to pay through their college and then they're on their own.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
None of them do that. Their kid is a good kid. They can't pursue their dreams without help from mom and dad. Mom and dad want them to live near them. Inflation, they end up giving their kids money. Fine. I think that's one of the benefits in what we work so hard when we're parents is such that we can help our kids out.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
You know the fastest way to communicate intellect, Jess?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
But anything above, call it $5 or $10 million, not even that much, you think that gives your kid incremental happiness? It doesn't.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Yeah, I mean, there's different ways to cut the cat there. I mean, my guess is they're getting indirectly a lot of—Bill Gates's kid gets a leg up on a lot of levels economically. But anyways, my point is— let's call it a million bucks. You know, the kid's not going to go hungry. You know, the kid can afford education.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Probably that's going to help in terms of a down payment towards the house, right? Anything above that, you get no incremental happiness. You get none. So, and it goes back to the notion, I think there should be an AMT tax of 50 to 70% on anything above $10 million. because it's not gonna get you any incremental happiness.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Humor is the fastest way.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Whereas making forward-leaning investments with that capital to give younger people more of a shot, that gives a lot of people a lot of happiness. But all of this shit is not only giveaways, but it doesn't create any incremental value for anybody.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
The difference between holding on to 11 million of your 15 million in earnings versus being able to hold on to 9 million of your 15 million in earnings, no incremental benefit to you or your family. There's nothing you're gonna be able to do that you weren't able to do before. It's not gonna increase your health, your wellbeing. It's not gonna lessen any more of your anxiety.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
It's the only way I had game. If you can make a woman laugh, she will have coffee and go on a date with you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
You're just gonna be richer. You're just gonna have a bigger number. What I find so disappointing about this tax bill It's okay. I understand that the top 1%, and in most instances, the 0.1%, want a bigger number, but you're not going to increase the well-being of anybody. You're not going to increase the happiness.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
All you're going to do is create tremendous anxiety and despair among those people losing their Medicaid and create additional costs for everybody through higher interest rates because it's irresponsible racking up deficits.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
and increase taxation or reliance on government services and nonprofits when all of these people start getting their toes and their fingers cut off because of full-blown diabetes that wasn't arrested earlier in their life or that they didn't get treatment for. So we make the moral argument all the time as Democrats.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
I think we need to start making the economic argument that this is just going to cost us a lot more down the road. All we're doing is creating a fiscal disaster for the government, And for the people who are still going to be around, i.e. 25 percent of Congress will still survive, still be around. And we don't do that. We just scream and cry about the morality of it all.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
We need to move to the economic side.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And then the third thing, as I try and dig my way out of this hole, the third thing is kindness, which is the most underrated. It's the thing that men don't realize is actually very attractive is kindness.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Welcome back. Joining us today is a former federal prosecutor and host of the Stay Tuned with Preet podcast. Welcome to the show, a good friend. And my one, this is true. This is, here we go. Look at Preet. Okay. My one phone call.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
When shit gets real for the dog, which it will at some point, and I find myself in a very unfortunate situation, I have one call and I have told Preet that he is my one call and that if he ever sees my phone or my caller ID come up, He is to answer immediately. Must take it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
He is both a sharp political or sharp legal mind, I should say, but also just very smart, very calm kind of guy you want in your corner. Anyways, good to see you, Preet. Good to see you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
I appreciate that. What's on your mind? So the reason I reached out to you, well, we're good, good friends. And in addition, we've been talking a lot about how to more effectively push back. I think like a lot of Democrats, we share a real frustration that there is more robust pushback. And one of the ideas, I won't say we, that I've suggested is that
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
If you are essentially shipping people to black sites or what, in my opinion, fits the definition of concentration camps, sending people outside to a place where they're no longer subject to the same rights they would have on their domestic territory or where they're shipped off from, that you are subject to criminal prosecution.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
How you treat service people, your clear commitment to your parents, because women at some point know deep down that they might be vulnerable during gestation or raising kids and they want someone who's kind. Anyways, has nothing to do with anything we're talking about today.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And that people who engage in illegal incarceration or corruption or fraud are still subject to, at some point, prosecution. And I have said this with absolutely no legal domain expertise.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
So you are that domain expertise. Is this a viable strategy or am I just barking at the moon here? So a couple of I'm a lawyer.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Well, it is a weekday. Let me just double click on that. The only place I would offer pushback is that I think it's a political strategy reminding people that many of the crimes that may or may not be committed right now under the prosecution of the full letter of the law probably have a statute of limitations that is greater than three years and nine months.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
There we go. All right, let's get into it. It's been another wild week in politics. While Trump was overseas and getting the world treatment from the Saudis during his Middle East trip, his legislative parties were falling apart back home.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And there's a political consideration, and I've suggested that at some point, if we retake control of Congress, that we draft legislation that probably won't pass or be vetoed that says, you know, El Salvador, keep in mind when the House flips back or when governments change, if we find that you, in fact, are incarcerating U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
citizens, regardless of whether you thought it was a good deal with the president, that you'll be subject to economic sanctions. I would outline that right now, that I think a certain reminder that America's memory is long and our reach is far might actually temper some of what I believe is extraordinarily unethical at a minimum and likely illegal, that it actually might be effective.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
But what you're pushing back on is, no, to date, it hasn't been. It's been the opposite. It's been ineffective. Is that accurate?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And Washington conservative hardliners in the House Budget Committee sank a key vote on Trump's domestic bill only to reverse course late Sunday after GOP leaders promised changes. Those include stricter Medicaid work requirements, cutting Biden-era green energy tax credits, and removing Medicaid access for undocumented immigrants.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
I'm not advocating that. That's not how I would frame a chess, but go ahead.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Like we finally grow up there and start pushing back. We start thinking like them. That tour?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
You've made me defensive, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
I'm calling Preet. I'm calling my one call.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
But of course, Trump wasn't about to let the chaos back home steal the spotlight. During a business stop in the UAE, he pivoted back to one of his favorite topics, tariffs, and not just talk. He announced his administration plans to skip negotiations entirely and slap new tariffs on dozens of countries, a move that could rattle global markets and strain relations with key U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
allies in Europe and Asia. And if that were enough political whiplash, on Sunday it was announced that Joe Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
So I have a question that requires more political judgment than legal expertise, although it does involve the law. And you referenced earlier that I just called it seashell gate. I love what Yuval Noah Harari said, that democracies thrive on trust while dictatorships are built on fear.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
My sense is this is a perfect example of that, that this will be swatted away under any sort of responsible legal scrutiny. You know, free speech. I just think this is a ridiculous attempt to intimidate and create an atmosphere of fear such that people do not speak out and they silence people. any criticism of the president. What are your thoughts around that notion, Preet?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
The news comes just days before the release of a new book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, which raises fresh questions about what the public didn't know and what insiders did know about Biden's physical condition during the 2024 campaign.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
So in addition to being a federal prosecutor, you've worked with really prestigious law firms. Yeah. And something that was really chilling and disappointing, quite frankly, and maybe it's been misrepresented in the media, and I'm very open to learning here because I think you have more insight into actually what went down here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
So I've been really disappointed in what I'll call this domino of cowardice, in that as corporations have said, okay, it's easier for, with respect to shareholder value, to just give a million bucks to the inauguration campaign and pay $40 million for some lame documentary for the first lady and basically just kiss his ass to stay out of his way. I can sort of empathize with that viewpoint.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
What was even more disappointing, though, with certain really prestigious law firms doing what I would loosely categorize as bending a knee and saying, all right, we'll do pro bono work for the family or we won't take on certain clients. It just seems such an entire puncturing or rupturing of the legal system and what it's supposed to stand for in terms of justice being blind.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
According to the reporting, Biden's health was deteriorating so rapidly that aides feared he might need a wheelchair if he won reelection, but they kept it quiet, taking every possible step to keep him upright until he eventually dropped out. Jess, let's start with Biden's tragic news for him and his family. What do you make of it all?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Am I exaggerating what happened here? Give us your thoughts on the context here and whether I'm being, as always, overly emotional here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
How was that? You were in Italy, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And Preet is much more polite and gentlemanly than I am. The Demand Justice site has this article called Standing Up to Big Law Cowards, and this is law firms that have pledged almost a billion dollars in free work to Trump, and they include...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
ANO, Shearman, Cadwallader, I believe the name is, Kirkland, Latham & Watkins, Milbank, Paul Weiss, Simpson Thatcher, Skadden, and Wilkie are all firms that have decided to do pro bono work and legal work to appease Trump.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Preet Bharara is an American lawyer and former federal prosecutor who served as a United States attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. As of 2025, he's a partner at the WilmerHale Law Firm. He's also the host and founder of Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara. Preet, I always love hearing from you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And for those of you, it's not easy to make a podcast about the legal profession interesting. And I actually listen to your podcast.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Good. Always appreciate your time, Preet. Thanks, folks.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
All right, Jess, that's it. That's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Eric Jennekes. I mangled that. I'm sorry, Eric. I'm old. I shouldn't be president and I can't pronounce the name of all these wonderful new employees we have. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. Only took me seven years to figure that one out.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
You can now find Raging Moderates. Put my finger on the button. My brain's shrinking. I can absolutely validate my prostate is the size of a grapefruit. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday and Friday. That's right, its own feed. That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds you won't hear anywhere else.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
This week, we're talking with Larry Sabato about Trump's threat to democracy. Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts. You don't miss an episode. Just have a great rest of the week.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Yeah, look, he's a good man. And anytime you hear about someone who gets this kind of news, you have empathy for them and their family. I go more to what it means for the nation and sort of what we can draw from it. An 82-year-old diagnosed with prostate cancer is not an unusual diagnosis. I mean, basically... What was strange here and is a bit of a wake-up call is that it had gotten so advanced.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
You'd think the president would have—I just joined one of these high-end medical concierge clinics, and basically they just scan you all the time. And I'm just shocked that it would have gotten that far, that a Gleason of nine—if anyone should catch stuff early, I would have thought it was the president— It's a terrible diagnosis.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
I'm not a doctor, but it just doesn't, you know, this is very bad news for the Biden family. I think on a larger level, I think we need age limits. If he had been reelected, he will probably spend the next one, two, five years severely impaired, not only because he's going to be 83, 84, 85, but he's going to be fighting a devastating illness. And let's hope that he survives and maybe even beats it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
But what would that have meant if he was the president? It would have meant that he couldn't take foreign trips. It would have meant that no one trusted him to make decisions. It would have meant constant lying. There would have been a full-time spin protection lying circle, an informal cabinet doing nothing but trying to protect him and continue to lie about his faculties and abilities.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Would it have been? Do you think? See, this is what I'm not sure of, Jess. I think the guy is a good man. I also think he's a raging fucking narcissist, as is many of the people who get to D.C. Do you think he would have handed over the mantle? I'm not sure he would have.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
But as someone caring for a dad who's about to be 95— And has also had very uncomfortable conversations with CEOs who've done an amazing job for a company for 20 years and have to say to them, you're too old. We're asking you to step down. And they see it as, all right, you're basically telling me to go home and die. That's how they see it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Really nice. Back in London, and it's sunny here. So London, when it's sunny, is the nicest city in the world. So for a good like 15, 18 days a year, it's a fantastic city. Yeah. But what you said about family in Europe, it does really resonate.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
You have to sort of almost shove all this goodwill and loyalty aside and do what's best for the shareholders. You know, these are really uncomfortable conversations. Anyone who's had an aging parent, they're under the impression, and they're not bad people, that, no, I can continue to live on my own. And this is people much younger. than President Biden.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And then when you have people around you enabling it, you can absolutely see how this happens. And that it's not, I don't wanna say it's not their fault, but you can understand how an individual believes with the right people around me, I can continue to do the best job and I beat them once, I'll beat them again. And that's why we need age limits on both sides.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
There are 34-year-olds I know who are incredible, who would be, in my opinion, have the neurological, physical, emotional, and mental strength to be president. And yet, they're not eligible, though. We've decided their body of experience, their brain development, their judgment and reasoning, and their faculties are not up to the task of the highest office in the land.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
But an 85-year-old at the end of his term is? I don't know anyone who's beat biology. Biology is undefeated. And the notion that we're just going to ignore it on the high end, we need age limits for the Supreme Court. And we need, okay, you cannot be in elected office beyond, I would pick 70, but okay, maybe 75. And here's the thing, it's also the kindest thing to do.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Because what I've seen at corporations is when they have mandatory retirement and they have mandatory tenure limits on the directors, you want to talk about people who have fucking nothing going on. But occasionally they get to show up to a board meeting and have a free dinner and think big thoughts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
And you got to tell these people whose companies kicked them out a long time ago, no, you can't be on this board any longer. That is such an uncomfortable conversation that nobody wants to have it. So what's great is you have boards that have Tenure limits. You can be on this board for no more than eight, 10 or 12 years.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
The example I would use that kind of typifies what I'll call a more focused concentration or respect for families is in Germany, there are these beer gardens everywhere, but they also have trampolines and carousels. So it's like there's something for everybody. You go get a beer and then your kids go crazy. And maybe it's because the cities I've lived in is pretty segregated.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Not only will it be best for the country, but I think the kindest thing to do is not make it a question or an issue. Once you hit 70 or 75, you go home a hero and you spend time with your grandkids and we're done. And I think that's the conversation we should be having instead of like... It was some sort of malicious cover-up. No, we're all covering for our old aging parents.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
We're all trying to pretend and talk ourselves into believing that they're okay, that they're better than they are, and you see them at their best moments. So I hope this inspires a productive conversation where we say, okay, Britain has age limits on their Supreme Court justices here, as most countries or a lot of countries have them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
Let's have an age limit on the presidency, our senators, our Congress people, and our Supreme Court justices. It puts the country at risk when you have people this old with literally their finger on the button. Your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I'm in New York. I'm home, tending to my children. Well, not right this second, but I don't live as free as you. You're south of the border.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Well, I don't think it's fair to call her a Russian asset, and I don't think it does us any good. Representative Wasserman Schultz said she's essentially a Russian asset, and there's no evidence as far as I can tell that they actually control her. Having said that, I think the more legitimate argument is that she provides comfort to the enemy. Russia is our enemy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I would describe China as our adversary, our competitor, but I wouldn't qualify them as our enemy. We have mutual assured destruction because We're essentially both capitalist nations and they produce the shit we buy. We need each other. Russia is our enemy. They are spending a lot of time and energy trying to destabilize our society.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And somebody who finds empathy for Assad, who's one of the most murderous leaders in the world, and for Putin, in my opinion, just doesn't share our values. I'm not accusing her of being a spy or an asset. I don't see any evidence of that. But this is not somebody to have someone come in that I think would be just such a puncturing blow to the culture and the morale there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Quite frankly, it just seems to be really bad management on the part of the Trump administration.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I think that that's right. And this isn't just about the DNI pick, but in general, to the culture point, I think the argument that they're trying to make is that the culture at a lot of these places is not good, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
That there are people within them that are not being fair and just in the way that they do their jobs, that there are practices that are being put into place or rules that are coming to fruition that Don't make us safer. Don't make us more agile. Don't make us the fighting force of the 21st century that we need to be.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Don't stand too close to my flame. You might get burned. I'm a rolling stone, Jess. This is the midlife crisis that will go on several decades.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And I think that airing those grievances and having those conversations is something that Democrats have probably been too resistant to doing. And it has forced the pendulum to swing in the absolute opposite direction where people just say, burn it all down. And that's a terrible place to be because there are millions of civil servants that are doing a really fucking good job.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
right, at what they do. And they are subject matter experts. And they understand a hell of a lot more than people who have, like Tulsi, no experience in intelligence. And to add to that, our allies are not going to share information with us. And that's the cornerstone of being able to be efficient and to be able to do anything good in the world.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
We have to be able to work with those who we are on the same side as. I don't know what the future of NATO looks under an administration with these people filled out there. It will be And this isn't just like when Trump came in the first time and said, like, everyone should pay their fair share, you should pay like 1% more or whatever it was.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I mean, this is something much more substantial and frightening. And it scares me to think about an America isolated. I mean, when they say America first, I hear America isolated. And there's a hell of a lot that's going to be going on behind our backs if you have people like Tulsi Gabbard in the DNI position where people say, well, we can't go to her and talk about this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And that's when bad actors fill a power vacuum. And for non-bad actors, for the people that we just typically work with, they're just going to go about their business and not count on us in the same way. And that's extremely damaging as well.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Is everyone in your family okay with that? Are they, like, happy to see you go in the, like, we'll miss you for real way, but, like, you should go?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
That's interesting. That perfectly describes it. It's like, so when are you leaving again? I mean, we'll miss you, but when are you leaving?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
We can't live without you, though. We live so well without you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Without you, yeah. I often joke about my partners constantly talking about when I'm gone. We call it loss, life after Scott.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Let's talk a little bit about the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOJ. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were appointed to the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, which they're calling DOJ, of course. What are your initial thoughts on this?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I feel like this is the toy you give to people or kids. Kind of like kids. I don't know. But like he needed to give them something. Elon Musk is principally responsible for him winning this election. Like besides Trump, I'd say the number two in that effort is Elon Musk. And Vivek was, I think, the first one who dropped out to really endorse him and has been, you know, totally Trumpy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I don't really know what this is going to be. I mean, Elon Musk has like 50 different things that he's doing and he's launching more rockets this week. So he seems to be obsessed with being part of the Trump orbit. There are these articles about how annoyed Trump is at him that he just like won't go away. And he's at Mar-a-Lago all the time.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
But what I'm concerned about, if they actually do get some degree of power, is that they're going to go around Trump. getting rid of things that, A, you shouldn't be getting rid of, but also just, like, firing tens of thousands of people. You're going to have a spike in the unemployment rate.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I don't know what happens to, like, Maryland and Virginia and D.C., right, if you get rid of such a huge swath of quote-unquote bureaucracy, but that they aren't actually thinking...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
these things through they're just I mean Vivek was giving an interview where he said something like you know what we're going to do we're going to take social security numbers and like if it starts with this digit this happens to you and if it ends with this kind of digit that happens to you and like there is an actual reason why our social security numbers are the way they are like based on where
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And the money and who they're going to have relationships with and what they're going to do. I mean, and unfortunately, it speaks about it with a little too much optimism. But anyways, back to me. I'm at this thing called Baja Summit. Have you heard of this thing?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
We were born. But when you hear someone talk like that, it's very hard to take it seriously. And I am concerned about these mass reductions. And Vivek was on with Maria Bartiromo over the weekend. And she was even I mean, she's very partial to Donald Trump and this idea of creating more efficiency. And she was giving him the eyebrow race. She was like, dude, what are you talking about?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
So first off, it sounds sort of like an oxymoron to have a new department. If it was a task force, first off, this thing has no power is my understanding. That these, any sort of spending cuts or reductions in labor force in the government would have to be approved by Congress or specific departments. This thing effectively has no teeth. It can make recommendations.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Well, that's part of the like giving, yeah, your kids like a toy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Yeah, it's almost like an ambassadorship to the Bahamas or something. And it just strikes me as you're starting off on the wrong foot when you have a Department of Government Efficiency that has two co-heads. Anyways, and if you look at where the spending is, their ability to actually, where they would make cuts...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
It gets pretty narrow pretty fast in terms of what they could actually look at for cuts. One thing I really do like about this, though, is they've kind of put out a call to say, we're looking for hardworking people. I actually think the benefit here won't be cutting. It'll be adding employees or a certain type of employee.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And that is they have put out sort of this call that says, if you're interested in working for the government, and you want to work really hard and bring new ideas and innovation, please send us your CV. And I actually met a guy here who sold his company, is wealthy now, and is trying to figure out his new thing and his purpose other than improving his sleep and wearing an Oura ring all the time.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And he sent a resume into – a friend of mine knows Elon – And, or as I like to call him, First Lady Alania. He knows him and he asked if he could get my resume in front of him because I'm really interested in his dojo role or whatever it is. And I really do like the idea and think if this group accomplishes the following, it'll be worthwhile.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And that is if it brings some aspirational kind of innovation, coolness back to what are largely seen as unfairly kind of stale, lame jobs. In other words, government, other than wearing a uniform for the military, I would argue that going to work for the government outside of our security apparatus or our defense apparatus does not have a lot of aspirational value.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
No, but it sounds like something I'd like to be invited to.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And if they can restore some of that, I think that would be a really good thing. Your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Yeah. Listen, I think that the best...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
inventions or the most progress that we make is when the public and the private sector get together and they bring the best ideas from both of those backgrounds so there is potential for that and i don't want to underestimate elon musk ever i think vivek is a smart guy i don't think he's an elon musk level thinker i think very few people in the history of the world have been
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Maybe next year if you're interested. I was going to bring all of the teams. So this is, let's back up. So Summit is a group of guys created this community. It was initially they bought some land on a mountain somewhere. I don't know. They must be rich kids. Anyways. And then they call it Learning Man. During the day it's TED Talks and at night everyone does drugs and listens to world-class DJs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
So I think that there is potential in that way, but at least from early quotes about it or the way that it has been discussed, it feels much more just like taking a hammer to everything. And I think that when you do that, and in a lot of ways, that's what Trump is, right? He's a disruptor. He's going to blow it all up. And I hope that they will be more thoughtful about it and also consider –
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
that there are millions of people who have given their lives and that is why they serve, right? I mean, people in mid-level bureaucratic jobs, I understand it's not sexy, right? It's not the thing that gets your name in lights in any way, but they do feel a duty to serve. And I know that you obviously think that that's something really important.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
We've been talking about national service and things like that. And I hope that this doesn't end up in discouraging people from wanting to serve in whatever capacity they can or in a whole bunch of people losing their jobs. Like we have a very good unemployment rate. If they decimate these departments, you will see a spike in that. And these are good paying jobs as well.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
There is something to be said about the notion of bringing more competitive jobs I don't know, merit-based as opposed to tenure-based culture to government work. What's interesting is I believe state and local employment is either flat or down. The federal, kind of the administrative state has gotten bigger, both under Republican and Democratic administrations.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
But a certain level of, I don't know, full-body contact capitalism, the majority or 90% or 80% of the workforce has to face every day. I think a little of that in the public sector would probably be a good thing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
The first piece of data, I think, though, that is going to really check back the Trump administration's current policies is if, one, there's all of a sudden a pretty significant uptick in unemployment, although I don't think they'll be able to affect this. What they might be able to do, though, is substantially spike inflation, if any of this shit around tariffs or these immigration policies.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And the moment that inflation starts to spike again back from, I mean, it was a real yeoman's work on behalf of Chairman Powell to get inflation from whatever it was, 5%, 6%, 7% down to 2.2% again, which is where economists say is sort of the sweet spot.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
If in one quarter or one month it announces or they announce that the CPI has spiked 50, 100, 150 basis points, you're going to see a serious rethink of some of these policies. And I think that's coming down the pike if he just gets a fraction of what he's asking for in terms of tariffs. But actually, I'm less triggered by this idea
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
is Department of Government Efficiency, because I think it's going to be hilarious when these two think they can run up against Congress and tell them to start cutting jobs in certain areas. I think it's going to be really funny to see what actually happens or doesn't. And finally, let's save the best of the worst for last. RFK Jr., question mark, your turn, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Everyone who's listening, I'm sure, has heard before that, you know, about RFK Jr. and his vaccine skepticism. But, you know... There are 83 dead kids in Samoa, and they blame RFK Jr., who showed up four months before a huge measles outbreak and talked about how dangerous those kinds of vaccines are.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
He's now trying to sugarcoat everything and make it like, you know, it's just about you doing what you want, but not giving any of the information about how unbelievably dangerous good and effective vaccines are. Like, this isn't about do I want the COVID booster or not, right? These are kids that are not getting measles vaccines.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
There's a very funny meme with Marco Rubio, and it says Marco, and then RFK Jr. says polio. Yeah. So I did enjoy that. Ultra-processed foods are bad. Pesticides in our food supply are bad. All of that can be true. Without having to get RFK Jr.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And it's got kind of a very hip granola, but successful. A lot of people starting vertical farming startups are really focused on their sleep or, you know, talking about why it's important to be poly as they explore THC-infused muffins. It's very kind of, I don't know how to describe it, but I spoke at it two years ago. They did Summit at Sea, which is they take over this Virgin cruise ship.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And I don't know, I mean, you've been on Silo Sibbins in Mexico, so perhaps you didn't see Mar from the weekend, or from Friday, I should say, but he had on Dr. Casey Means. Do you know her?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I don't.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
So she's a Stanford-educated doctor. She wrote a book that was a huge hit, Good Energy, The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health. And she was talking just about how we have no prevention system for chronic disease and that she wasn't taught anything in medical school that actually helped her treat human beings and what a racket it is and how we can do so much better.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And she was giving crazy stats like our life expectancy for American men is 73. In Japan, it's 83. Same in Switzerland. We're the sickest of the top 11 high-income countries in the world. And she said in the interview, you know, I'm not a Trumper, but it excites me that RFK Jr. is talking about some of these issues. And so I say, can we have Dr. Casey Means as our HHS secretary?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Because she doesn't have a brain worm. She didn't take a dead bear cub and put it— In Central Park. And going back to the morality clause, RFK Jr. is a prolific philanderer. I think it's the most generous way to describe this. And his wife ended up killing herself over this. He was detailing all of his affairs in a diary in lurid detail.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Like, why do we need morally bankrupt people in these huge positions of power?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Well, it'd be worse if this happened for the presidency. Anyways, the... I mean, we shouldn't even go there because, I don't know.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I know. It just upsets me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I get it. I get it. The thing about RFK Jr., there are some aspects of what he says that I think are so powerful. And this notion that there's this, and I believe this, there's this unholy alliance between the industrial food complex that wants to get you addicted to
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
to sugary, shitty food and then hand you over to the diabetes industrial complex and then tell people who are obese that you're finding your truth, not a ventilator. And this is the epidemic that kills more people than COVID every year. And Americans share one thing, and that is not more than 50% of Americans are anything except maybe on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
But the one thing we do share is that 70% of Americans are obese or overweight. And he has gone right after the food industrial complex and said that we have all the wrong incentives. Kids should be able to have a healthy lunch. He's really good on this stuff.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
But the problem is when a guy named Kennedy, who's handsome and gets an official title, and I don't care, he's trying to basically whitewash all of the incredible... incredibly insane things he said about vaccines. You're going to have, you know, when kids get rubella and measles, you know, they end up losing limbs and they end up dying.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I don't care if it's the semiconductor, the printing press, the iPhone, whatever you think is the premier innovation of the last 100 or 200 years. I guess the printing press was more than that. But I would argue that the premier innovation, the premier technology, the most The most impressive thing that shows how when we come together we can do just tons of good for the species is vaccines.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Vaccines have saved tens of millions of lives. And for this guy to be coming up, and this is a true story, or telling people the best thing you can do when you see a new mother and her baby is to come up and whisper, don't get her vaccinated.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Yeah, wasn't he doing that like on a hiking trail around L.A.?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I mean, this shit is just... It's just unacceptable to fly in the face of science like that and spread this kind of misinformation that at the end of the day results in a level of death, disease, and disability that is just unneeded. It's just such a shame because on so many things, I think he could really be a change agent.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
But the notion that we're going to have an anti-vax person in this role is just fucking insane. So just as Trump took stocks up because the general assumption is it would cut corporate taxes, which would increase earnings and thereby increase the value of the shares, we have seen a similar meltdown across the pharmaceutical sector, specifically drugs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And the thing I first noticed is that no one's drinking. Everyone's doing psilocybin or MDMA. No one's actually drinking. So not really my people. But it's a really interesting concept. They do a really nice job. And I really had a good time. So they said, we want you to come back. And I said, well. I don't know if you've heard them, kind of a big deal. I charge a lot of money.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Those who get a lot of money from vaccines on word that Kennedy was going to get HHS and check out this Eli Lilly down 13 and a half percent, Nova Nordisk off six and a half percent, Pfizer 4.6%, and Moderna down 9.3%. I mean, this is literally hundreds of billions in market cap drawdown because of an individual who is seen as anti-vax.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
So the market, so far the market has been remarkably prescient. And if the market is correct here, what they're saying is this guy will decreased substantially the adoption and usage of vaccines, which is, in my view, just again, see above death, disease, and disability.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
It begs the question, and I wanted to note as well, that the World Health Organization has reported that global measles cases have surged more than 20%, and over 100,000 kids have died now. It's in the last year, I think, over not getting their measles vaccine. So that's obviously a huge problem. But this is where the, like...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
We don't need experts for anything like the Joe Rogan philosophy of like, I'll just look it up myself.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Dr. Google.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Yeah. And you can get a lot out of that. But I don't know. I still want my doctor to tell me what she recommends and certainly what she recommends for my children. What happened during COVID has just monumentally changed. fucked up society and just opened the door to all sorts of lunacy. And there were people who were saying vaccines cause autism before all of this, RFK Jr. being one of them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
But now that, I don't want to say it's mainstreamed, but that certainly people aren't getting, you know, the raised eyebrow like they used to when they say things like that is deeply concerning.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Yeah, it's anything, this falls under the rubric of anything that the far left and the far right agree on is just a really bad fucking idea. Actually, the anti-vax movement started on the far left, you know, sort of this granola dump. Don't put big corporations in your body.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
But I find that the far left and the far right come together to agree on things like reckless spending, anti-Semitism, and anti-vax. So be very careful when you hear AOC or, I don't know, Ted Cruz agree on something. All right, Jess, let's take a quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back. Republicans have officially clinched the House, re-electing Mike Johnson as Speaker.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Democrats are hoping to shrink the majority to one or two seats. But things start to get tricky because three new Trump appointees are currently serving in Congress. Governor DeSantis has started scheduling special elections, but that could take a while. Jess, how might these open seats impact the House's ability to get things done initially?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Well, hugely. I mean, Mike Johnson has made jokes about it. And there are some who are thinking that Trump is playing checkers in this. But again, I'm loathe to give him that kind of credit, but that basically he just wants everything to be about him.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And they said, well, we'll let you bring some people with you. So I was going to bring the team, but then I'm like, the team doesn't need to see me get this fucked up. So I brought a bunch of my college buddies from Los Angeles. All right, Jess, enough of that. Today, we're talking about Trump's controversial cabinet picks, Republicans gain control of the House, and our predictions for the week.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And he doesn't want to give anyone the capacity to be powerful except for him as the tip of the spear, not the sphere, which is a cool place to go to a concert. So having a slim majority like this is a big problem for Johnson, and he has a bold agenda. I mean, he's been talking about it for months, things that he wants to get done, obviously extending the Trump tax cuts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
He wants to do stuff on China. He wants to address the border, boosting oil and gas production, though we're producing more oil than we ever have in life, expanding school choice and going after size and scope of the federal government, which I guess Doge is going to be eating into. But Johnson, you know, will really have his hands tied on all of this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And I think they're going to do another continuing resolution in March. to keep the government open. But I don't know how fast these appointments are going to be to fill these open seats. You know, Ron DeSantis has a lot because he has Marco Rubio. He has Gates. He has Mike Waltz, who's going to be national security advisor. And who knows? I mean, Trump isn't done necessarily in what he's doing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
So it's going to be slim. And in the Senate, at least as far as these confirmations go, John Thune, who's the Senate majority leader, now has said he's open to recess appointments. Apparently, Mitch McConnell has said he isn't, and he's the one who is in charge at this particular moment.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
But when you have a bunch of lunatic appointments or potential appointments and you're going to lose Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski probably on every single one of them, you have a very, very slim majority to be playing with, even with J.D. Vance as the tying vote. So it feels kind of lame ducky even for the trifecta that they were able to pull off. What do you think about it?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I just want to come out. I actually like Mike Johnson. There's something about him. Speaker of the House is supposed to be administrative role, and I don't like his politics. But I think he's done actually a pretty good job keeping all the fucking crazies in line so we can do basics like have funding for the government and pass a budget. I actually think he's done his job.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And I like John Thune because I just think he's very handsome. I think it's important to have handsome leaders.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Oh, I was going to say that, but I didn't know if I was supposed to objectify people. But, yeah, John Thune, like, if your husband looks like that at 63, you're like, I nailed this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Yeah, no, that's winning. One more big story. Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey's race is heading to a recount. How's that race looking, Jess?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Well, bad. This is... So... Yeah. Basically, everyone accepts that Dave McCormick has won that seat. And, you know, we defended really well. Democrats did on a comparative basis. I mean, we held four of five. Sherrod Brown potentially, I guess, could have held on. But looking at the trends, that was unlikely. And we knew that we were going to lose Jon Tester.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
So it's turning into more of a swirl, I think, than we could actually win this seat. But... He wants every ballot to be counted. And I think that is how democracy works in all this. But Dave McCormick has gone to D.C. He has an office with his name on it. We no longer have Bob Casey's seat.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
But before we get to that, we want to remind you to follow our show, Raging Moderates, on its own podcast feed. The Raging Moderates feed is where you get to take advantage of our exclusive coverage and interviews, including the one this week with Jon Favreau from Pod Save America. Love, Jon.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
There you go. So, Jess, before we wrap here, any predictions for the weekend?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
It'll be interesting to see if there's progress on the Treasury pick, which I wanted to talk to you about. Like, it was supposed to be down to just two, Howard Letnick and Scott Besson, and now apparently there are a couple others that are in the mix. Rowan, who started—Mark Rowan, Apollo, and Kevin Warsh, who was in contention in 2017 as well.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And, of course, everyone's battling over, like, whether tariffs are a good thing or a bad thing. But I think that that will matter a ton in all of this. And one thing that Trump has been able to do, like he did with Mnuchin, is kind of attract some normal people, right, to come that want to do monetary policy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
So I'm curious if you think, like, if he cares the most about how the economy is, right, because that's how people will remember him. And the stock market is already down to pre-election levels, we should note. Do you think... Well, A, do you have any insight on who he is going to pick for this job? And they're doing like a survivor type thing where they're all going down to Mar-a-Lago.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And where do you think he's actually going to net out on the tariff idea?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
So I can. I mean, as is the narcissist kiss my ring, bend the knee thing. I can't stand these public... blowjobs of come down and Mitt Romney, and after shitposting me, beg for forgiveness, and then I'm going to publicly release these photos. I don't like these public tryouts, as you called it. I don't know, The Voice or America's Got Talent or whatever it is.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I just don't think you should treat people this way of this stature. I don't know John Paulson. John Paulson is famous for one enormous trait, and that is the sub subprime credit trade, where he went short a bunch of subprime bonds and made like 50x his investors' money.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Other than that, Paulson, the fund itself, not that that indicates whether you're qualified for the position, has not performed that well. The guy I find incredibly impressive is Mark Rowan. I've been at Apollo conferences where he'll give an overview of the economy, and this guy just is like, got some serious fucking brainpower. I also like the way he handled
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
The controversy around Penn, in contrast with Bill Ackman, he was very upset. Mark Rohn, who's, I guess, very involved with Penn, was very upset about the comments or the lack thereof of the president. Basically, got her fired, but then didn't get drunk on power and start deciding, like, who should be fired where and how we should redo the educational institution.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
So right now, please search Raging Moderates wherever you listen to your podcast and hit that follow or subscribe button so you never miss an episode. We're getting huge listenership, but quite frankly, we don't have a lot of subscribers on our feed yet. And without that,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I actually think he handled that well. very well. He was forceful yet dignified. And I know personally, having seen him in action, when it comes to the economy, you don't want to bring in a candidate. I mean, you just, you don't want to bring in someone charismatic but stupid or whose views are outside of the mainstream.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
But the adults in the room have to be the people to get the jobs around the economy. Now, having said that, HHS is arguably even more important. But I see America as a platform for two things, the defense of our shores and our citizens, and to create atmospherics for prosperity such that people can develop economic security for them and their families.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And if you're worried about rights, it's pretty easy. Shed more money into a community and they're going to get more rights. So I hope that it's Rowan, but I don't, and that's not even to say I think the other ones wouldn't be good picks, but I know firsthand this guy is very impressive. I mean, I don't, the other stuff has more checks and balances on it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
These guys, in my opinion, have the most consequential impact on America. I mean, if Taylor Swift was person of the year, she shouldn't have been. It should have been Chairman Powell. He has a lot more impact on everyday lives than almost anyone in the administration. So anyways, I hope it's Mark Rowan, but I have no insight into who it might be.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Well, I'm glad we listened to you then. No, that was inside, actually, having heard him. And I had forgotten about his role in the anti-Semitism on campuses issue. I think the only one in that group of four who's a little nutty is Lutnick. The rest of them are pretty normie picks. So we'll see where Trump wants to go with that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And this is like a place where I feel like Susie Wiles, we may see the impact of. But I'm excited for somebody to bring a bit of a balanced or more nuanced perspective, at least on the tariffs pitch in all of this. And, you know, maybe he's just using it as a negotiating tool. I don't know. Or maybe he's going to destroy the economy. So that's, I guess, what I'm watching for this week.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Quite frankly, we can't make money, and Jess has two new kids, and I'm in the midst of a raging midlife crisis, and they both take cabbage. So please do us a favor right now, right now, and go to the Raging Moderates feed and subscribe. We will be eternally grateful. And if I meet you, you can come up to me, and as a reward, I will provide you with five seconds of uninterrupted eye contact.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And I'm interested in... And we're going to talk about this with Jon Favreau from Pod Save America on the Raging Moderates feed, which you have to go to and subscribe. But this autopsy, which continues to go on now a couple weeks in, that Democrats are performing on ourselves, has been enveloping me.
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I'm reading more content, listening to more podcasts about what went wrong and where we go from here. And... I continue to be hugely conflicted. And I know that you're just in the, like, we got our asses kicked camp. But now that the popular vote is below 50%, and it's the third smallest win since 1888, I'm feeling less self-flagellatory. Is that a word? You know, and just thinking like,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Let's pick ourselves up and let's dust ourselves off. Let's figure out how to expand the base again, right? Bigger tent, but that we don't need to sit around and embarrass ourselves constantly about what happened. So I don't know if you've changed your view on this, but. I haven't.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I think that where it mattered, he got enough votes to go seven for seven in the swing states. And I worry that Democrats are going to find some sort of cold comfort or keep making hollow excuses. You know, we only lost by more people unsubscribed to the Washington Post than he won Wisconsin by. I keep hearing all this stuff that, oh, actually—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
It was closer than we think and we shouldn't change a thing. I worry that the Democrats won't take this. You know, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. And I think this is an opportunity for Democrats similar to after the 80s go. We have to stop institutions, whether it's the AARP or unions, dictate our policy and start thinking about what actual people need from us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And instead of deciding that we're sort of some, you know, self-appointed cops for social justice or some sort of political orthodoxy, let's get back to the Clinton years where we're going to have budget surpluses. Let's be the adults in the room around the economy and start talking about the deficit.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And instead of playing identity politics and being more obsessed with race and, quite frankly, Republicans and seeing everything through the lens of your identity, start seeing stuff through the lens of politics do you have money? Let's double down on the middle class. Let's double down on youth. And for God's sakes, let's fucking figure out a way to have less insane people representing our party.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Let's pivot towards the middle. And the thing that really scares me is this whole narrative of, well, we weren't batshit crazy enough on the left that we should have doubled down on these values. I think that would be a disaster. So I'm hoping that similar to what happened after Reagan, Democrats rethink things and form a
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
a coalition in the middle, because that's where the majority of Americans are, and that's the opportunity.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
It's pivoting towards the center and being more focused on what actually impacts people's lives as this constant virtue signaling, this constant inability to have a sense of humor, this massively overreactive viewpoint where we're offended at everything, representing every special interest group to the extent that all we're doing is not representing the 24% of people
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
specifically, and I know everything is a nail and I'm a hammer, but I generally believe this was the election of young people failing and their parents. And if your kid isn't doing well, and I've said this before, you don't give a flying fuck about territorial sovereignty in Ukraine or trans rights. That's just a luxury you don't have when your kids aren't doing as well as you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
That brings shame and rage throughout the household. And I think America or Democrats would be smart just to get back And as James Carville said, it's the economy, stupid. And I worry that they're going to make a bunch of excuses for why. No, we should double down on our current virtue signaling meets identity politics. Thank you for my TED Talk. Thank you for my TED Talk.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Again, there you go. Why not? Okay, moving on. Let's go to Trump's cabinet picks. For a minute, it seemed like we'd see kind of the usual suspects, people including Senator Marco Rubio and Elise Stefanik. But then came kind of the free gift or the free toaster as a parting gift if the toaster was fucking crazy and unqualified. Fox News host Pete Hegseth.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
So without disagreeing with you, because I don't, I just want to note that Kamala Harris did not talk about identity politics issues. And the problem with that was, is that it let Trump define her and our refusal to push back Trump. Uncertain things like the anti-trans ad, you know, she's for they, them, I'm for you, cost us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Their blueprinted polling on where the late breakers, what turned them, and bigger than inflation was social issues. And so it's always a delicate dance. It is the economy, stupid. It's not as simple as like... She did try to pivot to the middle, but she wouldn't say the shit I said in 2019 is crazy, right? And I should have never said that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And there's a great piece in the New York Times about Democrats kind of pushing back against special interest groups. It's called, like, When Will Democrats Just Say No? And it's by this guy, Adam Jettleson, I think is how you pronounce it, who worked for Harry Reid and then for one of our faves, John Fetterman. So I found that really interesting. But that's it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Good stuff. Anything fun personally? Jess, doing anything interesting? Anything good?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
No. I was in L.A. last week, though. I had lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel. I thought of you. What'd you get?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Did you get the $54 Cobb salad?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
It's crazy. I mean, I wasn't paying, so I felt better. But my favorite thing to do there, though, is to try to figure out who everyone else is. Like... There was a kid, I swear to God, I thought he was 14, 15, right? And he was waiting for his room, right? I figured his parents are, like, somewhere else or dropped him off early, whatever. And then it turns out that the room is for him.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
It's Justin Bieber.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
No, well, maybe. He looked like a tech Justin Bieber. Then there were a lot of women with babies, so my ovaries swelled. But... Yeah, the people watching at that place is incredible. But yes, the Cobb Salad, amazing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I'll be there Wednesday and Thursday night. Yeah, I love it there. My second home. It's great.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
It's a good second home.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Especially when you live in London.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
There you go.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
London has so many great hotels for you to become like a hangar there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Yeah, that's wonderful. So back to me. So I go from Los Cabos tomorrow to Vegas for a speaking gig. Then I go to L.A. for a couple days. Then I'm back to Vegas for F1. And then I'm going to Brazil next week. I'm going to Sao Paulo for a speaking gig. Have you been to Brazil?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I have not.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
It's lovely. First off, the beef is outstanding. And the people are really hot. So, you know, peanut butter and chocolate, beef and hot people. How can you go wrong? How can you go wrong, Jess?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I don't know. And then one day maybe you'll see your family again.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Oh, them. Them. Them. Yeah. I don't know. I think they're doing just fine. All right. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are Caroline Shagrin and David Toledo. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. I think we've made that abundantly clear. That's right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Raging Moderates on its own feed. Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
He has no business being Secretary of Defense. Okay, let's move on. Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Defense. Well, she did serve. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. That's my favorite. That's my favorite. If you're really going to go dancing with the stars, bat shit crazy, go all in. And then R.F.K. Jr.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
at leading health and human services, which I actually find out, strangely enough, the one that's most disturbing. So to the extent you can, talk about either Pete or Tulsi for defense and national intelligence.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Yeah. So I want to be clear that just because I get along with Pete, and he's always been lovely to me. It doesn't necessarily mean that I think he should be head of the Department of Defense, which oversees 3 million people. And having, you know, managing a unit, and I've been bothered by how people have been talking about him and not even... discussing his service, which was outstanding.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
So two decades as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard. He has two bronze stars. He did three tours, one in Guantanamo Bay, one in Iraq, one in Afghanistan. He also has the National Defense Service Medal and the Expert Infantryman in Combat Infantryman Badges. So, like, he's a real dude.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And I've seen a lot of feedback from people who have served not, like, four-star generals, but, like, actual boots-on-the-ground people who are really excited at the prospect of having someone with that kind of perspective do this job.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And that's where I think the most interesting argument for Pete comes in, that, like, he could be supported by people who have the Lloyd Austin experience, let's say. bring more of that on-the-ground perspective. Now, it's a little bit more complicated than that. So over the years, and he's had a good relationship with President Trump, who considered him for something in 2016.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And I honestly thought that he was going to get Veterans Affairs this time around. And that made a lot of sense to me. He's led two Veterans advocacy organizations in the past. He cares deeply about veterans. And so that's where I thought he was going to land. Then coming out at defense was kind of crazy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
But there are these things that stick out, like he lobbied Trump to pardon several service members accused of war crimes. And I think two of them were pardoned and they did bad things, it looks like. There is a sexual assault issue that's going to come out and the Democrats are considering whether they want to try to make this part of the confirmation process. I imagine that they will.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And I don't know, it's a weird thing because we all sign morality clauses, right, when we go and work somewhere. And that seems like something that would be a violation of it, especially when you're talking about leading 3 million people. and being in charge of the Pentagon. So I am conflicted because I think that there's interesting perspective.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I'm not sure if he's right that women shouldn't serve in combat roles. That's like one of the main things that he argues and that the woke-ification of the army is making us flat-footed. But I do think having a different kind of experience is an interesting facet of the nomination. What do you think?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I agree with you. He's got outstanding chops in terms of his commitment to the country and his service. The question is, does he have the gravitas or experience outside to management I don't know. This kind of more executive experience, I would say, in terms of managing, again, what is 3 million people. The people who don't like him are really flying that flag. It was an allegation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
He was never charged. And he did pay somebody to sign a confidential. I've got to think that these payoffs are going to go away because they're never confidential. They always end up coming out.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And there's just, correctly or incorrectly, there's just a stain or an air of guilt, right, when you paid someone off. And you can also imagine a scenario where someone makes an allegation and you decide, you know, this would be easier for my career and your lawyer advises you to pay it. This is a touchy one. At least you could make the argument that they're trying to bring in youths.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
This person served. This one seems actually kind of less batshit crazy. I think the thing that has the left all up in arms is, quite frankly, that he worked at Fox.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Well, that's what they're leading with. And I think it reflects so poorly on them to say, like, well, this guy's a morning host. It's like, A, don't be shitty about morning hosts. But B, like, look at his bio before you do that. And if you dig in, there is plenty for you to be critical of. I should also mention that he was –
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
taken off duty for Biden's inauguration because he was deemed a, quote unquote, possible insider threat because of a tattoo that he has on his bicep that's associated with white supremacist groups. Now, he maintains, obviously, that that is not why he has that tattoo, but it is something that was taken seriously enough that he was pulled off of protective detail.
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
That's just fucking strange. He has a tattoo that is a see, I didn't I didn't know that's a new wrinkle on the people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I think there are two tattoos that people are focused on. Pete has a lot of tattoos. I don't know this. This one's really tough.
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I just I just I just dawned on me that my tramp stamp is going to keep me from being secretary of the interior. OK, let's move on from this one. This is a tough one or or.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Well, also, can we just say, though, that in light of what we are about to discuss, odds are that Pete is going to get confirmed because they can only torpedo so many nominations. And I think that Matt Gaetz is the top priority in terms of not going through.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Well, let's talk about that. Is this a strategy to do a blood offering? Let Matt, give Matt an opportunity to step down before the ethics investigation comes out, put forward this bat shit crazy guy so everybody else seems less crazy?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Is this a strategy where you think the Trump administration knew that Gates probably wasn't going to get through, but would be a great weapon of mass distraction from how qualified or unqualified the other ones are, that they aren't someone who is as I would argue, more credible claims is under current investigation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Is that fair, current investigation, the House Ethics Report that they wrote about it? This one feels, it would think that there's one position where you have to be pretty squeaky clean. It would be this one. What are your thoughts on former Representative Gates? He stepped down, right?
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Yeah. So Johnson's majority dwindles by the day. So I would say yes, that I thought that it was 5D chess or whatever your, whatever the best chess is, the most thoughtful chess, except that... It's called checkers.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
That's the best chess.
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Anyways. Except that it was reported that Trump made this decision and didn't consult Susie Wiles and basically was talking to Gates in like one part of the airplane and Susie Wiles was in the other part. Like, playing dominoes with her grandkids or something like that and was like WTF? I'm sorry, what? Matt Gaetz for Attorney General? So obviously Gaetz made this pitch in an urgent way and
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
auditioning it as like, I can help you the most of anyone, right? Like I am unencumbered, whereas other people might have some sort of moral compass, but like I got nothing here, right? And you know what I'm going to do to boot? I'm going to resign right away.
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I'm going to scuttle this ethics investigation, which I think probably to some degree appeals to Trump, this idea of being falsely accused of things, whether, I mean, it doesn't really seem like Gates was falsely accused because there are people, I guess, that they're plotting to get on the record who were at these sex parties with him.
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And the big problem is around this 17-year-old that he had sex with in front of a bunch of people against a pool table at a party. And I pass no judgment except...
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
That's the recreational device people have sex against.
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
No, I mean, the minor thing is not good. Yeah, that's not a good look. No, and there were all those exchanges, like, that they were Venmo-ing him and his... I don't want to say colleague. That's, like, too nice of it. His... What do you call people who go around doing that together? His pal.
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His wingman. Venmoing people. So I feel like Gates is the ultimate wrecking ball that Trump wants and the one who will identify deep staters like right away to him. And I think that's really what Trump is paranoid about. So. I think he does want Matt Gaetz. I think he probably accepts that he's not going to get Matt Gaetz. I mean, it's rumored that up to 30 Republicans would vote against him.
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Now, that's what happens every time they say like, oh, this is definitely not going to happen. And like maybe it's just Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski and a couple of others. But like there are enough people in the Republican caucus who are on record saying, I really hate this guy. He's complete scum. So I think that Gaetz is like number one, not getting through.
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But not because he was intended that way, just because he shouldn't get through.
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And what do you think of Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence?
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
I know likey at all. No, I think it's really bad. She's part of this cohort of, like, former Democrats that Republicans always throw in our faces. My colleagues will be like, well, we have RFK Jr. and we have Tulsi Gabbard. And I'm like, guys, this isn't the own that you think that it is, right?
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Like, people who can be persuaded over with the promise of—and these are big jobs, right, that are coming their way. But the kinds of arguments that they've been making against Democrats don't really feel like they were— that solid, at least for the last few years. But Tulsi Gabbard, you know, she was a Bernie Sanders acolyte. She ran in 2020.
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
She had some very embarrassing moments during the debate, especially with Pete Buttigieg, who absolutely decimated her. And I'm not one to lightly call someone a Russian asset, but she is very partial for arguments that the Kremlin makes and has been doing that since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, basically saying that Ukraine wasn't
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
respectful of them, that they were running bio labs, American-backed bio labs. And that was the argument that Putin was using, that they had to go in because they were going to attack them with what they were making in these labs. And the truth is, it's just public information that these labs exist, and it happens all over the world. And we work together to make sure that people can be protected.
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And I'm Jessica Charlib.
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
And if there is something like a COVID that shows up. She also went to visit Assad in Syria and didn't tell the U.S. government and came back and said that the people there really like him, which is obviously parroting talking points that are completely unacceptable. And Russian state TV, and they are very savvy over there. They love her. They call her their girlfriend. What do you think about her?
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Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks
Where are you, Jess?
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Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Every day throw so much shit out that they react to and chase that we can slip through almost everything because they're not unified. They don't know which arrow to put their wood behind. And so let's announce we're letting the Tate brothers back into Florida. Everyone goes apeshit. Let's blame a helicopter crash on DEI. Everyone goes apeshit.
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And they're not looking at kind of the bigger issues that America cares about or they could actually have some reasonable chance of pushing back on. America, quite frankly, over the last couple of weeks has been the nation of surrender. Trump surrendering to Putin and the Democrats surrendering to Republicans.
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And his argument was that, look, Schumer's argument was that all we were going to do here was play into Trump and Musk's hands by closing the government, shutting it down.
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Everyone in the government or nearly everyone in the government would be furloughed except where he could invoke some sort of emergency powers to keep air traffic controllers and effectively never end the furlough and essentially shut down the government. And they didn't want to let him do that. We're at that point where we need to take that risk.
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And that is the government is no longer a government of the people. When you are sending plans, when you are denying court orders, when you have the richest man in the world who has no congressional oversight or approval going upstream of those programs and cutting out funding to things like USAID, which by latest estimates is going to cost 3 million lives this year.
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then, okay, it's no longer a government of the people. You have usurped government, and we're not down with that. We are fine. Let's shut down government. And they also miscalculated. I listened to Senator Schumer on his follow-up on The Daily, and he said that, effectively, he thought, okay, this is, without it, the entire government would be shut down and we would be blamed. No, we wouldn't.
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If we then... whatever it is, 45 days of inauguration or what is it, 60 days now, the government is shut down. People would feel this and I believe they would hold Trump responsible.
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Okay, he's inaugurated and the government gets shut down and it's not reopening and people aren't getting their diabetes medication and we're having trouble with flights and people aren't getting their Social Security payments. This was essentially the Democrats saying, we are so fucking disorganized. We have such an inability to punch back.
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I mean, for God's sakes, the first thing they should do, it's like when I was in Sunday school, they used to say, what would Jesus do? That was meant to be a framework for decisions. What would Jesus do? And now my attitude is for the Democrats. I am so fed up with their feckless, stupid rationalization of doing the weakest thing possible. What would Mitch McConnell do?
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And what Mitch McConnell would have done here was said, this is an unacceptable policy. Unfortunately, Americans, and he could show data, don't agree with what's going on in the government. we'd like to work with the president, but the Republican party is so off the rails in terms of American priorities, we refuse to sign this bill and force them to negotiating table.
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And also there was an in-between, there were several steps along the way, including a filibuster where we probably could have got some. I mean, this literally is like, oh, our biggest fears about how just incredibly weak and our inability to punch back because we have really weak
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unstrategic leaders with absolutely no command of their constituents, that all bubbled up and said, yeah, your worst fears are being realized here, that there is no adult supervision. The kids are running wild at the Whole Foods and there's nothing we can do. There's absolutely, absolutely nothing No parenting here.
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And the outcome here is I'm now convinced that the new junior senator from New York is going to be AOC in 2028. I think Schumer's out. I think he looks so incredibly weak. I'm just sick of being bested by people who have control of their caucus. Thoughts?
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So uncomfortable fights are just part of it.
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Yeah. Just lean in. And what was the... Let me help. So I'm very good at running other people's lives. Give me the situation. I'll tell you who is right, who is wrong, and what you need to do.
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Yeah, I agree with all that. My only thing is the The social media being kind of put out there as we're fighting back feels like they hired someone's niece to do their social media. They just look so unnatural and so uncomfortable doing it. But this was an opportunity for the Democrats to at least fight back. And Americans will take bad policy over weakness.
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I think that one of Biden's losses was when you talked to him about When you talk to voters about policies, people vastly favored Biden's policies over the stated policies or non-policies of Trump. But they just—weakness and a lack of resolve are just death knells in politics. And right now, the Democrats look fragmented, weak, and just like we're clutching our pearls all the time and complaining.
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and yet have an inability to even punch back. And we just look weak, we look defeated, and we look like, I don't know, agents of surrender. All right, Jess, we're going to take a quick break. Stay with us.
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Welcome back. The Trump administration is facing sharp criticism after ignoring a federal judge's order to halt the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members. The White House argues the order came too late as the planes were already over international waters. It's weird. I heard planes can actually turn around.
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But legal experts warn this move could mark the start of a serious constitutional showdown. Meanwhile, concerns over immigration enforcement are also growing on college campuses where a Palestinian activist and Columbia University student leader, Mahmoud Khalil, now faces deportation.
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His arrest has sparked fears the administration is targeting political dissent under the guise of national security. Just... The administration claims it wasn't actively defying a court order rather than operating within the legal gray areas. What are the legal consequences of this move?
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Yeah, this is really, if you think about, I mean, it's sort of deciding, all right, we don't have a country. If we're not going to have laws, an easy way to reduce a lot of crime would be to do away with search and seizure laws. And that is if for whatever reason,
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your local law enforcement or federal law enforcement can just come raid your house, raid you, incarcerate you, hold you for as long as they want until they're satisfied, they're either right or wrong, you would see a drop in crime. But we've decided that
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It might be you with that knock at the door and that we're going to pay for a certain level of insecurity around, you know, overtime crime and those rights. And that that rule of law and that democracy attracts so many talented people and makes people feel so good about America that ultimately results in a greater quality of life, greater prosperity, greater economic growth.
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This is essentially saying, OK, we're now in an autocracy and the people in power get to kind of make the laws and basically not listen to the government. So there are literally no checks and balances. The Republican Party, who is in control, has said, I'm willing for an unelected official who was not born here to essentially usurp my power as an elected representative. Right.
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So that that branch of the government is gone. Then sort of the last man standing or the last defense between us and total autocracy was supposed to be the courts. And they have said, we don't give a shit what the courts say. Yeah. I mean, when I saw it, the courts have ordered these flights to stop. Then that means the flights can't go or can't turn around.
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Well, they said they basically stuck up the middle finger and said, stop us. So this feels like when you challenge the court, nothing happens here. they will have the incentives and the signal that they are now the law, that the White House, the Trump administration and the supporters are now the law.
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The judges are now similar to Republican representatives who are so scared of being primaried or a weak and feckless Democratic Party that there's effectively, we've gone from checks and balances to absolutely none of them. They've all been sort of shut down. And the one that kind of tested my resolve around this, or I had some a moral dilemma, if you will, is Mahmoud Khalil's arrest.
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And it did tickle my progressive censors.
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I think an individual here on a green card who is inciting violence, in my view, and shitposting America and making a campus environment less productive and kids can't go to class and basically tearing at the fabric of America, and also the legal argument for deporting him, is that when you're here on a green card, you are not supposed to promote or endorse terrorist activities.
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That is a legal argument for deporting him. And I can see making that legal argument. The problem is the way they went about it, and that is he was effectively disappeared. And that is he was arrested and detained, and his family and his lawyer couldn't even find out where he was. And it ended up he had been transferred to a facility, I believe, in Louisiana.
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And that's the thing that's really upsetting and bothersome. And as much as I would like to see this individual having had been expelled and maybe losing his – I imagine he's – I don't know if he's here on a student visa or a green card.
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Just green card. I can see – Not just green card.
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Yeah, it's the best you can have. He has a green card. The bottom line is this, is that regardless of how shitty the speech may be, if you start rounding up people and deporting them for political speech, be careful for when that knock comes on the door.
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Because eventually it means that if you have political speech that is counter or detrimental or disparaging of an administration that now appears to be ignoring court orders... and is suing and intimidating and saying publicly now that people at CNN and MSNBC should be prosecuted, I mean, we're effectively in a full, I don't know what you want to call it, dictatorship where speech is now chilled.
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So as much as I would like to see bad things happen to this individual because I think he's created incredible dissent and that he's wrong and that he's inciting violence, if, He hasn't really broken any laws. And this is just political speech. And he's getting disappeared and deported. You know, who's next? And what qualifies as political speech that is worthy of deportation?
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So there's a lot here. It feels as if because we show absolutely no resistance, no coordination, no backbone, and quite frankly, it feels as if the flooding the zone has the public looking in so many different directions.
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over if and what to respond to, that this is now, I used to think that the focus should be on Ukraine, our surrender to Russia over Ukraine, the deficits, but this feels like it really is something that Democrats should be focusing on in messaging. And that is, have we broken down all of our constitutional checks and balances that in fact make us a democracy and a country?
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And the last week, I would think the last week, and I'm trying to think if I'm being somewhat, if I'm catastrophizing, it feels like the actions of the last week, if they go unchecked and the Democrats and the public don't coordinate, mature, gestate a really thoughtful, strong response to this, that we have pretty much taken a pretty strong step away from a democracy to an autocracy.
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What are your thoughts about Mahmoud Khalil's arrest?
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Sure. No, I understand. I understand. No, the real fissure here is between you and horrible couples who are those couples who decide they're not giving their kids screen time. Those are awful people.
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Yeah, those are, you know, those are the people that, oh, it's parenting and they shouldn't have screen time. Those are awful people. You need better friends, too. The real key here is you need to start hitting your children. That... immediately resets the operating system and brings a moment of shock, but a moment of peace to everything. And I'm in favor of giving them screen time.
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Yeah, I do think that Democrats have a habit of sticking out our chin and having this fist of autocracy stone come for it. And to your point, if I had gone down as a faculty member of NYU with a big sign saying, burn the gays or lynch the blacks, they would have had no need for context. My ID would have been turned off.
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I would have been shut out of academia, fired, never allowed back on the campus, never been able to work in academia again. But when Yeah, free speech has never been freer when it's hate speech against Jews. And the Republican administration has now found an opportunity to tap into that rage and that wrong and go way too far and deny the rights of everyday Americans.
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And this is just a huge failing, in my opinion, and has created an opening the size of the Grand Canyon for the Republicans to come in or for the Trump administration to come in and start violating everybody's rights. And I actually did advise or have been advising the Regency of the University of California on this issue. And their general viewpoint is, my advice was, this is super easy.
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They were really worried about fall, what happens when the students return last fall. And because UCLA, I think probably, I think the most shameful moment I've ever felt, and there hasn't been a lot of them, For my alma mater, UCLA, it was when kids were passing out bans to non-Jews. And if you didn't have a ban, you couldn't access certain parts of the campus.
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So they basically decided to prohibit Jews from certain, you know, from campus activities. And I thought, okay, what's going to happen here? And I don't know what happened, which probably means nothing. And they said, well, what would you do? And I said, it's very easy. The first protest, first sign of any protest around where there's hate speech is
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or there are people trespassing who aren't students, or the students are doing anything resembling what would qualify as hate speech, of which there's a lot. If it's a peaceful protest, of course you do nothing.
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But if it's not, and it turns ugly, or they're occupying facilities, like what recently happened at Columbia, you give them 15 minutes to vacate, and then you start expelling students and let them call their parents and say, oh, that $72,000 tuition, I'm coming home. And you do that right away and word gets out really fast. And there was this bullshit argument that, Scott, these are young people.
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So first off, I totally empathize. I go absolutely crazy when our kids, my kids or other kids are loud and distracting. If they're really loud and distracting, I think you take them outside and separate them from the rest of the crew. I have no patience for that. Also, it's a very difficult situation. Actually, I'm now being serious because the reality is
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We can't just start expelling them in a wanton kind of reckless fashion. And my response is the following. At Columbia, they expel 91% of freshmen every year. It's called the admissions process. And the notion that somehow you have a birthright to attend a private university and that you're protected by these first... You have... You're at a private organization.
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It's like no shoes, no shirt, no service. They have the right to kind of determine the laws as long as they're not breaking the law. And the fact that they have come across is so incredibly anti-Semitic. They have stuck their chin out, and the result is an overreaction in the Trump administration taking advantage of this weak, bigoted thinking to go the other way and have an overreaction.
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I do think, to your point, this is a response to an incredible lack of leadership and insanity. on university campuses. I'm about to do a college tour with my son and I'm fascinated by colleges and admission standards and data and enrollment trends. And it's interesting, the schools that are booming in terms of applications,
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are these Southern schools that are seen as apolitical or even a little conservative. Parents are sending their kids, they want their kids to go to college. They don't want a political orthodoxy. They don't want a school and administration that sees themselves as engineers of social engineers. It's really interesting. Southern schools are
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where schools that are distinctly seen as somewhat center-left are booming in terms of applications. But Columbia University leadership goes down as such incredibly misguided, weak leadership that has set up an overreaction that has been justified. And the cloud cover for the justification of an overreaction has been what have been an incredible lack of leadership and blatant anti-Semitism.
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So this is, you know, this is like a lot of democratic policies. We start on the right foot, we take it too far, and we set up an overreaction because people are just rolling their eyes and thinking, okay, making an argument for a six foot four swimmer to show up to a swim meet. to a swim meet who presents as female and then blow away everything.
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Didn't win a single race as a male swimmer, but is absolutely winning everything. And then having everyone on the left applaud and say, isn't that inspiring? You set up an overreaction where we begin demonizing a special interest group for no real reason. And the same has happened here.
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We take things too far, we stick our chin out, and we set ourselves up for an overreaction that makes things much worse than if we'd had a less insane, thoughtful reaction.
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Or Wake Forest or SMU.
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Vanderbilt is now as difficult to get into as many Ivy Leagues. There's so many applications.
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And I get accused of this a lot, and that is I decide I understand parenting when it's bothering me, but I'm not interested in participating in parenting when everything's fine. And so it's a little bit like selective parenting. But I think the good news is this is only going to happen to you about every two weeks for the rest of your marriage until the kids are out of the house.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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Yeah, well, as you can imagine, I think a lot about this. And I do think it's tempting to think that because there's so much manufactured artificial stress, as someone who's going through it right now, from universities who've adopted a rejectionist exclusionary strategy, and despite sitting on an endowment the size of the GDP of a Latin American nation, only let in 500 students.
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Dartmouth sits on an endowment of $8 billion and lets in 500 freshmen. Harvard sits on an endowment of 52 billion and decides to only let in 1500. That is morally corrupt. If you had a drug that made people less likely to kill themselves, more likely to get married, more likely to pay a lot of taxes, less likely to be obese, less likely to be depressed. Would you hoard that drug?
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We in higher education hoard that drug. We have the resources, we have the capability. There would be absolutely no sacrifice in the quality of the students. People say, oh, but the brand would go down. When I applied to UCLA, the acceptance rate was 76%. It's now 9%. And it wasn't exactly a Joey Bag of Donuts brand back then. We have become the enforcers of the caste system.
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And as much as we like to believe that, oh, don't worry, college won't matter. It does because America is turning into a caste system and the easiest way for corporations to evaluate human capital is based on the school they went to.
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So the notion that it quote unquote doesn't matter anymore is a lie we tell ourselves such that we feel better about the massive amount of stress and the inequity and our disappointment in higher ed. And what has slowly happened in higher education is me and my faculty, sometimes who are 15 administrators to everyone who actually teaches,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
have decided that we would rather not have accountability, so we teach bullshit, ridiculous courses that have no measurable outcomes. Leadership, sustainability, DEI, ethics. Show me someone teaching ethics, I'm gonna show you a FIP, a formerly important person who hangs out at a university, makes two to $400,000 a year,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
for trying to teach a 27-year-old in business school how to be more ethical, which is such the height of arrogance. Instead of being centers of excellence, we've turned it into a political orthodoxy machine where the vast majority of the faculty are very left not reflecting any diverse thought and where you can get in trouble for certain words. We have totally lost the script.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Our job is to give you the skills to go out and create economic security for you and your family and do great work, empower the economy. And the fact that we have become this exclusionary and this arrogant and teaching all of these bullshit courses with no measurable outcome, the result is we constrain supply. And it's not about who gets in, it should be about how many.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And also, I think your husband needs to realize as it relates to parenting that He's an influencer, not a decision maker. I have generally found, which is a bit of an abdication, and I want to acknowledge that, but I've generally found that mom has just much better instincts around how to handle this stuff than dad. I'm a sexist that way.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If a school doesn't increase its freshman seats faster than population growth, it should lose its tax-free status as it's no longer a public servant, but it's a hedge fund with classes. Higher education absolutely needs to be reformed. Anyways, that's my TED Talk.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
There you go. Well, there's some nuance there. That's what I call it. It's nuance. All right, Jess, let's take one more quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back. Before we go, talks between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia over a possible ceasefire are picking up steam. And the Kremlin is saying there's some reason to be hopeful. Specifically, the world's largest nation has become a surrender monkey.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Anyways, after meeting with Trump's envoy in Moscow, Putin signaled he's open to a 30-day truce, but with conditions that are pretty one-sided. He wants formal recognition of Russia's land grabs and a promise that Ukraine will never join NATO. Zelensky has stood firm on not giving up land, but lately he's prioritizing security guarantees over getting territory back right away.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Meanwhile, Americans are skeptical of Trump's handling of the situation. A new CNN poll shows 59% think Trump's approach won't lead to long-term peace. 50% say it's flat-out bad for the U.S., and nearly 6 in 10 disapprove of his handling of the U.S. 's relations with Russia. Jess, your thoughts here?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I'll provide input around parenting decisions, and then mom gets to make the decision because I find she's just much more in tune with the kids. But yeah, the way the kids behave in public is absolutely a point of tension for me because I think what he's doing is just, I think he's reflecting on his own shortcomings as a parent.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, this is—I see a silver lining here, and that is the U.S. 's surrender to Putin, the decision to ignore these 80-year alliances with the largest economies in the world such that they can have— Sort of this, if you will, this mob deal with another autocrat and potentially thinking they can divide up the world. It's economically just really stupid. And the silver lining here is the following.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Europe may be a union for the first time, and that is the 27 member states of the European Union have finally recognized that they need to get their shit together and can't be this rich nephew reliant on Uncle Sam's largesse. They now actually believe there's just no getting around it. Uncle Sam has lost his shit, and we can't depend upon him for a military umbrella. The U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
spends about $800 billion a year on defense. NATO and all EU 27 member nations spend a total of about $400 and $450. They have not been coordinated. They've been sclerotic. They've lacked investment. They've lacked risk capital. And this might be actually the moment for them to command the space they occupy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And you have seen some signs of a pulse and of real leadership from the biggest leaders in the EU.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I believe that they basically, the bad news is that America can't be counted on, which is really unfortunate and tragic to support the post-World War II 80-year alliance that has created more prosperity in the last 80 years than the world has created in the modern economy or the history of the modern economy. But the silver lining is that the EU may get more coordinated.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
They're talking about increasing their defense budgets from 1.9% of GDP to 3%. And what you've seen is the markets are responding. The quote-unquote Magnificent Seven, which consists of US tech mega caps, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia and Tesla, have been incredible performers. But this year, year-to-date, they're down 8%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Whereas the European Defense 7, that's the second biggest, that's the seven largest military contractors are up 46% and 65% over the last year. And the Stock 600, which is the European kind of S&P, if you will, is up 9% this year, and the S&P 500 is down 2%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If you look at military spending, as much as, and there's a decent argument here that it withdraws from more productive means of spending money on social services, there is, one, a stimulative effect, and two, there is a spillover. If you look at the most valuable companies in the world, whether it's Apple or Google, they're essentially built on the backbone of
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Defense technologies developed early on, whether it's DARPA, which was built to establish a communications network such that we could communicate in a post-Soviet nuclear attack that was hubless or nodeless, or GPS, which is what essentially Apple and Android are built on. And that was developed such that we could put an ICBM in Gorbachev's pocket.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
All of these military technologies do have a stimulative and a spillover effect. And I believe, and this was one of my big predictions late last year for 2025, that European stocks are going to vastly outperform U.S. stocks.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
He feels as a man, he's a disciplinarian. And when the kids are out of control, it's a poor reflection on him.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And the nice thing about this is we're all talking as if at the negotiation table that it's up to, first and foremost, the U.S., who kind of is acting as the propaganda wing of Russia at this point, and then Russia And Ukraine isn't being invited to the table around these defense stocks and Europe plays absolutely no role. Well, here's the good news.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If Europe gets its shit together and shows sort of the commitment and resolve from a spending and a boots-on-the-ground resolve that the U.S. and Russia have shown in spades. They don't need the U.S. The Russian economy is smaller than the Canadian economy. It's less than $2 trillion. And the GU or the EU member nations add up to about $19 trillion.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So the European Union, should it show coordination, fiscal commitment, and perhaps even boots on the ground commitment, which I don't think they'll ever need to do, but show a willingness and a resolve, they don't need the US. And I'm hopeful that this additional spending and coordination might finally kind of stir a sleeping giant, and that is the EU.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So I think this is a new era or could signal a new era where there's some great leadership in Europe, whether it's Macron, whether it's Keir Starmer. There is an opportunity here for Europe to finally be a union and command the space they occupy, push back on Putin with or without the U.S. 's help, and coordinate and spend and show some resolve here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
They are acquiescing to a gas station that has nuclear weapons on the roof, and they shouldn't be. They are a bigger economy. They have fantastic IP, fantastic weapons producers. Both France and the U.K. are nuclear powers. It is time for the Europeans to step up. It's going to be costly. That's the bad news. The good news is they can absolutely step up and push back on a murderous autocrat.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And what's just so tragic here is that Trump appears to be acting like a Russian asset. There's no evidence that he is, in fact, a Russian asset. But if you were to define the actions of a Russian asset, he would fit them to a T. But the good news is I'm not sure the European Union actually needs us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I think they have all of the spending power, all of the military technology to push back on their own. The question is, do they have the resolve and the leadership?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Well, I go back to, I feel the same way. And I think a lot of Americans do. They feel despondent. And what helps me is that I realize that Yeah, as Winston Churchill said, the Americans, after exhausting every other option, will do the right thing, or will do the right thing after exhausting every other option. And we've faced really dark moments before.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
80 years ago, we were rounding up Japanese American and putting them in camps, and some of them had sons fighting in the European theater in our own uniform. We, you know, we do get it wrong a lot, but generally over the medium and the long term, the arc of American justice bends towards the righteous. We waited a couple of years before entering World War II.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Canada went over there first and started training allied pilots. And finally, We decided to enter the war.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I do think Americans are going to recognize that the Ukrainian people who are fighting for liberty and American values, that Canada with the largest undefended border in the world are actually our friends, that this move towards autocracy is so counter to everything that's wonderful and has created so much prosperity in the U.S.,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
that those values are steadfast, that those values matter, and that they're worth fighting for. So I have a lot of confidence that Americans, should we actually find leadership in the Democratic Party, and I believe we will, to your point, and you've always said this, we have a great bench, I think they're going to realize that a murderous autocrat
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
invading Europe usually does not end well for Europe and then eventually for us. And I do believe there's a real moment, a kind of a, you know, people were calling Keir Starmer, Keir Churchill, or Winston Starmer. There's a moment here for a leader to step up and say that America needs to be America again.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I'd like to think we're getting to that point, but we have been in these types of dark places before and American values do seem to show up and I'm confident that's going to happen. again, here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
But this is, I would describe, and I think you're articulating it well, this does feel like a dark moment where our American values are taking a back seat to the temptation to have a strong man that's going to solve what are some very real problems here in the U.S. But I'd like to think that over the long term, after, again, exhausting every other solution, that we get it right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, so just recognize that kids ruin everything. Kids are the best thing that could happen to you that will ruin your life, and it does put a huge strain, I have found. There's actually, just to be serious for a moment, All the studies on happiness show that your least happy years are the years you're in, 25 to 45 specifically around child year.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
There you go. All right, that's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right, its own feed. That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds you won't hear anywhere else.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts. And one last plug, join us for our live show on April 17th in New York. Grab your tickets now. The last time tickets went on sale, they were sold out in 24 hours. No joke. Link in the show notes. See you there. Jess's kids will not be there. They will not be there. Jess, have a great rest of the week.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Realize, just make it clear to your husband, always defer to mom. ADM. He's an influencer, not a decision maker.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And you'll look back on the period where you have young children at home and reflect on that as the happiest time of your life. But what's interesting is in the moment, people without children are actually happier on average than people with children because of instances like this. But as they get older, I do find it gets easier and easier. Years are 11 and 9.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I knew that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, no, it gets much better.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
That's really nice.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
All right. Before we dive in. In a quick announcement, Jess and I are taking the show live. We are literally woke royalty right now. We are literally the Duchess of Wokistan now. We're partnering with, get this, the 92nd Street Y in New York for a special event on Thursday, April 17th. That's right, Thursday, April 17th. And you can grab your tickets right now. The link is in the show notes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Trust us. You don't want to miss this one. Literally, I've been working my ass off for 30 years and I'm an overnight woke success because of you, Jess. This is literally like, I feel like Patrick Moynihan is It could emerge from his crypt. And who's the wokest person ever? Literally, we are woke royalty now. We're speaking at the 92nd. What are your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I heard he's not doing that well.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It's like when you found out you got on the 80th percentile on the SAT and you thought, oh, I might get into UC Irvine. Anyways, but we feel you. But this is so exciting. I'm waiting for the fallout of my other co-host, Kara Swisher. She and I have not been invited on 92nd Street Y. But anyways, come see both. Come see both at the 92nd Street Y. This is very exciting on April 17th. Today...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
In today's episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing the Democrats' fury over Schumer's vote on the spending bill. Trump challenging the courts on deportations and the latest on Ukraine-Russia ceasefire talks. All right. Let's jump into it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Last week, as the clock ran down to a potential government shutdown, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer found himself in a tough spot trying to balance a divided Democratic Party. His unexpected decision to support the GOP's stopgap funding bill sparked major backlash from House Democrats and members of his own caucus. who wanted a stronger stand against Trump's agenda.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
The bill itself slashes about $7 billion in overall spending from fiscal 2024 levels, cutting $13 billion from non-defense discretionary programs while boosting defense spending by $6 billion. With no easy path forward, Schumer's choice has left Democrats questioning their strategy for the battles ahead in this volatile political climate.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Jess, what led to Schumer's decision to back the GOP funding bill? And do you think him folding was a misread? What do you think?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Jess, so this is going to be like every other show. You're going to have to carry it. I got home at about 2 a.m. last night from Mexico. Very jet lagged. Was up till 4. Took a Xanax. And I woke up about 10 minutes ago.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I'm feeling a little, I don't know. I feel like a Democratic member of the Senate. I don't know where I am. I just want soup. And I'm looking for people to do my work for me. And I have just absolutely no understanding of my surroundings or the current situation. So back to you, Jess. What's going on?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I thought that was great. So, yeah, the graph that sort of indicates this is the very beginning of the last Trump administration in 17. 74% of Democrats wanted Democrats to work with Republicans and get things done. That number is now 42%. And there's a difference between being effective and being right. And right now we look neither.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It looks as if we are the gang that can't shoot straight between these ridiculous, feckless attempts to be angry at the joint address or march down to federal buildings and wave our cane. It's clear the leadership is divided and has no control over the caucus. They're responding late. One of the strategies that the GRU sort of invented and that Trump has adopted is flooding the zone.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
I have another friend, a fraternity brother, who's built this great family business over the last 30 years. in specialty products you know when you go to a conference and you see signs with logos on them and there's mugs and fleeces and all those water bottles you get at every conference that has it says oracle on it or whatever all the corporate wear he does all that stuff
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
It's probably a $10 or $12 million business. He probably clears half a million or a million bucks a year. He's raised a wonderful family, put three kids through school. You know, a good, nice business is kind of trying to round third and think about working another five or seven years and retiring.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Slowly but surely over the last 20 or 30 years, all manufacturing, everything they've produced has moved to China. He goes to China five or six times a year. He has good relationships with them. His business has literally stopped. He can't turn around to a conference and say, oh, your signage is now two and a half times more expensive. It's just he has told them to stop shipping everything.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And he said, this is worse than COVID. I'm not going to get any relief here. And I'm already contemplating layoffs because my business is ground to an absolute halt. And then this exemption bullshit for Apple and Dell, okay, he exempts the most valuable company in the world, but 98% of businesses that export things abroad are small business.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
So let's give the big company that gave me a million dollars and who has this radical fan base and is the most valuable company in the world an exemption. But the millions of people who depend on a small business selling everything from garage door openers to specialty textiles to small little whatever they're importing and exporting back, to put it mildly, they're just fucked at business schools.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And then this, he did a driver's test, but it reminds me of that Will Rogers joke that I want to die like my grandfather in his sleep, not the passengers in his car screaming.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Companies have paused hiring. They're like, oh, look, we're going to continue to hire, but we're just putting a pause on it right now. I know someone called me, a friend's son called me and said, had a great offer with a firm that is a household name. They've put a pause on hiring. And people believe that, oh, once they start hiring again, they'll double up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
A pause is basically a cancellation of hiring because if they put the pause on for three months and everything goes back to normal, it's not like they hired double the following three months. So you have a reduction in employment, a reduction in stock prices, a reduction in earnings for companies, which will lead to a further reduction.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
You have an increase in the tenure bond and interest rates on companies, and you have a massive spike in consumer uncertainty. I mean, this is just, I've said this from day one, this is, you could not think of a more elegant way to reduce prosperity. It seems that he's shifting his whole economic strategy from trying to match China manufacturing to trying just to crush their economy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Their dream is to bring back manufacturing to the U.S. Talk about that, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Oh, it's off again.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Yeah, yeah. I don't know what happened. Yeah. Sorry. I blinked.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Things have changed so much. I got my driver's license. I had to force my kid to get his driver's license, although he's kind of enjoying driving now. But I got my driver's license literally on my 16th birthday. I spent 120 percent of my disposable income on my car. It was just your car was your identity back in the 80s. Now they don't really care.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Yeah, there's a lot there. Like Trump harkens for the late 19th century and talks about this great kind of gilded age. And the reality is in the 1890s, we had child labor. We had outdoor plumbing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Yeah, they're trying to get that back. There you go. But this notion that we want to go back to this bygone era, do you realize there are six times as many job openings as there are people looking for jobs? I mean, what we have is a mismatch in terms of skills.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And also just a total naivete among tone deaf, head up your ass, inability to understand how the actual economy, the real economy intersects with labor. People don't want to do these jobs. You can't find American workers to work outside building a home.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
The only jobs you can find domestic workers for renovating homes, I know this person over the last 10 years, are plumber and electricians, and we're starting to lose American plumbers. They just refuse. They will not work outside. You can't bring your dog to the factory floor of a Ford plant. And now I have a lot of people just want to be at home. And let's look at Apple.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
The average employee at Apple domestically, I believe, makes over 200 grand a year. We've outsourced all these, quite frankly, low-paying, I would argue fairly tedious jobs that Americans don't want to do, such that we can increase the profitability of Apple, more aggressively invest in new products, hire more systems engineers, more designers, more product managers, really high-paying jobs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And also, they quite frankly require more skill. It's more competitive to get those jobs. So slowly but surely, Americans have upskilled and developed the skills such that they can garner those types of wages in a global economy. Have we left people behind? Have we done a poor job of retraining for people left behind from this transition? Absolutely. But tariffs don't fix that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Now, their argument might be that the Chinese engage in enormous IP theft and They steal from us. They make it for a lower price and they sell it back to us. I think there's some truth there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
But similar to immigration, if you are really serious about stopping that, I've always thought the immigration argument is just so kind of – it reflects a very ugly side of Americans' priorities and how we fix problems. You would just find business owners $10,000. You'd do raids, and for every illegal immigrant, undocumented worker at a business, you'd charge the business owner $10,000.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
I was going to ask. That's gangster.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And you would see, all of a sudden, people would use biometrics and get much more serious about ensuring that people could legally work at their establishment. A lot of these jobs, the demand would go away, and these folks wouldn't come here if they couldn't find work. But we're not interested in going after people nice Americans that own businesses that are wealthy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
I think you could do the same thing here. And that is, if you wanted to stop the flow of illegal IP, you'd find Amazon, who is a platform for all these knockoffs. And also, quite frankly, Amazon engages in the same type of IP theft. These are real issues, but I think they're more nuanced and have to be addressed more specifically with specific negotiations. There is a court
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
We do sue in Chinese courts for IP theft, but I would argue that is a real consideration and a real issue here. But this is just insane in this notion, this talking point. that 75 countries are lining up to negotiate, your point's exactly the right one. When you declare war on everyone all at once, I want to be clear, I'm not comparing Trump to Hitler. I'm using a war analogy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Hitler likely would, you know, people in France are probably speaking German right now. if he had not decided to declare war on everyone all at once. And that is, he's declaring war on all of continental Europe and then said, no, the Russians are a mongrel people. I'm going to declare war on them, even though they were an ally. That was his fatal mistake.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And if Trump was serious about tariffs, and sometimes tariffs can work, He would go after specific or try to negotiate with specific countries around specific issues and let pros handle it. But now all he's done is unify a ton of nations against him. You know, the EU is talking to people and also this notion that. we can hurt China.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
I heard this on Sunday morning from Navarro, who really is an ass. I mean, it is difficult to stand out as an ass among this clown car, and he manages to do that. But they keep talking about how much we can hurt China, that we can devastate them. And there's really two pieces of calculus, one obvious, one less obvious. The percentage of
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
of exports to the America of their total export economy has gone from 24% to 17. They have been diversifying away from us. We also have been diversifying away from them. We've reduced our exports by 4%. So we're diversifying away from each other because there's a chill and we're not getting along, but they're doing it faster.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
The three biggest trading partners of China, these guys speak as if we're everything. We're the one person who shows up every day and you have to be nice to us. No, the biggest trading partner for China is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, at a trillion. The second largest trading partner for China is the EU at 900 billion. And we come in at third.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
So the notion that we have all this power over them, is just not true. Now, let's assume we could hurt them more than they can hurt us. The missing part of that calculus is the following. Women are born with a hormone such that they have a much higher chance Tolerance for pain because they have to endure childbirth, which from what I've heard and witnessed is is the real deal in terms of pain.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Yeah. I've heard that. I've heard that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
We're the man in this relationship in the sense that Americans were innovative. We're generous. We are not good with pain. There are riots in the street when the Jake or Logan Paul or whoever the fuck it was and Mike Tyson, when it doesn't buffer real time on Netflix.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
The notion that we would even endure $2,000 iPhones before sweeping out all of Congress, China will starve tens of millions of people if it suits their economic or political purposes. It's just so insane that we believe... we would endure a fraction of the pain that the Chinese would implement on their people and that their people would endure.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
relative to what Americans... I mean, we left Vietnam after losing 58,000 men. The Viet Cong at that point had lost a million, and we decided to leave. We decided we couldn't take any more. They had lost a million, we had lost 58,000. And by the way, it's only gotten worse. Look at Ukraine. We don't like it. It's costing us 60 billion. Haven't lost a single, single person. No boots on the ground.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
but that's too much pain for us. These guys, they keep, anytime they can't rationalize, my favorite is when they say, don't bet against Donald Trump. First off, he's a great businessman. He's a shitty businessman that has lost his father's money. and has left a trail of bankrupt companies and unpaid subcontractors. This notion that he is a good business person is a myth and a lie.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
He's a fantastic reality talk show person. He built probably the best reality talk show and made a lot of money. You got to give him that. But the notion that he's some sort of great business mind is not true. And my favorite go-to and they can't rationalize the irrational as they say, well, he's playing 4D chess. You just don't see the matrix the way he does.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
This guy is not only not playing chess, at this point, we're worried he's going to start eating the fucking pieces. This guy seems to be so irrational and stupid and un- predictable. Besant said over 70 countries want to talk. That is such bullshit. 70 countries are working with each other to figure out a way to excise this tumor called indecision and toxic uncertainty of America right now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Consumer sentiment also just dropped 11 percent this month, its second lowest point since the 50s. And now the EU is floating taxes on U.S. tech companies if these talks fall apart. Just insane here. Jess, when you look at that, plus Trump's isolationist policies, what does it all tell you about where the U.S. economy is headed?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
So people say, well, and their other kind of go-to is that Biden kept the Trump tariffs. Let's just talk about that. In 2018— Well, he tripled them. Yeah, he put in place a 30% tariff. They estimate it cost the U.S. 300,000 jobs and a loss of 0.3% to 0.7% of GDP. U.S. companies lost $1.7 trillion in stock value.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Manufacturing and freight transportation sectors were, you know, hit lows not seen since the Great Financial Recession— The Trump administration ended up spending about $28 billion bailing out American farmers. China promised Trump that they'd buy $200 billion of extra U.S. goods in negotiations. That didn't happen. They never did that. And in addition—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
So much of this just leads to corruption, whether it's Tim Cook flying down and getting an exemption or not getting an exemption, and small businesses don't have those contacts or that money to give to the inauguration campaign. But also...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
April 9th will go down in history, and this will come out, it just might not come out for another three and a half years, as the greatest example or the greatest violation of insider trading laws in history. You saw, I follow Apple options, the calls on the 200s. We're at 40 cents and popped to $4 11 minutes before he made the announcement.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
The market started running 11 minutes before his announcement. So one of two things happened. Either his team doesn't have the skill or the competence to keep a secret and it leaked, or he was calling people or someone in the administration was calling and saying, wink, wink, I think this would be a good time to buy stocks or specifically highly levered options. There was more...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
There was more trading on non-public material information on that day than in history. And you saw some people, and they'll be able to figure this out. They'll be able to go, okay, so you don't trade options. And then seven minutes before this announcement, you decided to lever up 50% of your net worth to go buy calls online. on, you know, the NASDAQ or the SPY.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
This was, all of this kind of leads to several places, a decline in U.S. prosperity, but also we really are becoming known as sort of, um, Corruption Central.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
What kind of person? That's called a dude in college.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And Democratic Senators Adam Schiff of California and Ruben Gallego of Arizona said in a letter, the sequence of events raised grave legal and ethics concerns, noting the posting propelled financial markets to huge gains and boosted the stock of Carmichael Tesla, partly owned by Trump ally Elon Musk, by 18%. You know, who knows what's going to happen in the next few days, but I am comfortable
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Yeah. Did you also give him your credit card to pay for the date?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
I mean, a couple of things. One, this guy's going to blink over and over. And there's even a chance they might come up with a trade deal that reduces tariffs because they're going to have to figure out a way to turn chicken salad out of chicken shit here. I mean, every business leader in the world's calling me going, you realize you're risking depression. And this could end really badly.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
As much as you have a cult, people like money more than they like you. And you're about to you're about to emulate potentially trillions of dollars in value. The other thing is I get a lot of emails, Jess, on what to do specifically in the markets right now. I don't give a financial advice, but I tell them what I'm doing. In the short term, I'm doing nothing. I don't like to act out of emotion.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Generally, when I act out of emotion, it ends up poorly for me as it does for most people because the emotion you're feeling is similar to the emotion everyone else is feeling. People panic and think, I don't want more pain, I'm just going to sell. Well, that means a lot of people are just selling. And you don't want to be a panic seller. That almost never ends well.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
You also want to be thoughtful about the tax implications of selling if you have stocks that are up. What I am doing is the following, and I've been doing this for four months now. The S&P trades at a multiple of 26 or 27. The German market, 22. Japan, 18. China, 14. So every dollar in earnings our companies make, U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
companies get about double the market cap or value or trade about double the valuation. I think that's going to normalize and change. The markets in the U.S. are trading at 98%, meaning only 2% of the time in economic history have they traded lower than So I'm transitioning out of U.S. stocks. My biggest holdings are Apple and Amazon.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And I'm going into European, Latin American, and Asian index, low-cost ETF and index funds. Because, one, look at your taxes, see where you can harvest some tax losses. But also... You're probably not, even if you're wrong, you're probably not selling low and buying high because all of these markets have been somewhat roiled. So they're even cheaper than they were.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Now, they're not any cheaper relative because the U.S. market has come down. But what I'm telling people is that if you just have SPY or the NASDAQ in an index fund, you'd like to think you're diversified. You're not because you're not diversified across geographies. And I think that these wounds... that while he has pulled the knife out of the back of the U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
economy halfway, the injury is going to take years to heal. And I think companies and countries are basically rerouting their supply chains, and that's just going to have dramatic economic consequences. And you're going to see a re-rating down of a P of 26 more to like the high teens. And in that instance, even if the company performs well, its stock will be flattered down.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
I have a similar story. I borrowed my girlfriend's car in college and literally within 500 feet, I got rammed. And I had to call her and say, I crashed your car. And her parents, who were much richer than me. It was the first time I was ever exposed to wealth was my girlfriend's parents. And they said, no, we'll pay for it. And I said, no, I insist. And it was $500. I remember this was $523.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Anyways, diversification is the key here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Right? We have been through worse is what I would say. Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Welcome back. Last week, Republicans barely passed their budget resolution with a 216 to 214 vote after Speaker Mike Johnson had to delay the vote because far right members wanted deeper cuts. What finally got them on board, according to Rep. Chip Roy, was a verbal promise from Senate GOP leaders to go big.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
One and a half trillion in cuts, including one trillion from Medicaid and clean energy tax credits. That's already sparking pushback. Senator Suzanne Collins said Medicaid cuts are a non-starter. Meanwhile, Republicans are still trying to extend the Trump tax cuts, which the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates could cost up to $7 trillion over the next decade.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Democrats are calling it a reverse Robin Hood scheme. And even some Republicans are warning that this kind of budget could backfire in districts that rely on safety net programs. Jess, what do you— Trump loves the tax cuts and border security focus, but cuts to Medicaid and clean energy hit rural red state voters hard. Are Republicans eating their own to make this budget work?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
It was like literally my entire budget for the year.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
The latest incarnation, yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Yeah, I don't know. It just seemed like I was at the point where I was trying to impress her and her parents. So it just seemed like the right thing to do. But anyways, I've I spent all of my money, literally all of my money and more on cars. Okay. Enough of that. In today's episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing Trump's trade war whiplash.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Congress moves forward to fund Trump's legislative agenda and Trump's deportation operation mistakes. All right, let's get into it. Well, after a wave of mounting pressure... Trump blinked at the mother of all blanks and hit pause on his tariff strategy, sort of. Last week, he announced a 90-day freeze on reciprocal tariffs, dropping them to a baseline of 10 percent.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Yeah, so first off, just something you mentioned that totally chased me. I think Senator Susan Collins, who tries to position herself as a moderate, she's just a raging fucking narcissist and uses all this bullshit faux concern to just, you know, so she can stand in front of cameras and then ultimately every time vote exactly the way Trump wants her to vote. I mean, if the only barrier between
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
between Medicaid cuts and Senator Collins, then we're going to have Medicaid cut. And also Medicaid and Medicare are very successful programs. As a matter of fact, I think one of the big ideas the Democrat needs to adopt is to have Medicare eligibility cut by two years a year for the next 30 years until everyone's covered by it. It does a better job.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
45 cents on the dollar for insurance goes to profits and administration. So if you nationalize health care, which every other modern nation does, 40% of Americans have some sort of medical or dental debt. Imagine the stress that puts on people's emotional and mental well-being. These programs actually do a pretty good job And they're going after them. I mean, it's just insane.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
The Republican Party's jujitsu move is their ability to convince people to vote against their own interests. It's just staggering. And just because I want to bring this back to me, Jess, guess who was supposed to be on Bill Maher with Steve Bannon on this past Friday?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Well, Jess, I'm glad you asked. And I don't like to talk about these things kind of out of school. But yeah, by the way, I love Bill Maher. That's where I met you. I think he gets a lot of shit, but he's actually a hero of mine. I think the guy is fearless and just doesn't, you know, zero fucks given, just says what he thinks.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And I think he represents sort of, I don't want to call it the silent majority, but the people who actually see some license or some reason on both sides and try to just call it as it is. I absolutely love going on that show. I go to LA, I stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel. I love the executive producers. They're these really smart, intelligent, and attractive people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
My future ex-wife is one of those ex-producers. She's awesome. Anyways, I love that show. I look forward to it. And then the woman who's kind of my Sherpa, who I absolutely love, called me and said, okay, the upfront guest is Stephen Bannon. And I just couldn't reconcile with How do I in any way normalize, associate, and in a small way legitimize a guy who's given Nazi salutes? I just can't do it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And then I called my contact there and I said, look, I don't know how – I feel as if I would have to confront him. And I don't know how to do it. I don't have the skills to do it elegantly without grandstanding or ruining the flow of the show. And I love the show.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
I'm just really digesting and having a tough time with this, and that guy Naval, kind of the modern-day philosopher, says if you're thinking about something too much, the answer is probably no. And so I backed out, and I was totally fucking heartbroken because I would love to have talked about the tariffs. But anyways, that's my Steve Bannon story.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Yeah, but not for a while. Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
But that excludes China, where things are only getting more and more heated. Trump and President Xi are now locked down. In a full-on tariff standoff, Beijing just slapped a whopping 125% tariff on U.S. goods. Trump fired back with an even steeper 145% tariff on Chinese imports. By the way, folks, when we talk about a trade war, that's exactly what's going on right now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Bill was great, though. Did you see pulled out the Constitution and read him to the 21st Amendment?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Fifty percent of American children are on Medicaid.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Wow, that's insane. That really is. In these programs, I would argue I would want to cut Social Security first. Social Security is an effective program. It's reduced senior poverty, but it needs to be updated to reflect the fact that seniors now have made a shit ton of bank, and a lot of them don't need it, and people aren't retiring. But anyways, this is...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
It'll be really interesting to see what happens if they try to come. Because the reality is all this stuff, this Doge stuff, was just a bunch of jazz hands. If they're serious about cutting the deficit, they've got to do one or two things. They've got to raise taxes substantially, or they've got a lower entitlement spending. And the answer is yes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
They probably need to do both because I do think that what happened in the bond market this week has probably sent a pretty serious chill around the White House. Countries don't go out of business because they get invaded. They disappear because they go broke. And we're sort of headed that way.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And when you look at other nations, whether it's Japan or Italy, that end up at close to 200% ratio of debt to GDP, their economies just go flat and their citizenry gets really pissed off. But anyways, with that, we'll take one more quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And while this showdown plays out, the administration now has just 90 days to try and lock in deals with 150 countries. Yeah, these people are so competent. That should pan out. The White House has also announced late Friday that some electronic goods, including from China, will be exempt from the tariffs. That carve-out is a big relief for U.S. tech giants, including Apple.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Welcome back. Before we go, the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants is getting more extreme. Late last week, a federal judge allowed a rule to take effect requiring undocumented immigrants to self-report to the government, a policy rooted in a 1952 law. That same day, the Social Security Administration, at the request of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
added over 6,000 undocumented immigrants to its death master file, effectively declaring them dead. Being listed cuts off access to work and benefits. The administration claims those listed have ties to criminal or terrorist activity, but has provided no evidence. Many reportedly had valid Social Security numbers but lost legal status when temporary work programs ended, and most are Latino.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court weighed in on a separate case where the administration admitted it wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador and ordered them to return him. But on Sunday, the administration insisted that it is not required to work with officials in El Salvador to secure his return.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
But then said tech-specific tariffs are coming. So it's off, it's on, it's off, it's on. Who am I? Who are you? Where are we? Are we in the matrix? The whiplash approach is starting to take a toll. Trump's economic approval ratings are dipping, according to a new CBS News poll. And Wall Street isn't exactly reassured.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
On Monday, Trump welcomed the president of El Salvador to talk about their partnership amid their deportation push. Jess, give us kind of a big picture view of the state of his mass deportation operation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Bank execs, including JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, are warning of considerable turbulence ahead. Those words were probably gangbanged by about 14 communications consultants. Consumer confidence is also taking a hit, with Americans bracing for inflation to spike to nearly 7%, the greatest in over 40 years.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Yeah, there's this... I mean, there's incompetence and then there's depraved. And they take the crown for both these things. They are rounding up the wrong people with no criminal record.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And then when it comes to their attention that they spent a quarter of a million dollars per flight to have their kind of right-wing snuff film on camera, and then they find out that they deported people who are just undocumented workers who should not be deported to a hellscape prison in a different country than they're originally from.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And then they have the gall to say they can't bring them back. Bill Maher summarized it perfectly. We can bring a man back from space, but you can't get a man back from El Salvador. Of course, they could get those people back on one call. So this is just not—and these are the same people that hold up a Bible. I mean, it's just so—it's a different level of—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Of a lack of humanity, a total lack of comity of man. And then what people don't want to admit is that immigration is the secret sauce of America, but the most profitable part of the secret sauce is illegal immigration. Because while they pay Social Security taxes, while they pay payroll taxes, while they pay consumption taxes, while they pay rent, they tax our society at a lower rate.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Trump is also facing questions about market manipulation after he posted, this is a great time to buy, just before announcing the pause. Jess, what do you make of this U-turn on tariffs? He basically hit pause after the markets freaked out. What's the strategy here if there is one?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Few of them stick around for Social Security benefits, which they're not eligible for as undocumented workers, but they get to pay them. They call on our services. They're much less likely to either call the police or engage in criminal activity versus citizens. That's a trope.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
There's some very bad hombres, but on average, there's more bad men who are citizens than bad hombres because they don't want to get deported. And have we let it get out of control? Do we need borders? Yes. But be clear, folks, about a quarter of all food service workers are undocumented.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
If you went to the 10 biggest fast food companies and said, we're going to perform raids on a statistically significant sample of your franchise base. And we're going to estimate what percentage of your workers are undocumented because clearly you're not checking. It's not that hard to check. It's not that hard to validate.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And if it's a quarter of your workers, for every percentage of your workforce that's undocumented workers, we're finding you a quarter of a million dollars a month. And before you know it, McDonald's will make sure all their workers are domestic for all those great jobs that Americans want. And once the jobs dry up, boom, your problem is solved.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
But we're not really serious about this problem because, wink, wink, while we want to demonize them, incarcerate them, ship them off to internment camps, essentially, or prisons, we aren't really serious about solving the problem because we're making money off these undocumented workers. Has it gotten out of control? Quarter of a million people in one month in December of 23?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Yeah, it's gotten out of control. But be clear, we invited this. We invited this. 90% of the undocumented population are working age. See above, six open jobs for every one person looking for a job. 36% are agricultural workers. Do you realize what's going to happen to the cost of all your food if we actually figure out a way to discourage all of these folks?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
The other thing that kind of let's talk about most legal immigration that we love. The most profitable immigration we love are people who immigrate here for two weeks and go to Disneyland. Do you know what has happened to tourism in the last 60 days? Nobody wants to fucking come here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
No one wants to put up with this bullshit or worry that the ICE is going to ask for their phone or their immigration status might be up for risk. Or in general, they're just like, I don't need to spend my money. on assholes with assholes. I love that picture showing the Toronto International Airport last year before spring break, packed. This year, it's empty.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And all of that is gonna ripple through. You're gonna start to see that in all sorts of earnings calls over the next eight to 12 weeks. Undocumented immigrants have generated a surplus of $100 billion in the social security program in the last decade. So folks, be clear. Illegal immigration may be wrong, but we have purposely opted for wrong. Because in this case, wrong means money.
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The Art of the Trade War
We've known what's going on here, and we have enabled it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
As a country. Wow. Wow. What's your favorite city to visit in the U.S.?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
I love that. I totally see you. That makes a lot of sense. I can totally see that Jess Tarloff would love Chicago. I describe Chicago as the Old Navy of cities. It's 80% of New York for 50% of the price. All right, that's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Jess, I'm going to see you in New York in a few days.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
I'm a little nervous. Yeah, I don't know how this crowd's going to react because you have sort of a progressive, like, hip crowd. I'm more just like the unwashed masses.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
It's going to be very interesting to see how these crowds get along when they're in one place. By the way, you can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday and Friday. That's right, its own feed. That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds you won't hear anywhere else. By the way, I am interviewing the prime minister of Canada... Mark Carney this afternoon.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss an episode.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Yeah, I think you're spot on. So let's talk about what actually catalyzed the pause. And it was, I think, a combination of two things. So first off, the president has access to a more robust information set than any individual in the world. Between the NSA, more economic points of light, some of the brightest people in the world, corporations. He can call anyone, they return his call.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
He really is at the helm of the bobsled in terms of his vision into the most accurate up-to-the-minute data. And I think two things inspired him to blink. I'm sure he saw consumer data that, I mean, there's a few things. The uncertainty index is now higher than it was in COVID. People feel a greater level of uncertainty than they did when we were locking down
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
schools and telling people to return from work and wear masks outside. I mean, so this is how uncertain things have become. He saw, I'm sure, consumer data that people are getting cautious, companies are pausing hiring plans. And I'll come back to some of the on-the-ground discussions I've had with entrepreneurs and small businesses. And then he said, okay, we have consumer data.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
The economy appears to be slowing, and in about five days, the 10-year popped almost 50 bps. Now, when you have the economy slowing while interest rates are going up, That means that the interest rates are gonna take more of people's disposable income through credit card debt, mortgages, student loans, which will even decrease their spending even more.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And the rising interest rates will even further accelerate the deceleration in consumer spending That's essentially stagflation, and it's kind of a step to a depression. I mean, you do not fuck around when the tenure uncouples from consumer spending and they both start going opposite ways. That is absolutely the worst of –
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
I just came from the Palm Beach Gardens Department of Motor Vehicles where my 17-year-old son now has a full-fledged Florida driver's license.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
In addition, what actually went on here, it appears that the Japanese and maybe the Chinese went into the market and sold a lot of their American tea bills. I mean, basically the relationship has been with China, we buy your shit, you buy our debt.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
and we can continue to fund this like massive deficit spending, where Americans have gotten used to $7 trillion in government services, but only want to pay $5 trillion in taxes. They went out and sold some treasuries that spooked the market. The 10-year went up 50 bips, right? For every one bip, that's a hundredth of a percentage point that our debt
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
where the cost of our debt goes up, it's an incremental $3.5 billion, $35 trillion in national debt. So for every increase in tenure by just one basis point from 4% to 4.01%, that's an additional $3.5 billion in interest payments the U.S. government has come up with. So when it goes up 50 bips in a few days, that's an incremental $175 billion in interest costs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And that's not accounting for the increase in borrowing costs of companies and consumers. So the answer is, well, we're America. We're the reserve currency. We could just print more money.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
But if you start flushing the market with too many new dollars and there's fewer goods because we've hammered, people have stopped supplying the U.S., you could have runaway inflation as the consumer economy slows down. I mean, this is literally sort of a Bright Line Express train to a severe recession and maybe something you can't even control and turns into a depression. So he blinked.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Now, the pause, quote-unquote, is a bit of a misnomer because while he kind of retreated, I think, to sort of a 10% universal tax, but in this little dick war with China, he said, okay, I'll show you. You go 125. I'm going to 145. If you times the amount of the tariff times the amount of trade we do, the tariff pre the pause – on a balanced or adjusted basis was 26.8% in tariffs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Now, even with the reduction of every country except China and a massive increase in the rate on China, the average tariff rate proposed right now is 27%. So tariffs have actually gone up because of this nonsense going on in China.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
These tariffs are greater than Smoot-Hawley, which put us into a depression in 29. They're 10 times the rates of the previous Trump tariffs in his first administration. But I spoke to several people, and I'm not like the Trump administration. When I say this shit's happened, it's actually happened. I'm not lying. So let me just put that out there. I spoke to the CEO of a homeware goods company.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Oh, no, we're not doing that. That's hardcore.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And this person has, no joke, approximately $60 million. So summer, a lot of outdoor furniture has $60 million in product on big cargo ships already on the water making their way from China to the U.S. mainland to the port of Long Beach. He now... has to show up at the dock, and in order to unload it, has to show up with a $84 million check for the tariff, for the 145%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
Yeah, you have to put a big L on your car. Now, they take driving seriously here. No exaggeration. To get his learner's permit, you go in. You, like, say, what's a red light? You're, like, different than a yellow or a green light. And they're, like, here you go. God be with you. And then 10 minutes later, you have... A kid, you have your toddler driving your car home.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
$85 million, he wasn't planning on spending. I mean, this is a big public company, or no, it's not big. It's a mid-cap public company. He has to find, he has to call CFO and say, if we wanna offload our shit in Long Beach in three or seven days, We've got to go down there with a check for 85 million.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
And then just to talk about some of the ripple effects, he also is trying to figure out how do I get dozens, maybe hundreds of people to show up at the Port of Long Beach and relabel everything and reprice it because now in China, they're so sophisticated, they attach the label and the price at the factory, and he can't sell shit for the same price.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
In addition, he has stopped all shipments out of China, meaning... He's going to have much lower inventory levels. He's going to have to raise prices dramatically. His costs are going to go up. So this is what's going to happen. The shit in his stores is going to be much more expensive. And on his next earnings call...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Art of the Trade War
He's going to throw up all over himself and say, I'm sorry, folks, I wasn't planning to have to show up with an $85 million check unexpected that comes right off the bottom line. So what do we have? A massive increase in prices for his products and stores, lower sales volume, lower tax revenue, and he's going to absolutely puke his next earnings call.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
He said, don't ask people how you can help. He said, people are embarrassed. People don't want to come up with ideas. They're in a state of panic. They don't want to tax you. They don't want to feel like victims. He said, you should just help. bring food, come over and take their dogs or whatever it is, or call them and say, here's a picture of your bedroom.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
We live in Newport, come here right now. And so I went to Jessica's site and she has a subscription for a hundred bucks a month and I bought 50 of them. And I'm in a position of privilege and anyone who knows me knows I like to talk about my success, my faux masculinity through my economic success. Any fucking GoFundMe, I'm doing. How can you help? You move to action.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
I mean, checking in on people is fine. But instead of asking if they need help, just help. Don't ask. Just immediately reach out and start helping. I was even thinking, I was in Houston, I thought... Should I go to LA? And I thought, no, I'm just a liability. I can't fight fires. I don't know what the fuck I would do there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
It has gotten so bad in terms of an inability to find accurate information and our most powerful people, their willingness to immediately move to the politicization that it's just very discouraging in a situation like this. I remember even in Hurricane Katrina, Democrats and Republicans said, all right, let's get down there and let's see what we can do to help. And there was a blame game.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Jessica, so I've done my seven-day free trial of 2025 and I've decided I want my money back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
against Bush around this once kind of it became pretty obvious the guy running the whole rescue operation, remember him, Brownie, was a total fucking incompetent. But it wasn't, at least they took a beat. You know, at least they took a moment. Any thoughts on how this can get better or what we can do to make sure this isn't such a shit show the next time this comes around?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Yeah, I'm just not enjoying 2020. It's like 2025 got right to work, and I just don't like the way it's approaching the world. I think I went back to 2024, and I thought that was kind of a shitty year.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
She has a house in... MTV VJ now on Fox. That actually fits. That checks out. Anyways, I'm sure she's lovely.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Oh, no. I'm trying to be funny, Jess. My worst day is better than most people's best day. Get it? Seven-day trial is over.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Yeah. And this is like, I mean, the devastation of the scale of the fire is really dramatic. The fire has now burned an area, a landmass that is greater than San Francisco or Boston, just to give you a sense of scale for it. I'm really good at economics. I think it's going to be fascinating. The some of the biggest insurance companies did the math and they canceled the insurance policies.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
They said, look, and to be fair, California had instituted, I believe, some price caps on the escalation in premiums. So these companies who have an obligation to their shareholders said, on a risk-adjusted basis, we just can't do business here. And so there's, I think, a California or state-sponsored or state-backed insurance program, which is a
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Which is essentially outsourcing kind of this risk to California taxpayers such that you can keep prices high. I mean, there's a decent argument that insurance should be allowed to be priced to its natural level, which will decrease the prices of houses. I live in a house in Florida that's probably... you know, prone to hurricanes or maybe the sea levels rising.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And I believe I should have to pay insurance rates that reflect that. And if the price of my house or the value of my house goes down, that's fine. But keeping my house price elevated back on the backs of taxpayers because insurance companies have decided to vacate, I don't think makes any sense.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
What will also be interesting is what happens to the economy, because I did a little bit of research here and I thought, will this be the straw that breaks the camel's back and kind of escalates the flight from California to states like Texas and Nevada from people who think it's just become a bad consumer product, where it's both expensive and bad. They pay some of the highest taxes in the world.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Housing prices are crazy. And because of the stress on many industries, especially in L.A., where production, the entertainment industry is down 40% year on year, well, a lot of people just say, that's it. Give me my check for my house that's been burnt down and we're out. What the data shows, though, is that most people typically don't leave after a disaster.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And in California, despite all of the noise about people exiting the state, when they move, they usually move to another city in California. And you're going to see so much capital pour into Los Angeles. Housing prices, I would imagine, will escalate in the short term because of the destruction and housing stock or available housing stock.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
No, no. It was good. Okay, let me describe my last few days because I'd like to talk about me. So I did a speaking gig at Jeffries, the investment bank. I was in New York, which I always love. I love my place here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
But I wonder if over the long term, you see kind of an economic boomlet or just a boom because of all the money and building that's going to go there. into Los Angeles. And then to just start to get off our heels and onto our toes, is this an opportunity for Los Angeles? I was with, ironically or accidentally, a member of the International Olympic Committee yesterday at this talk.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And he was saying, you know, we want to figure this out because immediately I went to, well, will they be able to have the Olympics in 2028? And I would imagine they'll diversify to some other venues in San Diego or San Francisco. But I do think this kind of step does bring out the best in regular citizens, all those videos of people handling pets.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
The other thing, just to shout out to our fantastic fire people and government services, this was a fire that made the Chicago fire look like a barbecue. And then my my masculine energy moment. Have you seen all these aerial vehicles dropping retardants? Jesus, what badasses in these retrofitted DC-10s swooping in 10 feet above the ground to drop flame retardants?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
It's something out of, I don't know, a better version. It's something out of kind of one of these World War II movies.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
no kids here so there's no shit everywhere it's like a i don't know a northern european architect with ocd designed it there's just nothing anywhere and i love it it's my kind of place of peace saw friends went out and then i had a speaking gig in boca and then i went out and got shitty drunk friday night which i hadn't done in a while and you know what i need to go back to this kind of semi-functioning alcoholic thing i really enjoyed myself you didn't wake up completely destroyed
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
I think he comes out of this a winner would be my guess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Him in that jacket and those jeans.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
I'm literally, I'm watching him and I'm like, what did he say? I see his lips moving. It's just the hair, right? Everything's so perfect. I'm literally like, it's so hot there. Shouldn't you take off your shirt? The winds.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
I'm hopeful that a lot good is going to come out of this. The property destruction is obviously devastating, but there was a fairly scant loss of life. And I think we might be better for this in terms of looking at things like climate safety, fire safety, housing permitting, a reinvestment in Los Angeles. So I think we're going to see silver linings everywhere here. That's my view.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
We're going to be right back. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
I did. Yeah, no, I did. I did. We're going to gloss over that. But I stayed at the Faena Hotel, which I love and is colorful. And then Saturday night, I went out with my friend Pablo to this new restaurant in South Beach called Sparrow Italia. Super hot. Super hot people everywhere. Good food. Hello, Miami. $28 drinks. And then...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Welcome back. Let's dive into the week in politics. Biden's wrapping up his final days in office and Trump is gearing up to take charge. He's already making waves, debating with House and Senate Republicans about how to fast track his agenda. And in true Trump fashion, he's grabbing headlines with bold proposals, buying Greenland.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
reclaiming the Panama Canal and renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Yeah, it makes total sense. His goal, outmaneuvering China and Russia in trade, shipping, and military strategy. At the same time, confirmation hearings are kicking off for Trump's cabinet picks, Pete Hegseth for defense, Kristi Noem for homeland security, and Marco Rubio for state, and Pam Bondi as attorney general.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Jess, what do you make of Trump's push to expand U.S. territory? Is there any chance it could happen, or is this more of a distraction?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Sunday, I got on a plane and I went to Houston to speak to the, I think it's called the PMCA, which is like this big events thing. There's like 5,000 people. I did well there, except I couldn't help it. I made my crack about the Catholic church institutionalized being pedophilia, not knowing that a group of like 12 year old boys were coming out and singing after. So that was kind of awkward.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
I think it's pretty easy what's going to happen here. Absolutely nothing. I've struggled my whole career with the difference between being right and being effective. And I was saying this on our other podcast, Pivot. Kara is interested in assembling a group to buy the Washington Post. And she has the skills. She has the contacts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
She's actually on speed dial with a bunch of people who have the money to do it. But she's going about it wrong. And that is, if you want to get a deal done, you call people, you call the owner, you call the people who actually get to decide whether to do a deal and you express interest. You don't make them look stupid because from that point on, the deal's just not going to happen.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
You don't go public. and try and shame them into a deal. And the idea that the Danish are going to decide, yeah, we'll do a deal with Trump over Greenland because they're big and bad and scary. First off, the Panama Canal is just a dumb idea. It's a small business. It's a $5 billion business. It's politically stable. We would get no incremental advantage by owning it that we get now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
It's better to lease this thing than to own it. It's not a big business. It's only of strategic value if someone were stupid enough to start arresting ships or not allowing them safe passage, which no one has any intention of doing. Everyone has mutual interests here from the Chinese to the U.S. to keep letting people go through the Panama Canal. It has... There's no reason to do this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And then I got back on a plane, came here last night, took his annex, woke up. Here I am. Pretty good weekend. Pretty good weekend.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
There's no incremental value to taking the Panama Canal back. Greenland, on the other hand, has real strategic importance. It has rare earth minerals. But we get to use all of those things right now. And the thought that we're going to bully a sovereign northern European nation into selling us Greenland, they don't need the money. And so, and they actually have a more healthy, homogenous society.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
This is almost a gift to their incumbent party because it's created an enemy where there wasn't one and they can just stand up and show the middle finger. What are we gonna do? Like deploy the US Navy to Greenland? This is just another example of Trump has figured out, and he's smart to do this, how to dominate the news and the media cycle, even if it's a ridiculous notion.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
So I don't think anything is going to happen here. This is just an opportunity for Claudia Scheinbaum, and I don't know who is the equivalent person in Denmark, to say, you're an idiot. No, we're not going to do this. And the renaming of the Gulf to the Gulf of Expensive Eggs when circling back to the fire...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
A lot of his policies could play a pretty significant negative role in the rebuilding of L.A., specifically. Construction is a magnet for immigrants and undocumented workers. And while we like to—or the Republican administration wants to paint undocumented workers as these criminals—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
One of the realities for why we have allowed illegal immigration to get to a point where it is out of control, I will acknowledge that and we need to do something about it. And I actually believe that deporting criminals who are here illegally, I'm down with that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
But what we don't want to acknowledge is that not only is immigration the secret sauce of the United States' economic growth, but in many ways a legal immigration is because they kind of flow in as a flexible workforce where there's work, and then they flow out. They actually absorb fewer until recently social services, and they pay their taxes. So they pay taxes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
but they don't call the fire department or the police department or ask for social services or stick around for social security because they're worried about being deported. And when you have 12,000 houses that need to be rebuilt, you are going to need a massive inflow of construction workers. There is no way our domestic resources and domestic workers are going to be able to accomplish that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
In addition... if he really goes through with anything resembling this level of tariffs on Mexico or China, you're gonna see the costs of rebuilding these homes explode. Everything from a washing machine to the garage door, where either the parts or the entire thing is assembled in China or Mexico. All of a sudden, you're going to see reconstruction or rebuilding costs of 10%, 30%, 40%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
So you're going to see a massive increase in labor if you can find people to build your home. And then the costs are going to explode. And both of these are going to be pretty easily reverse engineered into what I feel are very short-term, jingoist kind of non-economic policies.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
It's worth it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Yeah, I feel as if Donald Trump to date has been the luckiest person in the world. And I find that luck is perfectly asymmetric, that if you're around long enough, you have just as much good luck as bad luck. And with respect to the economy, we've had a 15-year bull market run. I think the S&P trades at a P of like 31 or 32. 50% of the total market cap globally is now represented by U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
stocks, which is a historic high. And typically about 5% of institutional capital goes into emerging markets, or excuse me, 9%, it's about 5% now. All the flows of capital have been into the US.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And I think one event, whether it's inflation starting to spike again, or a big company announcing they're reducing their investment in AI that's just not showing the return they'd hoped for, I think you could see the markets just absolutely throw up. And it just feels like it's time. Markets are cyclical. And I'm even, you know, I mean, it's impossible to time the markets, but I can do math.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Okay, none of that's true. I just like the attention and I like seeing myself on TV.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And U.S. stocks are just so expensive. But I think his first year, I think this guy, and nobody controls the markets. We overestimate or overcredit presidents for the markets, wins or losses. And Give them too much blame for when they're not strong. But this guy has been jumping from lily pad to lily pad, and I think he's going to miss one in the next 12 or 24 months.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Real quick, Jess, how do you think these hearings are going to play out?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Well, so first off, thank you. We've become a kleptocracy, full stop. And I find it just outrageous or upsetting, I would say, that we don't appear to have a lot of strong voices on the left voicing what is obviously a move towards Russia, where when one man invests $250 million in the Trump campaign and his businesses are the same or even shittier, Tesla reported year-on-year sales declines.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Yeah, just a quick reminder on vaccines. Rick Perry, who is governor of Texas, made HP vaccination for, I believe it was for kids or was it just girls? Anyways, he made it. mandatory. And now that these kids are coming of age, there's a statistically significant decline in HPV-related cancers. These things are a gift from God.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
I think if you were to get people from both sides of the aisle who actually understand science and say, what has been the greatest innovation in history, near the top of the list would be vaccines. It's so funny. I'm so I mean, I find the whole vaccine or anti-vaccine thing from RFK Jr. disqualifying. I'm going to ignore his character for a moment.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
The thing that's so troubling is he's so good on some issues. I mean, I don't know if you've seen him talk about our food supply or... Obama wanted him for EPA.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
It's going to make for a very interesting conference. His will be the most interesting.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Yeah, it's going to be. It's going to be really interesting. OK, we have one more quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And his net worth is up 140 million because the market, which is a neutral arbiter and is not as politically spun as everything else in our society, says, oh, this is a kleptocracy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Welcome back. Before we wrap, Trump has made history again, becoming the first former and soon to be sitting president sentenced after a felony conviction. In the hush money case, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records. But Judge Juan Merchan handed down a symbolic ruling, no jail time, no fines and no probation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Trump, now a convicted felon, dismissed it as a political witch hunt, while prosecutors argued he's shown no remorse. At the same time, special counsel Jack Smith resigned from the Justice Department amid a battle over releasing his report on Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Jess, what does this mean for Trump's political future and public trust in our institutions?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And the biggest customer in the world is going to start funneling funds towards his companies, regardless of whether they deserve them or not, and engaging in regulatory punishment and capture for him and his enemies, respectively. Back to you. You also went viral. We're viruses.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Terrible attorney general.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
You're Ebola. You're COVID. Today, we're going to talk about the politics behind LA's raging wildfires. And this is why Jessica went viral. The bold and controversial moves shaping Trump's agenda. Trump's historic sentencing. All right. Let's get right into it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
I'm just excited about referring to President Trump as Fotos, a felon of the United States. That's cute. I should credit the comedian, I forget her name, who came up with that on Threads. And anytime he and Steve Bannon are on Air Force One, we've got to call it Con Air. I mean, there's got to be a silver lining. We've got to have some fun with this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
But to your point... We or Democrats or Merrick Garland just couldn't have fucked up any worse. And that is insurrection, election interference, mishandling of secure or confidential defense documents. These are all issues that deserve legal scrutiny. Hush money to a porn star? All that did...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
was give the Republicans a legitimate claim that Democrats had weaponized the government and the deep state and the DOJ against their political opponents. So we didn't get our shit together, or Merrick didn't get a shit together for the real stuff, but managed to figure out a way to create a legitimate political concern on behalf of the right. It just could not have handled this any more poorly.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And some people would argue, well, he's not, Alvin Bragg doesn't report to him. But in terms of, and this goes back to the notion, this guy gets to jump from lily pad to lily pad. Well, from an ego standpoint, he doesn't like being called a convicted felon. I believe the mishandling and the cadence in the way that these legal cases played out played a big role in his reelection.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Firefighters are in a make-or-break phase of their week-long fight against the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, with many residents still under evacuation orders. The Palisades fire has already cemented its place as the most destructive in LA's history. On top of that, the political blame game is in full swing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
I don't think anyone could have strategically thought of The chestnut checkers move of, all right, here's four cases. Let's pick the one and move forward with it that looks like the deep state and the most politicized and make that the one that goes the furthest, the fastest, such that it emasculates the other three.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
It just played out so incredibly poorly for, in my opinion, it created the ultimate miscarriage and justice and accrued or created political benefits for
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
What do you got planned for the rest of the week, Jess Tarloff? What is Jessica up to?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
We need to double click on that. You were a high school athlete. You played basketball.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Still, you're a college athlete. That's very impressive. I am.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Trump's taking shots at California policies and Gavin Newsom, or Governor Newsom, while Karen Bass is under fire for Los Angeles Fire Department budget cuts. Critics are pointing fingers at everything from immigrant care to DEI hires and homelessness spending for the fires. Even Jess got into it with colleagues on Fox News. Let's listen to a clip.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And were you a power forward? What was your position in basketball?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
You were the center?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Okay, let me guess. That was not the most competitive league in wherever. I imagine you're going to some Tony prep school.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Where'd you go to high school? Let's lean into your white privilege. Where'd you go to high school?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
You look so self-conscious right now. I went to Dalton. You look like the four when you get in their face. You went to Dalton. I did. Good for you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
As a very young age. And when parents have too much time. Yes, he did have a flexible work schedule. And you played tennis in college. Did you get a scholarship?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Wow.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
You went to Dalton and played basketball, then tennis. I went to university high school, which now is got the distinction of having more homeless kids than any LASD school. And I got cut from the baseball team. So we have almost nothing in common.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
How did we end up here?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
My boys have just the right amount of athletic ability, and that is very little. And they have enough to play sports at their schools. They both play football, better known as soccer for you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Unwashed masses here in the U.S. Yeah. Uh, and they can play, which is a ton of fun, but there's absolutely no illusions that they're ever going to, you know, use that on their college apps or, or play professionally. Whereas for a brief moment, I thought I might be an athlete and I tried out for a couple of teams that used to lay and got cut and ended up on the career team.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
But anyways, have a great time with the Knicks, uh, Knicks game. Actually, Jess, why don't you read us out?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
But you're proving my point. No, I'm not proving your point. Yes, you are. You're proving it because DEI makes everybody suspect. That is the problem.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
Let me get that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
DEI makes everyone suspect if they're racist. So I suspect DEI if and when I use it as a political cudgel to make a point instead of actually doing fucking anything to help these people. I mean, this this fire chief and I pause. I don't know her name.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
The only thing her background shows is there might still be remnant racism, racism in the fire department. She didn't get this job sooner. She's had a central fucking casting for this job. She's so incredibly qualified. And I don't know about you. I merely interrupted you and I want to come back to your clip.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
But we used to at least wait a few weeks before we turn this into a political rage machine. My favorite was Trump saying that it was because of this Water Reclamation Act where they were diverting water from fire safety to save a fish. And it ends up there's no such act that ever existed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
But instead of trying to rally help to the city, some of those powerful people in America are, and of course, Musk had to weigh in and say, DEI equals die. It's just so incredible. It's like, could they at least wait until the smoke is smoldering a bit here? Anyways, more of your thoughts, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
I mean, you're talking about an area that's a desert that is in the midst of this or in the middle of this meteorological anomaly called the Santa Ana winds or because of, I don't know if you've ever seen, I think it's called Nazarene, which is this topographical anomaly in Portugal where these huge waves come and then there's this gigantic shelf in the form of like a tube that creates these hundred foot waves.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
That's kind of what Los Angeles is in the sense that it's a desert. It's incredibly dry. We had an unbelievable drought in the winter. And you think, well, winter should be good for fires, but it's not because it creates high and low pressure systems colliding. which creates a massive vacuum of the wind coming into the low pressure system.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And then it runs through mountains and it creates this exceptionally dry, kind of voluminous, massive velocity wind that can take any ember. and move it across hundreds of yards in seconds. And California actually has a very robust fire response system, one of the most robust in the nation, if not the most robust in the nation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And they had something like 12,000 people working or fighting against it. I mean, the bottom line is L.A. probably just shouldn't be there. And it's so populated in terms of a city deciding to string itself in this area where there's earthquakes, where there's droughts, where there's superfires. Nine of 10 of the biggest superfires in the last hundred years, by the way,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
have been in the last decade. And one of the things that frustrates me a little bit about the left is that, We like to think of ourselves as better than them, so we don't engage in this conspiracy theory to hit back and say, oh, it's because of Republicans' inability to prepare for the obvious and ignore science around climate change. We don't go there because the reality is we really don't know.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
We're going to need scientists to look at what happened here before they start leveling political accusations, but they may immediately go to the politicization. I heard about And the fact that he's so dominant, it reflects our idolatry of money. This reflects how politically polarized we've been. It also, the thing that really struck me about this, and I found it really frustrating.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
I went to UCLA. I have a lot of friends in LA. I didn't want to bother them with constant like, how are you doing? So I was trying to get information.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And the first thing when I said UCLA evacuation question mark, well, the first thing that came up was this TikTok from this kid saying it's the University of California of people who don't care and that the evacuation order should have been issued already. And I sort of immediately went to it. and it's some fucking sophomore with a TikTok account. And that's what comes up first in my news search.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
And I do have a tough time trying to triangulate in on accurate information. And I've been relying on two things. I've been relying on Anderson Cooper, who I think does his level best to talk about stuff in a balanced way. CNN, no doubt, has a left-leaning bias, but I do find that They do try to seek the truth without fear or favor, which at the end of the day is the media's job.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
LA’s Wildfires, Trump’s Bold Agenda, and Historic Sentencing
I'm going to Jessica Yellen's News Not Noise. And unfortunately, because Jessica lives in Los Angeles, she had to take a couple days off to manage probably her own evacuation and her own dog. And I want to move to the virtue signaling part of the program and what you can do. This rabbi, Stephen Leader, who I follow, said something really powerful. I think it was on Threads.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Well, he's definitely – so he's pulled the knife out of the back sort of halfway. That's the good news. The bad news is the injury is going to take, I think, decades to heal because even worse than the tariffs themselves, which obviously increase consumer prices and slow the economy – I think the most lasting damage here is that we have now become the land or the economy of toxic uncertainty.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And that is people don't even know how to plan their businesses. And the US S&P trades at a price earnings multiple of around 26, meaning for every dollar of profits that our great American companies generate, the world rewards us with $26 in value, which flows right into not only the pockets of shareholders, but employees. It lowers interest rates. We can borrow money at a much lower rate.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
The U.S. dollar is kind of the reserve currency because everybody wants to buy American stocks, so there's greater demand for dollars. And the U.S. being the reserve currency globally literally lowers, on average, the interest rate that you pay across your student loans, your mortgages, and your car loans somewhere between half and 1%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
So that's just literally hundreds of billions of dollars in cost savings that the Americans enjoy because of the fact that our markets trade at a higher multiple on earnings. Now, why do they trade at a higher multiple? A lot of reasons. We're more risk aggressive. Our technology is better. We have more zeitgeist or a culture of entrepreneurship.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
We have great universities, great intellectual property, but we also have rule of law and consistency. We're seen as good trading partners. We're seen as people we can count on. We're seen as a place where there isn't going to be a ton of corruption where you come and say, open a bunch of restaurants and then the government shows up one day and says, sorry, we now own them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
That happens in other countries around the world. Rule of law and consistency have been thrown out the window in just 110 days. You're starting to see a reduction in the price earnings multiple. I believe over the next several years, we're going to see a re-rating down of our price earnings multiple, which effectively increases the costs on all American businesses and consumers.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Because, and the market has sort of said this to a certain extent, the market has said, we don't really know what this guy's going to do and we don't trust him. 145% tariff, I mean, this is what a bad negotiator is. The first thing we need to do is dispel the myth that this guy is a good business person. He would be wealthier if he'd taken his massive inheritance and invested it in index funds.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
He's 24. Wow. Yeah. Ed is 26. Yeah. But you're a kid too. I think it's more adorable because I have the grandfather thing. You're just like the big brother. Yeah. A little big brother vibe.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
His business career includes a trail of bankruptcies and unpaid subcontractors. To be fair, he's an outstanding reality talk show host, made several hundred million dollars hosting and envisioning a reality talk show. As a business person, he's not very good. And in terms of negotiating, he's negotiating himself at this point. He put on 145% tariff, and then a few days later, without any
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
counter from the Chinese, other than this is unacceptable and we're not even going to talk. He said they're unsustainable. It's like, well, boss, you're the one that did it. So to go to 145 and then to go down to 30, and effectively what you have is the Chinese are divesting away. This will keep the factories sort of humming in China.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
This will basically loosen up or cancel the trade embargo for the time being. But also in negotiation, you have to understand your leverage and the amount of leverage you have. And what is typical of America and Donald Trump is that we're under the impression we're much more powerful than we are. People think of us as, you know, we're the only customer at the taco stand here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And that without us, they go out of business. We're the third largest trading partner. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the EU are bigger trading partners with China. China has been divesting away from us. This is kind of, I think this is good for them. They get to continue to sell not as many products, but still not the shock that this trade embargo was going to implement on them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
At the same time, they will slowly but surely continue to divest away from us. And that is what the whole world is doing, Tim. The whole world is rerouting their supply chain around the United States, not even because of tariffs, but because they don't know how to plan their business with us because of this toxic uncertainty. And I think these
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
That resupplying or that rerouting of the supply chain will take years, if not decades, to reheal. And I do think the Americans have taken for granted, the American public, of just how inexpensive our goods are because of the supply chain that runs through the U.S. of every major economy because they trust us and think there's rule of law. And those things are no longer there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
The scariest stat I've seen is that I think it was Pew or the Hoover, some polling organization did a poll of global citizens, took a statistically significant sampling. And for the first time in the history, more people around the world think that China is a greater force for good in the world than the U.S.,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
which says to me, people are much more inclined to do business with China than they are with the US. And as someone who has run businesses, I've run businesses my whole life. They've always been global businesses because they've been strategy and brand firms. When I walk in to meet with LVMH or Samsung or, you know, I don't know, Tata Motors, We're taken seriously.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And also, when they do business with us, they want to do business with us. If I'd started a brand strategy firm in Pakistan or even in Thailand, they're just less inclined to do business with you because they don't know you. They don't trust you as much. They don't think you're as innovative. They probably don't think your employees are as good.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
They're not as confident you're going to uphold your side of a legal contract. The legal contracts aren't as easily accepted. agreed to because they're not as consistent with the kind of American or Western law. All of that, we have had massive benefit from. I don't think American consumers realize how much they benefited from that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And they're going to realize that when everything just gets a little bit more difficult. Your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
How many people do you get? What's the business model? Do you enjoy it?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Yeah, I think the short-term winner is Europe because China wants to keep these factories humming. So they'll have a lot of excess supply that they'll be willing to sell at a discounted rate. And I think the EU is about to get a massive amount of forced sale on a ton of products. The medium and the long-term winner, actually, I agree with you, is China.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
I know firsthand that their commerce executives and business people are roaming around Europe and Latin America saying, hey, you may not like us, but you can trust us. We do what we say we're going to do. And I was actually at dinner with the CEO of one of the largest companies in China. And he said, yeah, for the first time, we're talking to European companies about providing cloud services.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And the general reaction was always, we don't trust China to store our data. in the Chinese cloud. And now the question is, okay, we don't trust you, but we don't necessarily trust American companies now either.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
They also have to do a better job as Democrats. I think of who has been good at pushing back on autocrats.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
I learned this, I did an interview with Anne Applebaum, and she said, if you take Alexander Navalny as an example of someone who was able to push back on an emerging kleptocracy or an autocrat, it was because he was able to connect it to people's lives, that he had this sort of motto when he was running against Putin that, okay, they're getting rich and there's still potholes in Moscow. you
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And Elizabeth Warren or Senator Warren kind of summarized it nicely by saying they're getting rich and you're getting your health care taken away.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And I don't think we've done a really good job of explaining to the American people that a kleptocracy creates a small number of very rich people, whether it's the people who are tipped off to the launch of the Trump coin the Friday night before inauguration, small number of wallets, like 30 wallets made $800 million, things spikes, they dump the bag.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And then over the course of the next several weeks, 800,000 smaller investors. lost billions. And we haven't done a good enough job connecting that, okay, when Elon Musk, as part of our negotiation with UK around tariffs, gets a Starlink deal, That means every other American tech company, every other small business.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And by the way, 98% of the companies that make their living from import and export in the United States are small and medium-sized businesses who create two-thirds of the jobs in America, but don't have lobbyists. And they don't have enough money to get on Trump's lunch calendar or be part of Eric's executive, like, you know, $500,000 a year kind of fraternity, if you will.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Those are the people that get hurt the most. And I don't think we as Democrats have done a good enough job connecting the dots there or that say, look, kleptocracy is a small tax and then a medium tax on everyone such that we can funnel a massive amount of money to a small number of people. All right, let's move on here. We'll take one quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Support for the show comes from the podcast Democracy Works. The world certainly seems a bit alarming at the moment, and that's putting it lightly. And sometimes it can feel as if no one is really doing anything to fix it. Now, a lot of podcasts focus on that, the doom and gloom of it all and how democracy can feel like it's failing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
But the people over at the Democracy Works podcast take a different approach. They're turning the mics to those who are working to make democracy stronger, from scholars to journalists to activists. They examine a different aspect of democratic life each week from elections to the rule of law to the free press and everything in between.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
They interview experts who study democracy as well as people who are out there on the ground doing the hard work to keep our democracy functioning day in and day out. Listen to Democracy Works wherever you listen to podcasts and check out their website, democracyworkspodcast.com to learn more. The Democracy Works podcast is a production of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Welcome back. On the immigration front, a federal judge has blocked what may be one of the Trump administration's most extreme efforts yet, the planned deportation of detainees to Libya.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
ISIS detained Asian nationals in Texas and allegedly pressured them to voluntarily agree to be transferred to prisons controlled by armed militia in eastern Libya, despite widespread reports of torture and human rights abuses in those facilities. At the same time, Trump is touting a 95% drop in illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border compared to last year.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Tim, is this a fear tactic designed to intimidate future migrants into staying away or self-deporting? What do you think is going on here?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Yeah, I feel I'm of two minds on this. The first is this is still his most popular policy. And there's just no getting around it. I feel like a lot of this was the Democrats sticking their chin out and just waiting to get tagged hard. A quarter of a million people cross the border in December of 23. We were just sort of asking for it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And then they see, okay, them getting Trump, you know, or Biden-Harris hats and free phone cards and hotel rooms and Americans saying, okay, there's something wrong here. But I've never understood about this whole argument or where I feel Americans fail to see what's going on is that
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Immigration is obviously the secret sauce of America, but I've always thought, I'm kind of where Friedman was on this, and that is the most profitable part of immigration is illegal immigration because they're essentially the most flexible, inexpensive workforce in history. When there's crops to be picked or old people to be taken care of or dishes to be washed,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And we can't afford or find domestic workers. The reason why it's fairly inexpensive to eat out is because of illegal immigration. And in some cities, somewhere between 15-25% of fast food workers are undocumented workers. And in addition, they generate a surplus of $100 billion in the Social Security program because most of them are younger. And they don't stick around for Social Security.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
They pay their taxes, and then they go back. A mass deportation effort, some estimates, put at 4% to 7% loss or reduction in GDP. And also, 90% of the undocumented population is working age. About a third of agricultural workers, a quarter of ground maintenance workers, and about a quarter of all food service workers are undocumented. I mean, your prices are going to go up, folks.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And there's this trope, and there are some very bad people. I do not believe in open borders. I believe you have to have a country. But the question I would have for you, because I don't feel as if I am very knowledgeable or have a deep domain expertise around immigration, is that We wanna demonize immigrants, but wouldn't the fastest way to solve this problem to be to go to the demand side?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And that is say to Chipotle or lawn care companies, we're doing random audits. And based on the percentage of people who are clearly undocumented, we're gonna find you $10,000 a day. Because they don't come here to rape. These immigrants don't come here to commit crimes or to start gang warfare. They come here for jobs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Yeah, I've always... said that it's really a shame that these LLMs and AI is crawling the digital world and not crawling the real world. Because I find online people not so nice, but people out in the wild couldn't be more lovely. Totally.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
If you went on the demand side and basically hit those nice American people with real fines such that they started implementing, and they could do this with biometrics or just simple documentation, verification. If there's no jobs, if it's like, okay, I'm sorry, I can't hire you, they melt back to where they came from. But we don't want to do that, do we?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Let me put forward a thesis and I'm going to get your response to it. So I have a 17-year-old son, and there's been reports and verification of actual people who aren't criminals, people who were brought here, grew up here, being deported, some ending up in these hellscapes, prisons, and also reports of U.S. citizens.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And my view is, unfortunately, that a lot of Democrats who are very wealthy clutch their pearls and say at dinner parties how outraged they are. But they don't really do a fucking thing about it because there's this emerging what I'll call transnational oligarchy, the togarchs. And that's if you're in the 1%, A, you have a disproportionate amount of power.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And without you, it's very hard to get anything done. without your support. And so it's easy to complain about it at dinner parties, but the reality is in America that your rights have become a function of your wealth. My kid is not gonna be sequestered by ICE and sent to El Salvador. There's just zero chance that could happen. I will not be silenced because I have the money to lawyer up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Anyone in my life that becomes pregnant, I don't care if I'm in deepest, reddest Mississippi, I can get access to family planning because I have money. And if shit really gets real and on the unlikely chance we start rounding up Jews and I got on the wrong list, well before that, I have the money to peace out to Milan or Dubai.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And what that creates is this lack of incentive or this divesting of the most powerful's interest in America. And that is, whereas before, I think the really wealthy thought, I'm gonna stay here. If this could happen to them, it could happen to us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
But now there's a feeling amongst me, well, I always turn this back to me, but among the really wealthy, they were insulated from some of this, that it really doesn't impact us. So we have our own schools. We have our own security. We have our own health care. We have our own legal rights. We're protected by the law, but we're not bound by it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And it creates this really unhealthy ecosystem where the most powerful in our nation, even who claim to have progressive values, really don't feel that same sense of vested interest in the maintenance and fidelity to American values. Because at the end of the day, we're kind of global citizens and our governance is the dollar.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
We're basically how much money we have, and we can find those rights somewhere else even if they're violated here. Your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Yeah, they kind of represent. Yeah, it's as if they're studying to the kind of the purity test. And we're going off script here, but I can't help it. It shocked me a couple of days ago. There was a new poll showing that if the election were held again today, that Harris would still lose or that Trump would win. And my sense is.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Don't you understand the assignment? I got a lot of that, too.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
I was shocked by that. especially when you see the swing among young people. But I mean, it is what it is. And as unpopular as Trump is, the Democratic Party is less popular. And I think as we sit, again, crying into TikTok, the reality is, the analogy I used to use was that the Panzer tanks come rolling into Poland and we're fighting Democrats. as Democrats were fighting them on horseback.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And then someone reminded me, actually, that was a successful military operation. I should stop disparaging the heroes of the Polish army in World War II. But my point is, the only thing that feels more corrupt than the Trump administration or kind of coarse and cruel right now is just how weak the Democratic Party is.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
No, no, no. More weak.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Well, isn't America basically saying they'd rather have a corrupt autocrat than a weak Democratic Party?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Well, let me ask you that. Right now, if you had to say who are the leaders of the Democratic Party, you would point to Minority Leader Jeffries and Minority, or Senate Minority Leader Schumer. And I'm a fan of Leader Jeffries. I don't think he is the leader we need right now. And I think Senator Schumer is a fucking disaster. Who do you think, in your view, who are some of those emerging boys?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Everyone keeps saying we have such a strong bench, and then they say, they point to Wes Moore, and the list runs shallow. And then everyone was getting excited about John Fetterman. And there's all these stories coming out saying that he's struggling. Who do you see as kind of the up and coming draft choices in the Democratic Party?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
My thesis is they're great. They're inspiring. There's no fucking way America's going to elect either of them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
But also, I think that just being alone makes you more mentally ill and makes you more isolated and makes you less empathetic and more angry. And I think those are the people who have a disproportionate share or voice online because, quite frankly, they're home and they've got not a lot else to do. I think a lot of what ails us is the
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Yeah, that shows just how desperate we are. Well, let me ask you this, just so we can fill the comment section up with people calling me names. I think America is ready for a gay president. I don't know if the Democratic Party is. I think the way the Democratic primaries are held
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
That there's certain elements of the Democratic Party that would have an issue with Secretary Buttigieg as evidenced by his poor performance. You're talking about black voters?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
social isolation and the fact that we don't recognize we're mammals and, you know, you put an orc on a tank alone, it literally goes crazy. And, you know, a Cape Buffalo gets excommunicated from the herd. It usually goes crazy or gets eaten and dies.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Yeah. I think the Democratic Party at this point is like, okay, we absolutely need a female president. And we will have a female president. She'll be a Republican who has a reputation for likely drone striking your entire family if you run a stop sign. That's who's going to be the first female president.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Well, I hope and trust that she'll be out of government soon, but she's going to slipstream right into some sort of Cinemax prison film. I mean, that picture of her where it looked like a Sephora had exploded on her face and she was in front of a bunch of half-naked dudes. It literally felt like those prison films I used to watch in the 90s after my parents had gone to sleep on Cinemax.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back. History was made last week as Cardinal Robert Prevost became Pope Leo XIV, the first American to lead the Catholic Church. Born in Chicago and shaped by decades of missionary work in Peru, Leo stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica Sunday to deliver his first blessing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
He called for peace in Ukraine and Gaza, urged leaders to reject war, and emphasized caring for young people and the vulnerable. His message and background signal a potentially progressive path forward Tim, what does the new pope's background and his first public message tell you about the direction that he may take the church?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Yeah, very thrilled. Good for the Miller family. Big weekend for the Miller family.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Good. So in today's episode, we're going to be discussing the Qataris may gift Trump a luxury jet. Tell me that thing probably doesn't look like an Iraqi whorehouse inside. What do you think the decor looks like inside?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Yeah. My thesis is that this is the third world leader that got elected by Trump. Anthony Albanese, Mark Carney were both supposed to lose. Especially Carney overcame a 25-point deficit. And I think there is such a gag reflex globally that around Donald Trump that he is electing world leaders, just not the world leaders that he's hoping would be elected.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And I think this is another example when I think the papacy is really strategic and says, where can we have the most impact? And part of that is which region is struggling and would benefit most and get the most attention around these very humanistic values and code of decency. And when the Eastern Bloc was struggling, they'd pick someone from Poland.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And I don't think it's any accident that they picked an American pope. That they said, if we are really troubled by what this lack of humanity, the call sign or I think the statement that literally identifies America right now is the following. It was made by Bill Gates and I'm paraphrasing, but it's thematically the same. The world's richest man is killing the world's poorest people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And that to me, like when Bill Gates said that, it was one of those moments where I thought it like just hit me so hard in the gut. I thought, wow, that's what we've become? Like literally that's us now?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And so I think they see an opportunity not only for attention but a chance to restore and have influence on Americans who obviously disproportionately carry weight and gravity and influence around the world.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
for, I think, more Americans and more elected officials will pay closer attention to what this Pope says, and that a restoration, a rejuvenation, an EpiPen, a Narcan to the American value system is really needed right now. And this guy, in addition to understanding technology and referencing AI, he is unafraid. He's called Putin's actions wicked.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Which is an upgrade from Francis, worth mentioning. There you go. But I think, again, Trump has gotten another world leader elected. And I think they see a big opportunity here to have an American pope who will, again, get probably greater sort of bandwidth or airtime because of his origins. And that America is really in need of sort of a values upgrade, if you will.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Well, we've spent 80 years developing an expensive and worthwhile brand association that, in the short term, we make a lot of mistakes, but it's mostly out of stupidity or naivete.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
We've said it back decades, but that association, one of the core associations on a very basic level is I've always felt like we're the good guys. Yeah. Do we make dumb mistakes? Are we gluttonous? Are we obnoxious? Yeah, but we're the good guys. Our heart's in the right place. And I think in just probably in three and a half months, we're no longer the good guys.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And there's this notion that in regions where there's no investment, you get just such an enormous return on investment. It's basic economic theory.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
We were getting such enormous ROI on these small investments in terms of preventing kids from getting infected, having AIDS transmitted from their mothers to them with just some very inexpensive wiping out malaria, toilets to such that thousands, even millions of young boys and girls didn't die of dysentery.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And we've taken what is probably the greatest ROI investment because there's so little investment in these regions. No other nation would make those investments. And we decided those are the investments that we're going to pull back. It really is depraved. But circling back, I do think that the papacy recognized this and decided that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
they could have the most impact with a pope that more Americans would listen to. Tim, I want to go off script for a minute. I'm fascinated by Tim Miller. I have found myself just so drawn to your content and how you bring the strength and fearlessness and real emotion and real empathy. what's your origin story? I don't know that much about you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Like where, how did you get, how did Tim Miller get to here right now?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
I was on the verge of being kicked out of UCLA, which would have been really bad for me. I didn't really care. Almost lost a couple of businesses. Was very reckless with my relationships. Just didn't have as much anxiety, quite frankly, as I should. I think from 30 to 40, I had the perfect amount of anxiety. Worried enough to be successful, but not worried enough where I couldn't sleep.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And now I have too much anxiety. I worry about everything. And you have a kid. If I'm not anxious about one of my kids during the day, something's wrong. That makes me anxious. I feel like I'm missing something. And I've had trouble disassociating from what is going on with America and our government right now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
For the first time, politics is really sort of rattling me and taking a toll on me emotionally. Do you struggle with the same thing? Sometimes when I watch your content, I get the sense, I can hear it in your voice, like, this shit really upsets you. Like, it really rattles you. One is, am I sensing that correctly?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And two, how do you attempt to disassociate or keep things in perspective and get about your day and focus on your family and progress at the bulwark?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Most importantly, what did you do for Mother's Day yesterday?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
I did nothing. I'm here in New York on my own, and I walked around Soho. I went to Jack's Wife Rita. I went to San Vicente Bungalows for brunch. It was, you know, just— You weren't guilt-troped by the mothers in your life over that? My mom is gone. The mother of my children is—I don't want to say it's Mother's Day every day, but we're pretty—
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
We're pretty much in awe of her and we plan a lot of stuff and do a lot of stuff, but we had some stuff planned for her to make sure that she felt loved. And quite frankly, she said that she just wanted to be alone, that that was her Mother's Day gift. She just wanted all, she has three kids.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
But look, one of the really wonderful things about getting older as a man is you develop these really nice kind of paternal instincts or fraternal instincts where you're happy for people, you're happy for younger men. I have gotten real reward. I don't know you that well. But I've gotten real reward from watching you in this moment.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
I think you are so authentic and so courageous and have such great command of the medium. I get reward from watching your success. I'm really happy for you. I think you're doing a great job and your voice is really important. And I hope that you take time with your husband and your kid to pause and recognize how successful you are and what a difference you're making.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And it's just fun to just observe it and watch it. Really appreciate All that you do and very much appreciate you coming on the show today. Thank you, Scott.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
All right. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Shinya Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday and Friday. That's right, its own feed. That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds, including this one.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
who joined us today that you won't hear anywhere else. This week, we have another anti-Trump Republican. Jess is talking with former Congressman Charlie Dent. Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss an episode. And Tim, where can they find more Tim?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Everywhere. I'm everywhere, baby. Get off of X. Get off of X. Trust me on this. The most secretive thing you can do for your mental health is to get off of X. That's good advice. All right. Thanks again, Tim. Thanks, man.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
I have a chat group or a text group with some of my friends from the fraternity at UCLA, and the majority of them are Jewish. And a lot of them voted for Trump. I think most of them voted for Trump because, quite frankly, he's seen as viewed as more resolute on Israel. And I said, be clear. You know, this guy likes Jews the way that hardcore evangelicals like Jews.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
If you kind of go one layer deeper, their plan for us is not all that great. You know, it's all about the rapture. When Jesus comes back, then they decide to kill most of us. And the fact that essentially we have the Qataris giving the president a $400 million plane and sort of turning this into kind of the ultimate frequent flyer program.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
I mean, first off, it's embarrassing that America needs to take a plane manufactured in the U.S. from the Qatari government, that that's where we are.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
But also the notion that you have the primary sponsor of Hamas and the political mouthpiece, and you have a country that has given about $4.8 billion of the $14 billion we have received from foreign governments to sponsor, quote unquote, Middle Eastern studies departments. I mean, Jews have to get past the fact that this notion that the president is going after universities
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
because of antisemitism is just fucking ridiculous. It has nothing to do with antisemitism. It's him attacking progressive institutions and trying to implement thought leadership. That if he really cared about antisemitism, he wouldn't be taking $400 million bribes from the primary sponsor of a group that murdered 1200 Jews. And I'm like, you guys don't see this?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
You don't see the inconsistency here and that this isn't about, I mean, we have totally become at this point, pay for play. The question I would put forward to you... Do they see it? Has the tech chain fired up since last night? What they see is they see that it's problematic. What they see more...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Tim is one of the guys in our group who's this wonderful high integrity guy, has this great small business that does specialty products. You know those products, you go to a conference and you see those banners and the mugs and the water bottle with logos.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
He has that kind of business and he does, it's a great business, 50 million bucks, good living for two or 300 people, has put kids through college on it. It's a family business. And his business is basically shut down overnight. because of the ridiculous, sclerotic, reckless approach to negotiating, where we're negotiating against ourselves and both sides are losing around China.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And my friends are very, I don't want to say economically focused. Is that fair? I'd say they're more focused on America as a platform for prosperity. I think they're like most voters. They think about who's going to put more money in my pocket. They think that essentially Washington is feckless and useless around social issues. and they're focused on who they think is better for the economy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway. Jessica is jet-setting across Europe this week, which I think is awfully nervy given she's a new employee. Our vacation policy is you don't take vacation the first couple of years here at a Galloway-sponsored corporation. But anyways, she has decided to head to Europe where I think she's in Italy or something like that. But Our loss is our gain.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And to have kind of one of us, have one of our close friends' business basically just like turned off like it was a tap and threatened a multi-generational business, I think that hits hard. I think that hits them at home. The question I would have for you is,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
I want to move beyond the part of the program where we're screaming into TikTok about the corruption here and the obvious fraud or whatever you want to call it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
I guess I want to move to the part of the program where how do the Democrats become the party of not fucking around? And this is my idea, and I'm curious what you think. that we should draft legislation, the Foreign Enemies Act Part 2, 2.0, that says if you're operating black sites in your country, El Salvador, if you're trying to bribe our public officials, Qatar,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Even if the president at that moment agrees with it, it doesn't mean you're not guilty of a crime or a violation of the Monuments Act or whatever. And in three years and nine months, we are going to implement significant economic sanctions and rethink our geopolitical relationship with you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
And also be clear, in America, the White House and the branches of government or Congress tends to turn over. I don't think there's any shaming the Trump administration and his acolytes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
So I'm about how do we start sending a chill down the backbone of some of these foreign governments and also some of the lower level people of these organizations that say, if you're illegally incarcerating people, Whether the president or whether the current head of ICE says that is okay, it doesn't mean you're not committing a crime.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
I'm trying to figure out how we, quite frankly, move from the strongly worded letter to being a little bit more aggressive. Any ideas or thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
On with us is literally our favorite side piece, the Bulwark's own Tim Miller. Tim is literally our favorite three and threesome. We have become the same person or the same podcast, Tim. If I'm on something, you're on it before. You're on with Jess a lot. Anyways, it's great to have you, Tim. How are you?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
I think we've got to say to these folks, look, the president does not provide blanket immunity from economic sanctions or even criminality. Just to say, look, you're right. You're good for three years, eight months, and two weeks. But after that, be clear. If the Democrats get control back, which there's always a good chance at some point they will, it's going to be really ugly for you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Because I think we've got to go after the infrastructure and the enablers and the co-conspirators at this point, as opposed to... It's just pretty clear we're not going to shame him or our current branches of government who have been weaponized and politicized. That's just not an effective strategy. So let's move on to the tariffs here. All right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
So back in Washington, Fed Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Chairman Powell warned that Trump's escalating trade war could drive the U.S. towards stagflation. It's probably a word you don't know because you're too young. We haven't had it since the 70s.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
So it's this toxic mix of rising prices and rising unemployment where basically interest rates go up and the economy slows down. And it's sort of stagflation is sort of a – a step or a bridge to a depression. But on Thursday, Trump announced a new trade framework with the UK that lowers tariffs, but only on luxury cars, including Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Well, thank God.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
Toys, including Barbie and Hot Wheels, will face 100% tariff. Then over the weekend, there was a surprise detour. The US and China agreed to a 90-day truce, temporarily rolling back some of the steep tariffs that had been hammering both economies. By May 14th, the U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Blinks on China
will slash its tariff on Chinese goods from 145 to 30%, while China will lower its own tariffs on American products from 125% to just 10%. The move helped calm global markets, but it's anyone guess if the pause will hold. They now have 90 days to make a deal. What do you think will come out of this? What's your impression of what's happened as of this morning, Tim?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
and flexing our power and flexing our muscles and just being somewhat somewhat abusive. This is going to have, unfortunately, It's really going after what is a key attribute in any brand. And be clear, the brand is incredibly important. It's what precedes you. It's what puts you in the room before you're there in terms of negotiations and expectations.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But one of the key things about our brand that people don't appreciate until now is the U.S. is actually fairly consistent. There are certain standards around free trade, rule of law, consistency. Quite frankly, we're slow to change things. We have
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
you know, a checks and balances government that any large treaty you, you could believe that we just weren't overnight going to do away with NAFTA, that there was, you could invest around it, Mexico and Canada, because it would probably stay in place for a long time. And the only way it would be changed is if all three houses of government agreed on it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Not that, you know, someone had given the campaign $285 billion showed up with just a bunch of kids. By the way, I went to dinner with one of the, I was at a dinner with one of the Doge kids.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, I didn't speak to him.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be getting mail from the AARP. But yeah, it was sort of interesting and— I was initially going to go over and talk to him. I thought that's just going to depress me. Anyways, I'm now going to parties with Doge children. But this is it's hard to see how we don't come out of this pretty structurally damaged. It just doesn't doesn't make any sense to me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And what have you been up to? How was your weekend, I should say?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
All right. Let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Welcome back. Last week, Texas Representative Al Green was formally censured after interrupting President Trump's address to Congress, shouting, "'No mandate to cut Medicaid!' as he waved his cane." The moment led to his removal from the chamber and a 224 and 198 vote to rebuke him, with 10 Democrats joining Republicans in the censure.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
This split underscores ongoing divisions within the party over how to push back against Trump. Greene, who has a history of direct action, including being arrested alongside the late Representative John Lewis, seems unbothered by the consequences, saying, Jess, what do you think this says about the Democratic Party that 10 of their own members voted to censure Greene?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Is this about decorum or is it a sign of deeper fractures?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
He loves Jamaica.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, I thought it was really, really telling in the sense that, one, it was just, I think we came out of that, when I say we Democrats, big losers. We looked reckless, overly emotional. I think our behavior just turns off moderates and emboldens Republicans. Because, look, at the joint address or gatherings of Congress, the president wins. It's a bully pulpit. There's a lot of majesty. And
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
What you do in that situation, quite frankly, is you sit quietly, you say nothing. And in instances where they bring in a hero or a kid who's endured a lot of surgery, you stand up and you applaud. You show you're still a human, right? Instead, all of the disruption and the woman following her around with a sign saying, this is not normal.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert look like idiots and we didn't like it when they did it. And we shouldn't copy that kind of behavior. It really made us look weak. I actually thought the best moment for the Republicans was when they removed him. I thought Speaker Johnson came across as authoritative.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And we're starting to look like, I mean, it kind of made me sad just for America, where it feels like we're two steps away from being, whereas in South Korea, where occasionally the Congress just breaks out into fisticuffs. It's like we're about to become that nation. And the other thing I think it reflects poorly on Democrats is clearly our leadership has no control over these people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Because this just didn't make sense for the Democratic Party. Your point is an interesting one. And that is, I've never understood why the Democratic Party eats our own. I'm still pissed off at Senator Gillibrand for getting all high and mighty and chasing Senator Franken out of office.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
she got her seat. She was essentially an unknown. And in my view, she kind of brightens up her room by leaving it. And the Clintons appointed her right to the Senate seat that was vacated. My understanding is by secretary Clinton and the Clintons don't speak to her anymore. Cause I think that she's not a,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Not a very consistent person, but for her to basically eat one up for us to allow her to ruin the career of one of our most articulate and quite frankly, humorous voices counter to Trump so that she could have an 11 second run for presidency. That was the ticket no one was asking for. Remember that? The former mayor of New York and Kristen Gillibrand were both running for president.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And my favorite was she said she wanted to represent other young mothers. I'm like, you're a young mother? Anyway, is that rough? Is that rough?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
No, but she's much older than you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I was good? Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I am who I am. But yeah, I agree with you. I was, at first I thought it's good they censored him. And then I thought, why are we always deciding to eat our own and hold our, like you said, we shoot ourselves in the foot and I'm not sure we should be disarming anybody. unilaterally, but I thought it was a terrible look for Democrats.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And you're 37, 38?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, what the Republicans have that the Democrats lack is a certain level of synchronicity and coordination. And that is, if you look at the relationship between these kind of conservative think tanks, conservative media, and Republican talking points and discipline, they're coordinated.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But the good news is, is that for men, 50 is the new 30. And for women, 40 is the new 80.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And the sum of its parts or the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, whereas the Democrats look sclerotic, like, oh, we don't like the person giving the response because they were too moderate. Oh, we're going to have these random interruptions and yell out. We just look all over the place and disorganized. And quite frankly, we just don't have our shit together.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And something that people vote for is they would rather vote for someone who seems resolute and youthful and vigorous and competent than someone who just seems to be kind of flailing and don't know. You don't get a sense for where they stand. And the same reason why I think our trading partners are going to not trust the U S around different alliances.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think that the American public right now looks at the democratic party and it's like, Jesus Christ, pick a theme. Like what, who are you guys? What are you? And the response to this has been ranging, you know, ranges from ineffective to kind of overly, overly emotional. It's just a, it's just not a good look for us. All right. Let's take one more quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Before we go, California Governor Gavin Newsom is under fire from LGBTQ plus activists after saying it's deeply unfair for transgender girls to compete in high school girls sports. He made the comments on the debut episode of his new podcast while chatting with right wing provocateur Charlie Kirk. Newsom wants a trailblazer for LGBTQ rights.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
also agreed that a Trump campaign ad attacking Kamala Harris over gender-affirming care was politically devastating. Speaking of Harris, she's reportedly considering a run for California governor in 2026, and she's told allies she'll decide by the end of the summer. One could cement her leadership in the Democratic Party, but take her out of the running for president in 2028.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That's good. There's a term for that, New York. All right, enough of that. Let's get into it. President Trump sent financial markets into a tailspin last week.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Meanwhile, Democratic strategist James Carville has a message for the party. Do nothing. He argues that Republicans are so bad at governing, their own chaos will sink them. Jess, does Newsom's stance on trans athletes hurt his 2028 chances, especially with progressives?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Today, we're going to talk about Trump backtracking on tariffs, Representative Al Green getting censored for protesting Trump's trying to address, what Governor Newsom really thinks about trans rights, and James Carville's surprising advice to Democrats, do nothing. So markets kind of very volatile this week or last week with this ever-changing trade policy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think in general, people look at the Democratic Party and are drawn to some of the ideals and some of the people and then go, oh, wait, but they're fucking insane. And this is one of those issues. I said this two, two and a half years ago on Pivot and got a lot of pushback.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But when there was a bicycle race or a bike race in North Carolina, not a big race, but a race that was big enough that it had cash prizes. And a transgender woman came across the finish line five minutes before the rest of the crowd. And then you saw the footage of basically a six foot four swimmer with just enormous wingspan shows up and takes the NCAA finals and like shatters every record.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And I think America looks at that and goes, they've gone fucking insane. And they're defending this because they decided this was some sort of woke, to establish your woke bona fides, you immediately had to go, okay, I'm going to ignore all common sense. And it was just it's done enormous damage that we don't have basic common sense.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And I think I believe our view on this should be, look, if a local school board, we believe let's embrace the Republican ideology that on decisions around nuance, individual schools and parents should make up their own mind.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
If there's a school where they say, look, a 14 year old transgender woman would really benefit from participating in junior high school or high school sports, where, quite frankly, the stakes aren't that high. then fine, they can decide to let her participate. But anything involving scholarships, money, accolades, admissions to colleges, whatever it might be, or contact sports, quite frankly, no.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And I don't see the crime against humanity here. I will never play basketball. I don't have those skills. I wasn't born with those skills. And I believe if you're born with testicles and a penis and the advantage of testosterone and that bone structure... Unfortunately, you don't get to play women's sports because to me, the math was just so simple.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
On Thursday, he delayed tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, giving industries a brief bit of relief. But on Friday, He was back on offense, threatening new tariffs on Canadian lumber and dairy, claiming Canada has been ripping us off for years. The back and forth has left businesses scrambling and critics warning of economic fallout. Just
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And that is, if we're going to permit this and have no regulation around it, then essentially what you're saying is all the accoutrements of athletics, all the money, the fame, the prestige, the relevance, the self-esteem is going to slowly but surely be sequestered to people born with a penis. I was just shocked feminists didn't say, no, we can't. We can't have this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And we just allowed this just strategically on an issue that really doesn't impact that many people. And I'm sure we'll get emails on that. That was where we were going to say, okay, this is a big issue for us. And we just come across as just insane.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And the one commercial that moved the needle more than anything during the presidential campaign was that commercial basically saying, you know, I think it was accusing the Democrats. Of course, I believe it was somewhat of an exaggeration or taken out of context. that we were paying for the transgender surgery of inmates.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
This, to me, I think this is Governor Newsom, who we know is running, you know, triangulating to the middle. And quite frankly, pissing off the left is a feature, not a bug in terms of your electability. Somebody is going to have to, you know, someone was saying, who's the leading candidate for Democratic nomination in 2028? And I said, it's probably governor you really haven't heard of right now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Someone will rise to the moment. and I'm not even sure we know this person right now. I've always thought Governor Newsom would make a really strong candidate because I'm convinced we're a very luxus nation, and he just looks presidential. Also, I think he's a fantastic debater.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think he's one of maybe a handful of Democrats that goes behind enemy lines, as evidenced by the fact he went on with very conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. But this needs to be an issue that the Democrats need to pivot very aggressively. People should have rights if a local school wants to Let a transgender girl play sports, more power to you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But with respect to anything regarding, you know, advantage, no, this just doesn't make any sense. They need to pivot hard on this because otherwise they are just handing a gift, the gift that keeps on giving to Republicans.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
How did these sudden shifts in trade policy impact businesses and global markets?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And there's definitely I felt that a couple of years ago when we were speaking about this issue, there's definitely a narrative you're supposed to sign up to. It's almost like the narrative around being a MAGA. You have to be MAGA or you could be alienated or voted off the island or Trump will go after you in primary.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
On the left, it's more nuanced in the sense that if you don't sign up to the narrative in this kind of certain ideology, you're treated like an apostate. And the blowback on this, if you didn't sign up for the narrative, and there was just no critical thinking, this kind of seemed like an easy one. But I think we lost a lot of credibility.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Anyways, what do you think of the idea of a Governor Harris?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm really split on this because she's a competent person, right? And I think she was a good attorney general, good senator. And she'd probably be, I'd like to think, a competent governor. The problem is, I think when you run for president and you lose against Donald Trump, quite frankly, I think you go away for a while. I don't think...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think she'll be a talking point for Republicans and their races if she maintains her national profile. I think when you lose her president, quite frankly, I think the best thing for the party would be if she just went dark until we have a Democratic president and she's appointed to the Supreme Court. I think she'd be an outstanding justice. Yeah, I think she'd be an outstanding justice.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Anyways, the, but my sense is she's going to be a continued talking point. I don't think, I think she'll continue to be a flashpoint for, for Republicans. And I wouldn't be surprised.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, I'll be curious, but given, I think she's setting herself up for real challenge and embarrassment here because about every couple of decades, a quote unquote lifestyle mayor governor wins in California cities and in the state because she's
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
The quality of life in some of our bigger cities in California, I'm from California, is eroded so much that I think the moons are lining up for what I call like a no-nonsense kind of Pete Wilson-ish kind of governor. And I would hate to see her run and lose. I think it would basically send a signal to the entire nation that democratic ideals are kind of just totally done and gone.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
So torn on this, because I think she's a competent person and would probably be a decent governor. But I think she her brand and the possibility of a loss and her as a constant talking point for Republicans reminding them of why, you know, Americans didn't vote for her in the first place will be a real another cudgel or a weapon that will benefit benefit Republicans.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah. So speaking, speaking, being on the or kind of political strategy, what do you think of Carville's notion that Democrats should step back and let Republicans implode? Do you think this is a dangerous gamble, this notion of just do nothing?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
It's not do nothing as much as it is demonstrate more discipline. Instead of running over here and going, oh, my God, Gulf of America or male versus female. No, no, no, no. Be more disciplined. Talk about surrender in Ukraine and that they're coming after your Medicare and have experts and data and look like an adult and just hammer them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
The difficult thing about Democrats is not what to talk about. It's what not to talk about. And specifically, they need to stop taking the debate around these ridiculous, stupid issues that don't affect anybody that are clearly being thrown out there as weapons of mass distraction. Even Doge, I believe, is a weapon of mass distraction.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And instead of getting all angry about 19 year olds, whether they should be in there. I get it, but the majority or a lot of moderates, quite frankly, see some of these firings and under the breath are like, well, welcome to the work week. This has happened to me and other people. What they should, in my opinion, be focused on is a much more boring but impactful piece of data.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And that is, this is all a distraction to the notion that one, they're going to increase the deficits by $800 billion a year, which is nothing but a tax increase. We're about to experience the greatest tax increase in history on young people in the form of unprecedented deficits. And two, they're coming for your Medicaid. There's no way. Look at what they're planning here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
They've tasked the Energy and Commerce Department with cutting $800 billion. That means they're coming for Medicaid. And anything else, again, it goes back to the same notion. The Democratic leadership doesn't have the discipline that McConnell imposed or that, you know, it appears that Speaker Johnson and Trump are imposing on the Republican Party. We just lack... They just lack sort of that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And instead, they just they take the bait and they start saying, can you believe he said this? And it's like, well, OK, that that. Yeah. All right. We all know he's reckless and he's weird, but focus on the things that are indefensible on Republicans part that are popular among Americans and hammer away on those one or two issues. So it's again, it's not do nothing. It's more discipline.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Just just before we wrap up here, what do you think of What happened recently that supposedly Trump has directed has basically said, all right, Doge is now an advisory or almost like a service to different cabinet members, but they ultimately get to make the decision around layoffs. Any thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, if this in fact is true, that he's now got to defer and the ultimate decision is made or not made by the cabinet heads, it's effectively, I think, the end operationally of Doge.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And the notion that we decided that an individual, the world's wealthiest man, who is severely addicted to ketamine, reported by the Wall Street Journal, is concurrently being sued by two women for sole custody of their children because he's not involved in their lives.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Maybe that's not the individual who gets to bypass any sort of congressional vetting or approval to decide if veterans or children get their medical care and food. In addition, if you look at what so far has happened from Doge, the audit, the only thing it has demonstrated, in my view, is that the U.S. government has a lot less fraud and waste than initially feared.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
If this were a physical, I would argue that the U.S. government has gotten a clean bill of health. That this wall of receipts meant to just highlight all the outrageous waste and fraud, there's no there there. The first thing they reported on the wall of receipts was an $8 billion savings. It ended up it was $8 million and it was money that had already been spent.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And then items two, three, and four, it ended up weren't even true. They're having trouble finding all of this waste and fraud that was supposedly out there. And this isn't an operation. This isn't about operational efficiency. It's about political ideology. I got an email from a
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
fraternity brother i hadn't talked to in 30 years a kid named greg townsend kid he's now you know 57 and after graduating you have trouble all you see when you hear from these kids is a guy used to do beer bongs with and that's you assume they're still doing beer bongs and listening to led zeppelin and this this this guy this man greg had gone on to law school and has been working for a division of the un pursuing war criminals around the world out of um out of switzerland
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, I was just so blown away by his work. And he said that their funding had just been shut down, but they're continuing to work because they all are so committed to creating an incentive system globally where people think twice before committing war crimes. And essentially the funding was cut off.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
So if you look at where they quote unquote have, what Doge has really done, it's not an operational or an efficiency mechanism. It's a political ideology because they just decided, I know, let's just shut down all US foreign aid. That's a political idea. decision that has nothing to do with efficiency or fraud.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And what Trump has been really good at is using people as human shields and kind of soaking them up, having them do his dirty work and then firing them. 92% of his advisors were fired in the first administration, which was more than the previous three administrations combined. And I think he's essentially
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, the thing about Trump that's just so obvious that people don't want to talk about, nobody, he is literally Chernobyl after the meltdown. You get near him, you're going to die a hideous death, at least your reputation. And it's happening to Musk. I see it here at South by Southwest. People are throwing shit at Teslas. When I talked about Tesla, I'm like, zero to 1939 in three seconds.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
It's really hard to understand the political calculus behind Where the political calculus here, the economic calculus, he really fucked up. And that is the opportunity to remove inspectors from the 32 different investigations across 11 agencies against his companies. Okay, that's an economic incentive to get involved and be cozy up to the president.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But the cost that's being levied on him and his brands right now is enormous. People are canceling Starlink contracts. Entire countries are saying, Poland's saying, we can't count on you or your technology. Provinces of Canada are canceling Starlink. And I thought that's the one that is really going to scare the shit out of them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
What's unusual about this, and I use Nike as a counterexample, Nike took a political stand. And sometimes it works. When they decided to embrace Colin Kaepernick when he bent a knee, that was a real political risk. But they did the math. And that is two-thirds of Nike sales are outside of the U.S. No international individual is that concerned or thinks the U.S. has race relations correct.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And about two-thirds of their revenue came from people under the age of 30 or non-whites. meaning the people that were outraged and did videos of burning their Nikes, that was probably their first pair of Nikes. They did the math and said, this is going to cement and tickle the sensors of the majority of our profits and revenue base. And Musk has done the exact opposite.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
75% of Republicans who he's sort of lighting up or illuminating or activating say they would never buy an EV. So he's done the exact wrong math here. And that is the group that he is most going to piss off and alienate It's sort of his core customer base. And all this bullshit in Europe, it does seem like there's a very healthy gag reflex in Europe around him trying to meddle in their election.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But I have never, it feels to me, and I've said this before and I've been wrong, this feels like a tipping point. It feels like the worm has turned and I was thinking the Bill Burr rant against him. was sort of evidence of that. But Tesla has shed a third of its value in February. And I mean, the polling on this guy is absolutely, it's just brutal.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Anyways, I don't, I think, and I'm calling it and I've been wrong before, but I think the Musk brand has absolutely peaked and is crashing. And the fall right now feels, feels unsustainable.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah. To your point, Kara was saying that Trump is scared of Musk, that he's the world's wealthiest man, which is his his metric for credibility and that he the last thing he wants to do is piss him off. I think he's just going to fade away. I think it's going to be if in fact he's going to disappear him. Well, no, I think Musk will decide to fade away.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, it's really it's almost getting a little bit comical. I think a key to these negotiations is it's really difficult to even understand what he wants. When I think about he says, OK, Canada's been ripping us off. It's it's hard to exactly discern what it means. And then he'll go to, well. They need to stop shipping fentanyl across the border. And that might be true of Canada. It's not.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think Musk at some point is going to do the math and go, this is just not worth it for me. And also, if in fact it's now the cabinet members who get to decide or either do this or not do this, Secretary Rubio is not going to lay off some people in the State Department to save some money at this point. He doesn't give a shit about a small increase in the deficit. He's got a difficult job.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
He's not going to start laying off what he thinks might be bureaucratic. He wants all the firepower available. He can get. The notion that these guys are going to say, okay, I'm really going to take a chainsaw to my... The incentives are, I need to get shit done. I need to reflect confidence. I need to have decent morale. I need resources to get things done.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm getting shoved back and forth by these decisions. They need people. The notion that they are going to decide to start cutting costs, I think effectively or operationally, It might be, if in fact he's now there on top, so to speak, might be, if you will, the end of Doge.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Got to be the Pentagon?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
It's interesting. That was one, I think, strategic error on the part of the Republicans. I think they would have had a lot more credibility. They would have obviated or kind of defenestrated any criticism if they had gone after the Pentagon first. And that is, I would think it would have been much harder for Democrats to be critical of the process.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I thought that was a strategic error on their part. I would have started with the Pentagon. Any thoughts? Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
All right, Jess, that's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chenenye Onekei. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can now find Raging Moderates on its very own feed every Tuesday. That's right. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. 40% tariffs are against all of you. That's right, its own feed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds you won't hear anywhere else. It ends up that Jess is very, not only talented, but very well-connected. This week, we're talking with Democratic attorney Mark Elias about why the courts could be the biggest line of defense against Trump in a second term. Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Jess, have a great rest of the week.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Thank you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
It might be true, excuse me, of Mexico and China, or you could at least make a philosophical argument. The amount of fentanyl that's coming across the Canadian border, I think, could fit in a backpack. It's less than 1% of the fentanyl that comes into the nation. And in addition...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
We're now at a point where I don't even know if the tariffs are on or off based on what hour it is, where people are going to start clearing the shelves or developing alternative supply chains and alternative alliances, regardless of whether he takes the tariffs off again, because we just have no credibility.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
The Atlanta Fed tracker, or they basically have a mechanism for predicting GDP growth, has gone from positive 4% to negative 2.8. Consumer sentiment has had its largest fall since COVID. The economy is contracting at its fastest rate since the lockdowns. It's just really difficult to understand that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
What the endgame here is, if he's putting this out to try and accomplish some big, beautiful deal that he can take credit for. Any thoughts on what's motivating the administration right now?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, so my understanding of tariffs is that They do make sense when they're used as a weapon to try and restore asymmetry and imbalance in trade. If the U.S. doesn't have access to the Chinese auto market, then fine, you want to bring your cars over here, we're going to tariff them. You might want to protect certain key strategic industries.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
The steelmaking industry, you can make an argument for, we need to at least have a few mills kind of always fired up, such that if we need to make tanks or our primary source of steel goes dark, like what happened with Putin and oil in Germany, we're not caught sort of flat-footed. But just a sweeping tariff at these levels is nothing but an increase. Nuh-uh.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I read that the average car, should these tariffs hold, is going to go up in price somewhere between $8,000 and $12,000. The way cars are manufactured is you actually have certain parts that leave Lansing, Michigan, go to Canada, have worked under them, then go all the way down to Mexico, have more work or assembly, and then come back to Lansing, Michigan for assembly at a Ford plant.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Some of the parts used to assemble a car go back and forth a half a dozen times across borders. So $8,000 to $12,000 increase per car. They're talking about an average increase per household of $1,200. I mean, this is really weird. And even more so than the actual tariffs is the sclerotic reputation we're establishing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Because even if you decide, okay, we're going to do a deal and we're going to come to some sort of accommodation that works for both, who can trust that we're actually going to do what we said we're going to do? We're now talking about, supposedly, Trump wants Iran... to think about another deal where we're shutting off intelligence to Ukraine and then they bomb a hotel where Americans are.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
We talk about putting it back on and putting sanctions back on Russia. I mean, it's just the world economic policy is being run on this guy's blood sugar level at that moment, which means that if you're going to base billions or if you're the EU or trillions of dollars in trade and alliances and supply chains,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
on one man's blood sugar, you decide, no, I'm going to just have workarounds, even if they're more expensive. It's just the automobile industry right now. I'm at South by Southwest and a key theme here when I talk to advertisers is that they're advertising businesses down. I mean, this has so many ripple effects across the economy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
They're advertising businesses down because some of the biggest advertisers are automobile companies and they literally are just, we don't know what to do. We've paused all marketing and spending because as far as we know, we're not going to have cars on a lot and we're just not sure what's going to happen. So they can't even plan.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
If the tariffs were absolutely going in, they would say, OK, we need to plan our business model. We're going to raise prices, find alternative routes or supply chain. But they would have a business plan. Right now, this is the worst of all worlds. I think that's what Eisenhower said. The wrong decision is bad, but no decision is worse.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
There are entire companies who have to make essentially no decision because they don't know what environment they're going to be operating in.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Jess, how are you?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm good. I'm in the great state of Texas at South by Southwest.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
The queen. I don't know. You're right. That's insane.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Jewish climate scientists.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Really?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, it really is. It's very difficult to understand the trade. And the trade right now at a very macro level is the following. We're basically trashing and fraying
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm all over. I just love me. I did a big, when I went on stage yesterday for Pivot, I danced around with my belly hanging out, screaming. That was a big hit.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
and making much more brittle and fragile these 80-year alliances with the world's largest economies that through free trade, coordination, general goodwill, cooperation towards each other, lower costs for Americans, and increase the sales of our products abroad. And now these nations are just going to figure out different alliances. And even if we go back and say, hey, just kidding.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
We didn't mean it. Love you. Come down to Mar-a-Lago. They're going to say, sorry, boss. You're just not a reliable partner. I don't know who I don't know who I'm waking up next to. And for me, everything comes back to high school. And then as I saw this fantastic study that attempted to figure out and get to the bottom of why popular kids were popular.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
So they looked at the most popular kids in high school. Were they the best looking? No. Were they the best athletes? No. Were they the smartest? Again, no. The thing they had in common was they liked the most other people. They were that kid that would, going down the hallway, would yell, hey, you know, Lisa, Jim, good to see you. What'd you do this weekend?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And was confident enough to like, like other people that those were the most popular kids. And I read this data showing that about three quarters of Americans feel pretty good about Canada. They're like, yeah, Canadians go on. But now two thirds of Canadians don't think of us as an ally.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
They have really been, I don't want to use the word traumatized, but really feel quite frankly, just poorly treated. And it's not like they're going to get over that in six or even 12 months. We are basically saying to the world, we're going to be the least popular kid.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And as a result, have fewer alliances, fewer treaties, less cooperation, because we're acting as if we think you're a fucking idiot. And where we keep yelling expletives or hurling insults at the other kids rolling by us. And the next day, the kid doesn't even know what we're going to say about that kid. We're just so unpredictable and big.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That was a big hit. Yeah, no, mockery is always, the algorithms love mockery.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Do you have any thoughts for me, whether it's your parents, whether it's your parents' friends, whether it's just friends? Because I saw being a young man, trying to express my manhood is quickly assessing the situation and then making a snap decision and trying to talk everybody into it. me being right, whatever that decision was.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
It is very hard to read the label, especially as a young man when you're more risk-aggressive and, quite frankly, don't have incredibly good judgment or reason. You're not that thoughtful. You're not that measured yet. It is really hard, if not impossible, to read the label from inside of the bottle. So the larger learning I would want to communicate to all young men is do what I didn't do.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I would have saved myself a lot of heartache, a lot of professional missteps, a lot of broken relationships had I just reached out to people and said, this is the situation. Do you have any thoughts or advice for me? And you might decide not to change your mind about what you're doing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
But this is, you know, when you find yourself in kind of uncharted territory, it's just a really good idea to check in with people from different backgrounds and say, this is what's going on. It's pretty intense. Do you have any thoughts? And I didn't learn that until I was much older.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I think men have a much more difficult time because we conflate strength and masculinity with being decisive as opposed to being thoughtful and listening.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
People don't trust the government.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
That was the best line of the way.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, this is a serious issue, and I want to apologize for my Nazi references because they're not funny, although it is clear that Musk and Trump have made a hard Reich turn. And also, I don't know if you've driven the new Model SS from Tesla.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, you know, he's changed his pronouns to he and Himmler. But anyways, there's a lot in there. And I think that essentially you have, unfortunately, everything reverse engineers to one key statistic in my view. And if we don't fix it, we're going to have some form of revolution, famine, or war. And that happens in every society. And it's the following.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
The ultimate social compact is that my kids will do better than me. If I work hard, I play by the rules, my kids will do better than me. The definition, I used to think the definition of love was caring more about someone than you care about yourself. And I've broadened that to, you know, you give witness and notice to people's lives. But the people who you irrationally love are your children.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, I always say to my sons, you're the only people in the world that don't want to be more successful than me. And I'm embarrassed to say that, but it's true. And when your kids aren't doing as well as you were at 30 for the first time in the nation's history, it's just a breakdown in the social compact. And people want chaos.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
There's also, because we've had what I would argue is the best functioning organization. I think the most impressive organization in history is a wing of the U.S. government, and that's our military. And I think in the top five is the U.S. government. And Mel Robbins, who I think is going to probably displace Joe Rogan if Stephen Bartlett doesn't, has this new book out called Let Them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I'm sort of at the point right now where the people who are under the illusion that Trump represents them, the genius of the Republican Party is they represent the top 1% in corporations, and they've convinced the bottom 99 that you should endorse us because once you get into the top 1%, you're going to love it here, and you have more of a chance with us. And when Democrats keep...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
spewing out this elitist dribble and we continue to move towards a 30-year-old not doing as well as his or her parents, then the parents and the people under the age of 30 just want chaos. And what I say around some of this stuff, I'm at the point now where it's like, let them. The states that went for Trump are the states that are the biggest takers of federal assistance. And
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So just see what happens when Veterans Affairs benefits, when we disrupt and shut down those people you can't trust. OK, let's see what happens to you and dad and your neighbors and what happens in these rural, dark red communities. when there is no head start. See what happens when you shut down DEI and there is no job opportunity for veterans. I'm at the point where it's like, you know what?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You broke it, you own it. You're gonna get to find out. just how quote unquote incompetent government is, you're going to find out that government is a lot more competent than you had originally thought. And you're going to get a very ugly awakening in my view. And I'm sort of at the point of, all right, it's time. You really want to see what life is like.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
In these red states, the people who are most rabidly for Trump, who tend to be in rural areas, tend to be, quite frankly, have a larger body mass index, are more dependent upon Medicare, are more dependent on government services. The biggest takers from a state perspective are the ones that went hardest towards Trump.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
which means when these payments and these programs get shut down, this isn't going to hurt us, Jess. I mean, we're upset about this because I'd like to think we have some fidelity to America and the Constitution and want to pay back based on the prosperity we've recognized because of this incredible system and rule of law and democracy. But quite frankly, this isn't going to really hurt you or me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Our kids aren't in SNAP. We're not getting Veterans Affair payments. We're not getting Social Security payments, right? We're not. Yeah. We're not dying of malaria in Malawi or wherever, right? This won't affect us. It's just fascinating, though, that the people who I think are about to get the biggest dose of like, wow, be careful what you ask for, are the ones that are most rabidly pro-Trump.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So my sense is at this point, you know, as Mel Robbins would say, let them have at it. You asked for it. You got it. Toyota.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
There was one fantastic moment when, of course, Taylor Swift got booed. That made me happy. Why is that? Is that wrong?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Is that wrong? I thought that was hilarious.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I don't know. It's like the Roman Coliseum, except lions. We have Taylor Swift, so occasionally I think he'd boo against the lions. I don't know. I found the whole thing interesting. It's like America where we sell boner pills and opioid-induced constipation medication while giving young men CET. You know, America. I just find the whole thing... I don't know. I'm too cynical.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, you're already starting to see it, and it kind of goes to, and we'll talk about this in a bit, potential solutions. But basically, sales of Tesla cars are diving in the EU. Electric vehicle market declined by 6% overall in January, so there is a structural decline. But sales of Tesla are down 63% in France, 44% in Sweden. 38% in Norway, 42% in the Netherlands, and 12% in the UK.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And as someone who has worked with automobile companies, they measure share in sales and basis points. And that is, if year on year, you're down a half a percent, the person running that country is sweating. I mean, these are, I mean, these literally are kind of implosions of sales. So it does appear that finally what, you know, everyone's been outraged at the lack of outrage on the left.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
It does appear that people, that the bloom is off the rose here. People no longer seem as a, you know, kind of this provocateur and innovator, but as someone who is a threat and that they just don't need to Onus Carr, I'm curious, with all of these lawsuits and a DOJ investigation piling up, how serious do you think the legal threat is to Musk and Doge?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And what could the long-term fallout be other than, obviously, as popularity is going down? But I'll put forward a thesis. When you tell someone you can be a convicted felon and then reelect them, He's essentially decided the incentives and disincentives no longer apply to me, that I can break the law with impunity. Do you think there is a bridge too far here around these court cases?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I'm not sure. 17 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days is what is on my calendar. Not that I'm thinking about it, but I'm looking forward to getting back to the States. Because, you know, things are going so well.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Bill O'Reilly recently said that he doesn't believe Musk has as much power as we think. And then Time magazine in the same week puts him on the cover behind the president's desk. Do you think we're overestimating Musk's influence or underestimating it?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, I don't know. I know that the staff in the White House is more worried about trying to calm Trump down when he's angry because he doesn't drink or do drugs. Whereas with Musk, you just give him a ketamine infused juice box. There goes the bigger man. That bigger man part of the show is over. He's back. That's right. Anyways, with that, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I don't think anything makes you feel more— Well, I mean, the reality is if you didn't know what was going on, I think the reality for most Americans, unless you're a veteran or a beneficiary of SNAP or Head Start, which is a lot of Americans, but quite frankly, if you're in our economic weight class, you can shield yourself from this nonsense.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Welcome back. Over the weekend, Trump made history as the first sitting US president to attend the Super Bowl. He also said he planned on announcing a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States. Meanwhile, Trump raised eyebrows last week by suggesting he could turn Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
During a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, he floated the idea of U.S. owning Gaza and hit it at relocating 2 million Palestinians before walking back comments about deploying U.S. troops. And back home, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's federal workers' buyout plan, delaying a decision for the 2 million eligible employees. 65,000 have opted in so far.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Trump's recent comments about the U.S. taking over Gaza have sparked immediate backlash. I would argue, Jess, that this is another just weapon of mass distraction and that it's just so ridiculous. I don't know. It's just sucking oxygen out of the room of the real issue, which is this digital coup, if you will.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
But how might this negatively affect the ongoing, in your view, ceasefire between Hamas and Israel? Or does it have any impact on Israel?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I would argue you're probably a beneficiary of it and not in a good way. But what I recognize moving to London, which is, in my opinion, the second best city in the world, is it is really hard to beat America. And that is if you like opportunity, if you like a crush and a collision of culture, grit, creativity, there's just nothing like America.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So to your point, the premise, it starts from what I think is a legitimate premise, and that is the path we're on now, like, okay, the way I would see right now, the Middle East or the problem in Gaza is there's no moral clarity. And that is when World War II ended, we had the Nuremberg trials and we basically said, this was genocide and we're shaming you and punishing you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And the world came to some sort of moral clarity. We don't have that coming out of this conflict. And it feels as if all we're doing is just setting up the exact same thing to happen again in two, five, or ten years.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
That Hamas will rearm, there'll be people sympathetic, they will use aid, and their popularity with their domestic population, who are, feel, you know, understandably agreed, and the same thing is going to happen. So the notion that we need to be creative around doing something different, that the status quo, the wash, rinse, and repeat, we are going to see the mother of all shampoo effect here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And my reductive analysis after I say this and it triggers some people molesting the earth for the last 30 years is that America is still the best place to make money and Europe's the best place to spend it. So when you're going into your spending years, absolutely spend time in Europe and go to Madrid and get a great bottle of wine for $10, not $80. Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
It's just going to happen again. The current construct just does not work. But this notion of a two-state solution where the two states are either Egypt or Jordan, neither—I mean, here's the problem. of relocating these 2 million residents, whether you want to call it ethnic cleansing or some sort of a part, whatever you want to term it, or relocation or condo development or a creative solution.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
The problem is these 2 million people don't want to leave. And even more, nobody wants to take them. Albania, what's the population of Albania? Look at the border. You want to see a fortified border? Look at the border between Egypt and Gaza.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
what Egypt and Jordan have decided is that the elements of this population that they cannot risk incorporating is chaos and violence. So this just doesn't seem like what I'd call a viable solution for anybody. So until we have, do we need to be creative? Yes. But I find this, most of those just sort of kind of ridiculous that, that, okay, you're going to relocate 2 million people and then,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
put up a bunch of residence inns and Trump Towers and, you know, Westin hotels and then invite the rich ones back. I don't, it's like, okay, walk me through how this logistically actually makes any sense. So I don't see any viable path here. What do you think is the significance of the judge blocking Trump's federal worker buyout plan and how could this play out in the coming weeks?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I mean, I guess the question is their attitude is it doesn't matter if it's legal or illegal. If we make an offer and people accept it, then it's done. So before you can get caught robbing the bank, just spend the money and enjoy yourself. And then if you get caught, OK, we'll give the money back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, check out Munich, which is an amazing city, Milan. Go to, you know, PSG game in Paris. It's just—but if you're looking to advance your career, your influence, your impact on the world professionally— Everything here, I would argue, is a kind of medium or second gear. It just can't get out of second gear. But I gotta be honest, I can't wait to get back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
It just there is definitely a kind of like a move fast and break things kind of element here and have no regard whatsoever. For institutions or process, just see if you can get away with it. Whenever I see Republicans, I feel like they're sort of like, I can't believe we're getting away with this shit.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And it's like tickling their sensors. Isn't this amazing? And I even, I don't know if I'm imagining this, but I'm wondering if they're even getting a little bit nervous, like, Jesus Christ, I didn't realize it would be this easy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Rubio was a fan.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, let's do that. But first, we have to take one more quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I can't wait to get back to America.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Welcome back. Before we wrap, Democrats are stepping up their strategy. Rallies are gaining momentum. Schumer is calling for opposition to every Trump nominee, and Jeffries is making his stance clear in negotiation letters. Jess, do you think this is the right approach? Do you think it'll be effective?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I mean, I was happy to see those Democratic congresspeople walk over. I think at least I think they need to be seen doing anything. But the optics here, I agree with you. It felt like a senior's home when they found out water aerobics were canceled or jello night had been switched to Thursday. I mean, it just felt, oh, God, that's that's how we're going to win this fight.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Yeah, well, that's the joke about Scotland. It's some of the finest minds in the world, and they all have the same thing in common. They left. Anyways, all right, enough of that. Today we're discussing Elon Musk's increasing government influence. I don't know if you've heard. He's this very wealthy individual who puts rockets into space but doesn't live with any of his children.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
That's the army we're sending in. You know, as we try and process this, there's. I want to move to like, okay, what do we do? And there's, I would argue, and I want to put forward some potential ideas and have you respond to them. There's short-term and there's long-term. And the first thing you got to do in any sort of strategy is you got to determine where's the soft tissue? What's the leverage?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
What are our assets? What can be exploited? And Hakeem Jeffries, I thought, was actually quite eloquent and honest when he said, they control all three branches of government. There's just not a lot we can do from kind of a legislative level. And when the stuff gets to judges, it gets pushed back, but they're, you know, they're moving at this blitzkrieg speed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And my view is, okay, I think you go after the money. I like what they're doing by hacking and turning off these payment systems or intervening. I don't know what the right term would be. And I think you go after Musk's financial interests. So it's already happening in Europe, as I previously mentioned. Tesla sales are going down.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I think that our congressional representatives and people who think what's going on here is a total subversion of our democracy, to make it known that you probably shouldn't sign up for T-Mobile right now because T-Mobile has just struck a deal with Starlink. You probably shouldn't be thinking about any advertiser on Twitter. That's an obvious one.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You should be thinking about, okay, United Airlines has just announced a big deal with Starlink. How do you go after the pocketbook? I think that's really what Musk cares about. It's already happening with Tesla. I don't see any reason. Should the department, should veterans groups be doing anything around Tesla, Starlink, any of his economic interests? I think you go after the purse.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
because that's what I think these people care about. Over the medium and the long term, I think you draft resolutions that say, okay, if this unelected group of people can go in and start turning off payments, we're going to propose turning off payments or anything related to Starling. Starling, I mean, Musk, to a certain extent, is a huge beneficiary, and I even wrote a post titled Welfare Queen,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
The notion that he's trying to cut off payments and claim the government is too big and then its large S is wasted. Meanwhile, he's one of the biggest beneficiaries from this large S. Should we be thinking about, one, how do we go after the economic interests
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Elon Musk to say, we're not down with this, and you circumventing democratic channels to implement what you think is right, and we're going to punish you and your companies. And there's nothing illegal. You don't have to sign up for T-Mobile that's introducing Starlink. You don't have to fly United Airlines, which has signed a contract with Starlink.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
He's this former South African slash Canadian slash naturalized American. Anyways, interesting cat. We're going to talk about him. Reminds me of this very popular guy in the middle of last century who some people really loved.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And then over the medium and long term, I think you just have to tell Republicans, okay, you realize that if you can do this, then we can shut off Starlink. We have our own programmers, and we'll find out if a judge thinks that's legal or not. I do think, though, the nuclear option is now on the table, and that is I believe that the Democrats should credibly threaten
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
to get in the way of blocking the extension on our debt ceiling such that the next Treasury auction fails. Because at the end of the day, the reason why the tariffs were rolled back is the leverage in the people that Trump listens to are corporations and shareholders. And they called him around these ridiculous Canadian and Mexican tariffs and said, do not do this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
This will have an immediate impact on the stock market. The adult in the room is the stock market and the 10-year bond. And he basically got these illusory symbolic concessions and then walked them back. And I think if the Democrats say, OK, you want to play Russian roulette, we're going to load the chamber around the upcoming Treasury auction.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And if you want to call all your buddies and tell them that interest rates are about to spike, which will take the stock market down. And I'm still trying to figure out if that hurts the 1 percent. Well, 1 percent of America's population owns 90 percent of the stocks.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So, I think that the real leverage here is around money and is around, you know, you want to shut down the economy, you don't believe in a democratic process, fine. We're going to shut down the economy and you're not going to be able to make the interest, the upcoming interest payments, and you're going to be the president for the first time.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
was so offensive, was so non-democratic that we felt we had no choice but to get in the way that you're about to be the first president where a treasury auction where America did not pay its debts. And let's see what happens, boss. But I'm trying to think of where we have leverage
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And those are the only places I can think of because per what Hakeem Jeffries said, us just screaming outrage and waving our cane in front of a federal building, that's not working, right? We need to go after the money and we need to say, you're going to be the president that takes this stock market down, you know, eight or 10% on the opening bell next Wednesday after a failed treasury auction.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
But most people, you know, most people over time found that, well, it's interesting. They have the same hand gesture. It appears that they have the same body language. Anyways, we're going to talk about Elon Musk's increasing government influence, Trump's buyout offer to federal workers, and the latest Democrats' effort to fight back. All right, let's get into it, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So just reference all-time low for eighth-grade reading levels.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I've already dived in the shallow.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So a lot there. I've felt that I got into it a little bit. Is it Ronit Weinberg, the head of the National Teachers Union? Randy Weingarten. I got that one close.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Randy Weingarten.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Something. I was circling the white fish. Anyways, I said that I thought that the union she represented was using the kids' drug meals during COVID.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, during COVID, she decided that, you know, we have to protect the teachers. And she was basically saying, you've got to pay us more and give us a ton of time off. And the reality was that the population of teachers in America is the least vulnerable or was the least vulnerable to COVID. They were young, primarily female, primarily thin. These were the least at risk people in America.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Elon Musk's grip on the executive branch keeps tightening. His Doja crew has been popping up at federal agencies, snooping around sensitive systems. And until last week, when a federal judge blocked his team from accessing the Treasury Department's payment system, my understanding is every time they run up against a judge, they get blocked.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And she was using basically kids and their mental health, which we found were severely impacted by being out of school, such that she could try and find a moment of leverage to get more money for her dues-paying members.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I think teachers' unions—and I'm casting a broad brush here across all of them, but we have a tendency to sanctify all of them, not recognize them—that some of these unions are just bottom-line corrupt and really don't seem to care that much about kids despite their hushed, grandmotherly tones.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Where I would depart a little bit with you, and it sounds like also Governor Shapiro, is I am very wary of vouchers. Because I think effectively what vouchers do is like everything else in our society, the kind of the narrative of let's shut down the Department of Education and let's take money and just give people choice and give them vouchers. I think theoretically it makes a lot of sense.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
There are instances where someone would say, I'd rather take the money, put them in a religious school, or I want more choice. I get it. But effectively on the ground, I think what happens is what always happens in our government the last 40 or 50 years. It is nothing but a naked transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Because the reality is the majority of rural areas or poor areas don't have a private school option where they could use the voucher. The only reason they have a school is is because of federal mandated legislation that they have to have transportation and they have to have a school and the school has to be funded.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And all you are doing when you give, say, people a $10,000 voucher, and I was on the board of my kid's school, there would be probably some people who are middle class who would rather have the choice. We charge $22,000. They come up with the $12,000. It would provide access to a private school. It'd be good for them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
But really what it would be is a $2 million giveaway to the other 200 families that can't afford it. And it would just take income and desperately needed resources out of the public schools in that area.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So I get it theoretically, but I think on the ground, all vouchers end up doing is to get, again, transfer money from the poorest people in the districts that need mandated Head Start and schools and transportation and food programs to to wealthy people who would just get, that would be, you know what that would be, Jess? You have two kids. That would be a $40,000 gift to you and me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
My guess is, I don't know if you send, do you send your kids to private or public?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So this is what a voucher program would be. It'd be a $30,000 gift from government to you and me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
But I would like to see, you want to talk about a way to save government tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 30 or 50 years? Do what Japan does. America has a 40% of its population is obese. That is an enormous strain on the well-being, the mental health, and our financial system. And one of the reasons healthcare costs $13,000 a year here per person and $6,500 in Japan.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We have 40%, 70% of America is obese or overweight, 40% obese. Do you know what the percentage of the population in Japan is obese? 12%. Does it? And here's where it starts. If you wanted to increase the well-being of children in America, you would do what Japan does. And that is you'd find the extra money to have a chef at every school. And the chef has one mandate. Everything has to be fresh.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
There are absolutely no processed foods allowed in school because this is what we do. We give these kids shitty, sugary, cheap food. They get obese because the deal is, OK, we can get them addicted to the food industrial complex. We basically ran every fucking ant last night on the Super Bowl and then hand them over to the diabetes pharmaceutical complex. And that's the axis of evil.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
North Korea and Iran are nothing compared to the food industrial and the diabetes industrial complex in this nation. And in Japan, they say we're going to spend the money. Have you seen those interviews with the kids coming out of school? What's your favorite food? Broccoli.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
right? And they say, your job at three in the morning, these chefs get up at every school, not hugely paid, but a lot of them do it, former chefs. They go to the fresh fish market, and they have to find fresh food every goddamn day. And these kids grow up with a different sense of nutrition. I love the idea of thinking out of the box and thinking long-term, but corporate interests get involved.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And again, this is our school system and our children, what I have found, is that America is nothing but a platform to transfer money to companies and shareholders who trade and traffic in addiction. Addiction to food, addiction to opiates, addiction to sex, addiction to dopa. And we use the kids as basically body bags or dopa bags. I have gotten so far off track, Jess. Bring me back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Reel me back, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Republican support for Musk's role in the Trump administration is cooling off. An Economist YouGov poll shows only 26% now want him to have a significant influence. That's down from earlier numbers, Jess. Musk also tweeted at me and Cara, funny, barely noticed my Pivot co-host over the weekend accusing us of threatening his engineers just for calling out the harm they're causing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
He's great on this. Yeah, I agree.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Thank you. Thank you very much. Let's leave it there. That's it for the episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Shananya Oneke. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. Raging Moderates on its own feed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
If you want us to keep making this pasta of a podcast, please hit subscribe right now on YouTube or on our distinct Raging Moderates feed. Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts without fear or favor. That's right. That's right. The hit of the show, The One on Fox. That's what's coming next. And who is The One? That's right. It's Jess Harloff. We are immune.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We are superpower fucking fearless from tweets from the wealthiest man in the world. I'm not going to read any of those 11,000 comments.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I have not. I'm not on Twitter. I'm not on X. I'm still calling it Twitter. Anyways. And by the way, who sold his Tesla two years ago and before he sold it, took a big fat fucking dump in the passenger seat? That's right. That's your man. Hit subscribe now. Jess, have a great rest of the week. You too.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So, look, before I'm not going to I don't want to get into a back and forth here. What I would say is that the comments made were made by me, not by Kara. And I find it sort of telling that he puts Kara's name first and goes after Kara instead of just going after the person who he has or should have a grievance with. And that's that's me. And anyways, I'll let you go first.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Any thoughts on what's going on with Elon, Jess?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, I don't have a lot. At first, I started, this is what happens whenever Elon tweets at me or gets angry at me, and that is my phone starts blowing up with, are you okay? Is everything okay? And I'm like, I'm not on Twitter, so I'm shielded from most of the toxicity. And someone sent me a screenshot saying, of the tweet and that it had 11,000 comments.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I'm like, well, I bet those comments aren't fun to read. But I mean, essentially, I start to get worried and I start to get panicked and I start to, you know, I start to get anxious. And then I realized, okay, whatever you say about Kara and me is we live with our children. We don't sleep with a loaded gun next to us. We're not severely addicted to a disassociative substance.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We're not making Nazi gestures. And he's acting like these engineers are in Guantanamo Bay when the reality is that probably the most serious thing they're doing, other than denying children and veterans their payments, trying to figure out if the meme for Doge should be wearing sunglasses.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And just this notion of these billionaire tears where he can't decide if it's his struggling engineers or just proper grammar. Like, pick a struggle, boss. It's like, well, you don't have autocorrect? I start to read this thing. I start to get upset. I start to think about responding. And then I think, I don't want to create a sideshow.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I want to focus on what I think is important, and that is highlighting. that we have somebody who was not cleared or approved by government or Congress, who is basically hacking into our federal systems. If China did this, it would be an act of war without the permission of Congress and shutting off funds to veterans and children and the neediest.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I think that's where we have to remain our focus. So Musk saying mean things about me, that's a sideshow and it really doesn't matter. It's not important. And I'm not going to other than I want to stay focused on, you know, when you go into an emergency room, there's a saying called stop the bleeding.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And that is if someone comes in with a gunshot and they are hemorrhaging blood, they don't take their PSA or their cholesterol level. So my ego and me being butthurt or responding or getting into it with him on Twitter, that's a distraction.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We need to stay focused on the fact that we are now in a position where we've created a series of incentives where when we convict the president of being a felon and he gets reelected, he has learned that the American public, as long as they control all three branches of government, will not hold him accountable for trespassing or hacking into our most sensitive federal systems.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Now, if it gets to a judge, it gets pushed back. But they're kind of in this blitzkrieg moment of let's ask for forgiveness as opposed to permission. That's what I want to stay focused on. So I'm trying as hard as I can, and this isn't easy for me, as you know, Jess, to put my ego aside and focus what limited audience and bandwidth I have on stopping the bleeding, if you will. Your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Jess, did you watch the Super Bowl?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Yeah, it was. It wasn't a good one. We were due for a bad one.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, I wasn't planning to. I'm not into sports. And it started at 1130 p.m. And I made this big to do about I was basically this axis of evil between shitty fatty food and then the diabetes industrial complex and that the game is boring and CET. And then, of course, my 14 year old said, Dad, you want to watch Super Bowl? I'm like, yep, let's do it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I'm just going to unshane Kara.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, she's better. She's better at counterpunching than me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Yeah, she's fearless. And I did... I mean, it's interesting. You know, I'm thinking a lot about men and masculinity. It is interesting that the Doge team is all young men.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I do think that at the end of the day, the people responsible for this are the president and Elon Musk. And I think these... I'm going to call them kids, but these young men, young men are more risk aggressive. Biologically, the prefrontal cortex doesn't catch up until they're the age of 25 to a woman's. It is interesting that there are no women as part of this group.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Thanks for that. So I think they should be held accountable if a law has been broken here and that anyone who goes after the president or Musk for laws broken, which I believe they're trespassing. I believe that they have purposely circumvented Congress. We're in uncharted territory because you don't know if that's an actual...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
if that is a civil or a criminal offense when the president approves of it. I think that's for courts to decide. But I do think it's a sideshow to a certain extent to focus on these young men. To be clear, the people accountable for this, the people who are orchestrating this are the president, and Elon Musk.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And to a certain extent, the Democrats, I don't want to say who are enabling it, but have been caught flat-footed and have to figure out a way to strike back. And we're going to talk about that later in the show. But it is interesting. And just to be real here about these young men, I was thinking about it. I've said a lot.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
If I was born in 1920 Germany, I'd probably be wearing a Nazi uniform and probably would have died on a Russian field somewhere thinking that I was serving the fatherland. You are a function of where you grew up and in what time. And you can see with a lot of young men, these are really talented young men with a lot of opportunities.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And so I stayed awake until the halftime show, which I thought was awful, by the way. And I get I'm not Kendrick Lamar's audience, but I thought the whole thing was just a giant snooze. What did you think?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So I don't feel comfortable grouping them into the bigger swath of young men in America who have a lack of on-ramps to a good living, a lack of financial security, a lack of prospects, a lack of an ability to meet a potential mate and start a family. These guys are all incredibly talented and have a lot of opportunities.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And the only lesson someone called me, a radio show called me, I didn't go on. I said, what would your advice be to these young men? And I'm like, again, it's a sideshow. But what I would tell any young man is that we're in a high pressure situation. Do what I didn't do, and that is assemble a kitchen cabinet of people to advise you, say, this is what's going on.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Yeah, just to the point about playing the populist argument of, look, a small number of people. I think the Dow and the Nasdaq are, in fact, terrible metrics because they give the illusion of prosperity and that everything's fine. Life expectancy has gone down for the last five years.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Our kids are more obese and anxious, but we don't have these really elegant metrics to track that that everybody talks about every day at the beginning of every news program if it goes up a lot or down a lot. So we've decided that that's more important. The argument they're making is one they've never made before. They didn't make it until it was convenient.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
But I do believe that the Dow and the NASDAQ are not an accurate reflection on the health and well-being of America. They're an indicator, they're a signal. But people think, oh, market's up 2%, that means America is 2% better today. No, that's not true. And there are reasons you would probably want to sacrifice or justify the long-term investment or trade-off of the markets going down.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
If we were to decide that people in the most prosperous nation in the world should not live in poverty if they work full-time, and we need to create incentives for work, and we need to buttress the American brand, which includes central to that, that we work, Americans work hard, and we raise minimum wage to $25 an hour, where it would be, naturally, if it had kept pace with productivity or inflation, and McDonald's and Walmart stock went down, and so did Chipotle,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Because they're dependent upon labor at 12 or 15 bucks an hour. I think that would be worth it. I think you could make the argument. If we were to say, we're going to, these deficits are out of control and we need to be more responsible and stop taxing young people in the future. And we're going to substantially increase the tax rate on corporations, which are paying their lowest taxes since 1929.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Okay, I get it. And the market would go down because I remember being on the board. I was on the board of Dex Media. I remember one quarter of them saying, we beat earnings by 30%. And everyone was like, what? What happened? What good thing happened? And they said, well, the Trump tax cuts just took effect. And our stock went up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So if you created a more progressive tax structure and took corporations back to, say, not even the median of what they've usually paid, but in the 30th percentile versus the lowest, which is where they are now, I think that's worth it. This is an own goal. This is shooting yourself in the feet. And then after recognizing what you've done, you take the gun and you put it in your mouth.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
100% agree. My son brought it up. My 17-year-old came home panicked and said, are you running for president? I said, no. And my partner said, the only thing, she listed off about 15 reasons I shouldn't. Then the one she liked said, I'd like the outfits. And see, that almost compensated for the 15 negatives.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Lumber comes across, or steel and aluminum comes across the border from Canada. We tax it. We collect some revenue. But it makes it more expensive for our cars, which supposedly are going to go up $10,000 to $12,000 per car. And aluminum that goes into everything, including a workout bench, including steel that you build in buildings, everything goes up in price. So the less of them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And then the other nation puts on reciprocal tariffs and Jack Daniels or Brown Foreman, one of the biggest companies I think in Kentucky, sells less and they make less money. So our prices go up, we make less money and the demand for our products goes down and the amount of money collected in the tariff is dwarfed by the loss. And
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So this is just the oldest, this is the biggest un-goal or own goal since Brexit. It's an economy that's 25 trillion. So we're taking everyone else down with us. And it's the definition of stupid. Smart people help themselves while helping others. That's the basis of capitalism and quite frankly, free trade. We don't want these manufacturing jobs back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
We are the second largest manufacturer in the world. People don't want to go back into a manufacturing facility and put on a hazmat suit or work with a robot doing repetitive tasks. They would rather be in higher paid service work or very high end finished goods manufacturing. We have purposely made these trade-offs. Now, have we done a good job protecting the people outplaced?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
No, but this is a conscious decision to move to more higher end, higher margin, higher paying lines of business in the service economy or very high end manufacturing. The other thing that people aren't recognizing is that these tariffs are especially punishing on us. And this is what people are missing. Toyota trades at 0.6 times revenue.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
The market cap is equivalent to 0.6 times their top line revenue. Tesla trades at eight times revenue. So assume these tariffs are sort of diminish each company's revenues by a billion dollars. That means the market capitalization that Toyota loses is $70 million. The market cap that Tesla loses is $8 billion.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So just the general level of prosperity and wealth is massively decreased in America relative to other countries because when they bring in a Mercedes, it trades at 0.23 times revenues. When we export Meta, or Nvidia, Nvidia trades at 24 times revenues. So free trade is overly accretive to us because we're selling them high margin products and we're importing low margin products.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Every dollar we increase from selling our products abroad, we recognize a much greater increase in market capitalization and value and prosperity. than when they lose a dollar. This is the biggest own goal in history, maybe since we tightened the fiscal programs of 1929 and 30 and just made things worse. Your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Let's use China as an example to bring it home down to a ground level. Get this, Jess. 77% of toys imported into the U.S. are imported from China. As a result of the new tariffs, toy prices could jump as much as 50%. Think about this. Four-fifths of America is going to have half as many toys under the Christmas tree That's what this president means.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
You don't think your kids are going to notice that? Half as many Tories this holiday. And they do pay some tariffs. I think it's like 10 or 12 percent. This is going to take those tariffs to 34 percent. And the clowns of the Trump administration or Peter Navarro will say, well, actually, the company that we are exporting from that is sending their products into the U.S. will absorb those costs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
That would make them a monopsonist, meaning that they have so much power that essentially they've been able to dictate prices to this point and they can easily take the price down and still make a lot of profits. If that were in fact the case, they would have already done it. They would have already raised their prices and captured that additional revenue.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
They will basically not have as much demand. They will not lower their prices because they can't. They have to make a profit. So the prices will go up and there'll be less demand. Now, 70% of people have hand to mouth. So they're not going to go, oh, toys are a little bit more, but Trump has this master plan. No biggie. they will have to buy 20% less toys to meet the same Christmas budget.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Meaning that every kid in America, the family is gonna have eight toys under the Christmas tree, not 10. This immediately impacts American consumers. In addition, 40 million jobs in the United States. And you think, well, it's a big country, 350 million, that's not as bad. Only 150 million people work. So a quarter of workers, their jobs are directly linked, if not dependent upon trade.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So this will have huge impact on unemployment. prosperity, inflation, prices. And this leads me to one place, and it sounds, I realize I'm gonna sound a little bit Laura Loomer-ish, but just free your mind. And that is, if somehow we had elected Putin as president, and she is vice president, and they said, okay, what do we need to do with America to help us? We need them out of Ukraine.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
We need to fragment the alliances between the largest economies in the world that believe in democracies and pushing back on autocrats. We need to thrust every large economy and trading partner into the arms of China, of me, Mr. Xi. What would be different about the major policies that the Trump administration has implemented since inauguration than the policies
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
that the Putin-Xi administration would be implementing had they been elected president and vice president of the United States. And effectively, I believe, and I'm paranoid, it doesn't mean I'm wrong, but he either has such weird acolytes and a cultish group around him that have bought into this cult of Trump and he is really, really stupid, or
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
They have taken advantage, Putin and Xi, of this ultimate grift, the Trump coin, where they essentially opened a Swiss banking account that people can put money in, and it's not disclosed, and have called Trump and said, hey, I need you to figure out a way to get out of Ukraine. I've lost 800,000 people. It's draining my military. It's weakening me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And Xi to say, I'd love for Japan and South Korea to get over their differences with us and start trading with us. What would be different about America if it had been the Putin-Xi ticket than the Trump-Vance ticket? It's just, I mean, we don't like to say that because we don't want to be the pizza gate guys. There is more legitimacy to the conspiracy I am outlining
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
It's happened already. I'm already there. We've already arrived. Dad, when are we getting there? We're here. We are here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
than any conspiracy they have put forward, what would they do differently had they been elected president and vice president? Your thoughts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So a couple of things there. Let's talk about the deficit. We're a family, if we're a household, we make $50,000 a year, we spend $70,000, and we have debt of $320,000. And unfortunately, this debt, our kids will get it. Our kids may not want it, but they'll get it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So mom and dad are going to Cancun and doing tequila shots, and they have this amazing credit card, and they keep getting more and more offers because they've always paid their debts, and they continue to live above their means. There is a really solid argument that we need to get our fiscal house in order. I think the Democrats should become debt hawks.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Having said that, there's two ways you address the deficit. The first is to cut spending and raise taxes. You just have to. But you also need to continue to grow. So if you were to, for example, massively raise taxes and cut spending the way they're cutting, people stop spending money. And we're not going to solve the deficit if we don't continue, if we shrink the top line.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And the reason we're headed, in my opinion, towards a deflationary economy, I think inflation is going to come down and they'll claim victory, but I think we're going to go deflationary. And a deflationary economy is especially bad because what happens is If you have a mortgage or credit card debt or student loan debt, you end up paying with more valuable dollars.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Well, you're clearly at this point, your comms director. If you bring up Ukraine, you'll be secretary of defense. We're going to pivot back and forth. This is all inspired. I was on a college tour this week, and it was a really, really lovely and emotional week for me. And I spoke at the University of Chicago at the Institute of Politics run by David Axelrod, and he interviewed me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
You have less money, more valuable dollars. Inflation in some ways is good for people with large fixed debt because they're paying with less valuable dollars. So you have to, you can't put the economy into a coma. If you were to cut social security or I don't want to cut it, I want to means test it. I want to move the age limit up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
It's now three people for everyone supporting someone on social security. It used to be 12 to one. It's absolutely the thing we don't talk about on social security. It's a regressive tax. Someone making $160,000 on my team pays $9,000. If I make $10 million in a year selling Stock or companies, I pay, wait for it, $9,000.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So we tax the middle class and lower class households, full freight on social security, but rich people, it's capped. But you wouldn't want to cut it too much. You wouldn't want to cut spending too much because the last thing you want to do is diminish the second weapon of getting us out of the deficit, and that is growing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
If we just grow 3.6% a year GDP growth, which is real growth, that means in 10 years, the economy grows by 50%, which should grow our tax base 50%. And who knows if we're thoughtful and even keep spending flat, maybe take it down, we substantially reduce the deficit. But you can't just come in and start cutting and put the economy into a coma thinking you're being responsible. You're not.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
There are two sides to debt reduction. Growth. Growth isn't everything, but it's mostly everything, as is productivity. You have to have both. So attempting to, quote unquote, use it as an excuse to put the economy in a coma is That is cutting off your nose to spite your face. It absolutely makes no sense.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
The other thing we should just keep in mind here is that, and this is the reason why I believe that US stocks are gonna vastly underperform the rest of the world, is that there's two components to a stock price. There's the earnings that represents the underlying innovation, culture, industry they're in of a company, right? The profits.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And then the stock is a function of the profits times the earnings multiple. The earnings multiple on the S&P 500, all 500 of our biggest, best companies, is around 28 until Wednesday. Now it's about 26. The S&P multiple in the German stock market is 22, Japan 18, China 14.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Now, why do great companies trade as a whole on different multiples when they're under the umbrella of a different nation or a different index? And that's why everyone wants to go public on U.S. exchanges. It's because we have certain attributes and features that people and investors all over the world really like. America is more risk aggressive. It has more risk capital.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
It has great universities, has great IP. It's really flexible, it's agile, and it has rule of law. No one's gonna come and just, China put Didi out of business. We don't like your practices around information. You're out of business. They can put a company out of business. Jack Ma, you're talking, you're a little too big for your britches. We don't like what you're saying.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
We're gonna disappear you for six months. The US has rule of law, so companies feel somewhat safe that when they're investing, they're protected, their money is protected. Two, we're seen as consistent partners. They're not stupid. They're not sclerotic. They don't have these epileptic seizures.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And he said, what should Democrats do? And I said, this is the platform Democrats should adopt. And then everyone weighed in and said, you should run. And then over the weekend, I heard from all people or organizations, a guy who runs a law firm who's very involved in Democratic politics. And this is how the sausage gets made, I guess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
They don't just weigh in and decide not to do business with certain people or kick these nations out or kick these companies out. They respect rule of law. We haven't seized the 300 plus billion dollars in Russian assets, despite the fact they've invaded a neighbor, because we have rule of law.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Because we no longer in the last two months have those associations with the American brand of rule of law and consistency, I believe you're going to see a re-rating of the price earnings multiple on the S&P down from 28 to more like what China's at at 14. And this is what that means and why it's so important to investors. You can't outrun multiple contraction.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
If the multiple on US stocks gets cut in half, which it very well could, and it's happened before, you know, all of these nations had traded at higher multiples than the US before, then a company like Meta, a company like P&G could grow its earnings 18% a year, which is incredible. And in five years, its stock would still be down. In Latin America, it didn't matter how good your company was.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
The flows of capital out of Latin America because of different policies, inconsistent governments, unreliability, lack of rule of law, have taken their multiple consistently down for the last 10 or 20 years, and no one's made any money.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So the multiple contraction we're about to endure in US stocks because of the puncturing, because of the exit of this notion of this brand America that includes rule of law and consistency is going to result in a massive contraction in market capitalization in the US, which will trickle down. to U.S. households, prosperity, tax revenue.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
This is, I mean, you never like to predict a recession because people like me have predicted nine of the last three recessions. But if you see this kind of multiple contraction that I think we're about to incur because of the
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
puncturing an erosion of the brand US right now, you're going to see just a massive, you're going to see companies overperform, hit all of their earnings, and their stocks are going to go down over the next couple of years.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And he said, I slash we will put in $10 million if you put in $10 million. that'll get you the name recognition you need and get your ideas out there and we'll see how you do and we'll go from there. And I thought that's really interesting. They clearly want people with money, but it was, there's a machine out there kind of behind the curtain working to identify candidates.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Welcome back. According to Politico, Trump told cabinet members that Elon Musk will be stepping down from his role in the White House by the end of May. Musk had been working under a special government employee designation. It's called the male abandonment designation. Anyways, which limits him to 130 days per year. And that clock runs out soon. But the possible exit comes at a very tense moment.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Musk's Doge team, the Department of Government Efficiency, has been pushing aggressive federal budget cuts, and his unpredictable behavior, especially on X, has reportedly frustrated cabinet officials. Critics say his entire billionaire mindset clashes with the realities of governing, especially after a major GOP loss in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
A race Musk spent over $23 million trying to win. The news follows a new Marquette poll showing just 41% approve of his work in government with 58% disapproving. And while Trump publicly praised Musk early on, some insiders say may now be using him as a scapegoat for recent political missteps.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Meanwhile, Tesla is also feeling the heat with Q1 sales down 13%, raising questions about whether Musk's political ambitions are hurting his business. Jess, what do you think? Do you think Doge is coming to an end? Do you think Elon's leaving?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And it's also sort of a signal of just how desperate things have become when they reach this far into the barrel that, Someone is willing to give me $10 million to announce I'm running for president and start putting my ideas out there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
I predicted, I think, three weeks ago on Pivot that Musk would fade to black and leave within 30 days. And the reason why is if you want to understand anything or you want to understand behavior across big tech, and for the most part across almost every individual in America, just reverse engineer to what decisions, what motivations would give them more money.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
America used to be about your character, your partner, your reputation indicated a decent amount of what your life was like. Now, you can have none of those things. And if you have money, you can have an amazing life. And you can have all of those things. And if you don't have a lot of money, you can have almost none of the prosperity.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So all incentives are do whatever you can to make a lot of money. And when I think it was the province of Alberta announced that they were canceling their SpaceX contract for Starlink, I'm like, that's it, he's out. All he cares about is money. He's not trying to help America. He's trying to remove inspectors so he can get his autonomous out there faster.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
He's trying to remove any sort of oversight around merging X and XAI and data privacy. He hates subsidies after he's taken 15 to 50 billion. These guys are all about money. And there's a few lessons in here. The Democrats need to move away from identity politics.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
There's a very loud minority of people who see at Ivy League universities and in the media and cultural elites who see everything through the lens of race. America, the people who decide the president, see everything through the lens of money. Who's going to put the most money in my pocket? Yeah, I'll give some lip service to women's rights. I'll give some lip service to Ukraine.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
But for the most part, I'll vote for the criminal because I'm under the impression he's going to put more money in my pocket. And it's also the most dynamic issue. If you're one of those voters that just votes on bodily autonomy, you know which party you're going with. But the swing voters... basically vote on the economy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And the economy is dynamic in the sense that sometimes Democrats get the benefit of the doubt around the economy. If anyone does any homework and realizes over the last 50 years, Democratic administrations have created 40 million jobs and Republican administrations have created 1 million. Or they say, this guy is not a failed businessman and reality TV game show host, he's actual businessman.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And Biden and Harris were trying to tell us when we couldn't afford to put food on the table that everything's great, not to worry about it. They went Republican, but it's about the economy. And this is what is so disappointing in my view. Even though I know this is happening, but it shocks me when it happens, What have we had in the last couple of months?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
We've had a reversal in the global order. We've said we used to use our massive tax base and military to support democracies and nations that believe in civil rights, women's rights, trying to do the right thing. We've torn it up and said, you know what? Let's pretend that Russia won the Cold War. Let's not support democratic allies. Let's support murderous autocrats.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Let's create an environment where we have judges where if a woman is bleeding out or dying from sepsis in an emergency room parking lot, because people, doctors are so scared to treat her, you know, her pregnancy gone wrong. Let's create that environment.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Let's decide that a woman who is a conspiracy theory fucking loon, Laura Loomer, that she gets to fire General Hawk, who is arguably one of the brightest generals, government men in the world, who's responsible for intercepting signals and making sure our troops are safe overseas. Let's
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Hire a group of people that are so incompetent that they're sharing attack plans on an unsecure phone, on an app, and then start calling the reporter they invited in a loser. Let's do everything we can to tear up 90-year history. alliances.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Let's start picking up people with the wrong tattoo, shipping them to El Salvadorian prisons, not even where they're from, and then claim we can't get them back. When that's just a bald-faced lie, one call, they could get this person back. All of these things in my mind are well ahead. I lost several million dollars on Thursday and Friday, which is the bad news.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
The good news is if you lose several million dollars, it means you're already wealthy and you're doing just fine. And I am, I'm doing just fine. I was much less triggered by the markets than I have been about these other things.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And so if it took the markets going down 10% to convince you that this ass clown was the wrong person to be overseeing the greatest experiment in history, you still have your head up your ass. I was kind of like, this is what it took to get people upset? All of a sudden, the tech bros, the most powerful people in the world, have decided they need to go down to Mar-a-Lago.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Okay, when a 14-year-old girl in Mississippi has to carry a baby to term after being raped, you know, okay, that's bad. But when my stock goes down, I'm on a plane. So what I know, but it always disappoints me, is the following. Look what money has done to us. We forgive a guy and idolize a guy that's being sued concurrently by two women for abandonment, for not seeing his kids.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
I mean, look what money has done to us. And the thing we get outraged about, the thing that is the call to arms is the markets go down fucking 10%. This is number 15. on the reasons why we elect our leaders. So I actually found this week, it didn't trigger me at all. I was on the college tour. I was emotional for a lot of reasons. I didn't care.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
You know, whether I'm worth X million or, you know, whatever, 0.95X, it doesn't fucking make any difference. What makes a difference is your kids growing up in a nation that's no longer America, where their friends who aren't them, who aren't in the top 1%, don't have the same rights we had, don't have a shot at getting out of the bottom 90.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So I find what's happened in the last week disappointing, not disappointing because Trump makes a stupid decision, he's been making them. I actually am disappointed that this is what it took to get people into the streets of America. That, OK, the war on poor women, well, OK, that's too bad. But, you know, what's profound is if the NASDAQ goes down. Your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Well, first I'll tell you what my platform is because I made it up on the spot. I think our platform, I don't think we can go back. I think the current platform of we need to return to normal is not what Americans are looking for.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Welcome back. Before we go, we wanted to briefly touch on the record-breaking speech from Senator Cory Booker last week. He spoke on the Senate floor for over 25 hours straight, the longest speech in congressional history, urging lawmakers to reconsider proposed GOP cuts to Social Security.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
He called on Democrats to unify and fight harder, even as the party continues to debate how aggressively to take on Trump's policies. This speech was followed by a massive hands-off protest in all 50 states over the weekend. Groups including Indivisible and MoveOn organized around a simple message.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
The right is coarse and mean and stupid, but the left is corporate elitists who tell us what we want to hear and then just continue in this grift that's not helping Americans. Can't go back. And my campaign or my platform that I thought the Democrats should adopt is It's very simple. We all do this because we want to have purpose in our life. We want to have meaning.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Trump's economic policies, including cuts to healthcare, education, and social security, are hurting everyday Americans while helping the wealthy. Actually, I should correct myself. A lot of those protests weren't just solely a function of the market decline. They had been planned. around some of these other issues. So that was not fair on me. Booker's marathon moment wasn't just about policy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
It's also being read as a potential turning point in Democratic leadership and strategy. Jess, what are your thoughts on Booker's Senate floor, diatribe speech marathon?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So I love what the military does. Whenever they have an operation, so the best performing organization in history is the U.S. military. And a lot of corporations take their cues from military procedures and best practices because they're so good at what they do. And one of their best practices is that they review every combat operation. What went right? What went wrong?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
How can we improve the culture, the chain of command, the weapons, the intelligence? So we iterate everything. to become a more lethal force moving forward. And one of the key sort of paradigms or lens through which they look at decisions is they say, it's not about the outcome. It's about did that officer, what did that officer know at that moment?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And the thing that is the source of that purpose and meaning, I think for most people, is the ability to partner with someone and raise children. And I don't think you have to do that to be happy, but I think that's table stakes for the most prosperous nation in the world. And so I would reverse engineer every policy up to this great unifying theory of everything.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And did he or she make the best decision based on the available information at that point? And given what's happened in the market with these tariffs, You're right. It worked out well because they can't say, well, if the Democrats hadn't shut down the government, this wouldn't have happened.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So it's ended up, I think we would rather be here right now with the government open and then not having a, you know, punching bag or a voodoo doll to blame this all on. So the outcome here is good. Having said that, given what we knew back then, I think it was still the wrong decision. So I hear what you're saying, and I wouldn't change anything now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
But it doesn't excuse the fact that based on what we knew then, he should have gone upstream and shut it down and said this, you no longer believe in government, fine, we're no longer going to fund something that is nothing but a vehicle for you to raise money. Raise taxes on the young, bypass congressional authority, make budget cuts that are supposed to have congressional approval. We're done.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
We're no longer going to fund your clown car. But I agree with you. This is actually ended up turning to Democrats advantage.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
There was so much I loved about Senator Booker's speech. You're right. It pulses the right word. I love that. And just because I like to trigger our listeners, I thought it was a very masculine thing to do. I think the Democrats lack a certain level of aspirational masculinity. I think showing that sort of physical strength and endurance and people will say, well, could a woman do it?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Not as easily. Men are stronger.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And that is young people should have the opportunity to meet and fall in love. What does that mean? National service, more freshmen seats,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Women can endure more pain because they have to endure childbirth. Notice how my politically correct instincts moved in and I had to say something nice about... When you say... Or if you say something nice about women, you don't feel a need to compensate with saying something nice about men, but we need to say something nice about women. But anyways...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
I think the Democratic Party is lacking aspirational masculinity and demonstrating that sort of strength and endurance demonstrates some of that masculine energy, which I think we're desperate for. So hats off to you, Senator Booker. It also convinces me that he's going to get married or engaged in the next two years because these guys realize it's like, who is that Who is the senator?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Is he a senator from?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Yeah, who was making a run for VP, so decided to get engaged in the middle of his run for VP. These guys, they've all figured out you can't be president as a single man. That would be a good rap. What do you do? I'm president. Hey, you want to go back and watch some TV? That would be a good rap, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
That was such a fantasy. A nice Democrat who's single. That was so ridiculous.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Annette Bennett. God, she's hot. She's really hot.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
more mental health, starting kids later, boys later, getting more funding in pre-K and education, putting a lot more money in their pockets, tax subsidies for third places, give more young people the opportunities, break up big tech, tax the shit, hold them liable for things that radicalize young men and sequester them for society. Give people the chance to meet and fall in love.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
She was great in Bugsy. I mean, she's great in everything.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. She was in one of my favorite movies, which is how I would describe almost every tech bro right now. Did you ever see Grifters? The Grifters with Angela?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Oh, gosh. What's her name? Am I saying the movie right? The woman who was dating John Cusack and Ed Bedding. It's a fantastic film. And the woman, Angela Houston, that's her name. That is a fantastic film.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Don't say anything.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Well, I'm glad you recognize I've carried the season. It's pretty obvious. It's pretty obvious. No, but I think Cory Booker basically is now one of the top three or four contenders for the Democratic nomination for president. All of these guys want to be presidents. So one.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
I'm probably the most recalcitrant. I'd have to give up edibles. I just don't think I could be new.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
To be president.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Yeah, but it's a different standard. It's a different standard. I'd have to go so fucking crazy like him that nothing mattered.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
No, I love the idea of running. I just don't like the idea of actually being president. It's like the key to happiness is to be rich but anonymous. I'd rather—I'm going to fade into anonymity. Anyways, but my prediction here is that Cory Booker, in the next 24 months, as he makes a move towards announcing his presidency, is going to realize he needs to be married. Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
So ladies, if you like the Senator Booker, he's looking right now. Because marriage, as I coach young people, I'm really going off script. I'm like, it's not about meeting the one. There is no such thing as the one. It's about where you are and where they are at that point in their lives. But he's at that point because he realizes that
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
He actually has a shot at doing what he's wanted to do his whole life, be president, but he needs to be married. Anyway, it's kind of an odd prediction, but I'm standing by it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
All right. That's all for this episode. Thanks for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. its own feed. What a thrill.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
That means exclusive interviews, including the one with the person who will come in number two in Iowa, Mark Cuban, with sharp political minds you won't hear anywhere else except every other fucking place in the world as they're all whores running for president. But yeah, just exclusively on Raging Moderates, unless you got a mic and they'll speak there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
This week, as we said, we'll be speaking with Mark Cuban. Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts. You don't miss an episode.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And we don't like to talk about it because it sounds sexist or weird, but not enough young people are getting together. And then should they decide to have kids, table stakes, 7 million manufactured homes, which are 30 to 50% less expensive than homes built on site within six years, minimum wage of $25 an hour. Every state that's done it has grown their economy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Stop the bullshit that it's going to destroy jobs. tax holiday for people under the age of 40, such that young people, should they decide, can start the most meaningful, purposeful voyage in life, and that is to have a family. And should they decide not to have kids and spend that money on brunch in St. Barts, more power to you. But for me, that's table stakes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
And we should reverse engineer any policy that gets in the way of love. If you can't be in an emergency room or in a hospital room with someone because you're the same sex, we do away with that law. If you're putting a family in poverty because you're forcing a 16-year-old to carry a baby to term, no, we're not going to allow that. We're going to redo family court to try and get dads more...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
involved in people's lives. And also, I'm a war hawk. I'm just a big believer that the far left doesn't understand that the moment people have the ability to take our Netflix and espresso away with violence, they will. Anyways, love and prosperity, 2028. What do you think?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
I see a vice president. I see a vice president.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Why not? You're literally more qualified than half the cabinet right now. I mean. You are.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
He should run.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Oh, Hakeem. I was thinking Mark Cuban.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
He'd be amazing. I think Mark Cuban has kind of the sauce in terms of witty banter and fleet of foot. And also he has the money, which unfortunately is hugely important. Do you think Hakeem Jeffries should run for president?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Oh, yeah. He's coming on with us. Talk about that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Sold out. Sorry, folks. You're out. Wait outside. I might sign. I might sign something. I might say hi on the way out as I dash into my Suburban.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
I'm expecting a Suburban with one of the Kardashian sisters waiting inside adoringly for me. That's, you know, potential potential number. What am I, 48? I should be dating a Kardashian.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
That's right. I'm aging in reverse. Hundred percent. But Mark Cuban and Hakeem Jeffries are both probably in the top 10. I haven't heard Hakeem's name a lot.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Is that right? Is that because I'm ignorant to all of this?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Is anyone hearing a lot from any Democrat right now?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Should I run for president, Jess?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
OK, Secretary of Commerce.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Be careful. Pretty soon you're going to be Secretary of Transportation. Although you look great this morning. I mean, I'm going to make you director of HHS.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Well, you got to think someone who's in good shape and looks good should be would be better than some anti-vax weirdo.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
He's a good looking guy. All right. Let's get into it. Last week, President Trump shook global markets by announcing sweeping tariffs on nearly everything the U.S. imports.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
In a Rose Garden appearance, he imposed a 10% baseline tariff on all countries with much deeper rates for countries he called the worst offenders, including China, the EU, Japan, and South Korea, basically our largest trading partners, if not our strongest allies. China alone was hit with a 54% tariff and quickly responded with 34% of retaliatory tariffs. Markets tanked.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Yeah? Stack ranking. Give me the pluses and the minuses. The dog. Dog 28. A chicken in every pot, a Cialis in every cupboard. We're going off script here. I'm coming in hot. What do you think? Give me the negatives first. I can take it. I'm thick-skinned, although I may never speak to you again the rest of my life. Go ahead.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
The Dow posted its biggest back-to-back losses since March 2020 when the pandemic created, obviously, incredible uncertainty. So it's just important to note, we now have the same level of uncertainty about what's going to happen as when a global pandemic was killing, when they had to have makeshift refrigerator trucks as morgues outside of Langone here in New York.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
The S&P 500 entered bear market territory on Monday, and tech giants, including Apple and Nvidia, were hit hard. On top of that, Jess, a separate 25% tariff on foreign-made cars also took effect Thursday. The Fed warns this could fuel inflation, and a Yale study estimates it'll cost the average U.S. household over $2,000 a year, with low-income families hit hardest. That's usually U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
economic policy. Congress is now pushing back. with a bipartisan bill to limit the president's power to impose tariffs without approval. Jess, Trump has urged patience. That's the party line, that somehow he's playing 40 chest and we should just wait and we're taking some pain, but the pain will be worth it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
However, China's slapping on a 34% retaliatory tariff and the EU gearing up for its own responses. Are we officially, do you think, in a full-blown trade war?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
You're going to be ambassador. No, you're going to head up. What is it? American Free Radio?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
Remember, you're going to be secretary of state.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
I'll be comms director.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
OK. No, I'll be like Billy Carter, just embarrassing you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Price of Trump’s Trade War
No, the one they just canceled. You're going to be my Carrie Lake. I'll send you to Voice of America and then fire you the next day. I'll put you in charge of Doge. Just use super congressional authority and ramp up the spending on everything. I like that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
We're in the same office.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And that is, if they come out with something that's going to really continue to increase the deficit, I think you're going to see the 10-year spike. And I think for the first time, there's going to be rumors that the Chinese or other investors might not show up for the next Treasury auction, which would take interest rates way up. You see that happen, or you see inflation spike again.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Yeah, I came back and you dragged my ass downtown to Broad Street.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
You don't need Congress or you don't need deficit hawks. They're going to go, OK, if all of a sudden inflation's back, we're all getting swept out of office and people are going to find their backbone again. And I love the idea of the most powerful unelected person right now is the bond market.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I'm so angry that, first off, they didn't know who we were downstairs. And this is a ghost town. It makes me want to try and figure out a way to short commercial real estate. I can't believe you do this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I think that's a great messaging standpoint. So last time we had a surplus, you know, Democratic administration, record low interest rates during the Biden administration. And, I mean, if you think about the power of the bond market, essentially the shortest tenure of any elected leader, I think, in history of a G7 nation was Truss, the prime minister.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Well, it was a lettuce test. Which will last longer? Her— Her prime ministership or this head of lettuce and the head of lettuce, I think, won or she won by three days. But basically, the bond market showed up. She put out a budget and said, we're going to lower taxes. We're going to go Reagan-Thatcher here, more Reagan, and no plan to increase revenues. And it's going to take our deficit up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And the world market said, you don't have the default currency to keep printing money of people if you can't afford the interest rates here. And the market, the pound crashed, the interest rate. I mean, the bond market showed up and said, sorry, girlfriend. And she was out.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And I wonder if there's going to be a moment here where if inflation, I think the seminal moment in 2025 for the Trump administration is is going to be when inflation spikes. And all of a sudden it says, oh no, I'm still here. You thought you killed me? I'm Jason. I'm in a hockey mask. And just when you thought it was over, I'm back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Just to scare the shit out of Jamie Lee Curtis's great, great, great granddaughter. That was probably ageist. By the way, I went to the hottest woman. It takes me back to the 80s. Wow. I mean, what was that show? Was it perfect? What was the one with John Travolta? where she was the aerobics instructor. And it was fantastic filmmaking.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Yeah, that was a great film. That was probably her cinematic peak. Actually, Trading Places was pretty good. Anyways, back to actual policy here, substance. But it strikes me that, again, the Democrats aren't doing a good job of saying, FYI, this guy is already threatening an irresponsible fiscal plan, and the bond market is already responding. And guess what?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Your credit card bills, your mortgage payments, your student loan payments— are about to be higher because the adults are about to leave the building and the bond market is already really scared. And to put it in, like you said, to put it in layman's terms saying, folks, your price is about to go up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
You're just like, you're looking to escape your kids. Oh, I ran. Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
You may think you're not paying more, but you are because interest rates go up, which is a tax on everyone because people see that this guy's irresponsible. And the This new analogy I love is that at negative 40, Celsius and Fahrenheit converge. You know, usually if you're in Canada and you're in Europe, I'm constantly converting, all right? It's 28 Celsius, double it at 30.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
At negative 40, they're the same. That is not a hospitable or good environment to be in. That means something's fucked up. You don't want to be somewhere where Fahrenheit and Celsius converge, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Negative 40 is bad. Just general. You just want to stay away from negative 40. And I find that there's an analogy or an apt analogy around whenever the far right and the far left come together, you're a negative 40. It's a really bad idea. I think the far left or the far right, anti-vaxxers. The far left and the far right, total anti-Semites.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
The far left and the far right seem to come together to agree on, all right, we want more social policies. and more spending. All right, we want, on the far right, lower taxes and more military spending. I know. Let's get together and do both and explode the deficit.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
So the holidays catch us up. What'd you do over the holidays?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Yeah, that's dystopic. I think I'm infecting you with glass half-empty-itis. You said something that really struck me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
There you go. And I've been thinking about this a lot, and that is I'm pissed off. And it falls back, I think, again, at the feet of Democratic or poor Democratic leadership. We've decided that Trump's presidency is going to be not four years, but four years and three months. He and First Lady Alania are controlling the news cycle.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Musk is having more influence over foreign policy right now than Biden, it feels. And just a call out to all of my colleagues and friends who are constantly sending me emails saying, Biden is going to be our nominee and you need to understand the assignment and get on board. The reason why...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
an unelected man and the world's wealthiest man are now controlling the narrative is because we have a guy who should not be president because of his age. And they are afraid to put him in front of a camera. For the first time, he's doing his, I forget what, sign-off speech? Without taking any questions from reporters.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
They are clearly so scared of this guy getting in front of people to actually have to answer questions and express that cognitive ability. that they've said, even with this little to lose, even with, you got to think even the folks from Fox are going to be pretty nice to him if they ask questions during this thing. They said, no, we can't take that risk because this guy is in such serious decline.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
We should move on because we've gotten literally through about 10% of our topics here. So curious what you think about, we were talking, we started this conversation with talking about Speaker Johnson. Being getting the gavel again. I initially, when I had a litmus test or saw some of Speaker Johnson's background, I thought, oh, this is David Duke Light. I use that term.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Yeah. And that was the wrong thing to say. And I don't know the man. He doesn't care what I think. But I think I got that wrong. I actually think Speaker Johnson has done a really good job.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And that is the speakership is supposed to be an administrative position, not a political one. I don't agree with his politics. I'm never going to. But I think he's been a good administrator. I think he has done his job. He has tried. He has corralled people. He's gotten the debt ceiling elevated. I think he is doing what that role commands of him.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Oh yeah, that's right, you said.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And I find him to be an adult and taking his actual position really seriously. I think he's done as good a job as we could have expected from what is arguably one of the worst. He's got to be just in almost an impossible position right now. What are your thoughts on Speaker Johnson?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Yeah, he's a dude. We'll fix that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I was fine. I was in South Africa. My sister is at a—our kids are at a wonderful age. They're both 14 and 17, and so are her kids. And so it's fun to get them to hang out. South Africa's amazing. Safari's really wonderful. Yeah, I mean, super, super nice. I think I'm really into this idea of lifestyle arbitrages. If I was 20 years younger—there's a lot I would do if I were 20 years younger—but
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Or not.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
OK, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Welcome back. Former President Jimmy Carter, the 39th president and a trailblazer in humanitarian efforts, passed away at the age of 100 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, surrounded by family. A peanut farmer turned president, Carter's single term from 1977 to 81 faced economic and foreign policy challenges.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
But his post-presidency legacy as a Nobel Prize winning advocate for human rights and global peace reshaped how we view democracy. former presidents. President Biden called Carter a model of what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose. It's nice, isn't it? Let's read that again.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
A model of what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose and declared January 9 a national holiday of mourning. President-elect Donald Trump, who has often been critical of Carter, acknowledged the former president's contribution, saying, we all owe him a debt of gratitude. Carter's state funeral will be held on January 9 in Washington, D.C., followed by a private internment in Plains. Jess,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
What are any thoughts on Carter's legacy and how he'll be remembered in light of the contrast between his presidency and his post-presidential work?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I think if you could make a U.S. salary and did remote work, I think Cape Town would be a pretty interesting place to hang out. It's so inexpensive. I'm obsessed with prices and money, and that came out wrong. That actually came out right and accurate.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Well, I think he's getting a lot of well-deserved recognition, A, because of the extraordinary life he lived, but also because of the contrast. And that is to think about one president exiting the stage and his character and the way he acquitted himself and the one entering the stage. The contrast is just so palpable.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And I'm on a board of a startup, and the chair of the board is this former, I forget what it's called, there's this, like, there's so many amazing units of our armed services where they find these incredibly superhuman-like fit and also very smart people who decide to serve their country. Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And he was on one of these mini submarines off the Iranian coast where they weren't allowed to ever surface for fear they'd be detected. And their job was to perhaps evacuate operatives from the shores of Iran. They had some strange, I forget what the group's called, forward something group. And they would kind of go in first for recon in very sensitive places where it's like, don't get caught.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And his job was to be in this tiny submarine off the coast of Iran, never emerging, if you will, and go out into freezing water and grab these people and put them back in a submarine that was floating at three miles an hour, four feet under the water. And if you missed the submarine, you were going to drown in freezing water.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
But I'm fascinated with the cost of things. And South Africa right now is like, it's sort of the old navy of global cities in the sense that it's 80% of a world-class city for 40% of the price. Anyways, that was my big observation around my great holiday with my family. And what is in store? Like if for just Harlov, do you do New Year's resolutions? Do you have goals for 2025?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And he was talking about the rescue, the failed rescue attempt, and that the one thing they knew when they'd heard that one of the helicopters had been – and that they called off the mission was that his presidency was done. That was going to be the October surprise, really kind of inflation, oil spiking. Reagan was an outstanding candidate.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
The other place I go is I think about trying to evolve or shape a more aspirational vision of masculinity as I think masculinity has been perverted and conflated with coarseness and toxicity incorrectly. And as people try to develop a more aspirational form of masculinity, I'm constantly asked, well, who are some great role models? And I think about Jimmy Carter.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
You know, grew up in Georgia, married for 77 years, went to college, then did graduate studies in nuclear physics, decided to serve his country, joined the Navy, was actually in an incident involving an accident and went into the room to fix some sort of nuclear reactor or something, was seen by his colleagues as a brave person.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Became an entrepreneur, took over this peanut business, ran for governor. You know, just a really intelligent, disciplined, serve your country, generous, loving man. Like a nice vision for like, I think, a nice role model for young men. And he said something that really struck me. And I thought, God, this guy's so prescient. He gave a speech and he basically said, we've entered this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
He was kind of giving Americans a talking to. And he said, we've now become a nation where people aren't judged by what they do, but by what they own. And he kind of predicted very early this, what I call this era of idolatry of money, where any of this type of behavior, I was at a conference and we were in Q&A. I'm like, look at what money has done to us. And that I was speaking about Elon Musk.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
People always ask me, what do you think Elon Musk? I'm like,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
If you had a son who had been married three times and had 13 kids or 12 kids and wasn't living with any of them, if you had a son who slept with a loaded gun next to his bed, if you had a son that was addicted to ketamine, if you had a son that was accusing people errantly and incorrectly of sex crimes such that they had to move, you know, if you had a son that was behaving this way, you'd call your son and you'd try and do something.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
You'd be embarrassed for him. You'd be embarrassed for yourself. You would think you were a failed father. But if he's worth $400 billion, all is forgiven. It's just as if we have absolutely decided the cash can replace any semblance of character. And he saw that. And also, he has defined what it means to be a post-presidency. These people are generally more likable post-presidency.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I would argue that Clinton has not had a great post-presidency because of some of the shit that's come up about him or that's haunted him. Um, I think George Bush has had a great post-presidency, you know?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Painting.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Seems like a nice man. Uh, but, but Carter really- But it's not as impactful.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Not about rebuilding houses.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
For the poor.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
There's a... With their wife of 77 years, you know, holding the toolkit or him holding her tool belt. Yeah, this guy. Yeah, he really did.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
A quarter of a million dollar speaking fee is a big book.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Box check. James Earl Carter, dead at 100 years of age. Rest in peace. Before we wrap, let's dig into the state of the Democrats. In a recent New York Times op-ed, James Carville admitted Democrats lost in 2024 because they failed to connect with voters on the economy. for our previous comments.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Despite solid GDP growth and easing inflation, many Americans felt the party wasn't addressing their struggles. Trump capitalized on this by making the economy a central message, winning over middle and lower class voters. Carville says Democrats need a clear, relatable, and urgent economic narrative to win them back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
At the same time, younger generations are delaying or skipping milestones, including homeownership and parenthood, some by choice, others because of rising costs and societal shifts. Researchers warn this trend could be come permanent, reshaping families, communities, and the economy. What do you think Democrats can do to try and reclaim the economic narrative here?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I just want more of the same. I'm really, I'm rounding third right now. I'm enjoying my kids professionally, having a ton of fun. Yeah, I'm just, if we're up to me, I want everything to stay the same. I really don't have any resolutions. I want to be less angry, less depressed, less unappreciative, less hard on myself, less hard on others. Other than that, everything's good. Everything's good.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Yeah, the numbers are just there's perception is reality, but the perception is much different than the reality in the sense that in terms of the economy, we have the strongest growth in the G7, the lowest inflation, something like 50 or 60 percent of all GDP growth on a gross level. globally is going to come out of the US.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Our stock market represents half the value of the entire world stock market. Low unemployment. I mean, the problem is similar to the future, what William Gibson said about the future. Prosperity is here. It's just not evenly distributed. And people really feel it. I would argue this was a referendum on young men. It was supposed to be a referendum on women. It wasn't. Or women's rights.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
But the messaging, I think, has to, and I'm a fan of trying to keep it simple, and that is it needs to move, in my opinion, from identity politics. I really hope there's a reckoning here. My biggest fear around Democrats is they say, no, we weren't progressive enough.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And that they say we, and there's very articulate, compelling people on the left will say, no, we need to stick to our values. It's because we weren't strong about our values. And I'm like, Jesus Christ, that's, you want to talk about things getting even worse for us. I think they need to move dramatically away from – it just really frustrated me at the Democratic National Convention.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I felt like this is a special interest group on parade. All right, do we have an Asian Pacific Islander to speak to other Asian Pacific Islanders? And assuming that, oh, because I'm Asian or Pacific Islander, I want to hear the following things and feel seen around issues related to me as opposed to – that's not how I identify myself. And I think we really saw that with the Latino vote.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
They said, look – Being Latin doesn't define me and what I care about. And the example that really struck me, and I'm a huge fan of Sam Harris and he brought this up, was that, do you remember the court case or the court case that just happened where the young man was dealing or there was someone who appeared to be mentally... Daniel Penny.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Yeah, basically was on trial for... Murdering Jordan Neely. Well, yeah, he was accused of murder, but acquitted. And what they found in surveys was how you felt about it was if you found out who was white and who was black. That because it was a white man who had, people would argue, in self-defense or doing what he thought was the right thing, ended up killing this individual.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
All right, let's get into it. Today, speaking of being angry at others, today is the fourth anniversary of January 6th. We're recording this on, you guys said the 6th, Mike Johnson's encore as Speaker, Jimmy Carter's enduring legacy, and the Democrat strategy moving forward. Let's bust right into it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
How you felt about it, especially among Democrats, was knowing the identity and race of each of the parties. And it strikes me that – and I think it's a fair accusation of Democrats – is that we're in many ways more obsessed with race than Republicans. And I think we need to get away from this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I would fly – I would exit identity politics as aggressively as possible and move right into the discussion around inflation. around the economics argument. But until we move away from everything the Democratic Party being around, we're here to protect and advance the rights of this group as identified by their race, their religion, their ethnicity, their nationality.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I think we're stuck in this inexorable downward spiral.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Fox would love that story.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
It's been four years since the January 6th Capitol attack, and the shadow it cast on American democracy still looms pretty large. Over 1,500 people have been charged with sentences ranging from a few days to 20 days. And now on this anniversary, Vice President Kamala Harris has certified President-elect Donald Trump's win, a bitterly ironic twist on a day already steeped in history.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
When you pay the highest taxes in the nation and people are being lit on fire on public transport.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
People just walking by.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
You're seeing that wave, though. It's checking back. In San Francisco, they've said, OK, no more. It used to be if you stole less than $900, they weren't going to prosecute. Yeah, Prop 36. Yeah, that shit has gone away. By the way, just to end here on a positive note, I absolutely love Representative Torres.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And one of the things I like about him, too, is the far left just doesn't know what the fuck to do with this guy because the intersectionality of a gay, Latino, Black Democrat who is also— Millennial. Very millennial, but also very pro-Israel and wants to get away from identity politics. They're like, oh, wait. What? We want to like you, but you're making it hard to.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I think he's exactly kind of the Democrat.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
He's fantastic.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
So just we got to wrap up here. Just before we go, Biden is going to give his kind of last conversations here. Any thoughts on, you know, any advice for him? Or do you think, what can we expect here? Does it matter? This is sort of his last shot here. Any thoughts? I'm...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Harris has called January 6, 2021, a moment of lawlessness, violence, and chaos that tested the nation's democratic foundations. you know, one side of the nation or 47% of the electorate or whatever it is, is going to try and just not talk about it. I can't imagine it's going to come up a lot on conservative radio today.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I listen to that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
It's so funny you said that. I was so angry.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
When she was basically so outraged at the Israelis, I'm like, how come the New York Times and this individual doesn't appear to be that outraged about what happened on October the 7th? How come he's not back in her face saying... What on earth? It just struck me as so Biden-esque that he was playing defense and being very thoughtful and understanding her as opposed to saying, what the fuck?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
This is our ally. Of course we came to their defense. Of course we were going to provide them. Would you rather us have 10, 200 pounds? There's no elegant way to kill someone. And you keep citing statistics everywhere. from Hamas, better known as the Gaza health ministry, because you keep taking their word and not the word. He just did not get back in their face and give.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And to a certain extent, Biden should be able to take a victory lap around the U.S. 's support of Israel. And instead, they were millymouth about it because they wanted to have it both ways. They fucked up so badly on Israel because they did the right thing and they refused to take credit of it by having to
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And I felt like... And stab me in the front, not in the back. Don't give me a bunch of bullshit and say, well, we feel for the people. Yeah, of course we do. We all do. It's the greatest concentration of child amputees in the world. It's tragic. And you know what? That can be laid at the feet of Hamas and the 70% of Palestinians who still support Hamas. And that's what they... Their actions...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Their actions support that view. They deployed two carrier strike forces right away. In my opinion, the Biden administration has been very good. But what's the point of doing good if you're not seen doing good? Instead, they said, well, we can't lose the Islamic vote in Michigan. And guess what? They voted more than expected for Trump.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And the general view was I'd rather be stabbed in the front than in the back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And Democrats are going to try and pound the shit out of it and remind everybody what happened four years ago. Do you have any sort of... What are your observations kind of four years in?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
It's hard to end a war. We fucked up. On the whole, we got some stuff right. We got some stuff wrong. And he made the mistake I think Vice President Harris did when she was on The View and asked, what would you do differently? And she said, nothing. Anyways, this is going to be an exceptionally interesting week and an exceptionally interesting year. Jess, I am thrilled that we're doing this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Please subscribe to our distinct Raging Moderates feed. We are... We've had a fantastic first six months. We want to carry our momentum into 2025. That's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are Caroline Chagrin and David Toledo. Caroline is leaving Prop G Media.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I hate it when people leave voluntarily. You prefer to just fire them? Yeah, no, I don't mind that as much.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Caroline is going to the dark side. She's joining the Sith Lord known as Alphabet. Good luck. By the way, we're going to break their ass up. We're going to spin YouTube just because I'm angry at them. I'm about to go into my next podcast where I'm going to suggest that we break that shit up. And by the way, I wish you the best of luck.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I think it's important you go to work for crack dealers sitting outside junior high schools getting them addicted to To video and social platforms.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I hold a grudge. I can't believe she's leaving. How can you leave all this? She's been with you forever. You're leaving all this. But Caroline, you're a fantastic culture carrier in addition to being very confident. We wish you the best. I think you're going to do great there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
You are always welcome back. You have that when you're leaving Disneyland, and this is fucking Disneyland. This is the Matterhorn of careers. This is Space Mountain. This is good stuff. People vomit on Space Mountain all the time. You are leaving the park, but I am stamping your wrist in case you decide to return. You are always welcome. You just have to flash your wrist and say, I was wrong.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I was wrong. I want to stay with Scott. The most generous, loving person professionally in the history of modern society. And I screwed up by leaving the park early. You're always welcome back. Your wrist is stamped. Caroline Shagrin, best of luck to you. Thanks for all your good work. All right. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. He's staying. I won't say anything about Drew.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
You can find Raging—smart guy. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. Raging Moderates on its own feed. Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Have a great rest of the week, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Not enough. Not enough people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Yeah, I think we lost a lot of moral standing or currency around the world with our what I thought was sort of an errand or a mistaken invasion of Iraq. I think that was probably the geopolitically, maybe the worst, if not the second worst decision by US government that cost us currency around the world and also turned Iran into a superpower. I mean, it just couldn't have been more stupid.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
But I wonder in terms of our currency around the world and our moral authority, seeing the Capitol attacked and then having the guy who put up a golf tent to watch the attack, be reelected, I just feel like we've lost all right to kind of preach to anybody about democracy. I remember thinking I loved it when Prigozhin turned his army eastward and started marching towards Moscow.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And I thought, oh, my God, so embarrassing for Russia. And I had to remind myself, actually, this Duck Dynasty mob getting out of their RAV4s and their Oakley glasses and their You know, I'm being very disparaging in identity politics here. They actually raided the Capitol.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And the guy and the guy who kind of was egging them on and it was sort of their their spiritual leader on this was reelected president. It just is. Of all the things you could add up, and there's a lot here, the kleptocracy, the conviction around sexual abuse, the nuclear secrets or the secrets being hidden in a golf cart storage facility, I think this kind of bests them all.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And this is not an easy contest. And that is, if you don't believe in the peaceful transfer of power, I just, like so many things, I thought, okay, this is disqualifying. Brazil has a much stronger democracy than us. Their guy tried it and immediately got kind of flung out and they restored their democracy pretty quickly. And we didn't do that. We reelected the guy who sponsored it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
All right, moving on. Last week, with two votes separating Mike Johnson from the Speaker's gavel, President-elect Trump stepped in, calling GOP holdouts Ralph Norman and Keith Self to rally support. Their shifts secured Johnson's narrow victory, highlighting Trump's grip on the party and the challenge of uniting Republicans in a divided Congress.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Trump's endorsement was pivotal, with Johnson calling it a big factor and Rep. Andy Biggs admitting the outcome would have been different without it. Trump's hands-on approach, a contrast to past leadership battles, showcased his influence and the stakes of keeping the GOP aligned to deliver his agenda. Jess, how does this market shift in Trump's approach to party leadership, or does it?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
It strikes me that if you... A, position yourself. When I think of Senators Sinema and Manchin, they like to position themselves as moderates, but I just think they were raging narcissists and loved the position of being swing votes and having the cameras and the president or whoever calling them and begging for them to see their way clear.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
And then they could fall back and say, oh, no, we're just moderates and we have real concerns around these issues. It strikes me you're going to see, given the way elections work right now and how important it is just to get attention, regardless if it's good or bad attention,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I'd just be shocked if you're not going to see some of that mansion cinema holdout from a lot of Republican congresspeople who are going to be like, look, I'm really popular in my district, and I like the attention. I like the idea of having all this power by basically wringing my hands and saying, well, I'm not sure. I have some concerns. That's their favorite word.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I wonder if they're going to feel some of that frustration we used to feel where we couldn't And, you know, vote with your heart and conscience. It's important that people, you know, occasionally I like it when people break from a party line. But my sense is Manchin and Sinema got addicted to the attention of it. It really is kind of a split Congress at this point.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
It's hard to even say it's a Republican Congress, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I said the presidency was a landslide, not Congress.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
My understanding is that's near impossible, logistically. Is that right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Well, rebel forces are more likely inclined to follow their leader, right, when they're kind of on their heels, if you will. I think the deficit is a super interesting one because deficits seem to be always really high up in terms of concerns of the party not in control, right? And it is a huge issue.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
I've always said that, or not always, but I do believe that the largest tax increase in history is that from George Washington, George Bush, $7 trillion in deficits, the Trump administration of the first one, $8 trillion, and Biden wasn't much better. And all that is is pulling prosperity forward from younger people such that my generation can stay wealthy, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Jess, we are together.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
At some point, someone's going to have to pay this thing. And now the debt or the interest on the debt is now greater than our military expenditures. What's interesting is, in the administration, the unelected leader here, who I would argue is the secretary of adult behavior in the cabinet, is the bond market.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Yeah, so just to return to the 100% tariff on movies, I've established a nice friendship with a guy who used to run Warner Brothers Europe. And basically his job was to take the IP of Warner Brothers, whether it's Big Bang Theory or Batman or Harry Potter, and then travel around the 27 or 29 member nations of the EU and collect money from them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Oh, you're in Poland and you're the streaming network and you wanna run, you know, Warner Brothers films? This is how much you're gonna pay us. Oh, you wanna run the Harry Potter play on, you know, in the London Theater District? This is how much money you're gonna pay us. I mean, we collect, America actually does a relatively small number of things really, really well.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I was—one of my favorite tourist things in the world is the fat bike or fat tire bike tours, especially the one in Berlin. It goes everywhere, and they look at the guard towers and Hitler's bunker. And anyways, I'm officially like 100 years old. I'm fascinated by anything to do with— World War II. All right. Banter done.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Tech and software, education, we make the best weapons in the world, and hands down, we have the best media in the world. And we're running a 24 by 7 essentially commercial on American culture, whether it's Baywatch or whether it's friends and neighbors talking about the wealth problems of people in Connecticut, which I'm watching and I think is great. Jon Hamm, incredible presence.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
It's ridiculously hot. It's crazy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Oh, no. He's like the victim. It's such a ridiculous thing. I know. He's everything. Yeah. Anyways, yeah, he's very attractive. Anyway, let's just cut to what's going to happen. Other nations will say, okay, we're going to put a 100% tariff on any of your media coming in here. which means we're going to consume a lot less media.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
One of the things we negotiated away with Canada, at one time Canada, and maybe it's still in place, but I don't think so, said that 25% of media on Canadian cable has to be produced in Canada. And so they basically had a lot of shitty Canadian TV shows. I'm sure that, you know, The Boys in the Hall or something came out of it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
But effectively, this would be a boon to the local for in the short term. It'd be terrible for consumers in Poland, but they would get a short term sugar high from domestically produced content. I don't even know how you would calculate the tariff. But over the long term, all it does is the following. Media becomes much more expensive in those nations.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
The media industry in America, which employs millions of high-paid jobs, gets crushed, right? Because this truly is a frictionless export. You don't need ships, you don't need docks, you don't need retail distribution channels or trucks. Media can be transmitted over cables with zeros and ones. And we make unbelievable margins
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And to think that these nations aren't going to impose reciprocal tariffs, which will dramatically decrease the demand of our content overseas, which we haven't, as you pointed out, an incredible trade surplus. And this is what will happen. He will threaten it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Ted Sarandos from Netflix will call and say, you realize that this is going to take Netflix stock down dramatically as we do 51% of our content production is overseas now. We don't even know how to calculate. what the tariff would be. It'll take our stock way down. We're going to get very pissed off, as will the 315 million people who are on Netflix.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And he will do exactly what he's done across every single step in this process. He will blink. Netflix will be the new Apple. And that is, people say, well, what would happen to the price of Netflix in all these nations? And in our nation, if all of a sudden content produced overseas, of which 51% of Netflix content is now, whether it's the Umbrella Academy or
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
money heist, and Netflix says, oh, we might have to raise prices from $12.99 to $17.99. Americans started a revolution that basically resulted in the formation of our nation based on the action of people trying to raise taxes on tea, the Whiskey Rebellion. So this is again, nothing but chaos and paralysis, where the most talented people in the world in media, which happen to reside in America,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
In today's episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing the economy is one quarter away from a possible recession. Mike Waltz gets pushed out. Trump says he doesn't know if he has to uphold due process. And we have one of our favorites, Senator Chris Murphy, joining us to talk about the GOP budget bill and what Democrats are doing to message the possible harms to Americans.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
essentially have to spend all this time figuring out what the fuck does this mean? How do we even respond to it? Just in case, let's stop production overseas. Let's reroute our supply chain.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
We got to spend all of our time on earnings calls talking about how we respond to this instead of how we're actually trying to acquire consumers or produce more media that's more effective on a lower budget in our business models. And at the end of the day, he's going to do the same thing he did with Apple. He'll do the same thing with Netflix, and that is he will blink.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
But if, in fact, the tariff does go through in some form, it's the small independent producers, the smaller media companies that will be shit out of luck, that don't have lobbyists and don't have a cult following similar to Apple and Netflix. This, again, is nothing but a self-inflicted injury. There's all downside.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
and just shows this guy just does, even in the industries we are dominating, we are dominating globally, the last thing we wanna do is give any nation the excuse to raise tariffs on our content
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And this is one of the things we have negotiated tooth and nail, our trade representatives, is that we have ensured that if we produce great IP, which we produce the best in the world, when we produce fast and furious 12, that Czechoslovakia can't decide to start tariffing it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
We have fought for so long to let our content flow free overseas because it is better content and we reap the majority of those benefits. And now he's decided to wind back the clock and give all of these nations an opportunity to tax our media. Anyways.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And just to give you a sense, we think, well, it's not that big a deal if it's just going to create some uncertainty, and then ultimately we end up back where we think it is, and that looks more like it did before than not. Uncertainty is the death knell of markets. The markets hate uncertainty. And so far this year, the S&P 500 is down 6%, wiping out $6.5 trillion in value of public companies.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
The value of the U.S. dollar has plunged nearly 10%. And ETFs that track companies outside of the U.S. is up over 7%. I feel like we're having the biggest lawn sale in the world of $27 trillion in our economy that other people are thinking, okay, especially China and some EU nations are saying, okay, how do we take advantage of the fact that the U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
All right, let's get into it. We've got our first major shakeup in the West Wing. Trump has ousted National Security Advisor Mike Walz, best known for launching the world's most famous group chat, and nominated him as U.N. ambassador. OK, so you're fired, but you get a free toaster.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
seems to be getting into a trade war with China? I know. Let's get a bunch of stuff on sale as the fixed cost in Chinese factories. They want to keep those factories humming so they have excess supply. and the EU nations are going to be able to strike incredible deals on that additional capacity. In addition, all sorts of trade deals being done outside of the U.S.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
This is essentially, well, okay, this is a yard sale at the wealthiest home in the world. This is I don't know what the Louvre, if it was a private residence, oh, everything's for sale right now in terms of this economy. Everything is up for grabs because this person has gone crazy. They're not dead soon, but they've gone absolutely crazy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And the notion that consumers aren't gonna freak out, when consumers show up to a store and the shelves are empty, at least American consumers, their first instinct is to go buy something else, specifically a gun. Consumers freak out. I mean, this is a country that started hoarding toilet paper and hand cleanser.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
You did that?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Yeah, I was more focused on getting the vaccine, but... I did that too.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Well, people I've watched, I don't know if you saw anything from the Berkshire Hathaway Agora where they all get together. And basically it was kind of a farewell to a great American, Warren Buffett. And he was really appreciative in his comments. He said that you want the world to be prosperous, that when other nations do well, we do really well because we make fantastic products.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And when they have more money, they buy more of our products and it's an upward spiral. And one of the problems with this administration in terms of mentality that is just not prosperous or foots to the age is that they approach everything as a zero-sum game, that if another nation is prospering, it must be bad for us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And China's ascent into the global economy as a kind of a tier one nation has been great for us. And you might say, well, it's not great for us. Only 3% of clothes in America are manufactured domestically, how can that be a good thing?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Okay, in the last 40 years, on an inflation-adjusted basis, the price of clothing has been cut in half, which means Americans can focus on manufacturing things with much higher margin, I don't know, chips, media, And with that additional gross margin, by focusing on high margin products and additional profitability, we get to buy more shit. And at the end of the day, America is about rights.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Yeah, that's it. Stepping in, at least for now, is a jack of all trades and master of none, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will now be juggling four top-level roles in the administration. Meanwhile, the White House is touting strong April job numbers, but the economy shrunk in the first quarter, and Trump's tariffs really haven't really fully kicked in yet.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
It's about defending our nation and giving people the opportunity to buy more shit. People don't come here. I mean, a lot of people do come here escaping totalitarian regimes or they want or asylum. But the majority of people who come here, come here because they want more shit. And what I mean by that is- We call that opportunity. They want a more prosperous lifestyle.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
They want to be able to afford nice things for the kids. They want to take nice vacations. They want to have a nicer car. They want to buy better beer. They want to wear cooler clothes. They want to wear Nikes. They want to watch better media. And the notion that somehow... We have not benefited, since World War II, we have 8X'd our GDP. Our average household income is about 80 grand.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Granted, it is absolutely not fairly distributed, but that's our choosing. That has nothing to do with trade policy right now. But the notion that we haven't won, we've won, folks. We've won. And a big part of that is because of our incredible trade policy, where we've usually been both parties win, but we win equally.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
even more, and he was very eloquent and said, by the way, when other nations are more prosperous and their children are more prosperous, your children are safer. And that is when nations don't do well, they're just more inclined to declare war on their neighbors or be really angry at those gluttonous Americans who appear to be doing well and pulling ahead without us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I thought his comments were really solid, but just a quick rundown of some of the products from China that are imported into the US, 99% of shoes are imported, 90% of microwaves are imported from China, 82% of pots and pans, 70% of utensils, 40% of coffee makers, 93% of children's books, 86% of gaming consoles, 98% of umbrellas, 82% of blankets, 96%. of fireworks.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
The Republican Party really is genius at figuring out a way to get people to vote against their own interests. And as a result, JP Morgan is now predicting a 60% chance of recession. Goldman Sachs, 35% chance of recession. Barclays, B of A, Deutsche Bank, all warn of higher recession risks.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
What they're not talking about, which I think they soon will be talking about, is what's even worse than a recession. And you're too young to even remember this, but I remember this from my graduate student instructor days, stagflation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And that is traditionally when the economy slows, interest rates come down, because not as many people are feeling confident and want to borrow money, so banks lower the cost of borrowing money, people get more aggressive, it's sort of a self-healing mechanism. And then when consumers are trying to buy too much stuff and there's too many dollars facing too few products,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Banks take advantage of that and say, if you want to borrow money as confident as you are, you're going to have to pay us more. And then the higher interest rates temper or dampen the economy and bring inflation down. The worst thing in the world is where we're headed. And it's the following.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
in that as productivity goes down, because the demand for our products from reciprocal tariffs decreases, so the economy shrinks, but at the same time, we're seen as a less sure bet, and capital leaves the US driving up interest rates. So what do you have? You have interest rates going up, which further chases down, slowing productivity, and you have something called stagflation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And we haven't registered that in so many decades, people don't even really understand the concept, but here's what it is. Stagflation is a bridge to depression. Recession is a fucking Easter party compared to stagflation. That's the worst of both worlds. And it strikes me that essentially these tariffs and so far the economic policy are effectively said, how can we bring back stagflation?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
One of them, 100% tariff on foreign-made movies, which he claims is a national security issue. Yeah. Huh, okay. He's also warning of higher prices and toy shortages this holiday season and says he's okay with that. All right, got banging porn stars that has a tacky 757 laced in four-karat gold that calls every other day. He should lecture us about consumption. Trump's new budget
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
How can we bring back measles and rubella and stagflation? I've got an idea, massive tariffs. All right, moving on for a second. What do you make of Trump's comments about due process?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Well, it's an interesting idea. And just on a cost level, it's a hell of a lot more efficient than renting planes for a quarter of a million dollars and putting them in handcuffs and shipping them to a place where they have no family or support. But it's how we're doing this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
People don't want to acknowledge that, okay, the secret sauce of America, a lot of people admit has been immigration, right? But the most profitable part of that secret sauce has been illegal immigration. Because undocumented workers, as I've said before, Pay taxes, but don't stress local services. They don't stick around long enough to usually collect social security.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
There are some examples of crime. There are some examples of them taxing social services beyond the value they're adding. But that is the exception, not the rule. And the reason why we have turned a blind eye to illegal immigration for so long is it's been this magnificently flexible, inexpensive workforce that comes in when there's jobs and leaves when there isn't.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And the thought, you know, to me, if you were really going to be quote unquote smart about this, you would say to certain individuals, I mean, you need to massively increase immigration, but have it be thoughtful and have it be measured and have some, you know, some sort of logic to it, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
If the price of pistachios quadruples because we can't come find anyone to come harvest those crops, well, let's think about how we have some sort of temporary visa, similar to what Trump does at his hotels. But in terms of deporting,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Offering them incentives, but we still don't want to talk about the solution that actually probably most effectively decreases or encourages people to self-deport, and that is going after these nice people who are business owners. And that is in some states or some regions, they estimate somewhere between a quarter and a third of fast food workers are undocumented workers.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
You could make a pretty decent estimate with a pretty tight confidence interval of what percentage of your workforce is undocumented workers. And then you go to the employer and you say, we're going to start fining you $100,000 a day unless you get this down. If the jobs go away, they will self-deport on their own without a $1,000 bounty or $1,000 incentive.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
proposes $163 billion in cuts to education, health, and the environment while boosting law enforcement and border security. He also floated reopening Alcatraz as a symbol of law, order, and justice and said he's unsure whether due process rights must be honored during these mass deportations, though he'll follow the Supreme Court's lead. He hasn't so far.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Because the real solution here is something we just don't want to talk about. We don't want to acknowledge... that, okay, drugs coming across the border, well, let's punish them for letting fentanyl in. You can't keep drugs out of a prison.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
As long as there's demand for drugs in the United States as a function of people, either addiction or, you know, a man who doesn't get married or in a relationship by the time he's 30 has got a one in three chance of becoming an abuser, the fact that we over-prescribe opiates. As long as there is demand for drugs that are gonna get into the US, as long as there is a demand in jobs,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
right, for illegal immigrants, they're going to figure out a way to get here. Now, to their credit, it does seem like immigration has dramatically just cauterized or stopped. I think that's a good talking point for them. Are they going way too far? Are we probably going to see a massive hike in inflation? I absolutely think that's coming. But let me put it this way.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I think that's the least bad idea they've had in a while. What do you think?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
It's so funny. In some nations, they pay people to actually come there because they need labor.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Yeah, it's going to be. But it feels that the administration has somewhat snatched a feed from the jaws of victory because had they not had this El Salvadoran stupidity, most Americans agree with a pretty hard line approach and the results. Yeah. I don't think you can argue with that. The results have been dramatic, right? And it's like, okay, it's one thing to break a few eggs.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
It's another thing to like burn the village to save it, right? To totally go after due process. And some of these stories really are heart-wrenching. Okay, let's take a quick break. When we come back, our conversation with Senator Murphy. Stay with us. Welcome back. Joining us today is Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy. Welcome to the show, Senator. Hey, Scott. Thanks for having me back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
So there's a viewpoint that despite all the tumult, anxiety, general recognition that a lot of these actions from the administration are damaging to the economy. and essentially kind of waving a middle finger at the Constitution that while his popularity is down and he's had the worst first 100 days, the Trump administration or Trump is still more popular than the Democratic Party.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
All this comes as Trump and GOP leaders ramp up for the midterms, warning that a Democratic majority could bring a third impeachment, something they're hoping will rally the MAGA base. Jess, let's start with Waltz and the shakeup. Why do you think he was pushed out and how realistic is it for Rubio to wear all those hats?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And the thesis is that the Democratic Party is seen as weak and that the American public would rather have an autocrat than a party that's weak. And you gave a very fiery speech called 100 Days of Corruption. But in addition to these sort of fiery speeches, And, you know, generally highlighting how corrupt this administration is. It doesn't feel like that's enough.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
It doesn't feel as if the Democratic Party has shown any real tensile strength in terms of their ability to push back on the administration. Other than speeches, what could possibly be done here?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
So in addition to being taken seriously about being effective change agents, in terms of just our ability to kind of arrest or cauterize what a lot of people think is sort of an undoing of the post-World War II order that will take years, maybe even decades to repair, I thought we hit a low point last weekend when Schumer said that we had sent a strongly worded letter to the president.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I'll put forward a thesis. Start proposing laws that say if you're operating black sites in your country or engaging in crypto scans with this current administration, if and when we get control of the house, we'll propose laws that economically impair your nation or remind
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
some of the people in the administration or in the Republican Party, that the statute of limitations on fraud, corruption, or a variety of other crimes, the statute of limitations is longer than three years and nine months. I mean, just to put it bluntly, doesn't the Democratic Party need to start acting like sort of the party of not fucking around, quite frankly?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I mean, what we're doing just does not appear to be working.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
So, Governors Beshear, Newsom, Whitmer, Moore, Secretary Buttigieg, Senators Bennett, Klobuchar, Murphy, we have an outstanding bench. A lot of very strong moderates who I believe you're going to have to have a moderate to triangulate and have a shot at getting through or winning in the general. We'll talk about the primary.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Why just as a tactic, and I'm not asking you to indicate your plans or what you're planning or not planning to do. It feels like right now we're leaderless. that if the leaders of the Democratic Party are Senator Schumer or leaders Jeffries, I think most people think they're not up to the job of pushing back on this onslaught of corruption and autocracy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
What do you think of the idea of one of you or more of you announcing now that you're running for president, such that we at least have effective pushback in someone that the media and the public can turn to on a daily basis for arguments and evidence around how wrong this is? I mean, it seems to me that part of the problem is we just don't have visible, vocal leadership right now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Smell you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
What do you think of the idea of one or more of you announcing sooner rather than later that you're running for president?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I'm a member of Shamargo, the new hot members club downtown.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Me and Taylor.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
All fair points. So one of the strategies that the administration or President Trump has deployed that I think has been very effective straight out of the GRU's handbook of flood the zone. So many outrageous things every day that you're flat footed, don't know what to respond to. enter into a state of paralysis, end up running after things that aren't that important.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And it feels as if we do need to focus on a small, finite number of issues in a very forceful yet dignified way. One, do you agree with that?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And two, if you in fact agree with that, what would be Senator Murphy's one thing, if you could only talk about one issue that you think the Americans should be focused on in terms of how the administration is bad for America, what would be that one issue for you?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I'll get a babysitter. Maybe we'll see Katy Perry.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I'm convinced she was replaced with someone on the way back. Like a robot? No, some alien. There's something going on there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
So, Senator, young women going slightly more moderate or progressive, young men significantly more conservative. And I would argue that it's not that they're moving towards the Republican Party. It's the Democratic Party has moved away from them. And when I was at the Democratic National Convention, I saw a parade of special interest groups really robustly representing their constituents.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
But the one group that wasn't discussed or referenced is the group that, in my view, has fallen furthest fastest, and that is young men. And I think it really hurt us at the ballot box. One, do you agree with that? And two, if you do agree with that, what specific programs or ideas can the Democrats deploy to try and arrest the decline or at least nod how poorly young men are doing in our country?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
So if we were a household, we're taking in $50,000 a year, we're spending 70 household debt of 370,000 that when we die, our kids will assume that debt. We're either going to have to, it appears to me, raise taxes or cut spending. And the answer is probably both.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And I'm now of the mind that probably the only way to substantially decrease spending would probably be to attempt to really go after healthcare costs. which is the biggest part of our biggest consumer economy or biggest consumer spending item with terrible outcomes. One, do you agree with that?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And two, how could we in fact address a healthcare system where we spend eight times more for Humira or Ozempic than other nations and where hospital systems have figured out a way to make pricing totally non-transparent? I mean, it just feels like Washington, quite frankly, has just been weaponized by the healthcare industrial complex.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And as a result, we have worse health outcomes for more money. How would you address healthcare costs?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
So speaking of big ideas, we of the G7 spend double what the other G6 spend on health care with worse outcomes. And most of them have nationalized or socialized medicine, whatever you want to call it. Would you be up for something along the lines of lowering the age eligibility of, say, Medicare by two years for 30 years and eventually having national health care?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I hadn't heard that. Yeah. That's why we have him on, Jess. That's why we have him on.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Thank you, Senator. Thanks, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
It's so hard to try and decide who was most ripe to be fired. I mean, Waltz did invite... It's just so hilarious that they're not, you know, that the real sin here wasn't a breach of national security that put our servicemen and servicewomen at risk. And, you know, as I've referenced before, if you get pulled over for a DUI, it means you've likely driven drunk an average of 80 times.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I mean, what else has gone on here? Right. I think it should have been Hegseth, but he likes the way Hegseth looks. He's been more combative on TV. I agree with you. And then the real crime was having the phone number, the contact information of who's seen as a progressive journalist. That was the real sin. So they needed a blood offering.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I actually got to say, I don't think it's gotten much attention. You know, I think they kind of accomplished what they wanted. I think it's poor leadership to say, oh, here, you go do this now. I just thought that was, and you an ambassador. I mean, talk about, talk about that's like what they did with Carrie Lake. Now she's in charge of what, Radio Free Europe as they cut funding for it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
It reminds me of, did you ever see the movie Broadcast News with William Hurt and Holly Hunter? Just a wonderful film. And Julia, I forget her name. She played a Bond girl. She played Holly Goodhead in one of the Bond films. And she was in the movie Broadcast News. And she's a competitive threat for William Hurt's affections to Holly Hunter.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And Holly, who's the assigning producer, basically sends her to do stories in Alaska. So she still has a job, but she's in Alaska. I feel like Carrie Lake and now Mike Waltz, or in Alaska, if you will.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
How are you, Jess?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
But this guy hasn't learned this guy. The president hasn't learned the basis of greatness and success. And that is greatness is in the agency of others. And. You essentially, when you're on a board, your job is to basically decide if and when to sell the company. But more than anything, really your only job is to ensure you have the right guy or gal.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And the right guy or gal needs to be good at what they do, set strategy, be an external spokesperson. But the best CEOs, the best leaders recognize that greatness is in the agency of others, and they surround themselves with just incredibly competent people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I'm in Hamburg, Germany, for this big conference called Online Marketing Rockstars. There's a lot of old money here, and the juxtaposition of this industrial town with big cranes and waterborne factories or water-based factories with all these brand-new steel condominiums, steel and glass condominiums, it feels like Karl Lagerfeld exploded into a city. It is such a cool, interesting...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Your ability to build a great company, a great staff, a great cabinet is your ability to attract the most talented people, hold them accountable, and get them to work together and not be threatened by and show the ability to retain people that are more talented than yourself. And when you have the White House and the flag behind you, you can call on almost any individual.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And the fact that he's brought together this peewee, bad news bears, village idiot, Keystone Cops group of people, he's even doing himself a disservice because an incompetent who's really loyal to you isn't gonna serve you well. Because they're just going to make you look stupid all the time. It's not... Loyalty will be absolutely, and I believe this has already taken place, he has huge loyalty.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Peter Navarro thinks the guy's a god. And Peter Navarro is probably going to be the Nigel Farage of... this age, and that is he will be the architect. He will go down in history as the person we wish this guy, the president, had not listened to.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And he doesn't understand that if he wanted to, if he had gone about this stuff with less volume and not made as many really stupid decisions, case in point, the one he just passed or is threatening to pass, 100% tariff on any movies coming to the U.S.,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
he would probably be one of the more popular presidents of the first 100 days, because to his credit, he's doing what he said he would do on things that are largely, at least thematically, popular in the US, right? Deport immigrants, go after government waste and inefficiency, restore trade balance, which Americans incorrectly have determined has been asymmetric to our disadvantage.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
But he just doesn't get it. He's surrounding himself with idiots. it will absolutely undermine any benefit he gets from loyalty. Let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Moving on here, the economy shrunk in the first quarter and we haven't seen the full impact of Trump's tariffs yet. Any sense for, have you heard anything about, quote unquote, this line out the door of people looking to do deals with him?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
I just want you to know, I have sat across from that a lot. Just a lot. I've experienced that a lot from the other side. Yeah, that's what happens.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Yeah, I see a lot of women.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Oh, yeah, I got to tell this story. I moved to New York on my first date. I met a woman who was a hostess at a restaurant uptown, asked her out. She said, yeah, I got her number. We went to a hotel downtown. I walked in. We ordered drinks. I said I got out of the bathroom. I came back and I got a text saying, my friend's in the emergency room. I had to leave.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And I'm like, yeah. Which was, in my opinion, total bullshit. I mean, that was my first date in New York. As soon as she got on the cab ride to the restaurant, she decided her friend was going to get hit by a car and she had to leave immediately.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
And I absolutely love Germany. Work hard, play hard, very progressive. I just if I spoke German, I would live here. Have you been to Germany, Jessica?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Yeah, no, not even, didn't even go through that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
No, I think there's something about that Galloway charm that really just really started to scare the shit out of her.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Trade War vs. Hollywood (feat. Sen. Chris Murphy)
Oh, can you imagine? I mean, I host a successful podcast now. Look, speaking of the tariffs, what do you make of this 100% or proposed 100% tariff on foreign movies coming into the U.S.?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Well, so as we stand here right now, the Dow's off 100 or about 200 points, which you're right, isn't huge. I think the market, what the market is saying, and what a lot of Republicans, when they have absolutely no response for what is the strategy here, say, oh, this is, like you said, an opening salvo in people. What the market is saying is that He's done this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
helps me go out and drink recklessly and the next day I don't feel as shitty. Both ads that we will do. If you'd rather hear host readovers, please hit the subscribe button on our, both on YouTube and on our dedicated Raging Moderates feed. We would really appreciate it. Please do it now. We will tell you when we hit 50,000, but let's try to get there this week. Oh my God, that was so commercial.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
He'll get some sort of pinky promise, as Mark Cuban said. He'll declare victory and say, oh, we got this. They're stopping the shipments of fentanyl, and people will nod, do nothing, and he'll declare victory and then take these down or eliminate them. That's what they're saying right now. The problem with this is that when you threaten people— You know, they remember it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And I can just – he's creating an enormous opening for Russia and China to establish military bases, goodwill, cooperation between their intelligence services, less likely to cooperate with ours, less likely to call us and say – hey, we have information saying there's a terrorist organization in a cell and a bunch of these individuals have gotten on planes and are headed to New York.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
We have a lot of nations that will call, will cooperate with our intelligence personnel. I think part of the problem is I think Americans have cold comfort that one, they don't realize how many people are out there in organizations that would like to come kill us and take our shit away. And that this, our government security apparatus has been so effective
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And we are so strong at getting the best, better end of trade agreements and the prosperity we recognize, which I acknowledge has been crammed into, you know, disproportionately into too few people's pockets. I think people take for granted just how strong our security and government apparatus is overseas. and how much that is aided by the ultimate cloud cover of goodwill towards us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
That despite being arrogant, indulgent, loud, obnoxious, that people generally believe around the world, especially in the West, that we're the good guys, that they can count on us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And so to kind of stick up the middle finger, create chaos, do real economic harm without even a clear signal as to what it is you want in return, but just to do this because you can, even if in fact he does retract these things. I was on the board yesterday. of a large specialty retailer. And I talked to the person who runs the company over the weekend. I said, what do you think he's doing?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And he said, well, we've stocked up because we knew this was coming. So we stocked up. We got a bunch of stuff in, like six months worth of stuff before this took effect because we knew it was coming. And we're banking that...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
when he realizes when all of a sudden the price of everything goes up for American consumers, he's going to pretend that it was a victory and that he negotiated some deal and back away. And even if that comes off with as little damage as we think, That is like radiation that 20 or 30 years ago results in, you know, from now results in leukemia.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And the other thing that the only kind of analysis I did here that I think uncovered something that maybe the media isn't talking that much about is that this has, this tariff thing has Elon Musk's fingerprints all over it. What do I mean by that? If you look at Tesla to their credit versus other automobile companies, the majority of
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
goes across the Mexican and Canadian border back and forth several times because there's different parts manufacturers with different advantages or skillsets across the trade agreements in Mexico and Canada. Tesla, to its credit, has built a company that has kind of a deeper manufacturing base. What do I mean by that? The majority of the car is assembled domestically.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And you think, well, what about China? They're going to have to pay tariffs when China imposes reciprocal tariffs. Actually, the majority of cars sold in China from Tesla are produced in China. Now, some of the Chinese manufactured Teslas that are sold in Europe face a 7.5% tariff, which, by the way, he's suing them for.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But of all the companies in the automobile industry that will be least impacted by these tariffs, it's Tesla. So again, even—I mean, we talked about cutting off—he has access to the payments for Veteran Affairs, all these different things that people are worried about. Even where they don't see his fingerprints, his fingerprints are there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I believe that he had a large—a lot of influence in how these tariffs were implemented, such that it has— It has seriously diminished the economic power of his automobile rivals. And again, it's, okay, the richest man in the world now has more access to the federal government payment system, can decide to turn off or on veterans benefits. I mean, just this crazy shit. And what do you know?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
He's the richest man in the world. And it all goes to the same place. And that is, and I was talking with Kara about this on Pivot. And we'll get to this, all of the websites that are disappearing around family planning and choice and HIV and vaccines. I see this as the far right and Trump have said, it's not a war on gay people or a war on women. It's a war on the poor.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
All right. Let's move on to banter. How are you?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Because I think the deal they've struck is they've said, you know, poor people always have a backdoor to family planning, to vaccines, whatever it is they need. They'll be fine. They'll figure it out. This really feels like a war on the poor.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And the flip side of that is that the richest man in the world is now basically much more powerful than any elected representative, any governor, any senator, any congressperson. I still think Trump's more powerful because he can fire Musk. But we now have an unelected person. And what do you know? He happens to be the wealthiest person in the world. This is full idolatry of money.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This is full capture by money of D.C. And I think it's going to come at a huge cost to the long-term goodwill. And it's so strange. And I'll stop my word salad here. For the first time in my life, and it feels really odd, I'm rooting for the Germans and the Canadians.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
When the German public turns out, 100,000 of them, to say, by the way, when your fucking idiot shows up and tells a far-right group here they should be proud of their culture, the majority of Germans do not believe that nor endorse that message.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
When Canada boos when the national anthem is sung at a sporting event in, I don't know if it was Toronto or Montreal, I got to be honest, I'm with them, and it feels really, really unusual.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I 100% don't care. I don't even know who Luka Doncic— That's not true. Is that a Serbian tennis player? Who is—I have no idea who that is, seriously.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that the symbol of America isn't really an eagle, it's a pendulum and that, you know, it's never at the bottom.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And if you're looking for a moment of optimism, I believe that the majority of Americans will come to realize, whether it's through an inability to rebuild their house for less than 40% more, the fact that prices are going to go up, the fact that we're going to start to meet people who are really treated unfairly, or just the fact they're going to go, you know, I'm no longer as proud to be an American as I used to be.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think there's a decent chance they have really overreached here. And some of the damage that's going to come out of this is going to frighten people who even thought they were, you know, I think a lot of people probably didn't sign up for this. And while it might feel good and like, yeah, take that, libtards. And I mean, I just find it so telling that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
that some of the agencies charged with rounding up, if you will, undocumented workers, where are they going? They're going to work sites, schools, and places, and churches. And it strikes me, okay, if you found a group of people and said, where can we find them? We can find them where only 40% of Americans work. 145 million people have a job out of 350 million.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
These people are working, they're going to church, and their kids are going to school. Doesn't that kind of make them ground zero for what America is supposed to be? And then to go macro, and I am not a believer in open borders. I absolutely think 250,000 people coming across the border in December of 2023 got us into this fucking mess. I think Biden did a terrible job.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But at the same time, what we have to acknowledge is, okay, how did we get here? We got here. Because if America's secret sauce is immigration, the most profitable part of that sauce is illegal immigration. And we have known about it. 17% of people on a construction site are undocumented workers. There are all these videos now everywhere of all these work sites that are empty. They come in.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
It's the most flexible, profitable workforce in history. It's not Stanford graduates. It's not immigrants from India running NASDAQ companies. It's illegal undocumented workers coming in, taking care of grandma, picking our crops, providing services for quote unquote below market. I renovated a house. There's not a single American who will work outside. They just won't do it. You can't find them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Just so you know.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
They're still in plumbing and electric. Any other job building a house is like, I can't find domestic workers. And they're very profitable. They don't tax social services. They don't stick around for social security, despite the fact they pay social security taxes. So they've been demonized.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Every male viewer and a decent number of female viewers on YouTube right now have decided you are, in fact, the perfect woman. That you not only bring a lot of intelligence and you're obviously very attractive, but you understand the latest in basketball trades. You literally are.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This feels eerily reminiscent of the 110,000 Japanese who made the mistake of their parents being born in Japan. They did nothing else, and they were rounded up and put in camps. That was a stain on the American experience, and it feels like we're getting eerily close to some sort of kabuki version of that, or some sort of karaoke version. I don't know what the term is.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
A bad, impromptu version of that. But this is... I got to think if I'm looking for a piece of optimism, it's like, oh, my gosh, I can't imagine that moderates who decide elections are looking at this. I think for about three or four days they thought right on. OK, went too far, but I'm enjoying it. It tickles my sensors. Those fucking Democrats. I love this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think this is way further than people had anticipated. You want to talk about. an impact. Try and build a house right now. Wait till you go to the grocery store. I don't think you're going to see prices pivot as quickly as people think because per this CEO I spoke to, they were expecting this, so they stocked up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But when the guy who said the war in Ukraine would be over in 24 hours and then I'm going to have your prices come down right away, when prices start ticking up, I had We were very critical of the Democrats' response, and I had a Democratic senator call me and say, well, what would you do? I'm like, I'd totally focus on prices.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I'd have on the DNC website the price of six foodstuffs, and I'd track it every day. I don't think people realize what's coming.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And then this nonsense about politicizing a tragedy. The wildfires were politicized by both ends. Democrats immediately said it was climate change. Republicans said it was DEI. They were both wrong in my view. I mean, we'll find out, but that immediately went to politics. On the airline disaster, the Democrats, I think, handled that correctly. And basically, the Republicans said it was DEI.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And of course, no one has been able to establish a language with DEI. And if you look at the FAA— You know, I'm about to get on a plane for Orlando in about two hours.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I can get there for about 400 bucks and it is safer to get on a plane to skirt along the surface of the atmosphere at eight tenths of speed of sound for, you know, whatever it is, 7,000 miles, or I'm sorry, no, about 4,000 miles, 7,000 kilometers than it is to go, well, literally walk up my stairs. You take a greater risk when you walk upstairs than when you get on a plane.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I have no idea who that is. Unless it's Cole Palmer, I don't care.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
The FAA, granted, this is a tragedy. I don't in any way want to diminish the tragedy of the families who have lost loved ones, but we should pray for companies and organizations that do as well as the government-run FAA. It is amazing. And if DEI had anything to do with the culture
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
at the Federal Aviation Administration, then we should incorporate DEI into any or every organization because they do an amazing job. And it's such bullshit because the standards have not been lowered. All they did was broaden the aperture to try and find candidates from different backgrounds. And when you attack DEI, be clear, I understand the notion.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I have proposed and advocated before it was cool to disassemble the DEI apparatus in campuses, because I think that problem has mostly been solved. It has not been solved in corporations. And be clear, as it relates to the government, if you want to get rid of DEI, that's really going to impact veterans.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
There are a lot of veterans who have lost a limb, suffer from PTSD, and because of DEI, they have a fighting chance of being employed after they return from service. So just be careful what you're asking for. And the politicization of that was so ugly and so strange and such a disservice to all government employees. It just feels as if, where is this going to... I mean, where is this headed?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I'm like you having trouble. Do you think you're going to get a check back? What you just said about Claudia Schombom says to me, his advisors have already said, okay, we may have overreached here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
What did I do this weekend? Really? My favorite weekend? I did absolutely nothing. My boy was home. My 17-year-old comes home on the weekends from boarding school. And my 14-year-old, on the weekends, he turns into, he's kind of difficult. I think, I don't know what it is about the dynamic, but on the weekends, he's tough.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think that might have something to do with it. And then we went to a one-year-old's birthday party, Snoozerama.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Shut down entire departments.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I keep telling you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah. Yeah. I'm out of that. I'm out of that stage. But they're nice people and I knew they'd have a bar. So it was fun. And then what did I do? Did I have any fun Saturday night? You know, really boring weekend. Didn't even watch any Premier League games. I'm headed to, after this, I'm bombing to the airport and I'm headed to Orlando.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, Argentina is not America. And to use it as a role model is just plain stupid. Argentina... In Argentina, 55% of registered workers work for the government. In Argentina, they have an inflation rate of like 170%, and it's declined, I think, to 118%. So that's type of shock therapy. It's easy to understand why that was receptive. It's just not—that just isn't the case in the United States.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And this general notion of people— I think it all reverse engineers back to income inequality, where people feel really frustrated when they see all this prosperity that they're not sharing. And so they get angry. And then oddly, you know, this guy positions himself as an outsider, shitpost government. And if you think, I had one of those moments where...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
For the most part, we need to look at government regularly, but for the most part, I find that, generally speaking, government workers do an outstanding job. The most impressive organization in the world is the U.S. government wing, and that's our Department of Defense and our Armed Services.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
They are the most impressive organization in history in terms of what they've been able to accomplish on a lot of different levels. I mean, and if you want to talk about why we have deficits and why taxes, I mean, why we have... you know, like what I would call a reckless fiscal policy, something they also passed under the cover of dark while trying to figure out, respond to this ridiculousness.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
They passed a tax cut. And that is anyone making under $300,000 is about to see their taxes go up or their proposed tax cut. And people making over $300,000 are about to get a tax cut. Is that what moderates wanted? Anyways, this is the strategy, and it's unfortunately really effective, is flooding the zone with weirdness and depravity.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And because there's an absence of journalists and because we don't know where to react first, we're literally like in MASH, a MASH unit, where all of a sudden 600 soldiers get brought in on stretchers with an absence of limbs. We do not know anything. Anyways, on that optimistic moment, we're going to take a break. Please stay with us. So welcome back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I want to talk about a couple of things and get your response to each of them. So a couple of the things we haven't been talking about. The U.S. government has decided or basically Trump has decided that. to eliminate and take down sites. According to reporting from Wired and the New York Times, more than 8,000 pages across government sites have been taken down since Friday.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This follows Trump's orders to take down all outward-facing media, sites, social media accounts, that include or promote gender ideology. Topics of pages taken down include vaccines, veterans affairs, hate crimes, and scientific research.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Of all places.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Specifically, 3,000 pages were taken down from the CDC, 3,000 pages from the Census Bureau, 1,000 pages from the Office of Justice Programs, 200 pages from Head Start, a program for low-income children, and 180 pages from the Department of Justice. And this goes to a theme. That I'm big on.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And that is, I believe that the way Trump is implementing a misogynist, anti-gay ideology is to say to communities, if you're rich, you got nothing to worry about. If your nephew's gay or transgender or your daughter needs to terminate a pregnancy, don't worry that this is continuing a war on the poor.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Because one of the things they took down, I was reading about, was this HIV transmission calculator. where you went in and talked about the type of sex you practiced, your sexual orientation, very straightforward questions. And it said, okay, you're at high risk or low risk, but there's options available. Or what type of options or programs are available for a pregnant woman who contracts an STD?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Again, see above. Like, you're not smart. I am doing a speaking gig at Disney World. And that's a first for me. Yeah, I'm doing a speaking gig at it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And I think about, okay, my son doesn't need that website. My son has education. to parents at home, money to figure things out, or my daughter would need it. This is an attack on poor people under the auspices of implementing a far-right, white Christian nationalist ideology with a wink and a nod saying, okay, but my daughters and my sons, if I'm rich, we need an out. We need a backdoor here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Your thoughts, Jess?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And you should keep that to yourself. But anyways, go ahead.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
It's a perfect storm of bad things. One, social media has gutted journalism. The number of journalists over the last 20 or 30 years is down somewhere between 20 and 30 percent. And they're arguably the largest cop ever. or the most powerful cop that doesn't carry a badge to report on this stuff. And they're just overwhelmed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And in addition, the quote-unquote information that has replaced these journalists traffics in rage and makes you hate the government and hate each other, which has kind of led to this. And then you'd couple that with the idolatry of the dollar, where we let one person who happens to be the richest person in the world make these sorts of decisions.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think it's the seventh ring of hell for most of us. You have to take your kids there. And 364 days a year, I under-contribute to this whole parenting thing. And then one day a year, I take—or used to because now they're a little too old. Now they go to Universal. Universal is for teenagers, but Disney was for kids. I would take my two boys and six of their friends there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
You end up with an uneducated populist who believes in conspiracy theory, is enraged, and the wealthy or the wealthiest man in the world will start making these unilateral decisions with a lack of checks and balances, not only from a Congress that's worried about him turning his sights and his money and his algorithms on them and primarying them, but because people are just so in awe. of money.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
You referenced what I think is just a national disgrace, but again, there's so many disgraces we can't focus on these things, and that is the foreign aid freeze. The U.S. Congress froze foreign aid, a decision that will go down, in my view, in history as one of the most short-sighted, destructive, and frankly, un-American failures of leadership.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
To be clear, foreign aid is a rounding error in the federal budget. It's about $70 billion or $200 per citizen in exchange for that. What do we have? Sudan, war-ravaged country, is on the edge of starvation. Until last week, U.S. funds supported 634 soup kitchens feeding 800,000 people. After the freeze, 434 of those kitchens were shut down overnight in Thailand and Myanmar.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Patients with tuberculosis and life-threatening conditions are being carried away on makeshift stretchers, told to leave U.S.-funded hospital within a week because they have no more supply of medicine and they have nowhere else to go in Africa. Famine-riddled Sudan is worsening. Six million people are on the brink of starvation, four and a half million dying. displaced people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
They were on the verge of eradicating diseases, including malaria and malnutrition. Some of those clinics are shutting down. Global health, U.S.-funded HIV-AIDS programs in South Africa and Haiti has stalled, putting hundreds of thousands of lives at risk. And be clear, folks, even if you want to make the moral argument, well, that's a tragedy, but I want that $200 focused on American kids.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Okay, that's an argument. Don't agree with it, but that's an argument. But the geopolitical fallout here is going to come back to haunt us. China and Russia are stepping into this void while the U.S. pulls back. Beijing is deepening its ties in Africa and Latin America. Aid isn't just about generosity. It's about influence.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And Washington's retreat is just going to leave this gigantic vacuum that our adversaries are happy to fill with a fucking fraction of their investment. Putin will come up with that $70 billion if he can grab some of that goodwill.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
So for 200, the majority of Americans and I think Republicans and Democrats, we sat them down and said, this is the good we're doing around the world, around HIV, malaria, starvation, displaced refugees. This is what we are doing for pregnant women with AIDS, with kids, with vaccines. This is what happens if we withdraw. Are you willing to give us $200 right now, here and now for the year?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think the majority of Americans would say, Absolutely. This aid freeze isn't just a moral failure. It's a strategic disaster, weakening our allies, funding humanitarian crises, and abandoning global leadership. It's going to cost us a lot more than 200 bucks per citizen. This is the definition of
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
of a lack of strategy and taking goodwill built over decades and investments by previous Americans and taxpayers and just trashing it in the worst way. This is just so dumb.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
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Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
to Disney for the weekend. Whoa. And that, as far as I'm concerned... Alone? Yeah, just me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, I don't. At some point, we're going to have to do a show on what can be done here. But I've said around Democrats, this is not a time to come together. This is a time to come to the rescue and focus on the economic impact. I do think Democrats are starting to hit back. I loved some of the Senate confirmation hearings. I think Senator Michael Bennett is an absolute hero.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I might be able to rope another guy into the seventh ring of hell just so we can complain to each other. But as far as I'm concerned, that compensates for my negligent parenting the rest of the year. I think that... I can totally see... That you enjoy it? I don't understand it, but I can totally see it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
By the way, who I supported for president.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think there was a third somewhere in there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But I probably James Bennett, his brother.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, they're very impressed. But it really I know Senator Bennett. He's a really decent man. Public school superintendent. Senator was in private equity, understands capitalism anyways. I thought Senators Sanders and Warren were very effective. So it is good to see Democrats hitting back. But this does feel like we're in uncharted territory. Anyways, we're going to take one more quick break.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Stay with us. Welcome back. Before we wrap, Ken Martin's election as chair of the Democratic National Committee marks the beginning of a huge challenge after spending 14 years leading Minnesota's DFL. He's no stranger to political battles, but now he's stepping into a role with a lot more weight. His victory was a decisive one, but it's only the first hurdle.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Martin's job now is to unite a divided party and rebuild momentum after disappointing losses in 2024, all while preparing for a tough battle against the Trump-led GOP in 2028. Jess, with contenders including Ben Wickler, who had a lot of big-name support, what do you think gave Ken the edge in securing the win, and how do you think he'll use this momentum to unite the DNC moving forward?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Oh my God, it's so awful.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think we've done a really bad job, we being Democrats, of building our bench.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I'm trying to think.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, but my view is that we've decided to opt for 90-year-olds who engage in insider trading and won't leave. that the top of the pyramid is so stacked with right but ineffective players that we're not advancing some of our younger voices fast enough.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I just think they're... I think if you're young, ambitious, and talented, you want to get to America and you want to be a Republican right now because I think the Democrats have decided that it's a senior's facility. And I just think we need to absolutely elevate... I mean, for God's sakes, Amy Klobuchar, I think she's 60 or 62. She looks like a teenager compared to the rest.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Hakeem Jeffries looks like he's 15. We need to get some of these younger, more forceful people. I'm not a huge fan of AOC's policies. I love that she said, I'm not going to the inauguration. He's a rapist. I mean, where are those voices? I mean, we needed to identify a cadre of 30 or 40.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I mean, Secretary Buttigieg, I like how he came out and immediately tweeted, you know, zero crashes on my watch, boss. And that's an unfair statement, and he should make it. But I don't think, I think we have, I don't know, I think we're like a corporation. I think a lot of these people need to be put on an ice floe, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
They have that princess thing where you sign up your little girl and she goes in and they make her up and they put wings on her and a little princess fairy thing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And then they have that little area where she's introduced and they have lights and smoke and she comes out. I sat there for 15 minutes while my kids were going on Space Mountain or something and watched the most beautiful little girls come out and you... They come out like they're floating. And I thought, oh my God, Disney, like I've made me want to buy Disney stock as emotional as I am.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Every time I saw it, I thought, this is the greatest threat to democracy. An individual who shares company with Bashar al-Assad and can't call Edward Snowden a traitor is going to just destroy the morale of people who put themselves in harm's way every day and wonder, is this person really going to have my back? And then I think, oh no, she's not the worst.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
He's the worst, that we're going to have kids who are going to lose limbs and have hands and feet amputated, which is what happened if measles, we have another measles outbreak who's selling onesies to babies that says, you know, vaxxed and, I mean, unvaxxed and what is it? What were those onesies?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, and it's just very odd, really.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, he's coming across almost as like semi-legitimate. And Senator Rubio has always been a political animal. He wakes up every morning and looks in the mirror and says, hello, Mr. President. He would do anything to increase the likelihood. And quite frankly, and I'm circling back the very beginning here around our immigration policy, they got very serious about immigration about 20 years ago.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And they had something called the Gang of Five, and they included this very young senator named Marco Rubio in. And he blew up the whole thing because his pollsters decided that in Iowa, they don't want anything resembling a path to citizenship for dreamers. So Marco Rubio will always do what he believes is the most politically expedient thing, full stop. I mean, he really is the opposite of...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And my favorite statement about Marco Rubio is who would have thought that peoples with the last names Cruz and Rubio would hate Mexican people so much? He really hasn't been. Anyways, and what's strange is I can see how he flew in 99 to zero because we have just changed, entirely changed the benchmark. But what you said about, is it Senator Hassan? That was really powerful.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Actually, I think that's probably a good place to end it. I don't have anything upbeat. What are you doing this week, Jess? Let's get back to you. Talk about something upbeat. Anything going on with your kids?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I am desperate.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
It was these little girls. You could tell they were thinking about this all year and they picked out their outfit and they do such an amazing job. It really is. It really is incredible. But just to bring us back to reality. I had one of those moments that made me feel very depressed about income inequality, and I'm on the right side of that trade, so this is a story of privilege.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Very good. Trust me on this. You cannot take enough pictures when your kids are young. I, every day I send a photo of, Of me and one of my boys when I was with them when I was a kid. I sent it to them. I texted to them at school. And it is, you can't take enough photos.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, they do.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
There you go. All right. That's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. Raging Moderates on its own feed. Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But I took the kids, and the ride Avatar, it was a three-hour wait. So you could pass out the movie Avatar on an iPad, and people could watch it before they actually got on the ride. And You just saw so many families in line holding their kids asleep. And I thought, this is borderline abusive to create something that parents have to go to and the majority of people can't.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And I did one of those VIP tours where you pay thousands of dollars and you roll by the entire line. And then the person at the front of the line operating the ride gives you a hand signal in case you want to go twice. And I remember thinking, at some point, the people in the line, it goes Planet of the Apes and they kill us all.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
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Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Because this is so out of control, the disparity between the life that 99.9% of Americans have to lead and the rest of us who've gotten really lucky. Anyways, it was one of those moments I thought, this is weird. This is uncomfortable. Anyways, that's my Disney story. Okay, Jess, in today's episode, we're discussing chaos reigning across the federal government. Chaos is the right word.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Trump launching a trade war with tariffs and Democrats elect a new chair to lead their party. That's kind of a snooze. The first two...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
It's going to be hard to make that sexy. All right, let's get into it. Trump. The Trump administration threw the government into total chaos with a surprise spending freeze that cut off funding for things including school lunches, college financial aid and medical research.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Then just as quickly as it appeared, the freeze was blocked by a federal judge only for the White House to insist they weren't actually backing down, leaving everyone even more confused. But that was just sort of the first inning here. Trump has been on a signing spree, rolling out executive orders targeting schools, trans kids and immigrants, even tried to blame a deadly plane crash on DEI.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And on top of that, his administration sent a mass email offering millions of federal employees. a chance to resign now and still get paid through September. Workers were stunned. Legal experts are flummoxed. And no one's really sure if this is even legal. Jess, I mean this sincerely. Where should we start?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This special series from The Verge is presented by Adobe Express. Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, it feels like the high sparrow and his acolytes.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
So first off, just because we're capitalists here and there's not anything important going on in the world, it's important to run a commercial as we start here. But effectively, a little insight into the podcast world. The RSS feed where people subscribe is what advertisers look at. And right now we're at 42,000.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And you need to start. Okay. Just start. Just trust me on this. Look, this is just taking it in order, trying to... My mom used to say, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Let's just start with the erosion. If you were to start with... We have 750 military bases in 80 countries. China has one in Djibouti in Africa.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And I think when terrorists try and transmit funds or they have a choice, a government has a choice between partnering with a U.S. company or a Chinese company or another Western company, they generally choose us. And first off, this notion that somehow America has been taken advantage of.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
As someone who has been roaming the earth, working with the biggest global companies in the world, I've done deals with world leaders on behalf of companies, not on behalf of the US government. The notion that we are somehow getting taken advantage of around the world is just so asinine. We flex our muscles every minute of every day around the world in terms of our trade agreements.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Do you think these 80 countries that host our military just decided to do it because they like us? I mean, that's some of it. But that goodwill, that power, we exercise and benefit from every day. So just starting there, the notion that this is somehow a recalibration to get back to some symmetry of equity, that's just not true.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And starting with the economic argument, not the moral argument, in Canada— First off, they don't even know what he wants. They're claiming it's because of the flow of fentanyl across the border. There really isn't a lot of fentanyl coming in from Canada. It's like 43 pounds. You could maybe make that argument for Mexico, maybe even for China, because some of it's being manufactured there.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But Canada isn't dumping fentanyl from Vancouver. That's just not happening. And Canada can't even figure out what it is he wants. And keep in mind, this is a nation that in the Iran hostage crisis, the Canadian ambassador residence hosted or hid hostages. They risked their lives in the embassy there to help get Americans out. They followed us into Afghanistan, no questions asked.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
They followed us into Iraq, no questions asked. We have Major League Baseball. You just mentioned the NBA. We have American sports teams in Canadian cities. And we've decided to declare economic war on Canada. And It's not only reckless, it's stupid. And that's just on the economic side. We can go further into the other mendacious things they're working on, but this tariff issue.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This tariff is just – I always go to the economics. I'm like, okay, how can I figure out a way to take Brexit and expand it and supersize it where we make our nation less productive but increase costs for everyone in the United States? I know. Let's take Brexit. Let's make it 10 times worse or bigger.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And once you get to 50,000, for some reason, the advertising industrial complex has decided then they can start advertising with us. And keep in mind, we still have ads, but they're those shitty rotational ads that have a stranger reading them. And if you want Jess Tarlop to tell you why Athletic Greens gives her that radiant look or why I am so much better now that I have Z Biotics, which, uh,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And then let's figure out a way to be really mendacious and mean to people in the United States and in special interest groups and across Europe. the world. Your thoughts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Congressman Tom Suozzi on Bipartisanship in the Trump Era
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Congressman Tom Suozzi on Bipartisanship in the Trump Era
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
Looking forward to it. So let's jump right in. We're just a few months into Trump's second term. You spent your career studying how political eras take shape. How would you describe the one we're in right now?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
Look, so you have a kind of branded crystal ball. Given that we're still a ways out, can't come soon enough, what are we, 18 months out? What are your predictions so far? What do you see regarding the House and 26 and any Senate races?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
Just last question.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
We go forever. Yeah, it's not cable news. Larry Sabato is a professor at the University of Virginia and founder of the Center of Politics. We very much appreciate your time today, Larry, and congrats on the Center and all your success.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
So if you were going to zero in on one thing that you find most distressing, I mean, part of the problem here is sort of the flood the zone of all these different things that seem outrageous that I think a lot of us feel flat-footed in terms of what to focus on. What is the one thing that has you most disturbed?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
So, but just if I may, I agree with you, but I don't think sort of, at least to date, I'm not sure that the valid upset about the attack on democracy is working. I'm not saying that narrative isn't right. I just don't know if it's effective. And what I'm asking is, what specifically do you think presents the greatest threat so far to democracy?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
Is it the illegal usurp of congressional power for the purse? Is it tearing up old alliances, siding with dictators or autocrats over our allies? Is it the weaponization of the DOJ? What specifically, if we were to try and focus in on specific things rather than this call that democracy is under attack, which a lot of us agree with, what specifically do you think
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
is the most disturbing specific act of the Trump administration so far?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
So one of the things that frustrates me as a Democrat, and it sounds like we share concern over what's taking place, is that I feel like the best ally of this autocracy is an incredibly weak Democratic Party. And that if the election, my understanding is the election happened a few days ago, despite everything that's gone on, that the president still would win.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
And I see leadership that is feckless. I see an inability to message correctly and meet people where they get their news now. And I couldn't even name if someone said, who's the Democratic leader? I wouldn't be able to give you a name. I don't know if it's AOC or Senate Minority Leader Schumer. You study politics and election cycles.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
If you were advising the Democratic Party here on how to effectively punch back, what points in history would you look to, either in this nation or abroad, such that we could rally what is a more effective resistance?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
So, Jess, today we're joined by one of the sharpest minds in American politics, Larry Sabato. He's a professor at the University of Virginia and founder of the Center for Politics, where he spent decades studying the pattern shifts and surprises in U.S. elections. You've probably seen his team's crystal ball election forecast. They're some of the most cited in the country.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
You spent your life at an institute of higher education. How would you describe the quote-unquote anti-discrimination or efforts to root out anti-Semitism of the Trump administration by cutting funding to higher education institutions? What is your viewpoint there, and can you point to any similar situations throughout history and how that informs what's going on here?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
And Larry himself doesn't shy away from calling out threats to democracy, whether it's Trumpism, rising voter apathy, or the nationalization of local races. In recent months, he warned that we're in a dangerous moment, one defined more by emotion than ideology, where outrage is fueling turnout. And independents are swinging fast. Larry, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Peering Into the Crystal Ball (feat. Larry Sabato)
Agreed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
In every company, there's a whole system of decision makers, challenges, and strategies, shaping the future of business at every level. That's why we're running a special three-part Decoder Thursday series, looking at how some of the biggest companies in the world are adapting, innovating, and rethinking their playbooks.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
This is our bot and bar mitzvah that we never had.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
This is so exciting. I'm really happy to be here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
This is very exciting.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
So something I've struggled with, Leader, is the difference between being right and being effective and the illegal seizure of constitutional power, tariffs that seem to be hurting everyone everywhere all at once, and we're all outraged. And yet Trump's at 41%, the Democratic Party is at 25%. It feels as if America is saying, I'd rather have toxic, illegal and illegal versus ineffective.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
It feels like the Democratic Party is weak and neutered right now. In sum, what's your plan to change that?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Well, you gotta fit the moment, and this is a classy group of people at an esteemed institution. I just want to keep it kind of low-key, and I don't want this to be about me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
But it feels as if it needs to be more than we're just not him and how bad he is, that we have to pain. Yeah. did I tell you this is my bar mitzvah?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
It feels like we need to paint a vision of the future, and it has to be more of a vision than let's go back to the way things were. Correct. So can you give us just a taste of what that vision might be? Is it prosperity? I mean, what is the message that's going to get people excited and the moderates who quite frankly are
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
basically gonna just vote around the economy or who seems to be more compelling at the moment. Because right now, it doesn't feel like the Democratic Party is crystallized around a leader. It feels, quite frankly, we're a little bit leaderless and absolutely void of any compelling message other than we're not him.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
All right, true story. This side of the audience was Jess's invitees, a little bit more progressive, a little bit more politically correct. These are the dog pound. These are the dog pound, okay? Tailoring my message to the audience, we assemble here tonight on the unceded land of the Lenape people. Can you get over how hot the chicks are in this city? Jesus Christ, model country safari.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
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Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
So just to follow up on that, I think everyone's down with that. I think there's even a lot of Republicans who are down with that. The most prosperous nation in the world, we shouldn't have 40% of households with medical debt.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
that people under the age of 40 should be able to fall in love, have kids, and have a reasonable semblance of a life and not worry about anxious, depressed kids because they can't crawl their way out of debt.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
I think everyone's on board, but I think what people are looking for is two or three specific programs that might actually make that a reality instead of kind of the incredible oratory flourish that Democrats are good at, and then shit doesn't get done.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Who would have thought Harvard would actually command the space it occupies? Let's give it up for Harvard. Could this ass clown be any more stupid? What's worse than fighting with your allies, fighting without your allies? I love the question that was posed by a Holocaust survivor to Warren Buffett, and that was when he said, how do you judge who's your friend?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Just to be clear, did Marjorie Taylor Greene do anything that Speaker Emerita Pelosi hasn't done numerous times?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Well, to be fair, Speaker Pelosi bought call options in Tempest AI and has access to massive... expenditure inside information. She bought call options, and when it was announced that she had disclosed, the stock surged, and she made millions of dollars.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
I mean, I almost appreciate that Trump has decided, if I'm going to be corrupt, I'm going to do it for billions, whereas we as Democrats decide when we're corrupt, we're going to do it for millions. But I think we can agree that we should probably just get rid of any stock trading by all elected representatives. It's got to be banned. Got to be banned.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
So DEI has been a big, obviously a hot topic and a hot issue. And 60 years ago, there were 12 black people at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale combined. That was a problem. And we did something about it and we came together. This year, 60% of Harvard's freshman class identifies as non-white.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
And the gap, the academic gap between black and white was double what it was between rich and poor, and now it's flipped. And it's double between rich and poor than it is between black and white, which is a collective victory. And I've said on our pod that, and I think this is an amazing thing, that there's a lot of data showing in today's economy, you'd rather be born non-white or gay than poor.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
So my question is the following, and I don't mean to be aggressive here, should your children have advantage Or should DEI be reconfigured to address the real issue? And that is the biggest indicator, unfortunately, in our nation of your success is how rich your parents are, not your ethnicity, not your sexual orientation, not your gender. Does DEI affirmative action need a reconfiguration?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
And she said, well, I asked myself one simple question, would they hide me, right? And that's a very puncturing question. And you know who hit us? Fucking Canada.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
But if you went to economically based affirmative action, there'd be a 70%. 70% of the people currently getting affirmative action would still be subject to it because of the economic apartheid- Well, I do think that you got affirmative action
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
1979 hostage crisis, they had six Americans, got them out safely, and then stayed behind.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Just to pile on to that. Don't pile on. Pile on, sorry. It's nice he came to hang out with us. He is. Look how cool. I want to roll with this guy. My God. Anyways. At the Democratic National Convention, I felt like it was a parade of special interest groups. And at the DNC.org website, it says who we serve, and it lists everyone from the disabled, veterans, Asian Pacific Islanders. I added it up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
It's 74% of the population. And when the DNC actively says on their website that we're actively explicitly advocating for 74% of the population, they're not advocating for 74%, they're discriminating against 26.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
And what I saw on stage was an acknowledgement of the struggles that a lot of special interest groups still face with no acknowledgement of the special interest group that is struggling the most, and that is young men. And you're at a central casting for someone who's done incredibly well with some wins in your face. You have sons. What are your thoughts about struggling young men in our nation?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
And can you give me specifically one or two policy ideas, just spitballing, that would help arrest the decline of the group that has fallen further faster than any group in America, and that's young men?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Harvard, question mark.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
It's a vocational program. What do you think of mandatory national service or raising minimum wage to 25 bucks an hour?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Mandatory national service?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
It's my bar mitzvah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
We're killing two birds with one stone. I'll ask an emotionally manipulative question. You get your Terminator moment, you have a time machine, you can go back in time and see someone who's gone now and you got 15 seconds. Who would it be and what would you say to them?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
So I have a question from the audience for Jess. I think this might be from the live stream. My parents are Fox News addicts, and I see how bad the propaganda can be. My question is, you are a fresh voice that has facts. Was this written by a doctor? In your arguments, how do you push back respectfully on your colleagues and maintain your sanity?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
By the way, isn't she just fucking outstanding on that show? Isn't she?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
It's a generous question. If you were to reverse engineer the point of failure when a boy comes off the tracks, it's when he loses a male role model. You couldn't even say that five years ago without triggering people and saying, well, what, moms can't raise boys? I was raised by a single immigrant mother, lived and died as secretary a lot of my life.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
But there's pretty significant research showing that in single-family homes, of which we have the most in the world, what's interesting, girls have the same outcomes, same level of high school attendance, same levels of self-harm, same income. Whereas boys become much more likely to be incarcerated, much more likely to engage in self-harm when they lose a male role model.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
It ends up that while being physically stronger, boys are emotionally and mentally much weaker than girls. So the fix is that as a society, we have to move immediately when we see a boy or finding boys and they're everywhere, especially those being raised by single mothers that have no male involvement. And the really sad part is men aren't stepping up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
In New York, there's three times as many women applying to be big sisters as there are men applying to be big brothers. And there's a bit of a social taboo.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
I think there's a lot of men in their 30s that maybe don't have kids of their own who have a lot of fraternal and paternal love to give, but are afraid about what their community might think of them if they express an interest in getting involved in a 15-year-old boy's life. And also they're intimidated. You don't have to be a baller. You don't have to have a degree in adolescent psychiatry.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
I coach a lot of young men and it's striking how easy it is to add value. I mean, they're just making a series of really bad decisions every day. So in sum, we need family court, we need moms, we need communities to recognize we need male involvement. There's a lot of communities where young men, their first male role model is a prison guard. There's just no men. So a long-winded way of saying
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
You know, I'm writing a book on masculinity, I think, in concentric circles. Take care of yourself, right? You're in great shape. You look good. You take care of your family. You're taking care of your community. You're a civic leader. I think the ultimate expression of masculinity is to get involved in the life of the child that isn't yours.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
So just to summarize, if we want better men, we've got to be better men. We have to step up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Here, how do you think it plays out? I mean, what do you think happens in the court? Do you think that these funds actually get sequestered and cut?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
But where did you get that code? Was it from your parents? Was it from your church? Like, what is your code that you think has given you that type of resilience, that type of grit?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Well, hold on. We just have one quick question for Leader Jeffries. If we were a household, we're making 50,000 bucks a year, we're spending 70, and we have debt of 370,000, which our children are gonna have to inherit. We're backed into a corner with that. Can you specifically say, do we either need to raise taxes lower spending or both and establish some fiscal sanity? That was my question.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Great point. Sorry, Justin.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
50 million jobs under Democrats the last 40 years, 1 million under Republican administrations.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Well, just to steel mount it, I think we sort of invited this overreaction. Not don't deserve it, but invited it in the sense that, and we said this on the pod, that if I had gone down to NYU's Plaza and started saying a fraction of the things that were said about Israel and Jews, if I'd said, lynch the blacks or burn the gays, there would have been no need for context.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
I would have been kicked out of academia that day if at UCLA they had started passing out bans only to white people and non-whites weren't allowed to go to Royce Hall. This happened. They would have called in the National Guard. So what a lot of these universities decided is that free speech is never freer unless it's hate speech against Jews. and what you see or what you've seen play out.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
And also, just to be honest, you give any organization billions of dollars, they might have asks. It sucks to be a grownup. I just don't think that's that shocking. The question is, if a lot of people are criticizing Columbia, because they quote, unquote, capitulated, Columbia was trying to say, okay, with 400 or $500 million, we can do a lot of good.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
So if we have to give in to some of these demands and we haven't exactly draped ourself in glory, then so be it. And then as soon as they came to what they felt that there was an agreement, there was additional crazy ass. And so now it's pretty clear that the administration are not being good actors. And Harvard was actually trying to come to some sort of agreement.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
They had said, we're gonna broaden the definition of antisemitism. They fired two heads of Middle East studies groups. They put on pause this cooperation with the university or Palestinian university. So they were trying. And then came the sort of thought police, the no, we want a litmus test for ideology across all your faculty. We want information on your international students.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
And essentially what they figured out pretty quickly is the administration is trying to rebrand an attack on progressive ideology as civil rights. It's just not true. This has nothing to do with antisemitism. Antisemitism is being used as a false flag for trying to attack progressive ideals. And I've been reading a lot about, I always go to World War II, this guy, Martin I think it's Niemöller.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
And he has this great quote. He has this fantastic quote, you know, you know, when they come for you. He says he was a Lutheran pastor in Germany in the 30s, ended up spending most of his time, was actually very pro-fascist and pro-Hitler policies and got very disturbed and started speaking out against Hitler and spent eight years of his life in prisons and concentration camps and survived.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
And he has this wonderful quote, he said, They came for the socialists, but I wasn't a socialist, so I didn't speak up. They came for the trade unions, but I wasn't in the trade union, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the Jews, and I wasn't a Jew, so I didn't speak up. And then when they came for me, there was no one left to speak up for me.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
And the question now is, is our organizations really speaking up? And this is why I'm wearing a Harvard shirt today, which I never thought I would do. President Garber is showing that organizations need to speak up. We're not that far from this organization, which is tax exempt, not being able to have us saying, oh, no, you can only have Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson. We're not that—we laugh.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
We're not that far from that. We're not that far. We're rounding up people. Whenever they start rounding up people, there always is a good reason at the time. It felt like there was a good reason to round up Japanese families, some of whom had young men's sons serving the European theater.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Today, we're bringing you a live taping of our conversation from Thursday's event at the legendary 92nd Street Y. Joining us was none other than House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. It was a great conversation. You can bet Jess led this conversation, so it made some sense. The dog was unchained. He was unchained. The dog's got to howl.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
And so it's just so incredibly disappointing that more organizations and more leaders aren't saying, well, what happens when they come from me? So, and I always like to end with an opportunity. I think there's an enormous opportunity to establish real credibility as a leader and also, quite frankly, shareholder value.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
I think the first company that stands up and says, this tariff shit is nonsense, and I'm rounding out people, we are just, we are an American company. We do not tolerate this. We do not endorse it. We are going to speak up. We're not giving money. We're not bending a knee. We're an American company. The first company that does that
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
is, in my opinion, going to enjoy a tsunami of goodwill and actual purchases. The first person in the Democratic Party who stands up and says, you know what, I'm going to run for president because I'm not down with this slow-grade melt of fascism. This is how many Fortune 500 CEOs, I know many of them, about 495 of them every morning wake up, look in the mirror and go, hello, Mr. President.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Most of them think they could be president. This is a list of everyone that's spoken up. And that's the opportunity. There is a void of leadership here. People are being rounded up. Organizations are subject to the thought police, right? When do they come for us? That's a real question.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Let's bring out our kind of our local man, if you will, representative from Brooklyn, House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Pretends He's Above the Law (feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
Are you going to a downtown club after this?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
Well, speaking of mess, you've been advising people to stock up on everyday items, including toothpaste and soap.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
So speaking of speaking of candidates, I've asked you a couple of times if you have any interest in running for president. So I want to ask it in a different way now. Imagine in two and a half years, you looked into a crystal ball and in two and a half years, it ended up that you were running for president.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
What series of actions or events up into that point would you believe had to have happened such that you'd be running for president in two and a half years?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
You're out there. You're out there. You're very public. You have this platform around the biggest issue in America, health care. You're sort of either purposely or accidentally position yourself as the anti-Musk, like the billionaire we need.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
I mean, quite frankly, just from an exterior perspective, it looks like you're leaving the door just a touch open in case you feel at the moment as an American, as someone who's blessed, who's recognized huge prosperity, that you might decide, given the right atmospherics, to jump in.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
Yeah, she just fell off. I think she really blew it because Joe Rogan, I think he would have been, I think he would have, my sense of Joe is he tries to set his guests up for success. I don't, yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
Just on that question of media, do you see any, I know you're backing Skylight, a new equivalent to TikTok. So talk about why you're backing it, but also just in terms of the media landscape, where obviously, you know, podcasting appears to be playing a bigger and bigger role. Any thoughts on the media landscape?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
It feels like with any volatility, there's an opportunity to make money. I mean, I would argue, I think most economists would argue that this on the whole is just bad for everyone. There's few more elegant ways to reduce prosperity globally than tariffs, as far as I can tell.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
Jess has been raging about that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
But as an investor and someone who's a student of the markets and has done really well, if and how has this changed your investment philosophy or do you see any opportunities? What is Mark Cuban doing right now with his portfolio?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
But thank you so much for joining us. My pleasure. Always interesting. Always insightful. Thanks for your good work. And keep on keeping on. I think a lot of us... in the center or really think you're an important voice.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
Elon Musk and Doge, your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
A question I don't think I've ever put to you, we talk a lot about on this and other podcasts how young men in America are really struggling, probably falling further faster than any other cohort, four times likely to kill themselves, three times likely to be addicted, 12 times likely to be incarcerated.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
Curious on your thoughts on what ails us in terms of struggling young men and if you have any thoughts on policy solutions.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
So Trump's Liberation Day tariffs sent shockwaves through the markets. Stocks tumbled and Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned that they could drive inflation even higher. So today we're joined by entrepreneur, investor, and outspoken critic of Trump's economic policies, Mark Cuban, to talk about tariffs, the economy, and the state of American democracy. Mark, it's always good to see you. Always.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
Thanks for having me on, guys. So we're about a week out from Trump's Liberation Day. When you saw that announcement, what was your initial reaction and what do you think it signals about the country's economic future?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Do We Need an Elon of the Left? (feat. Mark Cuban)
What do you think, if you were to advise the Democratic Party going to 26 and 28, what do you think is kind of the unifying message or messages? I mean, help people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How To Make Centrism Sexy (feat. Sen. Cortez Masto)
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Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
How To Make Centrism Sexy (feat. Sen. Cortez Masto)
You can join innovative and purpose-driven companies like Good Culture, Zymo Research, and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, and more who choose Trinet to help handle a full range of HR solutions, from payroll to compliance to access to benefits. so they can stay focused on what matters most. Incredible starts here. Learn more at Trinet.com. That's T-R-I-N-E-T.com. Trinet. People matter.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Yeah, they're not at their all-time highs, but it's not like they've crashed. I wouldn't even say they've corrected. They've just come down a bit. So right now, all the catastrophizing around the economy, I think it could happen. I think it may happen.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
But so far, it would be unfair to say that the economy is crashing and there's evidence that these policies... I mean, economic history shows these policies don't work. But the loss in capital here, we've lost $5 trillion in market cap, but we're just back to where we were six months ago, and we're still up year on year. So... Things are bad. They've been a lot worse before.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
It's unlikely. Jess is way too easygoing. It would happen. A pivot that could happen, it almost happens every 48 hours. Jess is too easygoing and too mature. Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Well, I'm technically a professor of brand strategy, and I don't I don't understand the nuance of political messaging. What I would say is that first you have to understand the calm strategy of the other side. You have to empathize with the enemy such that you can respond. The enemy right now has developed a calm strategy that is straight out of the GRU, which is flooding the zone.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And that is there are so many things at them. Some are true, some are not. Some are, they know, ridiculous and will invoke an emotional reaction to misdirect you away from the key points we should be focused on.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And so the key is, all right, if you know they're deploying this flood the zone strategy and trying to create so much noise and such an emotional, sclerotic, hysterical reaction, which is how I would describe the democratic reaction right now, Then the question is, all right, let's slow down and figure out how do you combat the flood-to-zone strategy or comm strategy?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And the way you combat it is the following. you realize you don't need to respond to everything. You don't need to cry or scream into Twitter or TikTok on every issue. You don't need to have a viewpoint on the Gulf of cheaper eggs. You pick one or two key issues that resonate with Americans, you're disciplined, you're calm, you're measured, you bring in experts, you bring in data.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
The two issues I'm focused on are one, surrendering to Putin over Ukraine for what is not a lot of money, $60 billion, 8% of our budget,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
the majority of which serves as stimulus back home, the majority of which goes to red states, we are one, taking out a third of Russia's kinetic power, two, giving China pause before it invades Taiwan, knowing that a motivated army armed with Western technology is a formidable foe. Europe is a union again. NATO is out of a brain coma. This is the best return on investment Americans have made
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
in a generation and we should continue to do it. That's an issue for me. And then that we are in fact about to ramp up the deficits by $800 billion a year to give the wealthy a tax cut. Those are the two issues that I'm focused on. I'm not interested in talking about whether a helicopter crash was a function of DEI or whether passports should have a third box or male and female.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
That is all a giant weapon of mass distraction. We should focus on the one or two things that are really important to Americans, be calm, be the adults in the room, and also just in general, move from being the party of indignance to the party of ideas. Start proposing big ideas, put them up for a vote. Even if they go down, say, all right, why wouldn't we raise minimum wage to $25 an hour?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Why wouldn't we lower... Medicare eligibility by two years a year for 30 years and have nationalized health care. Why wouldn't we have mandatory national service instead of just getting indignant and waiting, being outraged for other people, being outraged at the lack of outrage? We need to have a more focused, disciplined response.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
We need to be the party of ideas instead of the party of indignance and clutching our pearls all the goddamn time. That's a personal attack on me. The 800 million. Billion.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Yeah. That's annual. The number I've seen, what have you seen, Tim? I've seen $5 trillion additional deficit.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Kind of goes on from there. But I'm wondering your thoughts. I think anytime you roll out veterans, it's a pretty powerful strategy. The only thing I would argue is that I think people have empathy, but I've thought the whole these good people are being fired argument is not our best argument. Because I think the majority of people in the private sector have experienced something similar.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And the capitalism, quite frankly... I think a lot of moderates in the back of their head are like, welcome to the work week, boss. I received one of those emails when I was working at a car dealership for 20 years. And then somebody, a private equity firm came in and rolled up the car dealership and I got one of those emails.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
One of the cruel truths of capitalism is on a regular basis, there's a lot of injustice in the labor force. this is kind of feel bad for me. I got fired. It's not the foot I would lead with. It's that we're doing this in an incompetent way. I go after the wall of receipts.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I would say that we're, we're doing stupid things that'll end up costing us more in the future, that they're not spending your money. Well, that the way they're going about this is incompetent, but going after the injustice and the emotional argument is,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I worry it falls flat because I think there's maybe incorrectly a perception that government employees have had it too soft for too long and that they're facing some of the harsh reality that the private sector faces every day. What about you, Jess?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Well, first off, just to your point, there's so many things to be enraged. I was trying to pick which one I wanted to put forward. To not go upstream of Musk and what I think is the illegal usurp of constitutional power and shut down the government. just shows how fucking stupid we are.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I just think that is outrageous that we're letting the government essentially become a vehicle for the transfer of wealth and rights from the poor and the middle class to the rich. We just sort of said, this isn't a government, we're shutting it down. I think it's unforgivable that we didn't just say, look, fine, have at it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
You've decided the government is no longer really about democracy and constitution, so we're not going to continue to fund it. and let the chips fly. And I think we should have channeled Mitch McConnell, who has bested and beat the shit out of Charles Schumer every round for 15 million rounds running. I was incredibly disappointed. I thought that was an enormous strategic error on our part.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
So one, it's discipline around messaging. What you guys are saying is really powerful. Go to the data. You want to 6X the Doge savings? All right, let's get efficient. $2.6 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal so far. You want to 6X it? Stop all subsidies immediately to Tesla. Boom, 6X the efficiency of Doge. Let's get focused. Let's use data.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I think, one, we need more discipline around messaging, more data. And then I also think we need to do a better job of synchronicity. If you look at the right, they're much better at coordinating their think tanks, their media, their politicians.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
around a very synchronized message we are somewhat like someone having a seizure with limbs flailing everywhere so we need more discipline around messaging no don't spend your your precious human capital and your platform on whether or not the helicopter crashes a dei don't even go there on naming god we just fine have at it the tape brothers don't talk about them
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
That's just a distraction meant to enrage and distract people. Talk about these one or these two issues. And then what we really need help with is, quite frankly, putting some of our senior citizens on an ice floe who are not able to reach people where they are right now. And that is some of our younger spokespeople need, in my opinion, greater license and rope to meet people where they are.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And that is on these new mediums.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Well, I think Crockett is good. I think OC is good. I actually think someone like Michael Bennett has got it. I think Chris Murphy has been a powerful voice. I think Wes Moore coming out and saying that he was going to focus his entire administration on the struggles of young men was really powerful. I think that Rich...
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Richie Torres is driving the far left crazy because they don't know how to criticize his moderate policies with this intersectionality of being a black, Hispanic, a gay man. They just don't know how to react to someone like that who actually has moderate, reasonable viewpoints.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Well, and to be blunt, that's a lack of leadership where they get the two of them in the room and say, okay, bitches, you both got to sign up and you got to get a, you're going to have to give here. You're going to have to give here. There's huge vent overlap on what you guys believe. These are the two messages you're going to go after.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And we're going to weaponize your platform and your incredibly strong voices and your ability to meet people. where they are, and we're going to get more discipline. Look how disciplined the messaging is on the Republican side.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Even if it's to get everyone to look over here and be outraged about something stupid that we shouldn't be talking about, they're just much more coordinated and disciplined. And we literally look like a giraffe having a seizure. You don't know which way its limbs are going to fly. It strikes me as a lack of leadership and coordination and discipline around messaging.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Jessie, what do you make of that?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
It's really interesting.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I think it's a really powerful idea. I think if a Richie Torres or a Mark Cuban started every day putting out...
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
two and three minute tiktoks or videos with responses to this stuff this is what we need to be doing this is why this all raised i think they get a ton of attention the message you get out there and not only that i think that the republicans would take the bait and start responding right now they're just rolling over us yeah and then all these people would have them on right like the like theo vaughn is not going to have on chris murphy but if mark cuban said he's running for president or whatever like sure like he'd be able to go on all these fucking things
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I think we're to a point now where the public has said we value authenticity over or what appears to be authenticity of its coarseness and cruelty over decorum. I think it's pretty obvious. Gavin Newsom brings on Charlie Kirk and Stephen Bannon because he's running for president and he wants to become more, have the appearance of being more moderate.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Okay, then just come out of the closet and say you're running for president. Just I'm Gavin Newsom. I lead the fourth largest economy in the world. Our economy is growing. Our budget is balanced. We have our issues. I know how to deal with these. What's going on is terrible here. I am running for president. And this is what is important to me and which should be important to you. Josh Shapiro.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I mean, these guys, they're running for president, for God's sakes. Be honest about it. I plan to run for president. And this is why I'm qualified. And these are the issues I would focus on. And this is what really bothers me right now. Instead, they're like, well, I've got a job to do. I'm focused. Shut the fuck up. You're running for president. You wouldn't be on Bill Maher. Holla these guys.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I'm sure, Tim, all of these guys are calling us. This is what they do. I hear from all of these representatives who see themselves as a vice president or potentially president one day. I'm fairly certain 90% of our representatives and our senators wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, hello, Mr. President.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And I think if they just said, I want to be president, I think this is an incredible opportunity. I'm really distressed about what's happening in America. And every day they went on and hammered their points and their ideas. You know, Andrew Yang made UBI or the notion we'd be more empathetic towards just redistributing capital from the rich to the poor. He made it more palatable.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
He normalized it. He became a really important part of the dialogue. So there is an advantage to someone coming out right now and just saying, where I was headed is the following. All these guys call us and they ask you two for the same thing and me for a third. They say, I'm really interested in your ideas. I'd like to come on your podcast, which is Latin for I'm running for president.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I want to start getting awareness, right? For me, they call me and they say they want my view on things, which means they want my money. They convince me I have some insight into issues and they want to have a discussion with me. What they're really saying is, give me a chance to agree with you and then write me a check. You hear from these people, Tim.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
All of these people are running for president. There's like a half a dozen of them. Come out of the closet and start occupying the space you want to command. Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
The greatest innovation in history wasn't the iPhone or the semiconductor. It was the American middle class. And key to that was 7 million men coming home in uniform who demonstrated heroics, were attractive to women. They were fit. We put money in their pocket through the National Highway Transportation Act, through FHA loans, through the GI Bill. And then... They made it with a ton of people.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
They had a ton of kids and had such wonderful lives. They said, why wouldn't we extend these rights and these liberties and this prosperity to women? Why wouldn't we extend it to non-whites? And we built the greatest society in history. And the thing that is missing from the middle class right now are economically and emotionally viable young men.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
They're 12 times as likely to be incarcerated, four times as likely to be addicted to Four times as likely to kill themselves. Our young men are struggling. There's no group in the world that has ascended faster than women. And we should do nothing to get in the way of that. Twice as many women elected to a parliament and democracies over the last 30 years.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
More women are seeking tertiary education globally. More single women own homes. Then single men in urban areas, women under the age of 30 are making more money. You're going to have probably two to one female to male college grads in the next five years. And we have essentially gutted every on-ramp for non-college bound males, which is the majority of them.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
We've taken wood, metal, and auto shop away. There are very few paths to a romantic partnership for a man or to economic viability for a man who is not exceptional. And the result is, is that women nor our country will continue to flourish if men are flailing.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And there's a series of economic policies that have transferred so much money and opportunity for young people that it has disproportionately impacted young men. We have the most obese, anxious, and depressed generation in history. For the first time in our nation's history, a 30-year-old isn't doing as well as his or her parents were at 30. So what to do about it?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
You don't have identity politics where you just level up young men. You go minimum wage, $25 an hour, universal child care, vocational programming to restore some dignity to work, mandatory national service, more third places, encourage young people to drink more alcohol. The risk to their liver is much less than the risk of isolation and anxiety. There are a ton. We fuck this up for young people.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
We can unfuck it. Every person under the age of 40, and I think this is a unifying theory of everything, should have the opportunity to fall in love, should have the opportunity to have children, and the opportunity to have a house and a decent living wage. That is absolutely doable in the wealthiest nation in the world. Minimum wage, $25 an hour, universal child tax credit, tax holiday.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Anyone under the age of 40, no federal income tax. It wouldn't be that much money because they don't make that much money. level up young people. And if you decide not to have kids and spend it on brunch and St. Bart's more power to you, the table stakes for the most prosperous nation in the world is fucking too expensive.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I'm not telling people that they have to have kids to be happy. I'm saying America should be able to afford the opportunity for every person under the age of 40, the opportunity to meet someone, fall in love, have kids and, than live a life that they can have as a family. And right now, we've gone from 60% of 30-year-olds used to have a kid to 27%.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Every economic policy, I think, should be reverse engineered back from one thing. How do we give young people the opportunity to have dignity, to have a reasonable standard of living, and the option should they choose to have children?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
This is pure speculation, but I think every piece of evidence shows that this may not be speculation. This may be reality. Imagine if President Trump was able to open a Swiss bank account and anyone could deposit money in it. And nobody knew but him that the money went in and he didn't have to file with anybody when he took that money or sold it. And imagine Putin said, I'll give you $10 billion.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
It's untraceable. But by the way, isn't Europe's funding of Ukraine really a problem? Isn't your funding really extending this war? Well, he's done that. The Trump coin is effectively a Swiss bank account that anyone could put money into and then call the president and say, I just put $10 billion in here. How would you like to be the wealthiest man in the world?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And in unrelated news, are you going to continue to fund this war? That is what could be happening right now. And the notion that they put it out the Friday night before the inauguration is This is a level of grift that we haven't seen. Republicans would argue we're just more brazen and less opaque about it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
You've been doing it through lobbyists, and Speaker Emerta, Pelosi, is probably the most blatant, brazen insider trader in history. I mean, you've got to admire, if you're going to be corrupt, don't play small ball like Pelosi for millions. Do it for billions like Trump. So I think that the Trump coin is nothing but pure unadulterated grift. It's the perfect scam.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
We used to think it was Donald Trump media where this stock that does 3 million a year, this company that does 3 million a year in business and loses 300 million is worth $5 billion. But here's the thing. He's going to have to file the SEC when he sells shares. He doesn't have to do that with the Trump coin. As far as we know, it's billions of dollars in pay for play. That's what he's set up.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
So I think that's happening in terms of the economy. The reality is guys like me have predicted nine of the last three recessions. Nobody knows. I can paint a scenario either way. These tariffs are to the economy what leeches were to medicine. None of us who know anything about economics can believe they actually think this shit's going to work again. Consumer confidence is crashing.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
The entire world and every large company and economy is trying to figure out workarounds to reconfigure the supply chain to not include American companies or the American government because they can't trust what is actually going to happen here. That should take a real... Toll on the economy, the American stock market is still overvalued.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
If you were to summarize the world's value into $100 right now, including debt, the US costs 70 and the rest of the world costs 30. So let me ask you, Tim, if you could buy the US for $70 or the rest of the world for 30, what do you think is a better value? I think I'd probably start investing in Germany and India and Brazil. That's exactly right. And that's what's happening.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
The capital flows are reversing and we're seeing people start to look at other markets on the U.S. because the U.S. is just very expensive. Apple's trading at 34 times earnings even after this drawdown on a company that isn't growing. And it traditionally trades at 18 and it's been as low as 9 in the last 20 years. Having said that, what do you do? I think you just diversify.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And that is nobody can time the markets, don't have an emotional reaction. What you may want to consider is not only diversifying through low-cost index funds, but perhaps think about diversifying geographically and look at low-cost index funds in Latin America, Asia, and Europe. In sum, your Kevlar here is diversification.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
But don't listen to people like me because the reality is we just don't know.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Tim, I wanted to say you're one of the few fearless voices out there. I love you go on TikTok and say, basically, I can summarize almost every one of your TikToks, your videos.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
it's eloquent it's basically what the actual fuck yeah and then you go on and you provide data and a great argument i think you're one of those key voices so keep on keeping on brother i'm doing my best i appreciate that very much guys everybody else we'll be back here keep on keeping on tomorrow for another edition of the podcast we'll see y'all then peace thanks for having us thanks tim
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I'm raging about wealthy progressives who clutch their pearls and at dinner parties talk about how outrageous the activities of the administration usurping or blowing by every branch of government, whether it's We were hoping Congress would get in the way or at least be able to slow things down. That's why we have checks and balances. The administration has just usurped congressional power.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And then we thought, well, at least we have the courts. And it appears as of a few days ago, they are now blatantly ignoring court orders. But that's not what has me raging. What has me raging is that I believe there's a conspiracy between the most powerful among us who are the richest among us
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
who pretend to give a flying fuck about the violation of the Constitution and the slow burn erosion of our democracy, but don't really speak out. Don't really contact our representatives. Don't really risk their own reputations. Don't protest. Don't call their senator.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Don't use their platforms to really aggressively punch back, because here's the bottom line, we're getting richer, and that's a conspiracy. The conspiracy is the following, that rights are portable and rich people have figured that out. Everyone in my life will have access to mesofestrone. If anybody decides to weaponize the DOJ, I can lawyer up like no tomorrow.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
If things get really scary and they start rounding up people as they did 80 years ago, I can put a USB with Bitcoin, shove it up my ass and peace out to Dubai.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Madrid, Milan, you name it. But the bottom line is rights and democracy have become purely a function of how wealthy you are in America. The wealthiest 1% are protected by the law, but they're not bound by it. And the bottom 99 are bound by the law, but not protected by it. And that in itself is incredibly upsetting.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
But the most powerful in the United States, which is disproportionately populated with progressives or people who claim to be progressives, are kind of stop, stop, it hurts so good because they've uploaded their W-2s into chat GPT. And if the Trump tax cuts go through, they're going to get richer.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And so there's this unhealthy conspiracy where the wealthiest among us realize our rights are entirely portable. Our rights are not under threat. I could be in deepest, darkest red Mississippi. And if someone I care about gets pregnant, no problem figuring it out. None whatsoever. Rights in America are now a function of money. And the whole point of the Constitution...
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
The whole point of a democracy is that it's primarily there to protect the lower 50 because the top one have always figured out a way to have rights and it's never been more true. So what am I raging about?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
A bunch of very wealthy progressives who all claim that they're really upset about what's going on and aren't doing a fucking thing, but bitching and moaning to their friends under their breath because they're getting richer and they know they are not truly under threat.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I think the math that's happening subconsciously is the following. If you're part of the fastest growing demographic class in America, it's not Latinos, it's not seniors, it's billionaires. We've gone from 500 to 2,500 in the last 10 years. You're probably in your 60s. Yeah, climate change is a problem, but it's a problem for your grandkids.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Yeah, having a move towards kleptocracy that creates a less competitive economy where nations do workarounds in terms of supply chain, yeah, that impacts probably the next CEO or the next CEO. If you're in your 60s and you're rich, you think you've tapped into just the easiest way to get richer, and that is this guy is pay for play.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
If I know someone who knows someone and I can donate a million bucks to the campaign and get a lunch at Mar-a-Lago, that day he announces, this happened, that Ripple will be one of the cryptocurrencies included in the new strategic Bitcoin treasury program. And Ripple... surges in value. So, oh, I'm the head of a tech company.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Give him a million bucks, be paraded around like some fucking whore for his benefit. This is the cheapest, easiest way to get rich over the next five or 10, maybe even 20 years. And the long-term damage to our democracy, just as climate change probably will not affect us. It may, but it probably won't. Who's really going to get screwed is our kids. And my generation has proven that
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
that we're just not long-term thinkers. That when you see everyone else getting really rich, really fast, the downward spiral is, fuck it, I'm going to get really rich, really fast. I'm going to play the game. The game is cheap. The most disappointing thing about our elected representatives, including the president, is not that they're whores. We've known that for a long time.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
It's that they're such cheap whores. And the wealthy and corporations have figured out for a small amount of money, they can weaponize government to their benefit.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
So I just think it's a lot of short-term thinking as evidenced by my generation, which continues to devote themselves more money, continue to ignore the long-term effects of climate change, continue to see this oncoming train wreck of deficits. Because, baby, I'm in the club doing rails of cocaine with champagne. And young people, you can give me your credit card.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
But sorry, boss, I'm the one in the club. You're outside. You'll have to pay my bill when I die. But until then, the credit card keeps getting approved and going through.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
How is that? Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Oh, Jess, I don't like to take credit for things. I appreciate that.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
No, no, no, really. I'm not comfortable talking about me. Yes, Tim, it was entirely my idea. There were forces against the idea. That was an easy one. And what's interesting is now every person from CNN has an idea for something called the normies or something. Yeah. Anyways, it's all about the brand. Although people say we're more raging than we are moderate.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Well, first off, I think most of those guys voted for Harris. I don't think they were excited about showing up to the inauguration, but they decided under the auspices of, they should never use the term stakeholder value again, because they clearly don't care about the long-term health of America or the constitution or some of the people in their organization that aren't rich.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
They've decided, and they can make the argument that for shareholder value,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
It's worth it for them to show up in a tie, say he's handsome, give a million dollars to the inauguration committee, let him put out a fake press release that is totally fabricated saying we're spending an additional $400 billion on cloud-based infrastructure in Texas, which they were always planning to spend somewhere else, but let's repackage it and pretend it's his doing.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
They've done the math that for short-term shareholder value, This is the way to go. And the reality in terms of the marketplace, we would like to think the market's crashing. It's not. It's back to pre-Trump levels. We've done away with the Trump bump. But inflation, while sticky, does not seem to be skyrocketing. The markets are still at historic highs.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
So the question I get most frequently when I speak here is to compare and contrast the US with the UK. And I use a personal anecdote. My parents immigrated to the US from Glasgow and London when they were 19 and 22. They took enormous risks. I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. I like to think that a lot of my success is my fault, that I inherited sort of that risk-taking DNA.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
And when I speak to people in the UK, I say the primary difference is you're the ones that stayed. And that is it kind of comes down to a risk appetite. The U.S. has five times per capita the number of entrepreneurs. It has five times the dollar volume per startup. There's $5 million in venture capital waiting to be deployed for every startup in the U.S. versus $1 million in Europe.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I love what Constantine said about a restaurant. I went into this great little restaurant in Soho a few weeks ago called Dig In, and I loved it so much, I left my card and said, can you have the owner? I'd like to open another one. Does he need money? I just would never do that here. I thought that was a really interesting insight.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
And the collision of risk, crazy ideas that occasionally become crazy genius, and technology, and intellectual property, and great universities... results in a company that no one had heard of five years ago being worth more than the entire UK stock market, NVIDIA. So there's just an enormous difference. The way I would summarize my impression of the UK economy, I'll just say London.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I have no experience in it. I don't go anywhere that's not walking distance from Marylebone, so my bubble is pretty opaque. But the way I would describe the economy here is I love the term the Butler economy, and that is all the money I see being made here is people servicing wealth created somewhere else. You're either in financial services servicing rich people.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
You're either opening a restaurant or hospitality servicing rich people. But I don't see a lot of organic wealth creation. I interviewed the two quote unquote inventors of AI at one of your prestigious universities. My first question is, how the hell were you not able to make any money if you invented AI? Why haven't you been able to capture any money?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
But just for your listeners, my summation of Europe versus the U.S. after molesting the earth for the last 35 years is U.S. is still the best place to make money and Europe is still the best place to spend it. Is this a failing nation, Scott? I think you have too much going for you to be described as a failing nation. You still have amazing universities.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
London's still the second best city in the world. Premier League, it's an unbelievable export. I know how ridiculous that sounds. People want to be here. There's still rule of law, rule of play. You still produce amazing rock and roll. I just don't see how you could say this is a failed... I would argue that the Second only to our entry into Iraq, the greatest self-inflicted wound was Brexit.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
An American can't understand why you would decide to increase your prices while reducing productivity in one fell swoop. It's difficult for us to wrap our heads around some of the economic decisions today. The UK has made, but I think a lot of people are kind of betting are hoping that the UK begins to grow again. So I'm in a weird way.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I'm sort of I would call myself cautiously optimistic about the UK. I think at some point it registers it begins to occupy the place it could it should command, if you will.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
Well, if you think of the U.S. as setting the tone economically and maybe even culturally for the West, there's definitely a reversion away from... People feel that quote-unquote wokeism, and I don't like to use that word, but I'll use it here, was this sort of overcorrection to systemic racism and that it began to cause more damage than it was... were causing more problems than it was solving.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
Well, with respect to energy, Trump, issued an executive order calling it an energy crisis. Gasoline in the U.S. on an inflation-adjusted basis is less expensive than it was 50 years ago. We are now the largest oil producer in the world. I would argue that we have a housing crisis and that the executive order should have been around that.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
Just going back to the U.S., and I'm curious of the same dynamics and whether Constantine and Daniel agree with this. I believe this, the election in the US was supposed to be a referendum on women's rights. Women's rights did not show up. This was a referendum on young men, in my view. And that is, if you look at the two cohorts that swung most from blue to red versus 2020,
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
Two of the three cohorts, other than Latinos, was people under the age of 30 who in the U.S. are 24 percent less wealthy than they were 40 years ago. People over the age of 70 or 72 percent wealthier. Our tax code is basically an attempt to shove money from the young to the old. And to 45 to 64 year old women who I would affectionately describe as their mother.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
that is when your son's in the basement vaping and playing video games and i think a lot about struggling young men you don't give a flying about territorial sovereignty in the ukraine or ukraine excuse me or transgender rights all you know is your kid isn't doing well and 210 times a day your kid's getting a notification that somebody he knows is on a gulf stream or partying in st bart's and it's not him or her and so we not only have young people not doing as well
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
This pornographic wealth is just shoved in their face. And you end up with, in my opinion, kind of a young, struggling young man. No group has fallen further faster in the world, I would argue, than young men in America. They are, if you go into a morgue in the United States, and there's five people who've died by suicide, four of them are men.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
One in three men under the age of 30 has a girlfriend. Two in three women under the age of 30 has a boyfriend. Why? You think that's mathematically impossible? Because women are dating older because they want more economically and emotionally viable men. There's one in five men live at home at the age of 30, one in three under the age of 25. They're not having sex.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
They're more obese, they're more depressed. When women don't have a relationship, they oftentimes channel that energy into their professional lives. More single women own homes in the U.S. than single men. Women in urban areas under the age of 30 are making more money than men.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
And I think there's been a serious kind of lurch back, if you will, whether it's executive actions, declaring the border, a state of emergency, you know, stuff around saying that gender is a thing, there's male and female.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
When men don't have the guardrails of a relationship or a job or being in school, they pour that energy sometimes into unproductive things, misogyny, nationalism or extreme nationalism, conspiracy theory. In some, they become really shitty citizens. They become sequestered from society. So I'm worried in the U.S. our biggest threat is a new species of asexual, asocial young men.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
who are incredibly dangerous have opted out of America. 60% of 30-year-olds used to have one child in America, and that's 27%. So people, I think, in the US, and this is a genuine question, I don't know if it's the same problem here, our tax policies have taken money from the young, stuffed them in the pockets of old people, so Nana and Pop-Pop can upgrade from Carnival to Crystal Cruises.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
Meanwhile, young people can't afford education, they can't afford housing. And we especially see this really acute emerging crisis
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
among young men who are just opting out of America, who don't even want to try and date, don't even want to enroll in school, don't want to even try and get a job, just stick in their basements and go on Reddit or Discord, or why go try and shower or work out and get a relationship when you have you porn? Why get a job when you can trade stocks or crypto on Coinbase or Robinhood?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I think this is, in my opinion, this is the most dangerous trend in America right now.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
And most of these issues, the actually American public supports, I would say on a more cynical level, America used to be a platform for prosperity, the protection of civil rights, the projection of women's rights and power and democracy abroad. And I would argue that it feels like a pretty quick transition to almost like a
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
So I think there's a lot of nuance here. I would argue in universities, DEI is used as a giant misdirect from people such as myself who are enforcers of the caste system and wake up every morning and look in the mirror and ask ourselves the same question. How do I increase my compensation while decreasing my accountability?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
And what I've found is the ultimate strategy is to create an LVMH rejectionist bullshit elitist strategy where Dartmouth sits on an endowment of $8 billion and lets in 500 kids. So the conversation around who gets in is a misdirection. The important question is how many. If you are not growing your endowment or your freshman class faster than population, you should lose your tax-free status.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
We should be letting in more gay kids, more trans kids, more white Republicans from rural states. You know who doesn't talk about DEI? Junior colleges, because there's no admissions. They don't have a problem with DEI. So I think DEI on campus has ended up eating its own tail, started out with the right idea. Now it's nothing. And I would argue the same is somewhat true of the Democratic Party.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I went to the Democratic National Convention. On the DNC.org website, it lists 17 special interests groups, and it says explicitly who we serve. Asian Pacific Islanders, seniors, veterans, Black Americans, the disabled. It basically lists, I added this up, 76% of the population. And when you say you're actively advocating for 76% of the population, you're not advocating for 76% of the population.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I call it a kleptocracy, but America has become a platform for acquiring wealth and then leveraging that wealth as a means or a proxy of power. And the ultimate example of that was the launch of two meme coins, the Trump coin and the Melania coin, the day before the presidency, such that this conversation could have already or might happen this week. And I'll finish here.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
You're discriminating against the 24%. It's gone too far. I would argue in the workplace, having served on seven public company boards and and I'm going to do a lot of boasting here because I'm desperate for all of your affirmation, and 12 private company boards, there's still work to be done in the private sector. There still is a cycle of
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
40% of all venture capitalists and probably 70% or 80% of all venture capital deployed are white guys from just two universities, Stanford and Harvard. So I would argue universities, it's gotten out of control. I'd love to see the DEI apparatus disassembled, along with the ethics department, the sustainability department, the leadership department.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
These are all bullshit where we hire formerly important people with no standards. They never get fired. It just translates to more student debt. In the boardroom, in corporations, in certain sectors, I do think there is a need to be thoughtful about broadening the aperture of the lens and bringing in people who are underrepresented. There's still a dearth of women raising venture capital.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
So I think it's nuanced based on sector. But to just say all DEI is bad, I want to move to where the University of California did in 1997. They don't have race-based affirmative action. They have adversity-based affirmative action. I'm a beneficiary of affirmative action. I had something called Pell Grants. I was raised by a single immigrant mother who lived and died a secretary, so I got grants.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I had unfair advantage because I came from a household that was low income. And I think that there should be affirmative action, and I think it should be based on color, but that color is green. The poor need our help. The moment you start advocating for special advantage based on any external factors, I think at this point in our society, it probably causes more problems than it solves.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
President Trump, it's Vlad. We're thinking about stabilizing our currency or trying to send the outflows of our reserves. So we're thinking about pulsing at about 600 billion rubles
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
into the Trump coin, which based on my economist estimation would take the value of it to a $20 or $30 billion market cap, making you one of the wealthiest men in the world, Mr. Trump, and none of this would be disclosable or transparent. Also, in unrelated news, we'd really appreciate you seizing arms shipments to Ukraine.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
What I've said on your show is that I think the male form, especially under the age of 30, with its bone structure, incredible double twitch muscle, and then this amazing... amazing chemical called testosterone, you're going to look back at your 25-year-old self and think, why wasn't I a fucking monster like Steve Bartlett?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
So I think we've gone kind of full kleptocracy is the way I would describe it. Are you optimistic, Scott? Well, I'm a glass half empty kind of guy. I don't. I don't know if I'm just getting older, but no, I don't see a man convicted of sexual abuse or found liable who inspired an insurrection retaking the White House as a point of light for the American experience.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
And also, there is some masculinity when Russian soldiers pour over the border in Ukraine. You want some of that big dick energy that Daniel was talking about. In the case of Zuckerberg, I don't think... I don't think he really understands an aspirational view of masculinity.
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I think when he couches immediately kind of trying to kiss Trump's ass because Trump threatened to put him in prison and what he used to call moderation, he's now calling censorship. And when you have an algorithm that elevates incendiary, hateful content, I would not describe that as masculinity. For me, masculinity comes down to protection, providing and procreation.
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And I don't think it's a I think to talk about gendering a workplace in the context of trying to excuse a total elimination of what I would think is probably healthy moderation. I imagine Daniel and Constantine might have a different view. I don't I think he's just couching his. his supplicant obsequious kiss-ass behavior under the auspices of masculinity, it just doesn't ring true for me.
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And I'm not sure we need to man up or femme up organizations and companies right now. When I talk about masculinity, you know, if I say at a conference, oh, women are better managers, everyone goes, yes, that's right. That's right, right? That's okay. If I say men are more risk aggressive and make better entrepreneurs, you're a misogynist, you're out.
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And the reality is men and women bring different attributes, but the masculinity and femininity, I think masculinity is a wonderful thing. I think we need a different image of it. I think people born as male have an easier time leaning into those things. Having said that, I work out at CrossFit with a bunch of lesbian firefighters.
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They bring great masculine energy and they could carry my ass out of a fire. So a lot of men demonstrate wonderful feminine qualities. A lot of women demonstrate wonderful masculine qualities. I don't think these things are sequestered to anyone born as a specific gender. What I think, what I talk about masculinity, I don't talk about it in the role of corporations.
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I think that's just fraught with risk and not worth talking about. It should be about shareholder value or stakeholder value. I think young men need a code. We're going to church less. We have fewer relationships. So what's the code you hold onto in terms of, creating behaviors that are productive for you, yourself, society.
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And I think masculinity needs to be redefined as something more aspirational where you're celebrated for being really fucking strong. You're celebrated for not complaining. You're celebrated for creating surplus value, create more tax revenue than you absorb. You're celebrated for being aggressive. You're celebrated for breaking up fights at bars, not starting them.
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You're celebrated for protecting your country, not shitposting it. You're celebrated for approaching strange women and expressing romantic interest. That's not a crime. And if she's not interested and you're rejected, you're both going to be fine. You're celebrated for getting out of the house. You're celebrated for working. You're celebrated for making money and liking money.
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I think there just needs to be a redefinition of masculinity in the context of helping young men find a code that they used to get from the armed services or from dual parent households. And I feel like they're struggling. So I like the idea of something that they feel in their bones and in their body and in their DNA that they can lean into that we celebrate.
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And the conversation is flipped entirely. Five years ago, I was called a misogynist for talking about masculinity. Now the conversation is being led and advocated by one group and it's mothers. who are like, my son is not doing well. I got three kids, two daughters, daughters in PR with the other ones at Penn, and my son is in the basement vaping and playing video games.
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He needs something to latch on to. He needs a code. Anyways, but I apologize, word salad. Zuckerberg and masculinity, give me a fucking break. He looks like a Chechen Mali dealer. Sorry, back to you, Stephen.
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To Trump's credit, he saw the opportunity and he flew right into the manosphere. Rockets, crypto, Joe Rogan, Theo Vaughn. He said, no, I'm not going to run from this. I'm going to fly right into it. Now, I would argue that his vision of masculinity has too much coarseness, too much cruelty, too much bullying. I don't think that's masculinity.
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I think when we talk about Elon Musk taking risks, sending rockets that are captured by scissors coming down, inspiring the EV race, taking an enormous risk, making a shit ton of money. Yeah, that's a great form of masculinity.
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Accusing men trying to save high soccer players, calling them pedophiles, calling your employees a sex criminal such that they have to leave their house, having 13 kids by five women or three women, none of which you live with, living next to, sleeping next to a loaded gun, of your self-control because of addiction. I don't think that's a great role model.
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I think it's an amazing role model for boys. I don't think it's a great role model for men.
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Yeah, I can't speculate on what motivates Elon Musk. I quite frankly just don't get the guy. And also, I don't have the domain expertise to comment on the rape gangs. It's such a serious, upsetting issue. I don't know it well enough to speak intelligently to it. Just the topic of censorship, though, as it relates to meta...
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A hallmark of a free society and a democracy is that pretty much anyone can say pretty much anything about pretty much anybody. I believe that. The question is, do machines and bots have free speech rights? Because if I say something, I believe... I may be paranoid, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong.
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I believe VCs whose portfolio companies I've said have overvalued have enlisted thousands of bots to basically just shitpost me over and over on X to diminish my credibility. I think because I've been critical of Putin that the GRU has hired troll farms to create lists of thousands of people to weaponize bots to say disparaging things about them. Do those bots have free speech rights?
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In addition, when Fox News distributes information to its anchors saying Dominion voting machines were weaponized by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, despite the fact they knew that was not true. But they tell their broadcasters to do it anyways. And then Dominion says, this hurt our business. And you knew it was false. And you decided to communicate it anyways. Their courts find them liable.
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They have to pay three quarters of a billion dollars. What happened at Fox News was a dumpster fire compared to the nuclear mushroom cloud that on meta. So a lot of what we're talking about here, if you want to say that mRNA vaccines alter your DNA, I think you should have the right to say that. The dissenter's voice is important because occasionally the conspiracy theorist ends up being correct.
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The question is, when you have a business model that elevates the most incendiary, ugly content beyond its organic reach, should you then be exonerated from all liability and slander that traditional media companies
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If we were to say that Elon Musk is a pedophile and start stating facts and evidence of it, and he could show that it's hurt his ability to raise money for Tesla, and he filed legal action against this podcast, I think we would be in a world of hurt. And that legal liability is warranted. But the most powerful media companies in the world have Section 230 protection.
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So they have a business model where conspiracy theory or novel content, which is Latin for bullshit and lies, and the more angry it is, it gets elevated beyond its organic reach.
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So while I'm kind of down with the notion that we should have free speech and anybody should be able to say pretty much whatever they want, there's something wrong when we have algorithms that have a profit incentive around rage, conspiracy theory, and lies, and two-thirds of Republicans believe that the election was stolen. And when one in five Americans think that 9-11 was an inside job,
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I mean, we are... Let's be honest.
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I think that's such an important point because I think it's a real shame that AI LLMs aren't crawling the real world. I was at Granger's yesterday. Someone comes up to me, love your content, Let's take a picture. They're so nice. Another person comes up to me and say, I disagree with your view on this, but we have a civil conversation.
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And then I come home to 40 bots telling me I'm Professor Genocide. I mean, people in the real world, generally speaking, I don't know if it's because of the threat of physical violence or they want to have sex with you or maybe they think at some point you'll hire their kid or generally just a comity of man. But people in real life, I find, are just lovely and wonderful.
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And it's a shame that these LLMs aren't crawling this because the treif and some of the vile shit they're crawling online, which I don't even think reflects our species. I think it reflects... technology that has a profit motive around promoting the most incendiary, hateful content. So there's got to be some sort of medium speed here.
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And also, I got a fact, Steve, because you don't like Chick-fil-A, don't eat a Chick-fil-A. If Musk wants to pay $44 billion and turn it into a Nazi porn bar, that's his right. I don't think it's illegal. I don't think the government should step in. But I don't have to paint his fence. And I can go to another platform. That's my right too. And everyone says, oh, you're against free speech.
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I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm against being on a platform that makes me feel bad. So he has the right. And all this notion around meta, free speech, it's a little different because they control so much of the media. But these are media companies and they should be liable for slander or defamation the same way traditional media companies are involved.
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I think we could solve a lot of this problem by just removing 230 protections for algorithmically elevated content. If you decide to elevate content beyond its organic reach, then you are making an editorial decision and you should be liable if that in fact is slanderous or defamatory.
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I just want to respond to that. I think you're guilty of the same illusion of complexity that protects these companies from acting like actors such that they can do anything regardless of the damage to the Commonwealth to add shareholder value. If you implemented, we have, first off, this notion that you don't want to give up your identity.
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Trust me, they know everything about you, Constantine, already. And I could go get a ton of information on you from the dark web fairly easily with a credit card. So the notion that somehow we shouldn't have some sort of... You could have... We need age verification for social media. There's no reason anyone in the age of 16 should be on a social media platform.
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And regarding the civil rights activists or the women's rights activists that needs an anonymity, you could create a number of accounts and use blockchain or some sort of third party anonymous to have a certain number of accounts that says, look, if you want an anonymous parody account, you want to make fun of people, fine. If you want to
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an account talking about issues that you feel are sensitive from other markets, fine. We could absolutely figure that out and then figure out, okay, this account is doing nothing. It has no base. It has no soul. It has no values. It has 72 followers. All it's doing is trying to start fights online. All it's doing is trying to make people feel shitty about Britain or shitty about America.
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And the reality is these companies use that illusion of complexity such that they can have more bots creating more fake clicks, more Nissan ads, and more shareholder value. I think there's a middle ground here. I think we could figure this out.
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I see too, and I can only, I don't feel like I can wrap my arms around UK's issues, but in terms of the US political extremism, I would put it number two, you know, at negative 40 Celsius and Fahrenheit meet. And because of our electoral system and Citizens United, people from the far left who are crazy and people from the far right who are crazy are just overrepresented.
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And they come together to meet on reckless spending, deficit spending. They come together to agree on anti-Semitism. And there's just too many people on the far left and the far right. And the people in the middle, it's minority rule. They're just not represented.
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However, I think the biggest threat that people aren't talking about, and I've actually spent some time talking with the administration around this or the former administration, I should say, is loneliness.
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And that is you have the deepest pocketed, most well-resourced companies and people in the world trying to convince people, especially young men, that they can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen with an algorithm. And I think they literally go crazy. I think they wake up and they're obese and lonely and have no skills. We talked about this.
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I think young people, I say this jokingly, but have seriously, I think young people need to get out of the house more, drink more, make a series of bad decisions that might pay off. I think we need more sex. I think we need more people in third spaces, more church, more religious, more institutions, national service. We're mammals. And I worry that one in seven men doesn't have a single friend.
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One in four men can't name a best friend. So this loneliness epidemic where people get into a bubble and start engaging into conspiracy theory, not trusting each other, blaming women, blaming the nation, self-harm. I worry about, you know what I say to young men, I coach a lot of young men, romantic comedies are two hours, not 15 minutes for a reason. This shit is hard. And it's worth it.
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But I worry that we're raising, like I said, this new species of asocial, asexual being called the young American male that is obese, anxious, and just a shitty citizen.
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You need cheap energy. You're right. What I would argue, I think it's going to be liquid natural gas and nuclear. We haven't talked about AI. AI requires 10 times the energy. The AI query is a Google query. The choke point is energy. I would argue in the U.S., I think we'd benefit more from, as opposed to drill, baby, drill, build, baby, build.
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I think young people have seen housing prices just go crazy. There's a psychological benefit to household formation, forced savings. So I'm going to take your word because you're a very smart guy that Britain has implemented a series of policies. That energy stat you rolled out was incredible. But in the U.S., like I said, I don't want to say we're drowning in oil.
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There were more drilling permits issued under Biden. than the previous Trump administration. I mean, just to call Biden anti-energy or that somehow we have this massively overinflated energy prices, it's just not, that hasn't happened in the U.S. I would like, we need more homes in the U.S.,
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I'm older. I have 14 and 17 year old boys. And my observation is you can't tell them anything. The best you can do is you can try and model behavior for them. So I'm trying to be really kind to their mother. I'm trying to show them that, you know, if you're serious about having a good family, you got to be a generous, loving partner.
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I'm trying to be in great physical shape and which is getting harder and harder. I'm trying to be aggressive and around them in terms of business and trying to be kind. And what I do, I do talk to them about the concept of surplus value. I'm like, you're takers right now. You know, the UK school system, which is amazing, is investing a lot in you and you're giving almost nothing back. Me and your
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Your mother are loving you a lot more than you're loving us. You're just taking resources everywhere. You're a net negative. And you're crossing a manhood isn't sex or some religious ceremony. You're crossing a manhood is when you are start creating surplus value. You're loving more people than you're absorbing. You're listening to more complaints than you are complaining.
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You're creating more revenue than you're absorbing. That's the notion at surplus value. And I have this trick. called What a Man Does. And I've been doing this when they're kids. I'm like, guests show up, a man goes and gets their luggage and puts it in their room. A man is constantly scanning the table for empty water glasses.
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And I mean, one of the proudest moments I ever had was when like my six-year-old boy who was all like 30 pounds got up and went over this gigantic pitcher of water at this table and like started like trying to pour other people's water and everyone had no idea what was going on here. I do these things called what a man does. A man asks a woman out for coffee. A man pays for women.
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You definitely you know, we Democrats, we get it right. And then we just go too damn far. And and so I look at I'm a professor on a campus. D.I. 60 years ago, there were 12 black people at Princeton, Yale and Harvard combined. That was a problem. Race based affirmative action makes sense. This year, more than half of Harvard's freshman class identifies as nonwhite.
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I'm a sexist that way. I still have told my men, my son gave me this rap on, dad, you're so establishment. I'm like, do everyone have sex? I'm like, then you need to pay. I mean, that's the bottom line. Anyways, but what I would say is I'm trying to model good behavior or be a good role model, but I agree with Constantine and Daniel.
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I think every day they have more potential to lead the most amazing life in history. I'm not a nihilist. I'm not a catastrophist. I think I have big problems, but given the blessings of the sons born to these men and future sons that you'll have, Stephen, Jesus, it's good to be them. They have no excuse. They should rock on. They should have a wonderful life.
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But 70% of those non-whites come from dual income homes in the upper quintile of income earning homes. The academic gap between black and white used to be double what it was between rich and poor. It's now flipped. So DEI was a good idea that quite frankly has gone insane and now just represents... the same racism it was trying to do away with.
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And then we created two candidates who were the only candidates who could make each other viable. Vice President Harris, given the hand she dealt with, did the best she did. I think President Biden should be buried in a crypt entitled narcissist who decided that it made sense for him to go back on his pledge to be a transition candidate.
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and gave us a British-style election timing on the Democratic side in a marketplace where you need time and money. So it was not, we did not have a great candidate. There is an understandable swing back from what is an overcorrection around some of these issues. You know, parents, we gave them a huge issue with transgender rights. There's more Padel players in California than transgender people.
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And yet the Democrats decided to conflate it with the civil rights movement and think that it was okay for a woman who transitioned, a transgender woman, to enter a bicycle race and finish five minutes before everybody else, and then we all bark up the same tree and decide that it's inspiring. And parents all over the nation are saying, what has, you know, we've literally gone crazy.
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Where I would disagree a little bit with Constantine is that America choosing economic growth and prosperity, there are 190 sovereign nations in the world. 189 would change places with America over the last four years. We hit 71 new record highs in the markets, 97% of all AI.
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We've created more market capitalization in a seven-mile radius of SFO International Airport than Europe's created in the last 20 years. We have the lowest inflation in the G7. We have the highest growth. We've grown 10% since 2020. That's triple the rate of Europe. Biden was unable to communicate any of that effectively.
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Because there's this psychological dynamic that when your wages go up, you credit your own grit and character, and when the price of cereal goes up, you blame the president. Now, similar to the future or how William Gibson described the future, it's here. It's just not evenly distributed. Prosperity is unprecedented in the U.S. over the last four years. It just wasn't evenly distributed. Now –
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Having said that, in America, you can stop working in August and you've produced more and made more money than you have in Europe the whole year. And it has gotten better. It's got it says things are less bad than anywhere in the world in the US. Biden was unable to communicate it. And then talking about how great the economy is when rents were skyrocketing, tuition was going up.
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It was an ineffective strategy. But. I don't think it's fair to say Americans chose prosperity. We have prosperity. I would argue that, quite frankly, some of the Republican ideals are on deficit spending, which are nothing but taxes on future generations pulled forward. I mean, we'll see how that works. But his signature policies clamp down on immigration, tariffs.
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These things are wildly inflationary. So Constantine's right. It's going to be difficult. You don't know what's going to happen. But it feels to me, I would argue that my favorite appointment in the Trump administration in the adult in the room is the 10-year bond, which is going to say, sorry, girlfriend, when I believe the president tries to implement some of these economic policies.
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I wasn't sure if that was... Well, in single-sex boys school, they end up with double the amount of recess time. And that is they have... I equate boys to dogs. A happy dog is a tired dog. And if it's not tired, if it doesn't get to run, it's going to cause trouble. And I feel the same way about boys.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So in these schools where they decide what's best for the boys, there's usually more exercise and more free play and more roughhousing co-ed schools. And you're also seeing, I think with boys, I mean, there's just, by even acknowledging that men play a critical role in boys' lives a few years ago, that was seen as sexist. What, you mean, what, you're saying moms can't do this?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I can just tell you there are certain moments when my partner needs me to weigh in. I don't know if it's the depth of my voice, my physical size, the way they relate to me, the fact that I'm not, you need dad. Or that's what I've found, especially with boys. They need almost like that, not physical intimidation, but it's almost like they begin tuning out their mom over time.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I mean, they're incredibly close to their mother. They look to her for nurturing. When they really have a problem, I find they go to mom. But they will constantly test the boundaries. constantly. And I think a lot of single mothers, quite frankly with boys, just can't keep a lid on that kid. They can't control the kid.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I think you're finding at schools when there's no male kind of, I don't know, involvement or that, I don't know, what I'll call physical presence. And then you add on this DOPA machine that they get used to squeezing a DOPA bag a hundred times a day as they need it. And then you take the dopa bag away. They're just more prone to emotional outbursts.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I'm curious if you've done any research around why that is that emotional outburst more common among boys than girls.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So you brought up Boy Scouts. In America, there's Scouts for America. Right. And it can be boys and girls.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But Girl Scouts have their own single sex. Yeah. But Boy Scouts aren't allowed to have their own single sex. So the question is, all right, what do you do? And I think that we need a societal zeitgeist that says immediately if there's no longer a male involved, we have to get other men involved and acknowledge that that's not being sexist, that that's important that you get men involved.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So I came from a single-parent household, raised by a single immigrant mother who lived and died as secretary. Light of my life. As soon as my dad was gone and then he had to move away for work, She got other men involved in my life. And I had wonderful men involved in my life. I had a stockbroker, neighbor down the hall, came in with his girlfriend and said, do you want to go horseback riding?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
He said, take me horseback riding. I don't know if men would be comfortable doing that. in today's age. So getting men involved in their lives, after school programs, Boy Scouts. I had a lot of wonderful men. I used to go camping, you know, and there were men everywhere involved in my life.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I worried that a lot of those institutions and also there's a reticence and a hesitance for men to get involved in a boy's life that isn't theirs for fear they're going to be perceived as something's wrong with them.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
We need more male teachers. There's more female fighter pilots per capita than male kindergarten teachers. There's just, there's an absence. There are some boys, not some, there are millions of boys in America whose first male role model is a prison guard. And there are just no men in their lives. After-school programs being canceled, no women, very few men, K through 12. Dad's not around.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
There are literally communities. You read articles about it where it's like, where are the men? Yeah, so I'm trying to figure out where are they.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It doesn't look like they're in work. They're not in college. The reality is there just aren't, for a lot of reasons, a host of reasons, a lack of male involvement in kids' lives is a big, big factor leading to this. There are other factors. There's socioeconomic factors. There's biological factors. There's a lack of vocational training.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
There's outsourcing of many of the jobs that made a man's path to middle class viable. You want to talk about the UK, a big problem is a lack of growth. There's not a lot of income opportunities there. for a young man who's not exceptional. And what we've seen in the U S is essentially, if you look at our economic policies and college, it's never been better to be remarkable.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Like if you're in the top 10%, if you're a high school class, you're going to make more money than the top 10% did 10, 20, 30. If you end up at Google, you're, you're going to make a kid at Google. Who's amazing. Computer science theory can make millions of dollars by the time the 30, but I can prove to every one of us mathematically, the 99% of our children are not on the top 1%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And our economic policies have basically said that school and college is meant to identify a superclass of one percenters that we're going to try and turn into billionaires instead of figuring out the infrastructure and the programs to ensure the bottom 90 have a shot of being in the top 10. And one of the stats is just around college acceptance.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
When I applied to UCLA, the acceptance rate was 76%. Now it's 9%. I was unremarkable for whatever reason, prefrontal cortex, single mother, whatever you want to call it. But back then they had the mission and the charge to let in unremarkable kids. And that's no longer the case because America's superpowers are optimism. And we all believe our kids in that top 1%. And the reality is they're not.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Or people think, I like an economy where you can make a billion dollars because that's going to be me one day. So they have ignored the fact that we are crowding more and more prosperity and opportunity into the remarkable. And for me, it comes down to what do we want in America and the UK? Do we want a super class of billionaires?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Or do we want a society and an operating system that gives unremarkable people a shot of being in the top 10%? It's become winner take all. And we have purposely... created a set of economic and educational policies that crowd a massive amount of prosperity into the top 1%. And we have opted for it because we believe we have a shot at being in that top 1%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Best healthcare in the world if you're in the top 10%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Marriage has become a luxury item. If you're in the top quintile of income-earning households, you're 75% get married. If you're in the bottom quintile, only 25. If you're in the lower quintile of income-earning men, only one in four chance of getting married.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Yeah, there's a lot there. There's some nuance around the pay thing. So the data I've seen is that women under the age of 30 in urban areas are now making more money. But to your point, the moment they have kids, where corporate America has really failed is it hasn't figured out a way to maintain a woman's professional trajectory once she decides to deploy her ovaries and have kids.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And there's some data saying, okay, two-thirds of divorce can be reverse engineered to the man starting to make less money. When the woman... and the relationship starts making more money, they become twice as likely to get divorced, three times as likely to use ED drugs because the guy loses a sense of purpose and self-esteem.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
What gets lost in that data is the reality is if a woman is stepping up and stepping into the economic void and being a greater economic contributor, then logically it would make sense that men need to step up logistically. And I think what a lot of women are saying is like, okay,
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
i'm not getting anything i'm not you're no longer a provider and by the way you haven't filled that void you haven't made up the delta so there's some there's some nuance around it what what also i think is important to say is that if women are better students and showing the discipline and the skills to go to college in an information economy and making more money then okay good on them just as for whatever reason men made more money maybe it wasn't fair but
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
it's not a crime against humanity if women have the skills to make more money. What happens, though, is the second-order effects that you're talking about, and that is, and we don't like to talk about this, 75% of women say that economic viability is hugely important in a mate. Only 25% of men. For men, it's not a criteria. For women, it is.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And Chris Williamson of the Modern Wisdom podcast, he has this great stat, or he calls it the high heels effect, and that is 50% of women say they won't date a man shorter than them. I'm curious what you think, but I think it's more like 80%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think it's an embarrassing thing to say because just instinctively, women feel like they'll be vulnerable during gestation and they want someone they think physically could protect them. I just think it's hardwired into them even if they don't know it. Women, metaphorically, are getting taller every year. And women made horizontally and up and men horizontally and down.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And when the pool of horizontal and up keeps shrinking, they just have – so this notion, a ton of great women – Where are the men or there's no men? There's a lot of men, just not men they'd want to date. Right. And then you speedball it with the guys who are in the top 10% can engage in Porsche polygamy.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
They can get a date every goddamn night, which does not encourage long-term or very good behavior. So the guys they all want are not incented to enter into long-term relationships. And the bottom half of men are literally shut out of the mating market. And we always kind of, and this goes to your Ballywick, kind of portray men as the predators and the idiots and they just got their act together.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
There's something strange going on in that as online dating, when a woman can go out with a guy, a high status male, and I'll put forward this thesis and I want you to respond to it. She can have sex with him, which gives her the impression that's her weight class for a relationship, but he's not interested in a relationship.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And then she basically decides the bottom 90 are no longer in her weight class. And you can't tell a woman to lower her expectations. But the reality is, and what I've seen on dating apps, is that all of the women want the same few guys and they shut out the rest.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
They go to porn.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Again, you can't tell women to lower their expectations, but this is the reality. When you ask a man if you could have a woman who had 80% of everything you wanted, 75% say, yeah, I'm on board. When you say to a woman a man has 80% of what you want, 75% say that's not enough. But even look at the media.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
What does the media tell a woman to do? He's out, but he didn't open your door. He's not nice to his parents. Walk right out on that man. Every piece of media is you don't need him. You're a strong, independent woman. Pull the ripcord. You're out. And it is the basic kind of communication around this is you are a strong, independent, powerful woman. That is wonderful.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And quite frankly, you don't need the imperfect man. And they're just not connecting. I read that on Tinder, a man of average attractiveness has to swipe right 200 times to get one coffee. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Thank you. Thank you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So I make my living looking at data and trying to come up with insights. I spent most of my career looking at data to try and add shareholder value. And then I have the luxury now focusing on things I'm really interested in. And I just sort of stumbled upon data about the reflects that the cohort that has ascended fastest globally is women.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
What you said is really powerful because if you walk down the hallway at Stern, there's Golden Seeds, Women of Venture Capital, Black Women's Consulting Club. There are women supporters. There's nothing for men. And these groups are really wonderful. Man Talks is one that I've been looking at. where they've said, let's get together and just be supportive of each other.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And it's a fairly new phenomenon.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And this is a wonderful thing and a huge collective victory. And the group that has fallen furthest fastest is men in Western markets. And the data was just so overwhelming. And also, I was close to being one of these men. I didn't have a lot of economic or romantic prospects when I was a young man. But there were programs and an environment where I could be successful.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And the data I've seen is that when the woman in the relationship starts making more money, they become twice as likely to get divorced.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I worry that some of the temptations of technology, the economic trends... And had they been where they are now then, I could have very easily ended up a statistic. So I just sort of relate to these problems.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
you brought up two interesting things. When is your, your, your friend group? I have a similar group, same eight guys, eight guys I lived with my freshman year at UCLA for 30 or 40 years. We've been kind of constant contact email now on WhatsApp. When your friend had something bad happen to him, I think for a long time, men have weighed in and showed empathy for each other.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
What none of my male friends have ever done, their friend group would say is I, I've never heard one of my male friends go, I'm depressed. I'm, I'm just super fucking lonely and depressed. You just don't hear that from men. I'm struggling with anger. All of a sudden, I have erectile dysfunction.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I've never heard one of my male friends, when their mom dies or they get divorced, we weigh in with a lot of empathy. But you never hear them really open up because men are worried that if we display weakness, another man might kill us and take our shit from us or the women aren't going to want to have sex with us.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So there's still, I think, a huge inability for men to proactively talk about how they're really feeling. And then you talked about a board of directors. A great board of directors for a man in his 20s, unfortunately, not unfortunately, is a girlfriend.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I'll just use personal experience. I had a great girlfriend when I was 24, and she basically said to me, if you don't stop getting high every night, I'm going to stop having sex with you. That was very motivating for me. I really liked being with a partner.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Without the guardrails of a romantic relationship, I think men are just, I don't want to say lost, but women create more social connections outside of a romantic relationship. And sometimes that absence of a romantic relationship, they pour that energy into into friendships and their professional life, whereas men start pouring it into video games and Reddit and porn.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So the fact that only one in three men in America under the age of 30 has a girlfriend and two in three women has a boyfriend, you think, well, that's mathematically impossible. It's not because women are dating older because they want more economically and emotionally viable men. If I hadn't been in relationships that were great guardrails for me in terms of my own behavior, my own ambition,
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I men need without the prospect or the existence of a romantic relationship. Men have worse outcomes than women who don't have. And it is what I'm. Do you agree with what I'm saying? Does the research bear that out?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think a real enemy of relationships and mating for people in their 20s that we haven't talked a lot about, I had Dr. Anna Lemke from Stanford on my pod talking about addiction and something we're just starting to come to grips with. And as I read more about it, I think porn is really... Let's talk about porn. Well, personal experience. I used to go on camp.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
The only reason I graduated from UCLA, I graduated with a 2.27 GPA. If I graduated with a 1.97, I wouldn't graduate. Not the only motivator, but a real motivator for me was was the prospect of meeting someone. I could go onto campus and there might be a chance I'd meet friends, be social, and possibly meet a potential romantic partner. It was very motivating.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So the research I've looked at, and Richard Reeves from the American Institute of Boys in Medicine did research here, the point of failure, if you reverse-engineered issues to, is when a boy loses a male role model. And that is, in the U.S., we have the second most single-family parent homes behind Sweden.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And if I'd had porn on this and on my screen, always available, I'm not sure I would have gone on campus. I just would have spent a lot more time at home. And unfortunately, the deepest pocketed, most talented companies in the world are trying to convince young people that they can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen with an algorithm.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And what I say to young men I coach is that I'm not going to tell you not to consume porn, but try to modulate it because I think that fire of wanting to meet someone and wanting to demonstrate excellence and having perseverance and enduring rejection and getting your shit together and dressing well and smelling nice and showering for God's sakes, that mojo, that desire is incredibly important for society.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And we're taking young men's mojo away with frictionless, open access, on-demand porn.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Yeah.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And it impacts them. It'll impact the economy because the skills you have to develop to be successful in the mating market are life skills.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You have to be able to endure rejection. You have to have a sense of humor. You have to be able to read the room. Show me a guy who's good in a bar. I'll show you a guy who'd probably be good in a boardroom. And the skills you have to develop as a young man, if you want a romantic and a sexual relationship, pay dividends the rest of your life.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But we don't like to talk about this.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And what's interesting is that in single-parent homes, girls actually have similar outcomes, similar rates of high school attendance, income, rates of self-harm. Boys, once they lose a male role model, become much more likely to be incarcerated, engage in criminal activity, harm themselves. It ends up that while being physically stronger, boys are emotionally and mentally much weaker.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And if you don't develop those skills, I think it impacts your life across a bunch of dimensions.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Okay, so I coach young men. I take two to three on at any time. And I don't know if this is the right way, but it's my way. I'm like, you've got to lean into your advantage. When you're our age, you have capital. You have more money than time. They have capital. They have a lot of time. And I ask them to unlock their screen, and I say to them, I gamble with options. I gamble.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
At my age, I still gamble. I preach about low-cost index funds and I buy call options. That makes no fucking sense. It's gambling, but I know it. I watch porn. I try and modulate my use so I can put the majority of my sexual energy into my partner, but I watch porn because I want them to not feel like I'm going to judge them. They unlock their phone.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I said, we're going to find 8 to 12 hours a week of time, of capital. And we're going to reinvest that capital in higher ROI investments. It is so easy to find 8 to 12 hours. I can sometimes find 7 hours or 15 hours just in TikTok.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So the loss of a male role model is, I would argue, kind of the first point of failure that predicts that a kid, a boy is going to struggle. And that has impacts on family court, economic policy, and just general zeitgeist in our society where Men need to step up. If we want better men, we need to be better men. We need to step into that void.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I look at screen time. And I say, all right, come through with me. We're going to find 8 to 12 hours. And then we're going to reinvest that capital in three investments. One, we're going to start working out and getting fit. You're going to work out three times a week with weights. The human male form is spectacular.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You should be able to walk into any room under the age of 30 if you're a man and know that if shit got real, you could kill and eat everybody or outrun them. I need you to be strong. You're going to be more mentally healthy. You're going to be kinder. Look at the people who break up fights at bars. They're big, strong men. Look at the people who defend their country.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You want to be strong as a man. It feels fucking amazing. Testosterone, your bone structure, your muscle mass, it's amazing. Lean into that. We're going to get strong. Two, you got to start making some money. And the kids, you know, to be honest, the kids I'm coaching are really struggling. These are kids at home at the age of 23 with their mom, not getting along with their mom. Nothing going on.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
If you have a phone, you can make money. I don't care if it's Lyft, TaskRocket, because you got a taste for the flesh. And the way to start making a lot of money is to start making a little bit of money. Because you start to figure out the economy. How could I make more money? Maybe at some point, could I buy a car and hire a driver to be an Uber?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You know, what is the way, you know, could I get a certification in plumbing? You start figuring out and you start getting your greed glands get going. Oh my God, it's awesome to have money. I can go out. I can go to a concert. It gets those greed glands going. And then the third thing we're going to do
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
is we're going to put ourselves in the company of strangers and the agency of something bigger than ourselves twice a week. Church group, softball league, nonprofit, whatever it is. And then 3A, and this is – I just started doing this. I've only done it two times. And it's an exercise, and I say – and it goes to your – I think no is the way to success.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Show me someone who's successful. I'm going to show you a shit ton of no's. I ran for sophomore, junior, senior class president, lost all three times, decided to run for senior class president, lost. I applied to 38 jobs. I got one offer, nine schools, rejected by seven. I mean, I just, my whole life has been about no. And that's why I'm successful is I was always able to endure it.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So I say, this is what I want you to do. I need you to go up to a stranger at wherever we're doing, church group, writer club, writer's club. whatever it might be online, educate, not online, excuse me, education, continuing education. And you're going to ask them out for coffee. It's a friend. Hey, what are you doing? You want to watch the game?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Do you want to watch the Liverpool game this weekend? Let's go to a bar. If it's a woman, you might have an attractor to, Hey, try and get a wrap gone. Would you like to have coffee? And here's the goal. The goal is no. And we're going to celebrate now because you're going to call me and I'm going to say, did you ask someone out for coffee or to a bar? And most likely they'll have said no.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
They'll be polite, but they'll come up with an excuse. And then I'm going to ask you if you're okay. And you're going to say yes. And that's the victory.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's fine, it seems. The difference between creepy and romantic is the perceived attractiveness of the person making the overture.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But my understanding is the majority of women still expect the man to take the initiative.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And this is one of the most frightening stats I've seen. According to Pew, more than 50% of men between the ages of 18 and 24 have never asked a woman out in person. And I just find that so just upsetting and rattling because that means they're either not asking people out or they're asking them out online where, quite frankly, they can't demonstrate any sense of excellence.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I think the beautiful thing about human sexuality is sometimes you don't even know why you're attracted to someone. You like the way they smell. You find out they're funny. And that happens in person. But we need one more third spaces, more places people can meet.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And also, I actually think it would be helpful to have in the senior of high school a class called adulting, or amongst other things, you teach them about the interest rate on a credit card. You know, little things. My kid can do integers, and he doesn't understand the interest rate on his credit card.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And also, quite frankly, I think young men need guidance around how to express romantic interest while making the other person feel safe. And also... that if you express romantic interest and ask someone out for coffee and they say no, you're both going to be fine. You haven't committed a crime against humanity. As long as you're respectful and you don't make the person feel uncomfortable.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But men aren't even asking women out.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And you think, well, women can be fantastic teachers, and it's true. But after-school programs, not as many coaches that typically are male, not as much compensation, so they don't get rewarded for being coaches. And if you just think about it logically, who does a teacher champion? A teacher champions someone that reminds them of themselves when they were a kid. And also just look at the…
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I want to throw a Molotov cocktail into this and something that's controversial I've gotten pushback on. I think one of the enemies of mating is that there's too little drinking. If you look at millennials, they spent $30 billion on alcohol. Gen Z, it's crashed to $2 billion. Peter Attia and Andrew Huberman have declared war on drinking.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think young people need to drink more and go out and make a series of bad decisions that might pay off. I don't see drunkenness. I see togetherness. And I don't know how it was for you and your relationship, but I think of the majority of great friendships I have and the romantic opportunities I've had, not always, but often alcohol played a role.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I worry that with a lack of going out, being out of the house, and also a lack of drinking, that we've taken away a social lubricant that breaks down some of the walls and some of the initial awkwardness and entry into a potential romantic relationship.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
There's incredible bias, I would argue, against males in school. A boy is twice as likely to be suspended on a behavior-adjusted basis. Twice as likely to be suspended for the exact same infraction is a girl. Five times as likely if it's a black boy. And once you're suspended twice, it probably means you're not going to college. In addition, look at the behaviors we promote in school. Sit still.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Brunello Cucinelli Cashmere V-neck sweater makes me look fantastic, makes me better, and is beautiful.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Be a pleaser. Be organized. Raise your hand. You basically just described a girl. And also, quite frankly, a lot of the jobs that require tertiary education attainment, there's more women now in law school and medical school. And quite frankly, good for them. They're just better at that. They're better students. They deserve to make more money. They deserve it. But the reality is...
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Portia polygamy. If it's never been better to be a very attractive male, but you have so much opportunity, it does not incent good behavior or long-term relationships.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think the reality though on the ground is that if you're a high status male, you think age is on your side.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It has huge ramifications when we no longer have wood, auto, or metal shop. They've gone away. So those used to be a pass to do some middle-class jobs. They've been replaced by computer science. So what are the pass for the two-thirds of males that aren't going to end up with a traditional liberal arts college degree?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Because the reality is the math is just unfair to women.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Because if you're a 30-year-old male making really good money and just not unattractive, at 40, you're going to be even sexier. Your sexual currency goes up.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Well, especially if they haven't ever been in a long-term relationship.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Thank you. Thank you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
that a lack of male involvement in kids' lives is a big factor leading to this. And once they lose a male role model, they become much more likely to engage in criminal activity.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think about this a lot with my boys. And I think kind of the three legs of the stool are provider. I'm probably over focused on the economics. That doesn't necessarily mean making a lot of money, but at least being disciplined and responsible about it. Developing skills, certification, having a plan. Don't be the guy ordering a bottle of Grey Goose at 2 in the morning.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I'm going home because I've got to get up. I have a plan, and I have a vision for how I'm going to be a good provider. A protector, good manners. Your default system is protection. You constantly speak well of people behind their backs. You hear someone being critical of someone else. Your inclination is to defend them. You don't demonize special interest groups.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Your default setting, if somebody needs help anywhere or is being threatened, it's so heartbreaking to me that women feel unsafe when they see men. When they see a group of men coming down the street, surveys show women are inclined to cross the street.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And it just feels like from an early age, men need to be taught, anyone smaller, anyone more vulnerable than you, anyone in a special interest group, your default is protection. That's what men do. Think about masculinity, a soldier, a cop, a fireman. What do they do? At the end of the day, they protect. That is your default operating system is a move to protection. And then procreator.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think you should want to have sex. I think you should be willing to take risks. I tell my boys, I did this for a while, they can't get back in the house unless they talk to a stranger. And my oldest, no problem. Hey, what's going on? My youngest, not as easy. Just go up and pet their dog. I think there are so many men out there that have no willingness or ability to open, to
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You know, to just say hi, where are you from, to just open. And to want a romantic relationship is a wonderful thing. There's nothing wrong with that. Modulate your porn. Decide, ask yourself, would you want to have sex with you? Get strong, get fit, get your act together. Smell nice. Groom. If you can't dress well, find someone who can dress you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
and initiate contact and want to have a relationship with someone. That's a wonderful thing. That mojo is the most purposeful, wonderful thing in my life is that I'm raising two patriotic, decent men. And it started with me really wanting to have sex with this woman I saw at the pool at the Raleigh Hotel. Right? And that sounds crass.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's like, I looked at her and thought, I am really attracted to this woman, so I'm going to take a risk. In the middle of the day, without the benefit of alcohol, I'm going to walk up and introduce myself to her and another guy and woman she was with. Hey, where are you guys from? And then 18 months later, our first son was born, middle name Raleigh, after the hotel. Take risks.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
B, want to have mating opportunities. You're a provider. Your default system is a protector. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to be a procreator.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's 60% of 30-year-olds 40 years ago used to have a kid. Now it's 27%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
There's huge economic impact too because it used to be 12 people working age to support every senior. Now it's three to one. If we don't have kids... We're going to go into economic decline.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Well, on the right, they've conflated masculinity with coarseness and cruelty. The two kind of role models, you know, president Trump, who in my opinion, demonstrates a lack of grace and a lack of empathy and a lack of kindness. And Elon Musk is concurrently being sued by two women for sole custody of their, their kid, because he hasn't seen the kid.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I mean, is that, those are the role models we want for young men. And on the left, their vision of masculinity is act more like a woman. I don't think that's helpful either. I went to the Democratic National Convention, and there was a parade of special interest groups. Everyone was represented, except for the group that needs the most representation right now, in my view, and that is young men.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
If you go to the DNC website, they list 16 special interest groups, and they say, who we serve. They call it out, who we serve. Asian Pacific Islanders, seniors, the disabled, immigrants, black Americans. And I added it up. it's 74% of the US population. And when you say you're actively advocating for 74%, you're not advocating for the 74%, you're discriminating against the 26%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And who are the 26%? Young men. Is this a consequence of DEI? I think that's part of it. I think there's been so many groups that have been discriminated against. And the way I would just loosely describe the Democratic Party is we have the right ideas and then we just take it too far. You know, women have gotten a raw deal So they need advantage. You know, gays have been persecuted.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Non-whites have had, there were 12 black people 60 years ago in Princeton, Harvard, and Yale combined. That was a problem. This year, more than 60% of Harvard's freshman class identify as non-white. So I think we got to get out of identity politics, but the notion, it largely came from the left, this notion of toxic masculinity. There's no such thing.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Because there's violence, there's people who are criminals, there's people who are unkind. That means they're not masculine. Masculinity is being a protector, a provider, a procreator.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And the Democratic Party seems to believe that leaning into anything around your advantage of being male in terms of your strength, your kindness, your wanting to procreate, your initiating sexual contact or sexual romantic interest is somehow a threat and somehow toxic. I just think they've sent absolutely the wrong signal.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And into that void has stepped basically thinly veiled misogyny that is just so ugly. And Trump flew right into it. The reason Trump won this election in my view is the groups that pivoted hardest from blue to red 2020 to 2024 were Latinos who were sick of being categorized by their identity.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But numbers two and three were people under the age of 30, especially males, who are not doing very well and feel like Donald Trump feels their pain, and women age 45 to 64. And my thesis is that's their mothers. Because if your son isn't doing well, you don't care about territorial sovereignty in Ukraine or transgender rights. You just want to change. My son isn't doing well.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
First thing is forgive yourself. There's this natural... part of a separation where and I think this is true of girls but especially boys where to make the separation easier we don't get along with our parents in our senior year in high school and That doesn't mean your son doesn't love you. That doesn't mean your son's not going to figure it out. But to forgive yourself.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But going back to more actionable things, try and get men involved in his life. And then, you know, dumb stuff like my mom made sure I was in Boy Scouts. My mom, when I got cut from the high school basketball and football team, she enrolled me in city leagues so I could continue to play sports. But it was mostly she wasn't sure that I had men in my life.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I think that was really, really important for me. But, you know, I would just say that I feel like I need to coach men more. What I say to boys, one of the first things I say to boys, I had lunch with someone who's a fairly famous news anchor and her son. And I asked the mom to excuse, they started going at it. And I asked the mom to excuse herself.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I said to the mom, I'm like, you realize this is the only person in your life ever that wants you to be more successful than you. You just got to cut this shit out. This woman is not your enemy. And I heard that, and I was a bit ashamed because I remember, like, being such an asshole to my mother, you know?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So I think, but I think I could say that to him because I could look him in the eyes and say, what the fuck are you doing? So I just think that male involvement for single mothers, and I think men are really willing to get involved, whether it's someone down the street, a coach, you know, a sibling, your brother, whatever it is.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But I do think, again, the research shows that the point of failure is when a boy loses a male role model. And also to forgive yourself, being a single parent with a son, I think that's hard. I just think it's hard. Logan, you've got some questions I can see.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think a great question. Proxy for masculinity and manhood is, and Richard Reeves introduced me to this, I think it's so powerful, and that is surplus value. It's not about a religious ceremony. It's not about having sex. It's not about an age. It's about getting to the point of surplus value. You create more tax revenue than you absorb. I say to my boys, you're negative value.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Look at all the resources going into you. Look at all the love. We love you so much more than you love us. Your teachers are spending all this time and energy, and you aren't giving anything back. At some point, that needs to pivot. So creating more tax revenue, noticing people's life, registering more complaints from other people than you are complaining, protecting people, adding surplus value.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Well, it's complicated. There's male abandonment. There's just no getting around it. But also, going back to family courts, sometimes the courts in our economy make it difficult for a man to stay involved in the kids' lives. And also, family court's getting better at saying, all right, the kids... I mean, just a personal anecdote.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So these notions that, and I wasn't that guy. I wanted more from everyone else than I was giving. I was the guy that when someone honked at me, I was the guy that sped up and honked back to restore the universe to its place.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
If a Delta, if a ticket counter agent at the airline counter was rude to me, I needed to get back in their face to restore harmony to the universe because I'm a fucking baller. And what you realize is being a man is occasionally taking a hit, right? It's having surplus value. It's noticing people's lives. It's listening to complaints.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's occasionally thinking, well, maybe this person who cut me off in traffic, I don't know what's going on with them. Maybe their kid has diabetes. Maybe they're going through a divorce. It's adding more value than you're taking. And until the age of like 40, I looked at every relationship. Am I getting more out of this than I'm getting? And if I'm not, I'm out.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And what you realize is good business partnerships, you add as much or more value than your partners. Good relationships, you witness the person's life. You make them feel fucking awesome. If you leave this world a little bit in debt, that's the whole point. That's the whole point. Or a little bit, the world's in debt to you. That's the win. And I used to think as a young man,
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
That meant I needed to exit the relationship. I'm not getting more money or services than I'm giving. I'm not getting more kindness than I'm not giving. I'm not getting more hot experiences with this romantic partner than they're giving me. I'm out. No, it's the other way around. Being a man is surplus value.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I have a friend who recently has gone through divorce, two daughters, very much wants to be involved in their lives. there are 13 and 15-year-old girls. And quite frankly, dad's there on the weekends and they got their own thing going on. And they don't necessarily make dad a priority. And dad's not around for what I call the garbage time.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And that is what I found with my boys is the moments of serendipity and connection happen randomly when you're taking them to school, when you're out in the back, you know, jumping around or playing, whatever it is, these garbage moments. And when you're not in the household, for whatever reason, There's just, there isn't that much garbage time.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
another avenue to sort of take pressure off the pressure valve so yeah it's difficult it's difficult the way you the email you just read from that young man i don't i've stopped and it sounds crass i can't handle the emails i get anymore i'm getting so many emails from young men who are just i mean you like you read an email like that and you just like it's devastating.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You know, I haven't gotten over the death of my father. I'm living alone. I've become addicted to, I mean, you just hear this shit and like, I know I have value to add. I just can't figure it out. Or, I mean, just, there's just so many of these men out there. And I think a lot of it is I always look to economics. I'm like, we've got to figure out vocational programming.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think we should have national service. So people feel a sense of identity and connection. and purpose. Some of the lowest levels of young adult depression are in Israel despite all the existential threats because they all serve in the IDF for two to three years. I think we need More freshman seats at colleges.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think we need more third places where people, I think a lot of it comes down to economics and policy programs. I think there's a lot we can do to help young men. But in the U.S., it's now 77% moving to 80% suicides. It's four to one. If there was any special interest group, you go into a morgue in America and five people die by suicide, four are men.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
If that was any other special interest group versus the control group, they'd weigh in with programs. But because of the enormous advantage I registered, and let's be honest, it was enormous. Basically, all prosperity in America, which was unprecedented, was crammed into 30% of the population, basically white males. So we just had a staggering advantage.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And now 19-year-old males are paying the price for my advantage. There's really a lack of empathy for them. And what I do think is hopeful is that Mothers and women in society now realize that the country and women are not going to continue to flourish if men are flailing. And it finally feels like we're having a real program.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
The governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, has said that his focus for his administration, this is a governor of a state, a liberal state, is going to be on helping the state's young men. I mean, that took such fucking balls for him to say that. And you know what? The populists received it well because on the ground, people are feeling it. They're really feeling how much young men are struggling.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I'm actually quite hopeful that we've turned a corner in terms of the dialogue. Because when I started talking about this four or five years ago, right away, oh, your hair wasn't on fire when women were. I mean, just, oh, there was such a gag reflex. It has changed so dramatically in the last four or five years.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I think slowly but surely they lose sometimes connection with their kid. There's also, there's something weird going on. I'm curious, Logan, if you've got data on this, but you have a one-year-old daughter, right? You're going to be amazed when my unfortunate boy had a Halloween party and the boys are like cute, but they're dopes. They're boys.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
That's a great question. And I wish I had... a list of resources and I'm trying to assemble it around. All right. I mean, I'm, I'm involved with it because it's difficult to discern between ordinary young adult or adolescent problems. And when a kid's suicidal, I wish I had some sort of AI filter that would go, this kid needs help right away. Like there, here are some resources.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Here are some men's groups, you know, and I do a shitty job. I can't talk to all of them. A couple of them. I take the lazy way. I say, here's 500 bucks. Do better help online therapy. I'll pay for your first four sessions.
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Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Just be, but I gotta be honest, I don't know.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Yeah. And I appreciate the offer and we should do this, but we should have a list that says, all right, what are you struggling with? And here are some Here are some resources or things you should think about.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's devastating. But something that's controversial I've gotten pushback on. I think the secret weapon for men that they don't leverage is to... I want to hear a woman's perspective on it.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's on you, brother. You've got more tread on you. You've got, look at all these cameras. I'm
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Any closing points you want to add, Scott? Well, just a message to young people in general. The arc of happiness is a smile and that is kind of zero to 18 is prom, football, you know, making out. It's generally pretty happy. The least happy years for people are usually kind of 18 to 45, economic stress, relationships are hard. You probably are someone you love a great deal, get sick and dies.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
There are some 14-year-old girls who look like they could be the junior senator from Pennsylvania. They're 5'10". They're articulate. Hello, Mr. Galloway. How are you? What a lovely home. And the boys are like, I don't know. And biologically, girls mature faster. Their prefrontal cortex is 18 months ahead of a boy's.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And if you're struggling, what I would just say is, you know, don't be afraid to reach out for help, but also realize that if you're not a member of parliament and you don't have a fragrance named after you, it doesn't mean you're failing and to forgive yourself and to recognize that those are tough years. I, You know, when my first kid was born, I tell this story a lot.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's supposed to be angels singing in bright lights. I felt nothing but shame. I was 42 and I was broke. I had put everything into my tech company. Great financial recession came along. I think my accountant called me and said, you're worth a negative $2 million. If we look at your debts, you're worth negative $2 million.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And about that time, my oldest son had the poor judgment to come rotating out of my girlfriend's. And all I felt with this kid was shame. I have failed. I've failed myself. And now I've failed on an entirely new dimension as a provider and a father. That was the first thing I felt when my son was born. And I wrote about it. And I can't tell you how many men I heard from.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
That all I felt when I had my first kid or kids was a sense of embarrassment and that I was already failing.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Nausea. I was in the delivery room and they were more worried about me and they thought it was because I was grossed out by birthing. It was because I was so ashamed. I just immediately felt like, oh my God, how did I put myself in a position where I'm a terrible provider on day one? I just felt a tremendous amount of shame. And I think most people, when you talk to them,
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
at some point, have felt really down and really embarrassed. And I just don't think that's anything unusual. And you want to forgive yourself. You want to say to yourself, I can add value to a company. I can make someone very happy. And try and surround yourself with people that make you feel good about yourself. And every day, just little baby steps. Write some things down.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
trying to exercise, trying to eat well. I can tell when I'm getting depressed, and I have this method of getting out of it. I call it SCAFA, S-C-A-F-A, sweat. It resets my operating system. Clean, try and eat really well at home. Abstinence, and when I say abstinence, abstinence from pot and alcohol, both of which I love, and I'm really good at them.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
An 18-year-old girl or woman is competing against a 16-and-a-half-year-old when she's competing against an 18-year-old. And they're even finding… That it's getting worse, that women or girls are starting to menstruate earlier and boys' testicles are descending later. So the gap in maturity, biological gap, they think might even be growing and they don't know if it's pesticides.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
They add value to my life, but when I'm not feeling good, I take them out of my life because whatever's going on with my sensors, I just don't want to mess with them. F is family. I find being around my boys is really important. And then A is affection. I find affection being around, even if it's my dogs laying on me or my boys. I'll say to my boys, let's watch TV.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And my boys instinctively throw their legs on mine. Not necessarily sex, but affection with my partner. Those are the things that get me out of a dark place. So try and figure out, if you can, what things help you get out of a dark place. But recognize everyone struggles.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I'm not saying that you shouldn't reach out and find help, but everything online is telling you you should be in a Gulfstream and partying in St. Barts. No, that's just not, that's not the real world. And try and build a support system and also forgive yourself. Life is, happiness is a smile.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Kind of 20 to 45 is usually, you know, it's full of a lot of joy, but it's also full of a lot of, you know, oftentimes a lot of anxiety.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
No.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I did. My first marriage, we went to marriage counseling. And after the first session, we decided to get divorced. So I'm a little traumatized by therapy. Yeah. He cut right to it.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Yeah.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Just a quick anecdote. When I was a senior in high school and a freshman in college, I remember thinking, I'm strange. I'm... I remember feeling very insecure about my own psychological makeup, and that didn't help. And then I read a bunch of John Irving novels, The World According to Garp, Cider House Rules, and the people in it were just so fucking strange. It made me feel better about myself.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I'm like, oh, there's other weirdos out there. So what you say really resonates. It made me feel less self-conscious about how unusual I thought I was. So it just dawned on me that that was a big help for me. Wow.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But when I meet my eighth graders' colleagues, there's a huge difference between the boys and the girls. And one of Richard's suggestions is that we redshirt boys, that we hold them a year back. The boys start kindergarten at six, whereas girls start at five.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Well, I've determined, I don't know how it is for you with books, but basically your publisher does nothing and then obsesses over the title. That is very true. So I had it work. It was supposed to be originally about masculinity. And then I realized that I don't have the skills or the domain expertise to summarize masculinity. So I changed it to work in progress notes on becoming a man.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I just talk about stories that I've written about, about some of the things we've talked about today and try and use masculinity as a code. I think everyone needs a code, whether it's the military, the religion, their family values. And I think masculinity can serve as a code if defined correctly for young men.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But it's just a series of, like, stories about things I've gone through, some of my many ways I've failed and what I learned about trying to become a man, trying to be a good dad, trying to be a good partner.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It'll be on the fall.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Scott, what are you most scared of? The way I took that was what am I most worried about? I'm really worried about an epidemic of loneliness from a societal standpoint that people are starting to believe they can disengage from life. And that leads to anxiety and depression and polarization that makes the world a less safe place. Personally, my fear has always been the same.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I'm always worried that my kind of selfish instincts manifest in an ugly way and I end up alone and old. You know, that's my biggest fear, that I end up dying under bright lights, you know, surrounded by strangers. That's my biggest fear. Because your selfish instincts manifest.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You do something wrong in your relationship or you fuck up your... Yeah, just so as my dad is not a very... My dad ended up... My dad's basically alone at 95. And some of his less... Some of his lower character quality attributes I see in myself. And that's a fear. My fear is that, you know... Thank you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Thank you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Boys are just weaker. There's a crazy stat I read that two 15-year-olds, a boy and a girl, both sexually molested. And to be clear, they're equally heinous crimes. But the boy who's sexually molested is six to ten times more likely to kill himself later in life. It ends up that boys are just less resilient.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Shame, they can't talk about it, aren't comfortable, feel. There's a lack. I mean, I think just until a few years ago, the social incentives were to never speak about it. I was on Lewis Howe's podcast, and he just openly said, I was sexually abused as a child. And it was so shocking for me to hear this big, handsome guy. I don't think he would have said it 10 or 20 years ago.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think people would have assumed that it was his fault. It made him less of a man. So I think a lot of that has hopefully gotten better. But we just have to acknowledge boys mentally and emotionally are weaker than girls.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
And what's interesting about that actually is that of course, he does that unpaid. And one of the things that is complicated about this new world, the most valuable thing I often do in the course of a working week is either to give something away or to put somebody in touch with something else.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
Neither of which, you know, that kind of barter, neither of those things is in any way monetizable, is it? Well, reciprocity would say otherwise. No, I suppose you've just got to rely on a high degree of reciprocity in some respect. I mean, it always bothers me about this, which is that we're in a business advertising which is paid by the hour, which is a terrible way to pay for ideas.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
Because the value of something has no relation to the time devoted to its inception. And it is genuine. I mean, I always joke about this. The most valuable thing I probably did was almost accidentally my working life, which was to go to the government's behavioral insights team.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
And as a sort of fanatical vapor, I'd been a longtime smoker and had been able to quit for the first time successfully by switching to vaping. It took me a little while, but once I'd made the switch, I'd never gone back. Yeah. And I went to the government's behavioral insights team and I said, look, these things are coming over from both Japan and the United States. They're electronic cigarettes.
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This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
I think there are two things you need to be alert to in psychology, one of which is that because they actually replicate the habit of smoking, not just the nicotine, they are a major kind of what you might call a gateway drug act. They're a major source of harm reduction at the very least. It may help people to quit.
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This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
At the very least, it'll help people to shift to a much less harmful delivery device. Versus patches. Versus patches and guns and things like that, which didn't replicate the behaviour.
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This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
And then the second thing I said is the second thing you've got to be alert to is that because of peculiar human psychology, half the people in what you might call the health and anti-smoking lobby will be fanatical about banning electronic cigarettes. And all credit to the behavioural insights team under a guy called David Halpern.
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This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
I think they went to the Cameron government and said, favour here, can we have a light touch on vaping regulation, please? And various parts of the EU have gone for much stricter regulation. There were some countries which were more or less banning it. The US has banned Juul for some reason.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
Yeah, it's very interesting. I mean, you have a personal brand, whether you like it or not. But that's one really important point about branding, which is...
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
that everybody, you know, and that's, by the way, why I think marketing is so important, because it's not, the brand is not the heated steering wheel of the marketing world, you know, the optional extra that you can do without, but it's quite nice to have. People are going to perceive you in some way, regardless of anything you do, okay?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
They're going to form an impression of you, they're going to form an impression of what you're worth, what kind of business you are, you know, And they will use all manner of kind of inferences and heuristics to arrive at this conclusion. And in many ways, I suppose, this is why I argue that marketing isn't an optional extra. It's an essential because the worst thing you can do.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
is build a great product and fail to present it in a way that is convincing, appealing, attractive, or which confers status on its users. And the same applies for your personal brand. And the same, yeah, the same applies. You're going to have a personal brand whether you like it or not, so you might as well try and have a good one.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
I think it probably is true to say that the personal brand requires sacrifice. You know that old saying that strategy is the art of sacrifice, right? But wait, not totally true. I think there are win-wins, you know. What is the sacrifice of a personal brand? But, well, I suspect. You don't need to suspect. You've got a personal brand. You have to have weaknesses as well as strengths.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
Now, interestingly, for example, one of the things that will be part of my personal brand is I'm not a CEO. I have no aspiration to be a CEO. And I know enough about myself to know I would not be good at that job. There are certain forms of ambition and aspiration which, you know, consonant with a personal brand that I have, are basically avenues that are closed to me.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
I'm not very good at administration. I'm very bad at making difficult decisions. Self-awareness is a personal brand strength. Now, where I'd be useful, I'd be useful at making oblique or unusual suggestions. I'd be useful at getting people to consider the same thing in five different ways or promoting a counterintuitive thought.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
I might be useful at suggesting somebody, you know, I've got a fairly good personal Rolodex. You know, before you run off and do this on your own, why don't you talk to this guy at this university who's been studying this for the last 15 years?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
Right.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
I mean, Mark Ritz, very good marketing professor, always talks about the importance of both-ism. And he says, it's vitally important that when I actually speak about the importance of brand marketing, that you do not interpret this as denigrating digital marketing. In fact, I go a bit further and say the bottom of the funnel in many respects is the thing you have to optimise first.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
Because there's no point in actually, if there's a bottleneck at the bottom of the funnel, if there's some constraint or a problem or a failing, you know, if you have very poor conversion, okay, there's no point in spending money on advertising because you'll just introduce more people to a disappointing experience.
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This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
So you've got to get the back end. And I would argue the first thing in theory you should optimize if you're being an absolute purist is repeat purchase. because having gone through the expense to acquire these customers, and actually that's the metric that always fascinates me because we were talking earlier about electric cars.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
And I said, the question about electric cars isn't how many people are buying them, okay? It's not what percentage of the new car market in the UK in July were plug-in vehicles. Now, only question worth asking really in the long term is, does anybody who buys an electric car go back to buying a gasoline car?
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This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
Because if the answer to that is hardly anybody, then okay, you don't know the exact shape of the S curve, but you know the growth is going to be pretty spectacular. And so the thing to understand, I think, in a market is to what extent does your product actually convert someone to something. And then the lifetime value.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
And so you'd start with repeat purchase, then you go to conversion, and then you'd work your way up. But what tends to happen is that when people are obsessed with quantification of everything, okay, It's worth noting, by the way, that all big data comes from the same place, the past. All right?
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This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
So there's a limit to how much big data, particularly if you've had some major event like a pandemic in between, how much big data can actually tell you about the future in any case. As David Ogilvy famously said, you're not advertising to a standing army, you're advertising to a moving parade. People are coming in and out of market all the time. And so you're absolutely right.
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This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
You get some people who are just fame junkies. And by the way, I suppose there are brand categories where that's appropriate. If it's sold through retailers, you know, in other words, if it's mostly sold in the physical space... You might argue to an extent, you know, for, let's say, a Burger King or a McDonald's, that's not a totally crazy position.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
Although it is now because suddenly they've got to think about delivery and whether people order through the app or order through an intermediary because it has a major bearing on their business.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
But at the same time, yeah, I mean, the tragedy is this idea, this false dichotomy between brand advertising and what you might call performance or digital marketing, as if you have to be in one camp or the other. Where is the balance, though, and how does one go about it?
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This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
There are figures on this. So if you look at the work of Les Burnett, for example, and Peter Field, The ratio shifts a little bit, but generally they'll stipulate a figure around about the 60-40 mark in favour of what you might call brand mass media targets. expenditure. Because they have a mutually beneficial relationship.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
The first 20 years of my life was spent in direct marketing and actually, you know, because direct marketing was unfashionable, we spent a lot of time denigrating advertising spend because they got much bigger budgets than us, not necessarily rightly, but they were also, you know, much more indulged than we were because they didn't have to prove effectiveness down to the same sort of level of statistical significance.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
But we came to realize pretty quickly that actually, first of all, there's nothing harder than direct marketing a product that nobody's ever heard of. And that every time, just to give an example, every time American Express went on television or advertised big in mass media, the response rates to direct mail would drop. Not quite double, maybe, but they increased pretty significantly.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
And you had to work. It's that wonderful phrase which comes from a book by, let me get his job right, his name right. I think it's Matt Johnson, who's just written a book called Brands That Mean Business. And his wonderful line is, having a great brand means you get to play the game of capitalism in easy mode.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
And what is true is fame to some extent brings a load of benefits which aren't necessarily sales related. So for example, you can cock up and your customers will be more forgiving. Take the example of Apple. I mean, on a couple of occasions, Apple has produced products which had fairly major flaws, which might've proved pretty fatal
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
to lesser brands, you know, the famous phone where if you held it in the wrong way, it didn't make phone calls, for example. And given the reality distortion field around the Apple brand, people have passed over those incredibly rapidly. And so, you know, people are less price sensitive. That's not easy to measure, by the way, as well.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
It's very easy to measure the extent to which something has an effect on sales. But the effect to which something has an effect on price elasticity and the extent to which you can command a premium... Because it's a great brand. Because it's a great brand is harder to measure because you don't have the counterfactual.
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This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
When you sell something, the counterfactual is that you assume that you wouldn't have sold it otherwise. But if you sell something for a high price... You can't in fact determine that without your advertising, you wouldn't have sold it for that premium price. So it's to some extent, this quest for perfect measurement to reduce marketing to a kind of Newtonian physics is a bit of a false God.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
I think advertising always had those personal brands. And if anything, it's slightly diminished actually. Really? Campaign Magazine always did a very good job of, you know, making sure there were 30 or 40 sort of famous names within the business. That just happens in a different medium now, right? It happens on LinkedIn. Yes, I agree.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
I mean, you know, so, I mean, one of the greatest things, for example, there's a wonderful, wonderful guy who now must be, I don't want to name his age, but, you know, he's, you know, past retirement age called Dave Trott. You probably know him. Yeah, I know Dave Trott. Okay. He'd be a brilliant interviewee, by the way, on the show. Absolutely fantastic.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
This Stuck With Me: Everything You Definitely Don’t Know About Marketing (But Should), From 4 World Leading Experts!
But what has been absolutely fantastic is that, you know, he's a... glorious advertising mind. I mean, just an absolute ornament to the industry. And he, through Twitter and through blogging, has had a completely new lease of life and influence to a completely new generation of people. And has been hugely valuable as a teacher.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
And when you're saying investing, I think because it can sometimes sound complicated from someone that's so far away from it. There's apps on our phones now where we can, in a couple of minutes, invest in the exact thing you've just said. We can make an account in a couple of minutes and probably ask for our passport, take a photo of our passport.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
No, it's so true. So one of the things that stopped me when I was young from doing exactly what you just said is I didn't think that the $500 I had or the 500 pounds that I had was enough to get started. So I said to myself in my head, I thought, okay, when I get a million, I'll become an investor.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
And I think a lot of people actually listen to these kinds of conversations and go, okay, once I've, once I've got, 5,000 pounds disposable income a month, then I'll do what Scott said. But there's no point in doing it with a small amount of money.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
I wanted to use this little bucket of sand here as an analogy for this, because my team brought a bucket of sand to illuminate the power of compounding interest when you invest in these S&P 500 companies. And this glass represents investing $1,000 a month in the S&P 500 over the course of 12 months, starting at the age of 25. Right.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
But if you left it and kept investing at that rate, by the age of 65, it would look like this. You have Zuma Beach.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
It would look like that. And this is really what you're saying when you're talking about ETFs.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
it out of the way. No, but it is, it is. I discovered the art and the science of compounding interest too late in my life. And I just wish someone had slapped me in the face with it at 18. Yeah, it's crazy. Honestly, I probably started at 28.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
Real estate. I've had a lot of guests talk to me like Morgan Housel and others that have a sort of mixed view on whether real estate is a good investment. What's your thoughts on it? Should I be investing in real estate? You know, my brother said something to me when I was 25. He said, Steve, if everybody is playing the game, the returns probably aren't great from it.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
It goes back to sex appeal, too much capital going in.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
Is there someone that should and shouldn't buy a home then, in your view? Is there a certain demographic or age or person with a certain talent that should and shouldn't buy a home?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
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The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
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The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Most Shared Moment: How To Get Rich *SLOWLY*: Scott Galloway
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The Megyn Kelly Show
Power of Trump 2.0, Why Elon and DOGE are Working, and Independent Media's Impact, with Jason Calacanis and Chamath Palihapitiya of All-In | Ep. 1008
He's going to accuse me of overreach.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Power of Trump 2.0, Why Elon and DOGE are Working, and Independent Media's Impact, with Jason Calacanis and Chamath Palihapitiya of All-In | Ep. 1008
then come after me, bitch. To go after the woman, it shows one of two things. Either you're weak or you have an incredible bias, a misogynist. Let's just get to the source here. It's just so clear the guy wants to fuck me.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Power of Trump 2.0, Why Elon and DOGE are Working, and Independent Media's Impact, with Jason Calacanis and Chamath Palihapitiya of All-In | Ep. 1008
The sexual tension is palpable. I get it. And he's rich, so there is a shot. What is that? I mean, it's irrelevant.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Support for the show comes from ServiceNow. Who is enabling people to do more meaningful, creative work, the work they actually wanna do? You know what people don't wanna do? Boring, busy work. But now, with AI agents built into the ServiceNow platform, you can automate millions of repetitive tasks in every corner of business, IT, HR, customer service, and more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
She's received some items from Quince and says that they're, I don't know. What did you say about them, Claire?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Welcome to Office Hours with Prof G. This is the part of the show where we answer questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. Today, we've got two great listener questions lined up. And then after the break, we're introducing something new. The Reddit hotline. Oh, my God. It's not the red phone. It's not the bad phone.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
We asked and read it delivered. Let's bust right into it. All right. Armand8194 asks, Scott, something used to preach as exclusivity as a great marketing tactic. No is the sexiest word in the English language. I always say that. But recently you've been releasing more and more podcast content. Can you reconcile the two? Yeah, so it's a fair point, and I worry about this a lot.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So we had Pivot, then I launched ProfG, then ProfG Markets, now we have Raging Moderates. So I'm like AOL in the 90s when you'd stick your hand in a cereal box and you'd pull out a CD-ROM of AOL. I mean, it's like to resist is futile. And I do worry that the ubiquity of me, that people are going to start to have a gag reflex, like, oh, Jesus, this guy again.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So what I'm trying to do is create more enterprise value. What do I mean by that? So my co-host on Profiting Markets, Ed Ellison, does the interviews now. My co-host on Raging Moderates, Jess does all the interviews. So I'm only on about half of the episodes. We're about to go daily. Speaking of like too much of anything is not a good thing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
We're about to go daily on property markets because the markets are daily and I'm only going to be on twice a week. I'll do some like impromptu guest appearances. But what you're saying is absolutely true. I try and create scarcity across my speaking. I price my speaking fees at sort of an outrageous rate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
It's the Reddit hotline where we pull questions straight from Reddit. If you'd like to submit a question for next time. You can send a voice recording to officehoursofpropertymedia.com. Again, that's officehoursofpropertymedia.com. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit. That's scary. Which shit must be flying around on that thing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
dollar amount, because one, I don't want to work that hard, and I only want to go to places I like, and two, pricing is a signal. So scarcity is key. I'm very cognizant of that. I try and take time off, one, because I'm lazy, but B, so my co-host on Pivot, Kara Swisher, does pretty much every episode. I take the month of August off. I take weeks off at a time.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I'm doing a college tour with my son, and they said, we'll set you up for Ramon. I'm like, no, you won't. Just find a guest host. So I think it's important to have a little bit of scarcity value. And I'm very cognizant of it. And quite frankly, you're right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I'm worried that at some point, I'm just going to dilute my brand equity and it's just going to be too much and people are going to get sick of dick jokes. I'm cognizant of it. Your theory goes to an important marketing theory, and that is the most profitable companies in history that have the greatest gross margins create the illusion of scarcity. I'm wearing a Panerai watch, which is
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
$1,000 of movements, plastic, and glass that they charge $11,000 for because they've created this illusion that Panerais are scarce. They purposely constrict supply such that when you see the watch you want, they can honestly say, well, we only have one. We have artificially reduced the supply of freshman seats at elite universities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I'm cognizant of the fact that I might be moving myself from what is kind of a scarcity luxury brand to a mass brand And I'm trying to ensure that it's just not too much Scott all the time through co-hosts and limiting or reducing some of my appearances. But you clearly have an instinct for marketing. And the illusion of scarcity is so important. In life, it's really important.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
In an interview, when you're interviewing with somebody, start asking them questions and act as if you're interviewing them and give them the impression that you might have another offer, that you are so good at what you do that you are interviewing them. Why? Because my human capital is scarce and a lot of people want to rent it. You don't want to be too available to potential romantic partners.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
You have to have lines that say, okay, this is unacceptable or don't be too available. Scarcity. Yeah, I think your instincts are right on. You wanna maintain, again, any high margin product equals the illusion of scarcity. Thank you for the question. All right, next question. Scott, when you hear or come up with your dirty jokes, where is the line where you think, ooh, that is too far?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Okay, so I am generally a profane or vulgar person, but there's a strategy behind it. And that is, all strategy comes down to one question. What can we do that is really hard? Or put another way, what can we do that our competition can't do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Amazon and Netflix spend tens of billions of dollars on infrastructure and fulfillment and on content because their competitors can't because they don't have access to cheap capital. So they're like, okay, Netflix goes, if we spend $18 billion on content, Peacock just can't do it. Hulu can't do it. Disney Plus can't do it. Even HBO can't do it. And so that's where they go.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And they focus on this kind of brute force spending strategy. Where I have decided to go in terms of trying to differentiate my podcast is, quite frankly, one of the reasons I am really crude is that, one, CNBC can't tell dick jokes. And I want to be known as provocative and profane. I also think that funny and profane, it kind of softens the beach and people become more open to new ideas.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And we just might feature it in our next episode. By the way, just a little bit of insight. Let's bring this back to me. So we did in South by Southwest, we did a party or Vox did a party, which is basically where they feature all their quote unquote talent or lack thereof, the podcasters to try and get advertisers to advertise more on our podcast. And they let out some information.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Also, I want to appeal to younger people. And quite frankly, young men respond to my type of profanity. Sometimes I go too far. Sometimes I can hear myself, the words coming out and thinking, you know, that's a little bit much. I've had parents write in and say, I'd like to play this with my kids, but I've stopped because you're so crude.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I've had CEOs call me and say, I would have sent this clip to the entire company, but I can't be seen or heard sending out something with this type of profanity. I also, my kind of heroes are comedians that were social commentators and were also really profane, whether it was Richard Pryor or Lenny Bruce, or I think Bill Burr is a genius. These guys are not afraid to be profane and vulgar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So one, it's genuine. I'm a profane and vulgar person. Two, I want to appeal to young men. I want I want my content to resonate with them such that they'll listen to some of the lessons I have about what I hope is a positive vision of masculinity. And also, just purely strategically, it is clear when you listen to the show, this is not your father's CNBC. I appreciate the question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And just so you know, the other day, I walked into my son's room to have the sex ed talk. And I walked in with a condom and a banana. And he said, what's the banana for? And I'm like, well, I can't get hard on an empty stomach. That's good. Thanks for the question. Hey, Scott. They say wealth typically lasts about three generations.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Are you doing anything different in the way you are raising your children to prepare them for the advantages they will have entering the market and how to contextualize them? Are you even considering this as a concern or is it overblown? Oh, no, it's a huge concern. I'm worried. If my parents had been wealthy and I knew that was sort of a backstop or a hammock,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
The only two things I know I would have had in my life if my parents were rich were a Range Rover and a cocaine habit. My motivation didn't come from wanting to be successful or wanting to have a positive impact on the world. My motivation was I grew up without money. It was humiliating for me and my mom. And I was very focused on, okay, what can I control?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I can control how hard I work and the risks I take because I want economic security. My kid's probably don't have that same fire. I think about it a lot. I think about, you know, not spoiling them. You fly somewhere nice, you've worked hard, you want to fly business or first class.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And then I see my 14-year-old playing with his flat seat and I see a seven-year-old woman roll by, I'm going to coach and I think this is just wrong. And I say to my partner, the kid should not be in business. And she says, well, fine, if you want to fly with coach and coach with them have added because they don't allow kids alone back in coach. So the reality is my kids know they have money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
The good news is that I find a kid's approach to money or anything else is that the parents have less impact than you think. And that is as parents, we like to think we're engineers, we're not, we're shepherds. And that is we get to choose the land they graze on, point them in the right direction, decide what they eat. But the sheep comes to you. And what I have found is one of my sons
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
He won't even let me buy stuff for him. I'll take him out and I'll say, hey, we went to Sunspiel, this great kind of British brand that's supposed to be the casual brand for James Bond. And I wanted to buy him a cashmere hoodie and it was 230 pounds. He's like, I'm not buying this. I'm like, no, you're not buying it. I am. He's like, no, no, no, I'm not going to spend this kind of money on it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
He just is physically uncomfortable with spending money. And I don't know where he got that because even when I didn't have money, I was very comfortable spending money. I was... You know, I haven't had a spending problem, but I've always been, I like to thank someone who enjoys life and is not afraid to spend money. Whereas my other son is like, will pop up and go, can I have two then?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Basically, Vox, like every other organization, holds onto information like nuclear codes because an asymmetry of information creates advantage for the people who have the information. But they did let out the following, that one of our, or our fastest growing segment of anything I do across this entire, let's be honest, I'm a total podcast tour. I'm like, hey, hey, stranger, what's your name?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So, and we just haven't treated them that much differently. I think about this a lot. I'm going to put some money aside so they can have, always have access to housing, always have access to education. But my plan is to spend it all before I go. My approach to spending is pretty promiscuous. I spend a lot of money. Every year I meet with my team at Goldman, I look at how much money I made.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I already have my number and any additional money above that in terms of net worth, I either spend it or I give it away because I want to make sure my kids have some advantage, housing, access to education, but I don't believe in dynastic wealth. I know a lot of rich kids. I wouldn't say they're any more fucked up than other kids, but they're no less fucked up than other kids.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So I don't think you're really giving much advantage to your kids with extraordinary wealth. Is it a competitive environment? Do you want them to have some of the opportunities that you've worked so hard to give them? Yeah, I want my kid to be able to live where he wants to live, to pick the career he wants to pick, which is obviously an extraordinary advantage.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
But just being blunt, I'm going to offer that to my children. I think you use money... with your kids to lever up or lever down. If one of my kids decides to teach public school, I'm going to probably give him a decent amount of money. If one is doing nothing and kind of just a ne'er do well, or, you know, I'm not going to give that kid any money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So I think you have some control over it, not a lot, but it is something I think about all the time. And my approach, My way of expressing concern about this problem is I am spending money like a fucking gangster in the 50s just diagnosed with ass cancer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursofprofitmedia.com. That's officehoursofprofitmedia.com. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, Just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in our next Reddit hotline segment. What a thrill! This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Another podcast? Sure, why not? But the pod that's doing or growing the fastest is actually Office Hours. And Office Hours, the vision for Office Hours was when my mom and I, I moved in with my mom for about eight months when she was very sick. And one of the things we used to do was we would watch her favorite show, Frasier, and I based Office Hours on the Colin show on Frasier. Anyways, welcome.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do. That's putting AI agents to work for people. It's your turn. Get started at servicenow.com slash AI dash agents. The support for the show comes from UserTesting. Your brand is only as strong as the decisions behind it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Hi, this is Dr. Crane, and I'm listening.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So let me be clear, and I want to acknowledge up front, there's no such thing as a perfect solution where everybody wins. I think you make a solid argument for why there are instances where vouchers probably help good people afford programs, maybe put some competition on the public schools. When I look at – so the U.S. is strange.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Our K-12 is some of the worst in the modern or G7 economy, but our universities are some of the best. And our education or our economy is beating everybody. So a lot of people would just do the analysis and say, well, shitty K-12. It's sort of the Hunger Games. you have rich parents or you're excellent and somehow you find a way to a good college, seems to be working for the U.S. economy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
The problem is I think it results in a lot of obesity, anxiety, young people without the skills to thrive in this economy that don't have a lot of economic power and probably, I don't want to say get exploited, but leverage for minimum wage that should be $23 an hour, not $7.25 based on productivity or just inflation. So
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I feel as if the public school system is yet another example of not a direct conspiracy, but the accidental conspiracy of creating the bottom 90% who become very cheap inputs for shareholders of bigger companies that know how to manage the information economy and end up, quite frankly, just being exploited and paying
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
a lot of money for shitty sugary food and then becoming obese and then being handed over to the diabetes industrial complex. So I don't, part of that system though is I think that when I look at healthy societies where there's low childhood obesity, they have a private school option, but essentially there's just much more focus on the resources and measurements for good public schools.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
On average, American public school teachers make roughly $70,000 annually, while their private counterparts make about $50,000. So you're absolutely right. It appears that on average, public schools are paying people 40% more. Because quite frankly, you end up with probably a more difficult situation with a lot of low-income kids that probably bring a lot of anger.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Maybe a single-parent home where the parents can't be involved in the kid's life. whatever the excuse is, but public school teachers, the market is saying we need to pay them more and private schools don't have to pay as much. Despite this, private school students consistently score better on assessments in almost every subject and some,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Teachers' increased wages don't necessarily correlate with better outcomes. Why? Because the public school system is riddled with bureaucracy, quite frankly. And I think this kind of buttresses your point. In America, there are four times as many administrators in the public education system than there were in the 1950s.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
In 2015, the New York State School Board Association found that firing an incompetent teacher takes an average of 830 days and costs $313,000. The good news? School choice bills or laws that allow states to award vouchers to the parents of students in non-public schools are on the rise. This is true even across party lines.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
A 2024 poll of registered voters found that 83% of Republicans, 69% of Independents, and 70% of Democrats say they strongly or somewhat support school choice. I am really torn on this because what I have seen is the net effect of school choice or vouchers just subsidizes wealthy people who were going to send their kids to public or to private schools anyways.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And this is Pulse Marketing, but my kids were at this lovely private school in Gulfstream, Florida called Gulfstream that costs 18 or 20 grand. And the idea that we were going to give people in the local community, we'd get $10,000 towards a school. I think all that would have done was of the 230 families, 200 of them would have just got a $2 million tax break.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And taking money away from Atlantic, the high school, which is actually a pretty good high school, that they desperately need. Now, are there probably middle class families that would be able to attend a better school because of that $10,000 voucher? Yes. Is it good to have competition put on public schools? Yes. When we're talking about education, though, I mean, it gets so complicated so fast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So the Department of Education is supposedly on the chopping block. And I'm not one of these people that doesn't think the Department of Education should, you know, it used to be sort of this virtue signaling, everyone rallied around it. I think it should probably be much smaller. It's good at Pell Grants. It's good at figuring out student loans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
It's probably done a lot of harm in terms of universal and mandatory testing, where every teacher now studies to the test. It's created a lot of unnecessary stress in our public schools. Parents hate it. Principals hate it. Teachers hate it. Students hate it. And I feel as if they, again, are trying to justify their own
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So this is a long-winded way of saying, I see your point, but one, I'm on board with a dramatic decrease in the amount of bureaucracy through competition with public schools. I believe that teachers and principals should be fired and schools should be shut down if they're not performing, and new ones should be propped up.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
But I think we've got to figure out a way to get more parents involved in public schools because the number one signal of whether a school is successful isn't even resources, it's parental involvement. So trying to make public schools more attractive and the way you do that, I think, is with a lack of bureaucracy. And also, I just think it's going to take more resources.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And I don't think that skimming the most blessed families and the most involved parents off of the top and pulling them out of the public school system, I just think we're further cementing a have-and-have-not caste system. Having said that, I think most of it should be left out. to the states and local governments trying to figure it out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
One of the biggest problems we have in our society is that local schools are based on property tax revenues, so the wealthy neighborhoods have some private schools. The public school in Palo Alto and in Woodside is better than most private schools nationally because they have a lot of money from property taxes. So there has to be a leveling up.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
See how at usertesting.com slash PropG.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
The problem is the leveling up isn't just about resources. It's about keeping dual parent households involved in the schools. This is a difficult, tough question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
More competition, more holding the teachers unions and public schools accountable, not being afraid to shut them down, having a reasonable ratio of administrators, clearing out the bureaucracy such that you can fire teachers and bureaucrats. But also, I'm just not down with taking more money for vouchers for the privatization of our education system.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I think in general, you've had an oligarchy that is trying to insert a profit motive into every single public service, which ultimately just creates scale, a better service, and then they start raising the rents on everybody. Appreciate the question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Thanks, Anonymous from Unknown. Really appreciate the question. So my IPO recommendation of 2024 was Reddit, and it was a simple analysis. I looked at the 10 most trafficked sites in America, and all of them, except Wikipedia, a nonprofit, were worth between $600 billion and $3 trillion.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And Reddit at that time was toggling based on the metric you looked at somewhere between the third and the fifth most trafficked site in America and was going public in a market cap of $5 billion. Because to that point, they had not done a great job of monetizing that incredible attention. However, I believe over time, you can monetize attention. It just depends.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I remember looking at these charts 20 years ago, where newspapers were 10% of attention, but 30% of advertising, and the internet was 50% of attention, but only 15% advertising. I remember, okay, this is pretty easy. Find the internet companies that are commanding attention, and eventually these things are gonna calibrate and equalize. And I saw the same thing here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And the stock went out at, was priced, I think, at 35 or 38, shot to 60, and then went as high as 240, and has now been cut in half with a drawdown. So as we're recording this, their stock has been cut in half in the past month after Q4 earnings that reported underwhelming user growth, but that's still up. I think that still means it's tripled or quadrupled since its IPO.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Global daily active unique users rose 39% year on year to an average of 102 million, just missing analyst expectations of 103 million. Why did it get hit so hard? The new meeting expectations in the internet economy is blowing them away. That's the expectation. The expectation is that you're going to blow away expectations.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Although Reddit was now or is now the six most visited website in the world, it's worth 50 to 60 times less than other sites that command that same attention, including Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. So what do I think? I think this company is still a good long-term hold. It's got a market cap
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
now of $22 billion, which for a guy like me, one of my many flaws as investors, I anchor off the cheapest it's ever been. Yeah, it went public at a valuation of $5 billion. It traded to $7 or $8 billion that day, and now it's at $21. But it peaked at $40. It's come down. I think Reddit is a good long-term hold.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I just think, again, if you buy into this notion that eventually monetization catches up with attention, I think it's a good long-term hold. Having said that, my general advice is the following. low-cost index funds, because nobody can pick stocks over the long term and outperform the market.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Even Warren Buffett will tell you that they were investing in an unusual time with a lack of information and the asymmetry of information or your ability to find alpha or stocks that were undervalued was much greater, the likelihood of doing that than it is now. Warren Buffett, who is arguably the best investor in history, is telling people not to be stock pickers. So having said that,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I believe that you can take 30% or should take 30% of your money and have some fun and invest in single stocks or single asset classes where you think you have some sort of insight or you believe that they're undervalued. And this might be that. What I would also suggest, though, is that two-thirds plus of your net worth is put in low-cost index funds. And here's a bit of the wrinkle there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Make sure they're low-cost index funds that aren't just solely focused on the U.S. The U.S. stock market is now at 98% in terms of value, meaning it's only been more expensive on a P-E ratio, 2% of its history. European value stocks are in the bottom 2%, meaning they've been more expensive on a PE basis or traded at higher levels for 98% of their history.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
This to me says to me that the markets or the rivers or flows of capital are about to reverse. That was one of my big predictions for 2025 is I think that non-US markets are going to outperform US markets. Anyways, will you ask? I like Reddit. I think it's a nice long-term hold. But just be careful believing that me or anybody else can give you advice on single stock picking. We can't.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
You want to have some fun? You want to try and find some alpha? Have at it. But keep the bulk of your firepower, your dry powder for low-cost index funds that are diversified not only across the S&P, but across different geographies globally. Thanks for the question. We have one quick break, and when we're back, speaking of Reddit, we're diving into the depths, into the bowels of Reddit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Support for Prop G comes from Quince. It's almost that time of year, vacation season, so if you're in the market for some luxury wardrobe upgrades that'll make you look great without breaking the bank, you might want to check out Quince.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Quince says they offer high-quality travel essentials at fair prices, including lightweight shirts and shorts from $30, pants for any occasion, and comfortable lounge sets. They also offer premium luggage options and durable duffel bags for your upcoming vacation. And you know who's tried out Quince? Our own Claire Miller, our producer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Hank from Sweden. The data says with imposter syndrome that you're supposed to practice self-compassion, be kind to yourself, acknowledge and accept your feelings, challenge negative thoughts, say, well, the market and other people who are smart think I'm in the right position, so maybe there's something to their views.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
I find that talking stuff out really helps, like telling people, Jesus, I feel like I'm in over my head or I don't deserve it. I just feel like You know, getting those thoughts out, help address them. And hearing yourself talk, you start to solve that type of thing. Being positive. I mean, eating, you know, eating well, being in good shape.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
And I think you just start to feel more confident across all areas of your life. Like I'm strong and I'm healthy, which means I'd be really good at anything, including my job. So imposter syndrome is a form of intellectual self-doubt that can affect anyone, regardless of their job. People with imposter syndrome often feel like they could have done better, even when things go well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
I think if you don't have a little bit of imposter syndrome, it probably means you're a bit of a sociopath or arrogant, because the whole point, the reason we're so competitive is is that it's good for the species, right? I want to do better than the guy or gal next to me, which creates better performance, which results in a better society, and onward and onward, and things get better.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
So this competitive spirit is important. Constantly referencing and comparing yourself to others is natural, and that's part of that competitive instinct, but it can result in a lot of self-doubt. I just think, well, first off, a lot of people have this. I just said on a previous Office Hours that I've never felt like I was qualified to do anything I did.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
And then I realized when I showed up that everyone else is an imposter too, and everyone else feels as if they're an imposter. So it sounds like you're doing really well. Acknowledge everyone around you that they might be smarter than you think, and it picked you for a lot of good reasons. I would say be kind to yourself, try and engage in things that make you feel positive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
I think working out and eating well make you feel talented and healthy and that you would be good at almost anything because you're this strong, healthy person. But recognize everyone feels a little bit of that. And again, go back to the notion that the market may be smarter than you think and you deserve to be where you are. Thanks for the question. Question number two.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Thanks very much, Nicholas from Canada. What an interesting life you've led and how it's kind of good to be you. Okay, so it sounds like you want to go to a startup. So first off, nobody knows. And there's hints. What I've always done is I've always picked people, not companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
And that is, if you have the opportunity to interview with small firms, you want to go where you think the people are most impressive. Because a lot of times with small companies, they end up doing something that they hadn't originally anticipated. But If the people are super smart, they can more often than not figure it out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
So I think you want to go somewhere where you think the person I'm going to report into, I'm going to learn a lot. And these people just seem really together. Now, hopefully if it's just a stupid idea, then fine. There might've been a lot of smart people with that dog walking app backed by SoftBank, but that was just a stupid idea.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
But you basically want to go into battle with people that you would want to go into battle with. And then also, I think the... where the company is in the life cycle is sort of interesting. My general experience is that joining a company with zero to 10 employees is that the risk reward ratio isn't there. Now, if the company works, those people make a shit ton of money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
But those are the people we read about in the newspaper. We don't read about the six out of seven companies and end up with a zero. Even worse than that, sometimes they go three, five, 10, 20 years and then end up with nothing. That happened to me at Run Envelope. I was there 10 years to work my ass off, invested $3 million of my own capital to end up with nothing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
That story doesn't get told a lot, although I tell it a lot. But the zero to 10 is huge upside, but I would argue like if you're not the founder and you're not gonna get 20 or 30% of the company, I'm not sure the risk reward is there. At the same time, when you join a company that's already at a couple thousand people,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Welcome to Office Hours with Prop G. Today, we're kicking off a special two-part series all about careers, navigating them, advancing them, maybe even surviving them. I'll be sharing my best advice, which may not be very good. No corporate speak, no bullshit. I am going to tell you exactly what I'm thinking. And it might offend you and it might upset you. And guess what?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
unless it's a moonshot like a Google or a Salesforce, you'll make good money, but you'll never make super, super huge money. I find that the sweet spot from a risk reward standpoint is kind of 20 to 200 employees. And that is you're still early enough to get significant equity, but if they're at that point, it means that they have probably some level of product market fit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
So I find that sort of the sweet spot of risk to reward, especially given that you have um, you have a family. In addition, there's other signals. Who are the people who have backed the company? How much capital have they raised? Um, how much press have they received?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
There's, you know, not, not all of these are, you know, it's sort of the good housekeeping stamp of approval, which by the way, approved talcum powder, which ended up giving people all sorts of cancer. So it's not a guarantee, but when there's good people and VCs, um, or customers involved, there's signals you should be able to discern around how the company is doing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
But again, I like the sweet spot of kind of, there's some limited evidence of product market fit, but at the same time, if I show up, I'm still gonna get quote unquote real significant equity. But again, this is a good problem. And also you gotta let the market decide, you gotta get the job first. So your first objective is to get one, ideally two offers so you can play them against each other.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
But let me finish where I started. With your background, living in Toronto and a family, it's just good to be Nicholas. Thanks for the question. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
We're both going to be fine. Let's bust right into it. First question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Welcome back. Question number three.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Thanks, Sasha. So say yes a lot. Business school and college are fantastic ways. You get invited to all this crazy shit. You get to go see, I remember, I don't know why this popped into my mind, I went and saw Don Valentine speak at an event at Haas. And you as a student can go up to Don Valentine and say, hi, I'm Scott Galloway. And I found out he ran this firm called Sequoia.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
And I don't think I leveraged that content, but I eventually ended up raising a lot of money from Sequoia. but you can kind of call on anybody from a professional standpoint, and they'll meet with you, have coffee with us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
When students call me, and I'm not suggesting you do this, and say, I want to have coffee, I'm much more inclined to have coffee with them than even at this point, like a CEO of some company right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
You just have currency to meet people, and I would take advantage of that, both professionally or kind of networking at these sort of corporate events, but also a different type of networking is just to try to make as many friends as possible. And have fun. Say yes. Go to football games with people or whatever it is they do at your college. Go out for a drink. Also, invest in relationships.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Send people nice notes. Be happy to see them. There's this great study that looked at who are the most popular kids in high school. And was it the athletes? Was it the best-looking kids? No. You know what it was? It was the kids who liked the most people. Not the kids who had the most people who liked them. But the easiest way to get someone to like you is to like them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
The kids that were friendliness, waved at other people in the hall, were confident. Those kids were the most popular. I thought that was so obvious but fascinating. So what do you want to do? You want to go to as many of these kind of networking events as is, you know, doesn't get in the way of your studies. Say yes to stuff with your friends. Be nice to people. Be friendly.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Like as many people as you can. And take advantage of the fact that people want to meet with you and you have access to all this incredible stuff. And more than anything, Try not to be in your dorm room or your fraternity or wherever you're living more than eight or 10 hours a day. Be out, be out in the wild, be out in the jungle, meeting people, running into unusual opportunities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
That's what I worry about with most young men is there's too many temptations to sit at home and believe you can have a reasonable facsimile of life with a computer and an algorithm. No, get out of the house, go on campus, go to these events. Another trick I do, I did this whenever I walked into a room.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
whether it was a networking event or a corporate event at business school or a bar, I would demand that within 10 seconds, I'd lock eye contact with someone and I'd walk up and introduce myself. I'd break the seal because it's easy to sort of walk into a room and you don't know anybody and you just kind of sit there and you look at your phone to pretend you're doing something.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
And before you know it, you're just sort of, you know, sequestered and you're getting too used to not talking to people, right away, you roll into a situation, you're going to go up to a group of people or to someone and introduce yourself. Just break the seal right away. Anyway, Sasha from Boston, thanks for the question. That's all for this episode.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropertymedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatpropertymedia.com. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Support for Prop Tree comes from Viore. Oh my God, true story. I am wearing, totally coincidentally, guess what? Viore shorts. Viore's high quality gym clothes are made to be versatile and stand the test of time. They sent me some to try out and here I am. For our listeners, Viore is offering 20% off your first purchase. Plus, get free shipping on any U.S. orders over $75 and free returns.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Thanks for the question. This really resonates with me, Duncan, because I am fundamentally a lazy person. And people are under the impression that I'm working all the time because of the content we put out. They think it's me and uploading videos to YouTube and drawing, sketching out these charts on a napkin. And they're like, it's amazing how much content you put out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Well, no, it's amazing how much credit I get for the content we put out. A couple of things. As it relates to laziness, investment banking and crew were both really important for me because without a rote schedule, without having to drag my ass out of bed at 5 a.m.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
where I'd be letting seven other men out down in the boat and my coach would kick me off the team, I'd sort of never gotten up at 5 a.m. Without the pressure and the routinization and the scheduling and the demands of investment banking, I just never would have worked that hard. So I've tried to put myself in a context where I had no choice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And also, I think deadlines are really important for a lazy person. My publisher, I don't know, they got 50, 70, 80% of my book revenues. And really all they do is set deadlines. But those are really important for me because without them, I'm not sure. I think I'd put out a book every five years instead of every 18 months.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
So try and find a context or platforms that just quite frankly manage you and impose deadlines on you. I try to reduce the amount of time in between the decision to do something and doing it. I'm trying to be more reckless. Oh, I should work out. Okay, start putting on your gym clothes. Don't think about it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
I get, you know, this is a position of privilege, but one of the reasons I have a trainer is not because they do anything I don't know, but if there's a guy in my backyard at 8 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, I got to get out there. Sometimes I wait till 8.10 because I'm so fucking lazy and I'll just pop my head out and say, hey, Sean, I'll be out in 10 minutes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
But eventually I get out there, whereas if I was allowed to sleep in till nine and then have some coffee and doodle around, I'm like, oh no, the podcast is at 10, too bad, I can't work out. So scheduling, forcing routine, deadlines, super important for a lazy person. In addition, and also this notion, get rid of the time in between the decision and doing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Welcome to Office Hours with Prop G. 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, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropgmedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatpropgmedia.com. Question number one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Oh, I should really call someone or I need to return this and just start writing it. I'm terrible. I get so many emails from people I want to respond to and I think, oh, I'll do it later. Now what I need to do, and I don't do this all the time, I need to get back to this person, start getting back to them now. There's nothing like now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And even if it's a little reckless, just, oh, I'd like to, you know, I need to take these supplements. Where are the fucking pills? Where are the fucking, don't plan. Just the inclination, try and get into the practice of what I'm doing. As soon as I think I need to do something, okay, start doing it. Don't think about it. Don't plan it. Just start doing it and get on it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Otherwise, I just can't get over it. I was in Barcelona yesterday. I had all these plans for walking around, doing some videos, writing, proofing, editing a chapter, and writing a book on masculinity. I did fucking nothing. By the time I was at the Nobu Hotel, by the time I went down and had my Weird sushi lunch and went online and watched TikTok for two hours. I literally wasted.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
I didn't even walk around one of what is one of the most impressive cities in the world. I did goddamn nothing. Nothing. Because I wasn't scheduled and I didn't have things going on. Today, quite frankly, I am booked so solid. My assistant and my team has me doing so much of this shit, pods, I'm hosting a lot. And you know what? I need it. I need that scheduling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
So try and put yourself in a position where you have deadlines and schedules imposed on each other. Get rid of the gap between I need to do this and actually doing it. Also, and this is a position of privilege, greatness is in the agency of others. I've always realized that if it's just me as a sole proprietor, I'm not going to put out that much because I'm lazy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
But what I've done is I've tried to figure out what am I really good at that no one else can do, and I outsource everything else. Now, that requires some capital. I have producers who write up scripts for me. I have someone helping me with my book. I have someone who does all our charts. I have someone who manages the business, the hiring and firing. I have a CFO. I have a personal assistant.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
When I say personal, I'm going to New York tonight. She's going to make sure I have granola and milk in my refrigerator so I don't have to go out and get it. Obviously, I have someone who cleans my home, someone who trains me. I'm a big believer in comparative advantage, and that is once you have a little bit of money, start thinking, how do I save time?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And some of that might just be for you just to be lazy, but to free you up on the things you're good at. Let's summarize. Put yourself in a situation where you have imposed deadlines, a schedule, try and eliminate the time or reduce the time between I need to and actually just starting on it. Just start. Oh, I need to write a chapter.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Just, okay, throw up in the fucking laptop and start writing, even if it's shit. Beauty is in the edit, by the way, when it comes to writing. And finally... As soon as you can, as soon as you have the resources, start outsourcing the stuff that you're not good at or that doesn't in any way leverage your unique skills. But again, I think laziness is underappreciated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
I think there's a lot of us out there that are fundamentally lazy people. You just have to recognize your weakness and put in place the infrastructure such that you can do a workaround. Thanks for the question. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursofprofitgmedia.com. Again, that's officehoursofprofitgmedia.com.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
It's a really interesting question. I think about this through the lens of I have a son who will be applying to college. And actually, for the first time, the demographics are on his side. Fewer boys are applying to a college and just fewer people are applying to college. Although what's against him is because I'm a narcissist and want him to go to a quote-unquote prestige or elite school.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Is that true? You know, it's sort of true. I kind of come to the conclusion I just want them to be happy. But anyways, what you see is a crowding effect into the best universities. But on the whole, you're going to see tier two universities. go out of business like no tomorrow. People under the age of 18 represent roughly 21% of the total American population, down from 36% in the 60s.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Jesus Christ. You want to worry about Social Security? Who's going to pay for this goddamn thing? It's young people paying for it right now, and they used to be like... you know, 12 to one working age people to seniors. Now it's something like three to one. In the next 20 years, it's projected that American share of children will fall by an additional three percentage points.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
The Census Bureau estimates that by 2060, America will add over 8 million children in comparison They estimate Americans over the age of 65 will increase by about 37 million. Okay, get this. 8 million new kids, 37 million more old people. The falling birth rate will likely have significant impacts on business, including baby product manufacturers, childcare services, and education providers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Additionally, There'll be an enormous increase in demand for products and services aimed at the elderly population, including senior care and retirement communities. Yeah, no doubt some of the companies catering to kids will suffer. But coming like Disney, I think they're fine because, one, it's so fucking crowded as it is, and it's become a rite of passage.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet. Viori.com slash PropG. That's V-U-O-R-I dot com slash PropG. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. Support for the show comes from ServiceNow, who is enabling people to do more meaningful, creative work, the work they actually want to do. You know what people don't want to do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
People, you know, you're likely going to have child services called on you if you don't take your kids to Disney for what is the seventh circle of hell for a weekend of overpriced hotels and shitty food and two hour lines to get on the Avatar ride. I think Disney is going to be fine because there's a flight to quality and people will stop.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
you know, go one level down, Six Flags, Magic Mountain or Bush Gardens or whatever it is now, I think they'll suffer. But I think what people will do is end up spending more money across fewer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
There's going to be a flight to quality just the same way that despite there being fewer young people, the elite colleges are booming because there's a kind of a rush to quality and they create this illusion of scarcity. They get more capital, trade at a higher multiple, reinvest in the new, you know, the new Star Wars land or Rogue Nine or whatever it is. And they kind of pull ahead.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
from the competition. By the way, Disney for kids and Universal for the teenagers is what I've discovered as I've gotten older. The problems here are bigger than consumer companies. And that is now about 40% of our budget goes to services, Medicare, Social Security for people over the age of 65.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
People aren't even getting elected to the Senate. They're like the hot young thing when they show up to the Senate at 65. We absolutely need to address... There's not only this aging, but the fact that we continue to cram more money into the pockets of the old people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
I believe you could reverse engineer all of the biggest issues in our society, income inequality, polarization, extremism, to one thing, one stat, and that is for the first time in our nation's history, a 30-year-old isn't doing as well as his or her parents were at 30. That is a breakdown in the social compact. It doesn't mean a fucking thing that the S&P is touching new highs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
It doesn't mean anything what GDP growth is if your kids aren't doing as well as you. So this connotes a bigger problem, specifically not only what it means for consumer brands with a population dearth, but what it means for our society when people no longer have the money or the confidence to have their own children. Thanks for the question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
wow, Sean from Florida, we're going to need a bigger boat. So let's bring this back to me. My whole life, I've wanted to be a teacher. I thought I would really enjoy it and I'd be good at it. And I contemplated when I was in business school, applying to the PhD program and getting my PhD and pursuing a career in academia. And a couple of things happened.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
One, my mom got very sick and I knew that I would need to start making money, that I just didn't have the kind of the capacity to take on another three years of student debt or not be making money. in a PhD program. And also some of it is less noble. I just thought I'd really like to get out there and start making real bank.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And I didn't see how I was going to do that as a prof, at least initially. So I went out, I gave myself 10 years before I would go back to teaching. And exactly 10 years later in 2002, after graduating from Haas in 1992, I joined the faculty at NYU. And one of the motivations for joining was I thought I was going to be rich and that I could leave and just go focus on teaching.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And I took a job paying $12,000 a year as an adjunct professor at NYU. And as you have your plans, then God laughs. My company, Red Envelope, did go public and on paper I was worth a lot of money. And then I wasn't when the dot-bomb implosion happened. So I kind of woke up and realized I was an adjunct professor making $12,000 a year. Now, having said that, I think academia is a wonderful career.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
It's definitely a caste system. It's definitely some of the most discriminatory business in the world. Essentially, the people in charge hire their PhD buddies. They write bullshit research, which is 98% of peer-reviewed academic research. It's just bullshit to give each other citations such that they can qualify.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
They can get tenure, which is guaranteed lifetime employment, which translates to student debt, as two-thirds of these individuals within 20 years are totally unproductive and overpaid.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And tenure is this kind of this grift where because Galileo said the world might be round and we thought we need to protect academics, we've decided that the guy who came up with Gap One Accounting in 1985 deserves lifetime employment. It's just fucking stupid.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
The result is a crowding at the top of the pyramid and young academics who are really outstanding have trouble moving up because these people will not leave. And most of this quote unquote tenure is nothing but a guilt and a tax on young people. It translates to student debt. The administrative state is out of control at universities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
My department chair, or one of my department chairs in marketing was essentially a pretty weak academic who was a functioning or semi-functioning alcoholic. So I know, let's give her an administrative role. Look, you're going in as a practicing professor. Here are some tips. One, this is a business. And the way you increase your compensation is by putting butts in seats.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
You're probably not going to do great peer-reviewed research. I was thinking about doing peer-reviewed research, and then I read it. I'm like, this is stupid. None of this shit has any relevance to anything. And so I started doing a lot of research, but I did it on the guise of a private company called L2.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And I got way more press and kind of private sector impact than almost any of the peer-reviewed research, maybe with the exception of some of the peer-reviewed research that the finance department does, which bubbles up guys like David Yermack and Aswathamotor and his imperial research, but it's just so powerful.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
But anyways, what I found is that the key to a currency, and there's four or five of these people, essentially at NYU Stern, we have four or five ringers. And that is someone, a professor that everyone feels like they got to take, Glenn Okun or Sonia Marciano at NYU. There are clinicals. They don't have PhDs. They're practicing professors, but they're outstanding teachers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And because it's a business, they have to have a certain number of classes that everyone, if they take three or four of these, they feel like they got their money's worth. Those people have real currency and power. I became one of those people. I became one of the ringers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And so I could put 500 butts in seats every year, which at $7,000 per class, which is what we charge at NYU Stern, you're technically generating $3.5 million in income. They're paying you a lot less than that, but you have some currency. So the key for you, my friend, is just becoming outstanding at teaching and getting more butts in seats.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
I would avoid the administrative state, you know, if it's a means of helping out, fine. But for the most part, I think it's mostly a waste of time. I find that most of the administration and kind of program stuff on campus is just people pushing paper to each other. And my career took off when I decided I was going to do nothing. I was never going to spend any time on campus unless I was teaching.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
to do a market check. And what you do is you quit every three to five years without quitting. Every three to five years, I would interview at another university. I'd get called by a Cornell or a Wardner or Columbia. I'd interview, I'd find out what the offer would be. And then I'd go to the dean or my department chair and say, I don't want to leave.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
I'd be transparent, but this is my current value in the marketplace. And I knew I had some currency because fortunately for me, the marketing department was not very strong in terms of in-room teaching. And they would match it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And so, you know, you got to recognize that the leadership of universities generally sees adjuncts and clinicals as sort of, I don't know, like Russian soldiers that they just kind of throw into the meat grinder. And that is, oh, it's your calling. You don't actually need health benefits or money. We save that for the tenured faculty. So you have to create your own currency through butts and seats.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And then you have to leverage it by occasionally interviewing with another university. That's kind of the politics of how the sausage is made. Having said that, you generally are in an environment where people are not assholes. They fight over every little thing because they're so little at risk or they're so little to be gained. But generally speaking, the people are pretty nice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
The best academics are some of the most inspiring people you ever run across. Being on campus is incredibly inspiring. You do feel as if you're adding value. Being around young people is incredible. just incredibly, I don't know, invigorating. But let me finish where I started. A lot there, a lot there. A lot of trauma, a lot of PTSD, but a lot of reward too. Thanks for the question, Sean.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us. Support for the show comes from the Fundrise Innovation Fund. Think of the five biggest names in AI today. How many of those companies do you own shares of? Probably not many, maybe one, maybe two. Why is that? Because the open AIs and anthropics of the world are still private. That means unless you're an employee or a VC,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
You're out of luck. So it isn't hard to see why venture capital has been one of the most prized asset classes in the world. But unless you're worth eight or nine figures, you likely don't have access to these funds. The Fundrise Innovation Fund is different. It's already raised more than $150 million.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
It holds a portfolio of pre-IPO tech companies that are valued at tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars. And most importantly... It's open to investors of all sizes. Visit Fundrise.com slash PropG to check out the Innovation Funds portfolio and start investing today. Relevant disclaimers can be found at the end of the show and at Fundrise.com slash Innovation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
consumer borrowing plus the value of our stock market, 70% of the value is supposedly registered in the U.S. So if someone said to you, you can buy the U.S. for $70 or you can buy the rest of the world for $30, I would argue there's more upside to buying the rest of the world for $30.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
So I would use a robo-advisor, spend some time on AI, and say I want low-cost index funds, and I also want to make sure that I'm not only diversified within the U.S., but I'm diversified to a certain extent around my investments from the U.S. But low-cost ETFs or index funds. Also, it sounds if you're doing well...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I'd be reticent or careful to blow that money or invest that money in grad school unless you really think it's going to pay off. Because you've been given a gift from your father, his hard work, his time. And at your young age, at 27, say it's $50,000.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
By the time you're 67, which will happen much faster than you think, with a low-cost ETF, you're probably going to have a really nice nest egg or something to fall back on. And I would imagine that's what your father wanted. So I'm not saying don't invest in yourself, don't go to grad school, but maybe...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Welcome to Office Hours with PropG. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropgmedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatpropgmedia.com. So with that, first question. And also, I have not heard or seen these questions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Be very selective if you're doing well at your job and make sure you can get some financial aid. Just because I hate to see kids borrow a lot of money or spend a ton of money on grad school when it may not provide the pop that they're anticipating. That never used to be an issue. It always used to be worth it. Now you actually have to do the math. Let me back up. This is a really good problem.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Congratulations to you, but again, low-cost ETFs, and I would do, say, 50%, 60% U.S., 40% international. If you want to lean into real estate, make sure you know what you're doing and you have some advantages there. But again, this is a good problem, and I'm sorry about your father's passing. It's something we all deal with, but it's something I don't think any of us are prepared for.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
It's heartbreaking when it happens, so I'm sorry about your dad. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropertymedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatpropertymedia.com. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Hi, Mike from Long Island. So you're 35. It sounds like you're in a good relationship. You both are working. Your wife's doing something important as a teacher. So the first thing is to recognize you're young. Sounds like you're in love. You're both employed. Things are pretty good for you. Okay, so the honest answer to your question is nobody knows.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I talked to Michael Saylor, and when I leave his office, I had lunch with him. When I leave the lunch, I think I should put everything into Bitcoin. And then an hour later, I'm like, wait, what is Bitcoin again? Anyway, so the bottom line is nobody knows. Trump recently announced that his administration will be considering the creation of a national digital asset stockpile.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
While this really isn't quite a strategic reserve, it could still have a massive impact on America's involvement with cryptocurrency, specifically if the U.S. government weighs in and buys a shit ton, the price would go up. Currently, America holds more Bitcoin than any other government as a result of large-scale asset seizures, about $5 billion as of 2023. Even so... They've sold none of it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Countries including Germany, Hong Kong, Russia, Brazil, and Poland are all taking steps to review Bitcoin as a reserve asset. In the past 10 years, Bitcoin is up over, Jesus Christ, 48,000%. In the past year, it's up 140%. Since the election, it's up 50%. So, okay, what do you do? The genius of Bitcoin, in my mind, is they've come up with this incredible means of creating
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
a somewhat credible sense of scarcity. What do I mean by that? We keep printing more dollars. We've had inflation, so you could argue that the value of the dollar goes down every year. You know, I bought a house, every house I bought 30 years ago is worth I wish I'd never sold it. It's worth six to 10 times what I bought it for, more than inflation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Is that because the asset's gone up in value and it's producing more rent? No, it's because there are more dollars chasing fewer assets. That's the definition of inflation. Or simply put, the dollars you throw into your mattress get worth less and less every year because we keep producing more of them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Bitcoin has created this credible feeling that because of the algorithm or the structure where it requires more and more numbers to be thrown at an algorithm or at a math problem, that it takes more energy, it limits the supply, and they say they're going to stop mining Bitcoin at 21 million coins. And the market believes it. So the market says, all right, this is a...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
This is a credible store of value and a place to hedge inflation. It's also a place to hedge currency risk. If you're in Argentina and your pesos are worth 30% less every month, you immediately get them. And there's currency controls, meaning you can't trade it for dollars. You immediately go into Bitcoin. So there is real use cases here, right? It's not a payment system.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I've never been paid or paid anyone in Bitcoin. I don't see it as having a lot of utility. I just don't use the blockchain. Call me old-fashioned. So the question is, what do you do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I think it's highly unlikely, and I wouldn't wring your hands too much or spend too much time worrying that your assets are going to go to zero because of Bitcoin and America's decision or not decision to create a strategic reserve of Bitcoin. What you might want to do... is maybe put 2%, 3%, 4% of your net worth into Bitcoin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
That way you're a little bit hedged, and if it does go up 2%, 3%, 10-fold, you feel as if you've participated in the upside. I would not go all in on this, much less really any one asset. If you're making some money, my guess is your wife has good benefits, max out your 401k, anything that's matched or tax-deferred, try and match that out, try and get
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
money taken out of your paycheck so it's never in your hands, and make sure you're diversified and in low-cost index funds. So if you're worried about crypto or you think that, in fact, it's going to be something that might take off, put a little bit of money in. Don't put all 3% or 4% or 5% in at one time, dollar cost in, because it's a highly volatile asset.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
But if you want to hedge a little bit against the upside or the downside of your current portfolio, then yeah, put a little bit of your money into, I would just probably do Bitcoin. I think some of the other shit coins are just too volatile and you end up staring at your phone all day. But sure, dip your toe if you think if that's going to make you feel a little bit better.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
But I wouldn't lose sleep thinking that all other assets are going to crash. Thanks for your question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Everyone thinks they're, well, thanks for the question. Everyone thinks they're aiming too high until they hit the target. I've never been qualified to do anything I've ever done. I wasn't qualified to get a job at Morgan Stanley. I definitely wasn't qualified to get into business school. I wasn't qualified to start a strategy. I've never been qualified to do anything I've ever done.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
So just put that away thinking that you're aiming too high. You may not hit the target. You may apply to be a VP somewhere and they say, sorry, you really aren't qualified. But the way you do this is you start interviewing. And the easiest questions are the hardest to answer. And that is, you know what they're going to ask you. Why should we hire you? What's different about you, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
What do you bring to this company that's unique? Why do you want to work here? And what do you do to try and improve your, you know, your sustainable advantage or these assets that are differentiated, right? In sum, what differentiates you? Why is it relevant to us? And how do you, what practices or what do you do that makes it sustainable?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
So you literally want to show up and kind of act like they'd be crazy not to hire you, right? I also find it kind of a hack in interviewing. to get the person to like you, because a lot of this is based on relationships and how they feel about you after the interview, is start asking them questions. People are narcissists or they're self-involved and they love talking about myself.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
So Lisa, how did you get involved at Salesforce? Or what do you like about working here? Or when you look at my skills, what do you think, do you think I'd be a good fit here? You know, what you want to figure out and you want to be confident is to say, okay, I think I'd be great at this, but is this the right fit for me? You know, start asking them questions. Who does really well at Salesforce?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Or I'm just using that as an example. But the key here is you, you know, you miss all the shots you don't take. Just start interviewing and find out if in fact you're in that weight class. But circling back, you know, everyone's an imposter. Everybody thinks they've fooled people. Not everybody.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Most people think they've fooled people when they get the job or get into graduate school or get a high character boyfriend or girlfriend. So, yeah, aim high. If you miss, don't take it too seriously. Keep aiming. And if you really want to see what your currency is in the marketplace, then go into the marketplace and try and start interviewing. Thanks for the question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us. Support for Prop G comes from Domo. A lot of people think that data is just cold, hard facts about as impersonal as you can get. But wouldn't it be great if you could ask your data anything at any time? Like, how are sales this quarter? Or how's the new marketing campaign performing?
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Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Or what does the overall health of the company look like? Thank you. That's AI.domo.com.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Welcome back. Question number three.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
So the first thing you want to do is you want to put it in a bond fund or a treasury fund that's getting 4.5% or 5% right now. If it's $100,000, that's $5,000 a year, low risk or no risk. So you're getting $400 a month. But don't just let it sit there. Put it into some sort of T-bill fund or what do they call it, certificate of deposit, whatever you want to call it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Basically, if you put money in at Interactive Brokers or Schwab, I think you get between 4% and 5%. while you're trying to figure this out. Okay, so in terms of where to put it, You want to lean into your advantage.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
If you understand the local real estate market and you or someone in your life could manage those apartments and you're scrappy and maybe know how to fix up an apartment, buying real estate, fixing it up and turning into rental properties is a fantastic way to build wealth slowly. I own almost 30 rental units in Delray Beach, Florida, and they've been one of my best investments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
It's obviously a lot is about when you buy, where you buy. And I bought in Florida when no one else wanted to buy, which is the time you want to buy because prices were really, really low. I bought these things for about an average of 100, sometimes 120,000. They produce really good rental income. And my guess is they've tripled in value since then, but I don't want to sell them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I want to have cashflow as I get older. So I think rental units, if you have some advantage, do you understand the local market so you don't overpay? Do you have the ability to manage them? Do you have some skills to improve them, to upgrade them? Otherwise, you'd be better off just buying REITs than managing your own real estate, because there really is some headache around managing these things.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I would suggest, if you don't have those advantages or market knowledge around real estate, that you just take the money and you put it in low-cost ETFs. Not only SPY or QQQ the NASDAQ, but start thinking about maybe putting half of it even in some sort of diversified low-cost world index sans the US. Why do I say that? The US has become very expensive. And while, I mean, what do you know?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
You want low cost, you want diversification, you want an index fund or an ETF. but you're still, to a certain extent, trying to find alpha and pick stuff. So even though you're picking all of the S&P with SPY, I think the S&P, I would argue, is historically expensive, maybe even overvalued.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I was with a buddy of mine who runs private wealth for JP Morgan, and he was saying, I said, the market cap of the US right now is equivalent to half of the total market cap of the globe. And he said, actually, it's worse than that because if you counter in debt, 70% of the capital markets are in the U.S. So if you add up the money corporations have borrowed and U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Support for the show comes from ServiceNow. Who is enabling people to do more meaningful, creative work, the work they actually wanna do? You know what people don't wanna do? Boring, busy work. But now, with AI agents built into the ServiceNow platform, you can automate millions of repetitive tasks in every corner of business, IT, HR, customer service, and more.
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What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I've checked out Masterclass. I watched the Masterclasses with Bob Iger and Martha Stewart. I enjoyed learning about them. Gave me different insight into managing the creative process. Right now, our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual membership at Masterclass.com slash PropG. That's 15% off at Masterclass.com slash PropG. Masterclass.com slash PropG.
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What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
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, please email a voice recording to officehourswithpropgmedia.com. Question number one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Support for PropG comes from Grammarly. Think about the most tedious part of your job. Is it writing the exact same email you've already written 100 times? Some studies have shown that 88% of professionals spend more than half their work week on repetitive writing tasks.
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What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Well, imagine you had an assistant that could take the small stuff off your plate and help make your writing more effective and persuasive. You're in luck! And as I've said before, it has made us more efficient and takes our written work, and makes it just quite frankly more competent. Get more done with Grammarly. Download Grammarly for free at grammarly.com slash podcast.
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What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
That's grammarly.com slash podcasts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
John from LA, thanks for the kind words. I pride myself on being transparent. Everybody talks about their wins and people don't want to talk about their failures. Section is still got a question mark around it. And that is the initial vision was find build this all-star team of the best professors at business schools and offer 80% of an amazing class.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
At every business school, there's five or six ringers that everybody has to take regardless of what they're teaching because they're so good. My thought was I'm going to aggregate all these ringers from the top 20 schools, put them online, really highly invest in marketing and graphics and production quality and give you 80%
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
the valuation class from Demodaran or from Adam Alter's marketing class or, God, I forget his name, this wonderful guy from Kellogg, Sarah Beckman from the Haas School, and give you 80% of her course for $1,000 instead of 7,000, which is what it costs to take these courses at a private university. I'm not sure if that's true at the Haas School. Anyways, in sum, it wasn't working.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
We were spending a lot more money. And without the certification you get from an MBA, we had trouble charging even $1,000. We got this incredible sugar high of COVID. And that is I put in, I raised a seed round of $7 million. I put in, I think, $2 million of my own money, maybe $3. And it just took off during COVID because everyone had a lot of time.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And I knew that we were in a sugar high, but I didn't realize we were in like a speedballed meth cocaine high. And the company went from like one to 10 million overnight. I went out and I raised another $30 million. That was a mistake. I should have kept it small.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I should have been more judicious with the capital because once we had $30 million, we brought in a management team and they started spending money like fucking drunk sailors on shit that didn't work. We hired Malcolm Gladwell to speak to our audience for a hundred grand or Adam Grant, who I love and think is great. We paid him a hundred grand.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
They're not worth that much money to speak to a bunch of prospective students as good as they are. So we were just wasting money. We went from 20 employees to 120. And here's the mistake I made that I continue to make in the private markets. And that is once I have access to capital, I try and grow too fast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I spend way too much fucking money, hire mediocre people, and then end up having to lay off 60 or 80% of them. And that is what happened here. As soon as we came out of COVID, revenues crashed, our burn was unsustainable, and we had to lay off 60, 70% of the staff. Now the company is about 25 or 30 people. We have pivoted to AI. What do I mean by that?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
We found a lot of people and companies coming to us and say, could you upskill our media department at L'Oreal on how to use different AI tools to make our department much more robust, give us this great... L'Oreal has always had amazing media buying. That's kind of, I would argue, their core confidence is they're just fantastic media buyers. They said, how do we take the most
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
cutting edge tools and turn every media planner or every media buyer into a warrior and make them just much better at what they do. So we have pivoted section to basically AI upskilling for the enterprise. And this is more my ballywick. I've always done B2B businesses. I've never done B2C. I like B2B more. It's based on individual relationships.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Corporations, if you can move the value or move the shareholder needle for them, are much less price sensitive. Thank consumers. I've just always been in B2B businesses. Anyways, we pivoted. We have really wonderful investors. General Catalyst is my lead, and they've been incredibly supportive and nice and smart. And I have a good CEO, Greg Shove, running the business now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
We have some very talented people in the organization, and it is starting to grow again. And we are now, I think, almost two-thirds subscription revenue, back towards a $10 million run rate and working with very large corporations. helping them, again, upskill certain departments within their organization around how to leverage these new AI tools.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
So I'm hopeful, but the last five years have been really mediocre. I have wasted a ton of time and money. Is that fair? Not wasted. Have not gotten the return I was originally hoping for. I would bet if I had to bet what's going to happen, there's an outside shot. It does really well. I think there's a good shot. We're going to get our money back. Keep in mind, we've raised $38 million.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
So I need to get my investors $38 million back before we start really showing any return. I'm fairly confident. Is that right? I think I'm fairly confident that'll happen. And we seem to finally have found our footing. Having said that, this is kind of the story of my life in most of these companies. I've had a couple of companies where it's just been up and to the right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
usually I start something, it does okay, then it doesn't do okay. And the key is agility and kind of zero in on something that works. And I think we have finally done that after five years and spending 25 or $30 million. I think we finally zeroed in on something. They're signing up corporations and it's actually doing quite well and growing again. But this shit is hard. This is a
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
This is chestnut checkers, but it's finally, it seems to be kind of on its, found its footing again and doing really well. But again, one out of seven companies succeeds. I've started nine. I've had two do really well. I've had two or three just do okay. And I've had four just like flaming balls of shit, hit a giant wall and spray and everyone gets their face burned off.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
That was a little graphic. That was a little graphic. Anyways, thanks for the question. I hope that satisfies your need to understand what is happening at Section. And it's now called Section AI. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropertymedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatpropertymedia.com.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Thanks for the thoughtful question, Jake, from DC. The 2024 cycle was the most expensive election in American history, with political ad spending totaling over $11 billion. However, it wasn't all disco for broadcasters. This was the first election where their share of total spending fell below 50%. Since the 2020 election, ad spending increased over $2 billion.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
But traditional broadcasters only saw 100 million of this growth. First off, I think it was Hearst or one of the big family owned media companies was really smart. About 20 years ago, they went and bought all these local TV stations in swing states thinking, okay, these are shitty businesses for about 20 months every two years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do. That's putting AI agents to work for people. It's your turn. Get started at servicenow.com slash AI dash agents. The support for the show comes from UserTesting. Your brand is only as strong as the decisions behind it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And then for four months, they're amazing businesses because they quintuple their ad rates and campaigns which think, okay, old people vote. What do old people do? They want to watch the weather and see that handsome, handsome young thing talking about the news. And they turn on their local news.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And they can trap old people and they can run ads basically saying that, you know, the other guy is a pedophile and she's addicted to diet pills and you should vote for our guy. It's really weird. Human condition, it's much easier for us to believe something negative about someone than something positive. So as Newt Gingrich convinced his party 20 odd years ago, go negative, go early.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Anyways, they bought these stations and they've been the gift that keeps on giving. They were able to scoop them up fairly inexpensively and they're just cash machines. I think that is about to come to an end for two reasons. First reason, Joe, second, Rogan. And that is when Trump went on Rogan, he got about 15 million downloads on audio and about 40, 45 million views on YouTube.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
So call it 60 million. For Vice President Harris, who by the way, totally fucked up and should have gotten on a plane. Joe Rogan is now more important than her or was at that point. to Austin and done an interview. I think Joe actually would have been kind to her. He's not about calling people out. He's pretty good that way. As a matter of fact, he doesn't call people out enough.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Oh, mRNA vaccines alter your DNA. Really? Really? Oh, okay. You're not a fucking quack spreading misinformation that results in unnecessary death, disease, and disability. Really? Oh, that makes sense. No, it doesn't. Anyway, she should have done it. But for her to reach the same number of people, she would have had to go on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox every night for three hours for an entire week.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
As a matter of fact, a woman I really respect a lot who has a, I believe it's a Sunday morning show on CNN, asked me to come on every week and do this thing like, what's on your mind, where I talk for six to 10 minutes. And I said, I've done the math. No one 25 to 54 is watching CNN. And for me to do the work I would need to do because I like you and I think you're smart,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
It's just not worth – the juice isn't worth the squeeze. And I would have killed to go on Anderson Cooper or Michael Smirconish or Stephanie Ruhl. By the way, all three friends, all wonderful people. Or any of these guys. I occasionally go on Chris Cuomo because I like – I only go on with my friends. I know I'm name-dropping right now, but – It's just not worth it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
The people I'm trying to raise, I'm trying to reach a young man. I'm trying to reach young people that want to develop economic security. And guess what? They're not watching fucking CNN. Get this, the average age, the average person watching MSNBC is a 70-year-old white woman. Oh, but it makes sense for politicians to go there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
What do you think a 70-year-old white woman has made up her mind around who she's voting for? Having said that, podcasts, 34-year-old male. 34-year-old males, what do they vote on? They don't vote on issues or values. They vote on economics. They're at a point in their life where they're trying to build economic security, and the economic issue is more dynamic. What do I mean by that?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Every two or four years, it's not entirely clear which party will become the party of economic growth or become more favorable in the eyes of voters around economics. Traditionally, Republicans are the business people, low taxes, but people are starting to pay attention that under Democratic administrations the last 50 years, there's been 50 million jobs created.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Under Republican administrations, there's been 1 million jobs. The markets tend to go up more during Democratic tenure. So people are kind of saying, okay, whoever can sell me is going to get my vote at the age of 34 if they're a male, whereas a 70-year-old woman, so where is everyone going to go? I think to podcasts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Now, having said that, your notion is how do they monetize it or how do we monetize it? I don't see why it would be any more difficult to run a 30-second ad saying, he fucking sucks, and then having the candidate go, I approve this ad. I think you're going to start to see Political ads.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
UserTesting's human insights engine helps marketing product and business leaders make smarter, faster decisions with real human feedback, AI-driven insights, and the world's strongest participant network. Equip your team with the power to validate every decision, co-innovate at scale, and build digital and in-person experiences with confidence. The best brands don't guess, they test.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
The reason I know that the sphere of influence is massively shifting, and I'm not exaggerating here, I bet 50% of the candidates, mostly Democrat, but also Republicans, I'm seeing as somewhat moderate, have reached out to me for quote-unquote advice. When people reach out to me for advice, it's not because they care about what I think.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
It means they want help finding a job, they want money for their campaign, or they want to come on the podcast. And I think that there's probably a hundred senators and congresspeople and governors who look in the mirror every morning and say the following. Hello, Mr. President, or hello, Madam President. And I've heard from most of them. And they claim they really are interested in my advice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And they say, hey, wouldn't it be a great idea for me to come on the pod and talk about it? What's interesting is the political candidates don't do well on podcasts. People would much rather hear from, I don't know, Kim Kardashian or a guy like Fareed Zakaria gets unbelievable downloads. He does so well. Anthony Scaramucci does incredibly well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
He's not a political candidate, but he's a political commentator. Ian Bremmer, these geopoliticians, Josh Brown on the markets, Aswad Damodaran, Kyla Scanlon, a young person. These people get huge downloads. Mel Robbins, I had her on. People love talking about emotions and raising their kids. When I bring senators or congresspeople on, People just don't care.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
It's really interesting, but I am committed to bringing more and more politicians on, specifically moderates on the left and on the right, although I'm having trouble finding moderates on the right. I'm a moderate, but that wasn't a Nazi salute. Yeah, okay, okay. What are your pronouns, he and Himmler? Anyway, I do think that if you get attention, you can monetize it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And if you have attention and influence, which podcasts will have, they're going to be able to grab a disproportionate amount of that what it'll probably be 15 or 20 billion going into the next election.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
So if you have influence and attention, you'll figure out a way to monetize it, whether it's ads, sponsored events, I don't know what have you, but we're gonna see, I think we're gonna see for the first time these local news stations start to feel some of the same pressure that every other media company has felt
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And then we're going to see a massive transfer of influence, attention, and monetization to podcasts. In terms of conflict of interest, I read ads. I don't do crypto ads anymore because I worry it's gambling and I worry there's too many young men staring at their phone, losing money or making money on crypto. But I have no problem advocating for products.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And if it's a conflict, if I'm talking about a company, I'm an investor and I try to be transparent. I'm here because I enjoy this, but I am a close second here because I want to make money. And I don't think people mind that. So what I think they mind is when they feel like you're abusing their trust and not being upfront about your intentions or your investments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
So as long as you're transparent, I think that's fine. But coming your way, I'm Joe Bob and I approve this ad. Thanks for the question. Question number two.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
See how at usertesting.com slash PropG. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Anonymous for Virginia. The first is, I'm really sorry you're stressed out. It's sort of the unknown sometimes is more stressful than the actual known. And that is a means of, I think, trying to assuage your stress. And there's the basics, spending time with loved ones, working out, meditation, breath work. I tried breath work.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I tried this straw method from this guy named Dan Reeves, who I love, who's fantastic, this very soulful guy who does this 10% Happier podcast. Here's the straw method. Breathe in. Two seconds, then breathe out. Four seconds. Okay. That shit does not work for me. It does not work for me. The breath work does not work.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I understand that you're stressed out, but anytime there's change or chaos, there is a silver lining, and that is sometimes there's opportunity where you don't see it. What do I mean by that? What is happening at the federal government level right now, I'm of two minds about it. The first is, to be blunt and coarse, welcome to the work week.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
The idea that you get a random email from someone who might be laid off and have insecurity and anxiety, people feel that across every business sector in America. In America. At the same time, the injustice I get, but there's tons of injustice in the private sector. The thing that I find most troubling about it is not what people, most media is reporting on. It's the incompetence.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
It's laying off workers who oversee our nuclear stockpile and then rehiring them thinking, oh, maybe we should, in fact, look after this shit such that it doesn't, you know, such that we can ensure that nobody, the babies don't start playing with it before it becomes less radioactive in 60,000 odd years. the way they're going about it, it just feels stupid and ineffective to me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And also the corruption, firing people that happen to be investigating Musk's business dealings, and also just the general incompetence. Oh, we saved $8 billion. Well, actually, it's $8 million that you saved. Oh, we're saving a million and a half dollars here. No, you're not. They already spent the million and a half. There's no way to get it back. So
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I find the whole Keystone Cops fucking incompetence that doesn't reflect the general competence you find across most government agencies. I think I'm sort of of that attitude of let them. I think it's just so weird. The genius of the Republican Party is its ability to convince people who are going to get hurt the most that this is a good idea for them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
In general, the reddest districts are the ones that are the biggest takers. The Department of Education is sends the most money per capita to these deep red states in the South. Okay, you want to eliminate the Department of Education? Fine. You want to eliminate
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Medicare or take money out of Medicare, where six in 10 kids in poor households in red states get the medical treatment they need, okay, have at it, let them. You're about to see just how incompetent you think government really is, and when these cuts come home to you. So I'm sort of of the attitude of, okay, you wanted it, you broke it, you own it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Now, coming back to your specific situation, one, until you actually get laid off, Unless, it's never a bad idea to do a market check, see what's out there, start investigating, start having coffees, do interviews if you have ideas on who you want to speak to. I don't think that's a bad idea in any situation to be kind of on a regular basis doing a market check.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Having said that, I would not jump, I would certainly not quit until you have another job. And also, a couple things can happen. One, if you do get laid off, you'll probably get some sort of severance. And two, when there's change, Say they left 10 or 20% of the people at your organization.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
They're pretty soon going to realize they need people to actually run the fucking organization and the top of the pyramid. will quite frankly get broader and that is you might find that you're in a position to be promoted sooner than you thought because there's fewer people around.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I've always told people when there's a transaction in the private sector, when their company gets acquired or there's layoffs, stick around because churn and chaos results in a lot of anxiety, oftentimes a lot of negative things, but oftentimes a lot of opportunity because the company is being reconfigured and you might wake up with a bigger and a better job. So in sum,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
find things and people that help manage your anxiety. Two, it's never a bad idea to do a bit of a market check and talk to people. And three, think to yourself, what could go right, right? We're always about what could go wrong. Well, what could go right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Maybe the organization, maybe people get laid off, maybe you're good at what you do, and maybe it ends up creating more avenues or arteries of opportunity for you. I appreciate the question, Anonymous from Virginia. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us. Masterclass is the streaming platform that brings insights from the world's greatest minds directly to you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
There you'll find instructors including Martha Stewart, Howard Schultz, RuPaul, and so much more. Masterclass is also highly accessible. You can access it from your phone, computer, smart TV, or even in audio mode. What's more is that 88% of Masterclass users claim that it's made a positive impact on their daily lives. All this for just $10 a month with an annual subscription.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Also, zuerst einmal anonym. Du solltest nicht anonym sein. Du sagst nichts, was deinen Job bedroht. Und du klingst wie ein so schöner Kerl. Und auch, du hast mehr Vertrauen, als ich, als ich in deinem Alter war. Du kannst die Anerkennung für andere Menschen ausdrücken. Ich hatte diese verdammte Notion von Masculinität, als ich in deinem Alter war. Du klingst wie in deinen 20er oder 30er.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
dass, wenn ich beeindruckt war, besonders mit einem anderen Mann, es sich irgendwie von dem, wie beeindruckend ich war, entfernt hat. Ich hatte keine Selbstvertrauen, um Anerkennung oder Wunder an andere Menschen zu erzeugen. Also bist du bereits weit vor dem Spiel und hast eine schöne Stimme. Jedenfalls klingt es mir so, als ob du dich wirklich gut für den Erfolg befestigt hättest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Nun, um in die Akademie zu wechseln. Also, zu Beginn denke ich, dass Akademie als Karriere unterwertet ist. Es ist wundervoll. Es erzeugt viele Lohnwölfe, weil man viele Sachen selbst machen kann. Es gibt gerade ein paar Probleme mit Akademie.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
That's a really thoughtful question. And I think kind of information intensive white collar industries that to a certain extent trade in complexity. There's a lot of regulation. There's a lot of different assets. People have taxes. It's complex once you get above any reasonable set of assets. And so people want to feel comfortable.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Zum einen ist es moralisch korrupt, basierend auf einer exklusionären Rejectionismus-Bullshit-Kultur, dass Kinder nicht eingelassen werden, trotz der Tatsache, dass wir die Kapitalität haben, um eine Doppel-, Doppel- oder Quintuple-Klasse, das ist eine andere Redezeit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Und es gibt zu viele ältere Leute, die nicht mehr gehen wollen, weil der Mann oder die Frau im GAP-1-Bereich die Unterschiede zwischen Blackwater und Bluewater Economics in 1978 verstanden haben. Und jetzt sind sie 80 Jahre alt und werden nicht mehr gehen. Sie zeigen sich einfach nur an den Fakultäten und sind sehr zerstört.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ich arbeite mit dem, was ich glaube, ist wahrscheinlich die beste Fakultät in Amerika, bei NYU Stern. Und 10% aller Fakultäten sind einfach so inspirierend. These are people who give up a dramatic amount of compensation because they love teaching. And they are just so good at what they do. And their relentless pursuit of the truth, especially in this age, is just inspiring.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And they're great storytellers and they care about people. Anyways, but the downside of academia is there's just a third... of the people at any institution that, quite frankly, just shouldn't be there, aren't pulling their weight. And because of tenure, which is essentially a guild for the unproductive, tenure is nothing but student debt in my viewpoint. Anyways, I don't know how I got here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Welche Medien wären für dich am besten? Du hast eine großartige Plattform. Eine Sache, von der ich an NYU wirklich geholfen habe, ich sage viele provokative, aggressivere Dinge. Ich denke, ohne das Halo der NYU-Brande, könnten Leute einfach denken, dass ich ein Arschloch bin. Oder vielleicht ein kreativer Arschloch, oder vielleicht ein interessanter Arschloch, aber meistens nur ein Arschloch.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Aber ich denke, Leute nehmen das, was ich sage, mehr ernsthaft, weil ich versuche, ein bisschen Fidelity der Institution und der Akademie zu zeigen, indem ich ein Team von Leuten habe, die Dinge recherchieren, wir Fakten prüfen, wir über Sachen gehen, wir versuchen, in Daten zu marinieren. Ich habe einen Anspruch auf Bildung. Jedenfalls, ich denke, es ist eine sehr starke Plattform.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Also, welche Medien? All strategy comes down to one thing. What can I do or what can we do that is really hard? Das ist alles, was die Strategie ist. Was können wir tun, das wirklich hart ist?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Wir haben eine großartige Geschichte über die Größe im E-Commerce oder die Größe im Streaming, damit wir so viel günstiges Kapital erzielen können, dass wir mehr Geld auf Warehäuser und Flugzeuge oder auf originales Content sparen werden.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Wir werden 18 Billionen Dollar pro Jahr auf originales Content sparen, was mehr ist, als wir auf die gesamte Film- oder Fernsehindustrie in der 80er-Jahre gespart haben. Das ist wirklich hart zu tun. Also lehnen sie sich an ihre Vorteile ein. of just overwhelming the competition with capital via great storytelling and access to cheap capital. That is really hard to do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
You need to decide, all right, what would be really hard to do? And the way you figure that out is you ask yourself first, what am I really good at? Could I start a podcast? And if I do a podcast, am I good at it? Do I have the ability to get good guests? Do I have a good voice? Am I compelling in this medium? Do I find that people want to listen to me? Do you write well?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Can you go on LinkedIn and start writing about your specific domain and immediately get people subscribing and following? Are you really good on TikTok? You want to figure out what is your medium. Und wie Sie herausfinden, welches Ihr Medium ist, ist, dass Sie einen oder zwei wählen und sagen, ich muss in den Top 10% in Bezug auf Follower sein.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Das ist eine Übung, die ich meiner Klasse und Brandstrategie gebe. Ich sage ihnen, dass sie ein Medium wählen müssen. Es kann Threads sein, es kann X sein, es kann Twitter sein, es kann Powerpoint sein. Und dann müssen sie eine Metrik herausfinden, die sagt, dass ich am Ende der Klasse in den Top Dezile sein werde. And you can figure out those numbers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Security, they want an absence of fear, they want someone nice and young and attractive and bright such as you to show up and actually, to a certain extent, youth is a bit of a disadvantage here, but give them a sense of confidence that they're doing the right thing with their assets. And in exchange... Manchmal, oder viele Male, sind Menschen bereit, 1-2% ihrer Asset zu bezahlen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
What is the number of followers you need on Instagram, on Reels, to be in the top decile? And it'll tell you, this is how many followers you need. So you need to figure out what is your medium. What I enjoy the most is writing because it's the hardest. But when you write something worthwhile, it moves people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
There's something about the written word that when it's done well and you've taken the time and the energy to fact check, to proof it, to make it sound elegant, to have a good twist of phrase, to make people feel something. It really resonates. It sticks with them. If I go on Morning Joe or The View and I kill it, it gets a huge sugar high on YouTube. And it's fun and it's rewarding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
But there's nothing like writing something that when you took the time, you were up, you proofed it, you fact-checked it, and it resonates and it moves people. It moves their emotions or it highlights something that other people were thinking but not saying. That for me is... Ich möchte nicht sagen, dass es am liebsten ist, sondern es ist am hervorragendsten, weil es die schwerste Sache ist.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Also das erste ist, kannst du gut schreiben? Oh mein Gott, wenn du gut schreiben kannst, sagt deine Marke sofort den Leuten, du bist smart und du bist beruflich, was eine gute Schokolade und Pfeffer nicht nur in der Akademie, sondern auch in der professionellen Welt ist. Ist das dein Medium? Or are you really good at presentations? Do you want to figure out a way to start speaking in groups?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Do you want to call people, conferences and say, Hi, I'm a professor of X. I want to come talk about this. I didn't get... 98% of my time on stage, I don't get paid. I've returned all my compensation to NYU, so they don't pay me. And the majority of the talks I gave for the first 30 years of my career, I wasn't getting paid for. Is that true? Consulting, I guess I was getting paid a lot.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
But I did a lot of free speaking gigs. Now I charge 50k for a virtual, 200k for an in-person, and 400k if I have to go to the Gulf or Asia. I don't get a lot of those, but I do get some of those. Now, I am boasting, but there is a reason. It is taking me 20 or 30 years of deciding that, okay, speaking is probably what I am best at, and I'm going to get fucking amazing at it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
I have a team of people pulling together 150 slide presentations. I go through it like it's a Broadway show. I rehearse it. I think of video. I think of sound. I think of emotional highs and lows. And every time I give one of these presentations or talks, and I do about... 40 oder 50 pro Jahr.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ich gehe sofort nachher zurück auf das Team und sage, wir haben hier ein Narrativ-Arch hier, das einfach nicht richtig gefühlt hat. Dieser Witz landete nicht. Das war wirklich gut. Lass uns das anwenden. Lass uns das anwenden. Es ist, als ob ich einen Broadway-Show oder einen Film veröffentliche.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Aber jedes Mal, als ich den Film veröffentliche, bekomme ich die Reaktion des Publikums und ich bekomme den Recut. Ich bin okay bei Threads oder Blue Sky. Ich denke, ich bin ein guter Podcaster. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. Ich mag schreiben. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. I'm not good on the phone. And you want to figure out what mediums you're not good at and then find one where you think, could I be the best in the world and really lean into that medium?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Meine Mutter hat diesem Mann 1,5% pro Jahr bezahlt, um eine Menge dreckiger Stocks zu kaufen. Und ich habe mir das angeschaut und gesagt, okay, das macht keinen Sinn, investiere in Vanguard. Dieser Mann kann keine Stocks wählen, er ist ein... 65-Jähriger sitzt in einem schlechten Büro irgendwo in Las Vegas und er hat den Markt untergebracht, aber er ist wirklich teuer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
In terms of the content, in terms of the content, the specific crowds out the general. I was in the field of brand strategy. That's a pretty specific area. It wasn't design, it wasn't marketing, it wasn't media planning. It was managing your brands as if they were assets, like a portfolio in a mutual fund. And then I went even more specific.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
I started collecting data on the digital footprint of luxury brands. Not the digital footprint of all consumer brands, but the digital footprint of luxury brands. And I started doing rankings of out of NYU on which luxury brands were the most digitally competent. And I parsed it into five areas, genius, gifted, average, challenged and feeble.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
By the way, rankings are incredibly powerful when they come out of an academic institution because you have to do the work, you have to fact check the shit out of it. And then you put it out and wow. And the thing about a ranking is, it's not about who comes first, it's about who comes last. Und das wollte ich tun. Die meisten Ranking von Institutionen listet die Top 10 und gibt Werte.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Nein, ich wollte ein Ranking machen, das sagte, okay, Whoever it was, David Yerman, you're literally the worst brand in jewelry as it relates to digital footprint. Anyway, don't be afraid to go very niche. Pick your medium and commit to being in the top 10, if not the top 1%. And don't be afraid to switch mediums in terms of your focus. But you do create a flywheel.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
I do all of it because I find it's reinforcing. Long-winded way of saying, the specific crowd's out there, General. Find your medium, commit to being in the top 10% within a year, the top 1% within two to three years. Don't be afraid to switch mediums. But my friend in academia, if you write well, that is probably gonna be your go-to. That is the hardest thing I do. It is the most rewarding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And quite frankly, I believe it's the most impressive. Also, also in 50 years, it's unlikely people are gonna be watching your videos. It's unlikely people are gonna see your social. But your kids will likely read what you have written. And I find that nice to think about and very comforting. Congratulations on your transition to academia. I think it is a wonderful way to make a living.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Thank you, Anonymous from Colorado. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehours at propertymedia.com. Again, that's officehours at propertymedia.com. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Chalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Thank you for listening to the PropGee Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropGee Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Die Mehrheit der Wealth-Manager in dieser Klasse könnte als teuer, aber schlecht beschrieben werden. Sie haben eine hohe EQ, sie machen dich besser fühlen, sie kommen zu deinem Haus. Jemand, der dich zu Abend oder zu einem Sport-Event bringt, bedeutet, dass ihre Kosten viel zu hoch sind. Weißt du, wer dich nie zu einem Nix-Spiel nehmen wird? Vanguard.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And you are in kind of ground zero, I think, unfortunately, for disruption around AI. So what do you do? First, let's look at some data. According to Brookings, those in business and financial operations occupations are at the third highest risk level for disruption from large language models.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Additionally, Citigroup believes that over 50% of jobs in the financial services industry could eventually be replaced by AI. Pew Research found that 62% of Americans believe that AI will have a major impact on workers, but just 28% believe that it will have an impact on them personally.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Recent data suggest that AI adoption rates are just 5% in some industries, creating an enormous opportunity for those who do decide to utilize the new technology. So, my kind of saying around this, if you're going to go into this industry, you have to go in with your eyes wide open. And that is, you're going to have to get to scale within three to five years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And that is, if you're just managing a bunch of like 100,000, 500,000 million dollar portfolios, at some point, they're going to figure it out and just go to Vanguard. What you need to do is get to a certain amount of scale such that you can charge low enough fees such that, quite frankly, you're worth it. And what does it mean? What is value? It's fees over the services you're offering.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Or maybe it's the opposite. Anyways, you get my point. Und im Geldmanagement, die schlechte Nachricht ist, dass es so schwierig oder so einfach ist, 10 Millionen zu managen, wie es 1 Million ist. Aber die gute Nachricht ist, dass es so einfach ist, 10 Millionen zu managen, wie es 1 Million ist. Also Finanzielle Services ist viel wie ein Real-Estate-Broker.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Es ist ein dreckiges Geschäft für die ersten zehn Jahre. Es geht zu jedem fucking Event. Es gibt deine Karte an die Leute. Es macht viel freies Arbeit. Es macht eine Menge Arbeit und findet heraus, dass niemand, dass sie nicht wirklich Aspekte haben. But once you have a stable of clients, it turns into a really good business.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Now, the first thing is you are going to have to acknowledge the following or really adopt the following as religion if you want to be successful. AI is not going to take your job. Someone who understands AI is going to take your job. And that is AI still hallucinates and the majority of people still do not want to use an AI robo-advisor to figure out which funds they allocate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Welcome to Office Hours with Prop G. Today we're wrapping up our special two-part series all about careers, navigating them, advancing them, maybe even surviving them. I'll be sharing my best advice. I don't know if it's the best advice, but it's my best advice. No corporate speak, no BS. That's right, NC17, R-rated advice. That's why we're here. I have not read or seen these questions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Even if they decide to go all vanguard, there are still some decisions to be made. There are robo-advisors, but most people don't want to do that. You are also going to have to become exceptionally talented around the integration of how to make money and how to keep it. Now, what do I mean by that? Taxes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
I would say the majority of my value add, Goldman Sachs manages my money, but really they don't manage my money. What they do is they manage my personal finance. What do I mean by that? I have several entities. They coordinate my lawyers when I'm creating LLCs. They give me tax advice, which is really their kind of value add.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Und das ist, ich sage, okay, ich denke daran, dieses zu kaufen, oder ich kaufe ein Haus. Soll ich es in ein LLC einsetzen? Wenn ich es in ein LLC einsetze, könnte es einen Ausstieg in den Steuern verursachen, weil das Haus wieder vergrößert wird. Aber wenn ich es in ein LLC einsetze, kann ich es in 2% pro Jahr reduzieren.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Und wenn ich es für zwei Jahre behalte und ein bisschen Geld davon erhalte, ist es für den 1031-Ausgleich qualifiziert. Wenn Sie sich überrascht fühlen, vertraue Ihren Instinkten. Es ist wirklich verrückt. Und behalten Sie fest, dass im Grunde genommen der Taxcode von sehr reichsten Menschen gewehrt worden ist. Es ist von 400 Seiten, glaube ich, bis zu 4.000.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ich habe es gelesen, es ist bis zu 7.000. Und diese zusätzlichen Seiten sind im Grunde genommen Laufhäuser für die Reichen, oder im Grunde genommen ein Versuch, Geld von den niedrigen und mittleren Einkommenshäusern an die Reichen zu transferieren, die über die letzten 40 Jahre eine disproportionale Anzahl der Verluste aggregiert haben. Aber in dieser Komplexität ist dein Wertgeber.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Und das ist, dass du die Unterschiede verstehen kannst zwischen, okay, ich werde dir helfen, deine Assets zu allociieren. Wir werden in Low-Cost-Funds gehen, aber ich werde dir helfen, sie zu wählen und dich zu diversifizieren. Ich werde dir die armen Arbeiten machen, um zu verstehen, wo du zu konzentriert bist. Ich werde eine Beziehung mit dir erstellen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ich werde dir viel Arbeit für dich machen, kind of off the clock. Und ich werde wirklich glaubwürdig denken, and come to you proactively with different tax ideas or ways to essentially become more tax efficient. It was like Wayne Huizenga, the founder of Blockbuster, used to run those ads for the state of Florida, talking about Florida's zero income tax or zero state income tax.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And he used to say, it's not what you earn, it's what you keep. So to a certain extent, a financial advisor, in my view, is going to have less value add on how you make money. How do you make money? You diversify and you go into low-cost index funds, all right? But how do you keep money is understanding their specific personal situation and how they figure out and navigate the incredibly complex
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Tax Code. And you're going to have to also be the one to cut your own fees as their assets grow. Ritholtz Management, my friend Barry Ritholtz and his partner Josh Brown of CNBC fame, they run a, I wouldn't even call it a hedge fund, I'd call it a wealth advisory fund.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And as they have grown their assets, they have lowered their fees and they are very thoughtful and give personalized advice to their clients, which Vanguard, you know, they may claim to do it, but they really don't.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And as a result, people decide, okay, Vanguard would be less expensive, but these guys are worth it, because they know my personal situation, they're willing to meet with me, they walk me through ideas, they're proactive. So you are going to have to become an AI warrior, my friend. You're going to have to figure out a way to get people's Finanzielle Komplexität, ihre Kreditkarten zu uploaden.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Christ, finde einen Weg. Geh zu dieser App, wo es ihnen sagt, wie viele Abonnenten sie haben. Das erste, was wir tun werden, ist, dass wir uns darauf konzentrieren, dir Geld zu sparen. Gib mir deine Kosten, ich werde... Und dann wirst du es zu verschiedenen LLMs uploaden und versuchen, Ideen für Kostenverschwendungen zu generieren. Du wirst ein AI-Warrior werden. Das ist, was du willst.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Das ist, was du willst. Wenn dein Komponist kommt, um sie auf das Managen ihres Geldes zu pitchen, You walk in with a Panzer tank. And that Panzer tank is knowledge. It's willingness to do good work, understand their personal situation and understanding of how it all dovetails with the tax code. And you understand how to use AI. That is your Panzer tank.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Let's bust right into it. First question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And the guy next to you or the gal next to you who shows up after you, they're showing up fighting on horseback because you understand. You're one of the 5% that understands how to use AI. Let me finish where I began. Hi Scott, I'm a big fan. I'm a 23-year-old living in suburban New York.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
So Anonymous, so you're a 23-year-old and my understanding is you're thinking about starting your own type of distribution business. I always thought, so I started my first business, I've been starting business my whole life, but Es ist gut, dass du mit Leuten sprichst, und ich empfehle dir nicht, dass du nicht sprichst. Aber die Art, wie du ein Geschäft startest, ist, ein Klienten zu bekommen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ein Fehler, den ich ständig gemacht habe, den ich ständig gemacht habe, ich mache es immer noch, ist, dass man glaubt, dass man Geld spart, ist ein Geschäft zu bauen. Nein, das ist es nicht. Es ist Geld zu machen, das ein Geschäft baut. Also, der beste Weg, diese Idee zu testen, ist, zu sehen, ob man einen Kunden bekommen kann.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Und ich weiß nicht, ich weiß nicht über die kompetitiven Dynamiken hier oder die Situation mit deiner aktuellen Firma, aber ich würde versuchen, einen Kunden zu finden oder einen potenziellen Kunden zu pitchen. Yeah, talk to people, get some advice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
If you're an introvert and you aren't comfortable selling, then you need to either find somebody who can sell and make them your partner or you shouldn't be an entrepreneur. Let me be clear. Entrepreneur is a synonym for salesman or salesperson. You know what being an entrepreneur is? It's getting out a big spoon every day and eating shit. Du verkaufst ständig.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ich spreche nicht nur von Kunden, sondern auch von Investoren. Der größte Verkauf, den ich je gemacht habe? Ich hatte immer gute Produkte in meinen Firmen und ich fühlte mich mehr als verkaufen, als zu beenden, weil ich Content Marketing kreieren würde, um Content zu kreieren, damit wir dann Inbound-Leads bekommen. Ich habe unseren Sales Team genannt.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Du verkaufst nicht, du beendest, weil wir einen wirklich guten Job mit Content Marketing gemacht haben.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
The biggest sell I ever did was trying to find really talented people and then convince them to join my firm when they had offers from Google and Salesforce or trying to convince people to stay that we would get to a liquidity event and they would get economic security with me as opposed to C above.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Going to fucking Meta, where they were awarded options that were already, you know, $300,000 in the money. You are always selling. And if you are not comfortable with that, or you can't get comfortable with that, then you need to find a partner who is comfortable with it. There are some people that are so good at what they do, that they can build a business without selling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
My landscaper is this really charming guy who will bring me out and show me. He's very emotionally manipulative. He'll come out and show me this Bougainvillea that he's helping us drape over our garage. I absolutely love Bougainvillea. It reminds me of my childhood in Orange County and my dad's super into them. And he just picked up on the fact that I love Bougainvillea.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
So occasionally he drags me out and he shows me this thing and he literally goes over and kind of hugs it like he's in love with it. Das verkauft, das entwickelt eine Beziehung mit einem Professor oder Podcaster, der eine Beziehung zu Bougainvillea hat. Wenn du dir nicht zufrieden bist, diese Art von Beziehungen zu behalten, wirst du jemanden finden, der es ist.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Also absolut, geh raus und sprich mit Leuten. Aber wiederum, die Art und Weise, wie du ein Geschäft startest, was ein Geschäft baut, ist Revenue, nicht Kosten. Und bei 23, es klingt, als würdest du unglaublich gut funktionieren.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Das andere, was du dir fragen würdest, oder vielleicht eine Küchenkabinett zusammenbringen und sie fragen würdest, ist, würdest du aus einigen Jahren Erfahrung bei deiner aktuellen Firma profitieren? Lernst du? Hast du ein Senior-Level-Sponsorium? Wenn du diese Dinge hast, wirst du vielleicht etwas über das Sticken denken.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ist es eine Möglichkeit, mit dieser Firma zu wachsen, wenn sie herausfinden, dass du abgeholt bist? Was mich immer wirklich überrascht hat, war, als junge, talentierte Leute weggingen und ich sagte, wo gehst du hin? Und ich denke, das ist einfach der schlechteste Job jemals. Was machst du? Und sie denken, na gut, ich will in einer Position sein, wo ich Leute managen kann.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Na gut, warum musst du mich nicht fragen? Ich würde dich managen lassen. Is there an opportunity at your current firm? Develop a kitchen cabinet. Think about whether you might benefit from staying a year or two years. And think about how you get that first client. And if you are not comfortable selling, then you need to find someone to bring in the organization pronto that is comfortable selling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Because that's what it means to be an entrepreneur, my brother. But again, 23 thinking this way, you're doing really well. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
She seems likely to drown. What should you do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
We're taking Vox Media podcasts on the road and heading back to Austin for the South by Southwest Festival, March 8th to the 10th. What a thrill! We'll be doing special live episodes of hit shows, including Pivot. That's right, the dogs go into the great state of Texas. Where should we begin?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Support for PropG comes from BetterHelp. Starting therapy can be intimidating and, to be honest, expensive. People may be hesitant to even start, though they know they benefit from it. But your mental health is worth it. Traditional in-person therapy can cost anywhere from $100 to $250 per session, which can add up fast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I feel as if I found a little bit more of my purpose. I think I used to say my purpose was to create economic security for others. So I'm looking at things or look through things through a professional lens and thought, okay, I've always been very focused on economic security and I thought, okay, now I want to provide economic security for other people. That's changed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I think what I find my purpose now is I'm trying to raise two good men. And by the way, sometimes I'm not very good at it. I'm still struggling with it. I find parenting – I find almost anything I've ever focused on I can usually get pretty good at. I don't know if I'm any good at this parenting thing. I know I'm not bad at it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
But I don't know if I'm good at it, but I've decided my purpose is to raise loving, patriotic men. And I don't know if I would have said that a few years ago, that that is my purpose, if you will. The second thing is, and again, everything for me is kind of, it's very crass, but I'm very economically driven.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I've decided every year that anything above my current wealth, I'm going to give away or spend. So I'm spending a lot more money and I'm giving away a lot more. And I know that may sound like virtue signaling and it is, but I'm trying to really focus on doing a lot with loved ones, getting more involved and trying to plant the trees, the shade of which I won't sit under. And I'm very focused.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I feel like for the first time in a while, I have purpose and my purpose is, you know, being a relatively good father. And that gives me some comfort because I think I was sort of wandering around, okay, what is the point here once you get to a certain status of economic security? And the people who most influenced me You know, I get a lot of influence from the young people I work with.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I find them really inspiring, really intelligent. I like the way they look at the world and I spend a lot of time with them. So I think they inform a lot of my view and kind of keep my perspective a little fresher than it would be otherwise. So I get a lot of inspiration, you know, from the kids in the firm. I think of them as my muses.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Welcome to Office Hours with Prof G. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. Today, we have two great listener questions lined up. And then after the break, we're continuing our new segment, the Reddit Hotline, where we pull questions straight from Reddit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And there's a lot of great influences out there, a lot of great podcasters, my co-hosts. At Pivot Cara, I get a lot of cues from her on parenting. I think she's a wonderful parent. I really like Sam Harris. I get a lot of insight from him, a lot of things I hold on to. If you have economic security and people who love you, you have an obligation to speak out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
He said that and it really sort of struck me. There's a lot of wonderful role models out there. But anyways, the two things I think have changed the most I'm focusing on are really focused on the reward I get from being a father and trying to catch up in terms of adding value to... I saw a chart that just struck me and it's such a nice thing that I try to remember and that is,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
There's a chart tracking how much time people are spending helping other people they will never meet, and it's at an all-time high. And I thought to myself, I'm not high enough on that chart. I need to get a little bit more focused on helping other people, even if there's no reciprocal benefit. Anyways, kind of a, I don't know, a hallmark answer. But anyways, I think it's mostly true.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Is that true? Anyways, next question. From 1.6960 reads, Scott, what is a topic you'd like to learn more about? I've said that in my next life, I'm coming back as a Navy SEAL, a Broadway dancer, or an evolutionary anthropologist. I've always regretted not serving my country. I've always thought it'd be fun. My dad wanted me to go to Annapolis and took me for a tour there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And then I found out that back then it was all men, that you weren't allowed to leave the campus the first year. And then I made the mistake of going to Hilgard Avenue, which is where all the stories are at UCLA. And it was like a fucking Cinemax movie. And I said, no, I'm going to UCLA. But I've always regretted not in some way serving. I'd love to be a Broadway dancer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I just admire people who can dance. I cannot, and I'm just so enthralled and enamored. My first girlfriend, my first like obsession when I moved to New York was a Broadway dancer, Michelle Potter. She was in the play Chicago and she came out, she's the first person on stage and the way the dancers move, I was just so starstruck and crazy in love with her. She did not reciprocate my affection.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
She was not nearly as in love with me as I was with her. I think she's back in Kansas teaching dance class. Anyways, Michelle, I hope you're doing well. Nice person, too. Anyways, but more than anything, I'd like to come back as an evolutionary anthropologist.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehoursaprofgmedia.com. Again, that's officehours.com. at propertymedia.com. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit. Jesus Christ, that's something I never thought I would say, Scott Galloway subreddit. And we just might feature it in our next episode.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I'm just fascinated by our lizard brains, our amangala, whatever it is, our instincts that create the behaviors or motivate us or shape what we do and who we are every day. I find it fascinating. If you want to believe in nature over nurture, just have two kids. I mean, we just haven't treated our two sons that differently, and they are absolutely a different species. So I'm fascinated by
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
what happened thousands of years ago to us and how it impacts the way we respond to things. I'd also be very interested in learning more about adolescent psychology. I'm trying to coach young men and understand more about it. I feel as if to be really thoughtful about it, you want to understand kind of what they're going through.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And I don't feel as if I know about it to be as helpful as I could be with some of the young men I talked to who are clearly struggling. So I'd like to learn more about evolutionary anthropology and adolescent psychology. Thanks for the question. And lastly, D. Ryan, 7575 asks, what's your podcast recording setup while traveling? Huh, that's an interesting question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
So I have one of our best hires is a gentleman named Drew Burrows, who's our technical director. And Drew will, when I go on a long trip, sometimes join me and just follow me around and make sure that we're totally set up. And he sets up all the studios. I have exact replicas of my studio in my London, New York, and Florida homes. If that sounds privileged, it is.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
But what he also does for me is he puts together a travel kit. And it basically looks like kind of a dop kit for an aging...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
self-conscious you know prima donna i'm all of those things so if imagine a large toiletry kit and in it it has a mic a bunch of cords and a really good headset and you plug it into your computer bring up riverside and boom you're ready to go and then i test shots test lighting work with true because i'm usually in some hotel somewhere And it's really fit my lifestyle. Now, here's the problem.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
If you look at the churn in podcasting, if you were to look at the 100 podcasts and the 50 new entrants and the 50 that dropped out and who will likely be the winners and losers over the next 24 months, I think it comes down to one word, video. Stephen Bartlett, who's sort of a role model of mine, despite the fact he's 30 years younger than me,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
The first time, literally the first day I was in London, two and a half years ago, I went on his podcast and I walked into his studio and he spends all his money, puts it all back into production value. It's basically a TV show posing as a podcast. He has these cameras.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I was just in Austin at South by and he had recreated a studio and there must've been 16 cameras and three cameramen and people editing real time and producing photos as a gift for me when I left. He's got the strongest video game. And if you look at what's happened over the last couple of years, Essentially, Spotify and Apple have ceded ground in the podcasting world to YouTube.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
What a thrill! Let's bust right into it. First question, I have not heard or seen these questions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
People are listening to more podcasts on YouTube in terms of time listenership, in terms of time. than Spotify or Apple. And it's based on how good your YouTube game is and your ability to optimize. And Stephen was showing me how they optimize for guests and test titles and thumbnails. I mean, they're just, and we're not that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And unfortunately, my desire to kind of optimize for my lifestyle, which includes having a mobile kit, is probably not where the industry is headed. I think you're going to see, I've predicted that Stephen's going to overtake Rogan as the biggest podcaster in the world because of his video game. So my dop kit is just a setup. It's just a Shure, I believe, mic, some cords, a stand.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Maybe we'll publish on Reddit our exact setup. And Riverside. And then the key is I have a very talented individual who helps me figure out the lighting. And then just like writing a book, kind of the magic in podcasting similar to a book is in the edit. And that is our producer, Jennifer Sanchez, will spend a lot of time trying to make me sound smarter by
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
adding in sound effects, or more importantly, not what's in the podcast, but what she decides to take out. I think the majority of magic happens in the edit, but my mobile kit is essentially a fancy toiletry kit with a few items. But I wonder if those days are coming to an end and the new kind of kings and queens of podcasting are going to have serious production values. Appreciate the question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropertymedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatpropertymedia.com. Or if you prefer to ask Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in our next Reddit hotline segment. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
But with BetterHelp Online Therapy, you can save an average of up to 50% per session. Your well-being is worth it, and now it's within reach. Visit BetterHelp.com slash PropG to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash PropG. Support for PropG comes from Viore. Oh, my God. True story. I am wearing, totally coincidentally, guess what? Viore shorts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Thanks for the question. And I'm an enormous fan of South Africa. I've been to Cape Town a few times. Obviously, safari is sort of a singular experience. I actually enjoy spending more time in the cities than I do safari. It's like two or three days of look at that lion, look at that zebra. It's great. A couple of days, that's fine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And then I start doing the afternoon drive and everyone gets angry at me because I'm not going on both drives for this magical experience. But anyways, I absolutely adore Cape Town. If I was a younger man, there's a lot of shit I would do if I were a younger man. But one thing I might consider doing is if I could figure out a way to make sort of a Western salary and live in Cape Town.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I just thought in terms of quality of life, it seemed just like a fantastic place to live. So just a little bit of data. According to NBC, the part of Trump's presidency that Americans disapprove of most is his handling of the war in Ukraine. Also, more than half of Americans believe that Trump is too closely aligned with Russia, including more than a quarter of Republicans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Since the beginning of Trump's term, foreign opinions of the U.S. have plummeted. Get this, just 27% of Canadians now see the U.S. as an enemy country. A majority of Americans still see Canada as as an ally, this is, anyways, across the EU, the most common answer to who is the US to the EU is a necessary partner over an ally, a rival, and an adversary in every European country.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
They're seen as sort of basically become more from an ally to a necessary evil. Look, First off, let's back up. What is a brand? A brand is a promise more than it is the actual performance. And that is before you buy a car, before you attend a university, I'm about to do a college tour with my son. And he listed the universities he is interested in seeing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And it came down to things like, it looks like fun, or I like the logo or the website of school. Basically, he has no idea. And he's facing, he's basically going to make a decision, which might be kind of a quarter of a million dollar decision when you look at how much it's going to cost his parents to send him to four years to one of these universities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
So he's going to make a quarter of a million dollar decision. with 90 plus points of gross margin, meaning that the majority of that money will go to the bottom line for whatever institution he ends up at, based on brand.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I mean, Hilga will do maybe a one or a two hour tour of the university, but it's basically essentially the promise, the branding, the messaging, the reputation of the university that will dictate these enormous purchases. Now, Bring that back to a country.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
There are millions of decisions made every day around trade partners, who you're going to do business with, where your kids want to go if they're incredibly talented and they can go anywhere. Where do they want to go to apply their exceptional human capital? What treaties do we enter? Will we let a military base be constructed on our own territory? Do we like their media?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Will we not cooperate with bad actors that want to hurt them? Will we not launder money for terrorist organizations? There are millions of decisions every day, either pro or against, certain countries. And here's the brand impression of the United States. We're enormous. We're enormously wealthy and successful. We make a lot of mistakes, but our heart is in the right place.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
We're always seen, loosely speaking, as the good guys for the majority of powerful nations and economic powers around the world. And we have reaped enormous benefit. People want to buy our cars. People want to consume our superhero movies. People want to send their best and brightest to our universities. People want to cooperate with us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
The brand America is one of the most beneficial, invisible, powerful aircraft carrier squadrons ever manifested by an organization anywhere. The US brand is staggeringly powerful and has produced all sorts of margin and ancillary benefits for 200 years for the United States. And that brand has fallen further, faster than any brand in history over the last two months.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
We are now seeing, what is the U.S. brand right now? Surrender to Putin with a mix of measles? I mean, what is our brand right now? You can't trust us? We're not consistent? Tariffs on, tariffs off. I think the U.S. brand has fallen further faster than any brand of this size and this depth in history. Thanks for the question. Question number two.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Viore's high-quality gym clothes are made to be versatile and stand the test of time. They sent me some to try out, and here I am. For our listeners, Viore is offering 20% off... your first purchase. Plus, get free shipping on any U.S. orders over $75 and free returns. Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet. Viori.com slash PropG.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
That's an interesting question. But rather than talk about market research, I'd like to turn this back to me. Let's talk about me. So my first firm, when I was 26, I started a company called Profit Market Research. And basically we helped big brands figure out their internet strategy and manage their brand as assets, like a hedge fund manager would manage stocks in a portfolio.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And I really enjoyed it. It was fantastic learning, incredibly taxing personally, a lot of travel. A lot of golf and dinners with clients, things like that. And I sold the firm for my stake, at least. I sold, I think, for a valuation of $33 million, which felt like a lot of money at the time. But the Dobb-Bomb implosion and their divorce took care of most of that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And then I started a company called L2, which was a strategy firm that you referenced that I sold to Gardner. I got that one right. Went to a recurring revenue model. Basically, we'd collect a shit ton of data and then meet with a brand on a regular basis and give them our insights around what we think they should do with their digital footprint.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And would charge a Nike half a million a year and a smaller brand like a Rolex 100 grand a year. Got to 20 million in revenue and sold it for $160 million. And it was acquired by Gartner. Let me be clear, a nice group of people, they've grown their shareholder value dramatically. They're clearly doing something right. Everything they did made no fucking sense to me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
When we were acquired, it was like that Seinfeld episode where George Costanza decides to do the opposite of every instinct and it ends up his life starts going much better. Every decision they made post-acquisition is exactly the decision I would not have made. I was such a fish out of water.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I was literally a tuna on the deck of a fishing boat, flapping around, trying to figure out how the fuck did I end up here? How do I get off of this boat? and back into the water. I was such a cultural misfit. And again, I don't think it's them. I don't think it's me. I just think it is.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
This is a firm that basically figured out a way to kind of industrialize and institutionalize what I would call good, not great research, and then sell it to the North Oklahoma State Bank, whereas we were doing kind of more bespoke I would argue, insightful research for brands like P&G and Nike. But look, they're companies worth several billion dollars and L2 was sold for 160 million.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
So clearly they're doing something right and I'm doing something wrong. Now your question around AI, I do think companies like Gartner and research companies are going to be able to do a lot more with a lot less. And this is what I think the honest all hands would be. And that is I've got great news. Our revenues and our EBITDA are going to go up. I've got even better news.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I'm going to need a third of you to do this in the next five years or a third fewer of you or maybe two thirds fewer of you. But you don't say that. at the all hands. I think AI is effectively to corporations what Ozempic is to the obese, and that is it shuts off the signal that you need to eat more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And AI in boardrooms, and I know this firsthand, is shutting off the signal that if we're growing our revenues, we have to hire more. That's just the automatic signal. Oh, we're growing, we need to hire more. Well, actually, ever since the meta earnings call three quarters ago that said, hey, we grew revenues 20% and we did it with 22% fewer people, which took earnings up 70%. Let me get this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
That's V-U-O-R-I dot com slash PropG. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I can have the great taste of increased revenues without the calories of increased costs. Well, hold on here. I like the cut of that jib. Oh my God. That's out as right as rain. That's disco. And I'm talking like 70s disco, real disco. And so a lot of companies are trying to figure out, especially information-driven companies, how they use AI to
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
to create 80, 90% of the value of an analyst for 10% of the cost. Now, what does that mean? If you're an analyst in a market research firm, quite frankly, you want to be a samurai and AI is your weapon boss. Otherwise, someone's going to come along with more skilled and more dangerous and put you out of business. I've said this a lot. AI is not going to take your job.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Somebody who understands AI is going to take your job. So I actually think that Gartner will likely, what do I think of shareholder value there? What will happen? I don't know. That's an interesting one. Will AI help or hurt them? I would argue for a firm like that, it may help them in the short run. They're going to be able to cut costs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I do not think you want to be an analyst in a market research firm right now, or let me put it this way, a mediocre one. And by virtue of just probability, the bulk of them are mediocre. An exceptional analyst who really understands AI... and knows how to become incredibly productive and put out interesting data. What do you do? You figure this shit out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I remember when I moved to New York, they hired an assistant for me. I was running an e-commerce incubator called Brand Farm backed by Goldman Sachs, Maveron, JP Morgan. Different story, different story. And they hired an assistant for me. And the assistant came in and said, I just need to tell you that I don't like computers and I don't use them. I'm like, okay, you can't work here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And to say that you don't understand AI or you're not interested in it probably means you're not going to be able to work in a market research firm. So this is what you want. You want a second screen at work.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
You want your screen, your typical computer screen, and then you want a second screen that has nothing but AI on it, that has Midjourney, that has Anthropic, that has ChatGPT, and a bunch of the other cats and dogs. And every time you do a task, you want to turn to your second screen and think, how can my second screen help my first screen?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
What additional insight, data, research, ideas really get good at prompting? And before you know it, your head's going to spin around all the different shit you can do. Turn this into a chart. What is a different way to frame this? What types of visuals might better display this information?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
What additional data, parables, historical, anthropological evidence can you do to support the following argument that I'm making today? in the above two paragraphs, right? Just so incredibly powerful. But your job, and you sound, you know, you are young, you're 34, you need to be a weapon. Oh, let's lay off the guy who really understands AI. Says no firm ever right now. You want to be that guy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
In sum, let me finish where I started. AI is not going to take your job. Somebody who understands AI is going to take your job. We have one quick break, and when we're back, we're diving into the depths of Reddit, the bowels of Reddit. We're about to do a colonoscopy on Reddit, and I promised to do what I always ask my colonoscopy doctor to do before I go under, and I think it's fucking hilarious.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I say, will you run your fingers through your hair when you're invading me? And they always think that's really funny, and then I'm out. By the way, that drug, what's it called, propanopal, that they give you for the colonoscopy, that shit is money. Wow. Wow, you are sleeping like a corpse there. We'll be back for our questions from Reddit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast, for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup. Episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube. By the way, I absolutely love Vivintu. I think she does a great job. Our first question comes from DebtItAll777, and they ask, Hi, Scott. What are the two things you've changed your mind about in the last few years, and who are the people who most influence you? So I would say they're kind of two profound changes in my life.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I have a, as usual, I always enjoy incorporating my own personal parables into all of this. When my mom passed away, I handled all her, you know, only son. And so we had her bank account and I kept it open for a while such that we could pay any remnant bills. And I just left the money in there for a few years, mostly because I was too lazy to figure out what to do with it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Well, I don't know, but I reserve 50 tickets and daddy needs new shoes. So we'll see. Daddy needs new shoes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And it wasn't a ton of money. And when I was reviewing it after year one, I noticed that $3,600 or something had been just taken out. And I said, what was this? Did we pay this? And it said it had some government thing on it. And it ended up that the Social Security Administration had continued to pay her Social Security for three months post her death. And they recognized it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
They have some system of figuring out. They look at death certificates or something. And then they just went in very cleanly and then pulled it right back out. So they were pretty efficient. and immediately figured out she was no longer living nor entitled to Social Security payments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
GEICO, her insurance company, obviously I'm not very meticulous, I noticed something like two or three years later, I kept saying, what is this $120 payment that keeps going out of her account every month? And GEICO continued to take money out of her account for her car insurance. And so I called them and said, okay, my mom died. It might've been in four years. I'm like, my mom died years ago.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I sold the car years ago and you have been taking money out for her auto insurance for years. And they said, well, per your policy, it's incumbent upon you to notify us. And they wouldn't give me the money back. So there's Geico, private sector, and there's government. One of them is corrupt, amoral, and inefficient, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Let's be honest. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. One of us is quirky and interesting. The other is smart and hot. I'm going with smart and hot sold us out. And I hope that doesn't trigger our feminist followers. But yeah, I've done a lot of these events. I've never had It sold out for this big an auditorium this quickly. And I think you're the variable here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
That makes the government, the other guys, they were honest, very efficient, So the notion somehow, people got to stop shitposting government, right? And what I figured out is you can shitpost everyone in government unless they're carrying an assault weapon. We're pretty benign towards cops or an ax, firemen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And if you're carrying an M15 with a uniform, then all those people are heroes and everyone else working for government is incompetent. Well, how can that be possible, folks? And we just don't give enough credit to the rank and file.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And one of the things that's most discouraging about all of this is that in the next administration, which I'm convinced is going to be a Democrat, because I think people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Well, and I usually get this wrong. So let's be good news. I should caveat that. But I think that essentially Trump and the clown car here. is revealing itself every day. And I think even, not even moderate Republicans, but I think Republicans that are, Jesus Christ, we did not bargain for this. And I think the next administration will fill their administration with talented people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
People want to serve, they can attract really talented people. We'll have no problem should we retake the White House in three years, in nine months to get competent people. The hard part is the millions of employees that work in the engine room and make this shit work. Because when you fire the people overseeing your nuclear stockpile, and then you ask them to come back, a lot of them don't.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And guess who doesn't come back? The people with the most external opportunities, which is Latin for the best people. Imagine you're... run, I can't even imagine. I've run organizations my whole life. If I said to the entire tech team, you're fired. I did it via email. I don't care how long you've worked. You're fired. Go all your emails been turned off.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And then a couple of weeks later, I said, Oh, I fucked up. I realized we do need technology. You're rehired. They just, most of the most talented ones would not come back. They'd be like, no, I'm, I'm sorry, boss. You can reach me at You know, LisaM at Google.com. I'm now at Google. So the hollowing out of what is, in my view, the most impressive organization in history, and that is the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
government, specifically, I would argue it's probably the U.S. military, but in general, the U.S. government. that gives delivered unbelievable prosperity, rule of law, rights for what are some of the lowest taxes in history. You just look at it as a product, the shit you get from America, from the US government and how much you pay for it. This is the best product for the price in history.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Anyways, we can't say who we have, but we have someone who's probably a likely contender for president and a huge power player. I didn't want to guess. Jess did. I thought we could carry the thing. I want more opportunities to talk about me. And he'll take some of the oxygen or she, he or she will take some of the oxygen out of the room because they're a player, a player. But you wanted a guest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And you have to credit some of the people in the engine room doing this. And we are essentially saying to them, this is a bad place to work. And it's going to be very hard to bring back the morale, the standard. How are you going to get young people? How are you going to convince the best and brightest?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Some of our government agencies, specifically our security apparatus, recruits out of my class at NYU. I don't think a lot of them are going to want to go to work for the government any longer. I don't want to get summarily fired for no reason. I don't want to be overseas and find out. I just heard, I don't know if I told you this, a great kid, Greg Townsend, who was in my fraternity.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I hadn't heard from him in 30 years. Four years. Anyways, and he said, I've been working for the UN. And I basically, he's in Switzerland and then he was in Africa. And he said, I hunt down and prosecute war criminals. And he makes a good living, not a great living. He made much more living in private practice as a lawyer. Met a woman, fell in love. She does something similar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And he said, overnight, a few weeks ago, all payments were stopped. None of them are getting paid. And they've decided to continue to do this work. And if you think about, you know, it's probably a good idea that if people decide to go into remote villages and start killing women and children, that there might be a price to be paid down the road. That's a good incentive system to have in place.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And we've just decided to remove that incentive system. And when Greg finds another job, which he will, because he's a very talented guy, and at some point he has an obligation to support his family, if we call him back in four years and say, you know, we're sorry, we're firing up. whatever it is, the UN Rights Commission on or the, I forget what it was, the UN, I forget what organization it is.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Are they going to get people like Greg Townsend back involved in government? So this is, this is yet another example of how we are not thinking, how we are taking, we have taken for granted what an outstanding organization and people are so angry that they don't understand that organizations like this, the culture, the engine room is really hard to replace.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It's not like turning off and on a switch. Even if we get the right people back in charge, the damage here is going to be lasting for a while. Any thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Tim Miller's been great on this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
His mother. Go to his Instagram page and decide if you think he's a Venezuelan gang member.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah. So I couldn't get past your career journey from academia to the private sector. And now you're on The Five and doing a pod with me. What went wrong? What went wrong? Okay. Let's take a quick break. Stay with us. Support for the show comes from SelectQuote. We can spend a lot of time worrying about our family's financial security.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
SelectQuote says they partner with carriers that provide policies for a variety of health conditions. So even if you have preconditions, including high blood pressure, diabetes, or even heart disease, SelectQuote partners with carriers that can cover those conditions and others.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Get the right life insurance for you for less at selectquote.com slash prop G. Go to selectquote.com slash prop G today to get started. That's selectquote.com slash prop G.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
So I'm dying to be relevant in Miami, in New York, in L.A. I could give a shit about being relevant in the Beltway. I think the Beltway is literally the name a cool bar in D.C. First off, the people aren't that hot. Secondly, no good bars, nowhere to go out after midnight. I mean, I could literally give a shit how relevant I am in the Beltway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast, for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup. Episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube. By the way, I absolutely love Vivian too. I think she does a great job. Welcome back. President Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education, a long-held conservative goal.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
While he needs Congress to fully eliminate the agency, his administration is already moving key functions, student loans to the Small Business Administration and special education programs to health and human services. Critics argue this will gut protections for students, especially those with disabilities, while supporters say it will cut bureaucracy and return control to the states.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Jess, what immediate impact do you think this will have on students, schools, and families, especially... with layoffs hitting the department's civil rights office?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
So they don't do that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah, I went into ChatGPT and I asked if you wanted to
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
destroy america or undermine democracy what would you do and it gave me it was really interesting that things that came back with including have algorithms on social media to get people fighting with each other over non-important issues but one of the things that came up was said slowly erode public education such that people aren't critical thinkers and i'm like i started reading all these things and it's sort of frightening that okay that kind of feels like what we've done the last 20 years
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Not even the hotels are that cool. The hotels are lame. It's inspiring. It's where you take your kids. But if you want to roll, if you want to have some fun, if you want to meet super interesting people. Yeah, the people from DC, anyone who's lived in DC for longer than 10 years, pro tip, they brighten up a room by leaving it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And most of the people are from different districts, so they're from different areas.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It starches them of all their cool once they get there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Clearly. All right, today... In our episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing what's going on with the Social Security Administration. Trump tries to dismantle the Department of Education in the 2024 presidential election autopsy report. All right, let's bust into it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
The head of the Social Security Administration, Leland Dudek, threatened to shut down the entire agency over a court ruling, only to walk it back after a federal judge called him out for misinterpreting her order. This all started when the agency gave Doge broad access to Social Security data to supposedly root out fraud.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
A judge stepped in, saying that was a major privacy violation, and Dudek responded by claiming that limiting Musk's team also meant limiting his own employees, essentially making it impossible to run Social Security.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
net worths of over 10 million, their tax returns purposefully get really complex. And you need highly skilled, well-resourced, and expensive groups of people to hold those people accountable. And this is what's happened with our tax code. It's created an incentive of the following, an incentive structure of the following.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
If you're really, really wealthy or you're a corporation, the incentive is to be absolutely as aggressive as possible. Because if you've got a parking meter in front of your house that costs 50 bucks, but the ticket... is 10 bucks, you're gonna break the law, or you're gonna be as aggressive as possible.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And our current tax system, as it relates to the wealthiest Americans, basically incents them to be as aggressive as possible in terms of what they write off, because A, probably there's no sheriff in town, there's a lack of agents, and B, even if the sheriff shows up, the penalties are fairly minimal. So the notion, and then this trope that somehow the good people of the IRS
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
are mean or harassing people. No, they're not. They're trying to make sure that people pay what they're supposed to pay so that we can afford SNAP food payments and the Navy. So again, another example, cutting funding from the IRS. Who does that benefit the most, cutting funding of the IRS? Does it benefit all taxpayers who are aggressive? No, it benefits the top 1%, full stop.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
The judge wasn't buying it, and now Dudek has backed down, but this whole situation raises big questions about what's really going on with Social Security under the Trump administration and Musk's involvement.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
See above my unifying theory of everything, Jess.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Break it down. That's why I'm here. All right. Let's take one more quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back. I just want to call out, you are entering that stage with little kids where you are going to be, you're going to have a cold for about the next 10 years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
No, but their parents had a lot of meltdowns. So it's really a, I think mothers, I think women may know this is going to happen. I don't think most dads realize the panic- in stress you're gonna feel when one of your kids is not doing well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, something God really does reach into your soul and turn on a switch that says, not only are you gonna love this thing, but you are not going to be able to relax for a millisecond when your kid isn't doing well. The few times my kids have not have had a health issue
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, I remember when my son had a breathing issue or a respiratory issue and he would do go on this, I forget what we call it, a breathing mechanism that they would put medicine in it and he would breathe through this thing. And I was so freaked out that the medicine had gone bad and somehow I might be like- Poisoning him. Yeah. You get so paranoid, so neurotic.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Meanwhile, protesters, retirees, and union members are sounding the alarm about potential cuts and disruptions to benefits, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested that only fraudsters would actually notice if Social Security checks just didn't go out one month. I can't even get past that statement without saying, Jesus Christ, talk about winner of head up your ass.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And I'm not someone who, at least until the last few years, was ever neurotic or worried about anything. And then Ted Sarandos' wife wrote this book, and I love this statement, that grief is the receipts for love. I think anxiety is the receipts for kids because, you know, you do get a lot of joy from them. But anyways, I feel for you because I never, ever anticipated the type of crazy stress.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, when your kid does break out on hives, there's no like, oh, it'll probably be fine. It's like, what the fuck? Like, get to the emergency room. Or even...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I'll just go to work. Whatever. Man up.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
One of the lowest, actually, of course, one of the lowest paid providers. Let's back to me. Did you know when I applied to UCLA, I thought I was going to be a pediatrician? That's what I put in my application. Really? Yeah, and then chemistry disavowed me of that when I got a D in it. Sent me from South Campus to the North Campus.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Thank you for that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I'm good with kids, actually. I'm shockingly good with kids. Anyways, but it sent me from North Campus- I'm sorry, from South Campus to North Campus, where the people were much hotter and the parties were much better than the South Campus.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Everything worked out. But I actually thought, I actually believed I was going to be a pediatrician for about a year. Anyways, before we go, we're getting clear insights into what happened in the 2024 election.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Blue Rose Research's analysis shows that key voter groups, including Hispanic, Asian, young, and disengaged voters, shifted towards Trump, mainly due to his perceived strength on economic issues, including inflation. and the cost of living. Despite concerns over democracy, voters felt Trump was the better option.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Now, with Trump's popularity dropping, the Democratic Party is left scrambling, unsure about their identity and next steps. The analysis reveals that if those who stayed at home had voted, Trump would have won the popular vote by almost five points. While Trump's favorability remained steady, Vice President Harris and the Democratic Party saw significant drops.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And voters cared most about issues where Dems lost trust, like the economy and inflation, though they still trusted them more on health care. Jess, this is kind of your wheelhouse. Which findings from the Blue Rose data really caught your eye? Any surprises or patterns that stood out to you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
That statement, as you can imagine, did not go over well. Let's have a listen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Well, I love this stuff, but I like to bust the solutions that... In my view, even the poll is the problem of the Democratic Party's platform. And that is, in my view, how you get Latin voters back or Hispanic voters back is you stop talking about them. The way you get Black voters back is you stop talking about them. And what do I mean by that?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
The Democratic Party has to make it verboten to continue to engage in identity politics. And they should focus on the economy through the lens of the middle class. There's been too much advantage... crammed into the most, the most advantaged group in America right now are non-white children of rich people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Because we have based affirmative action on race and our entire politics in the Democratic Party through identity. And it made sense 20, 40, 60 years ago. The academic gap between black and white 60 years ago was double what it was between rich and poor. And now it has flipped. And the swing voters have one thing in mind. Swing voters are have the economy in mind.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And this is the opportunity because it's dynamic, meaning some cycles people see Democrats as better on the economy, some Republicans as better on the economy. And what the Democratic Party, in my view, needs to do is say, look, we are going to restore the middle class. The most prosperous nation in the world should have the following table stakes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Young people need the venues, opportunities, and means to meet someone, fall in love, And should they desire, own a home and have kids. So we're going to have mandatory national service, more freshmen seats, vocational programming, more interaction for less anxiety. We're going to have 7 million manufactured homes in cool little areas that cost 30 to 50% less.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
My dad is 95. He's struggling. And he is in hospice. He no longer recognizes anybody, including his son and his daughter. If his social security check didn't show up, I'm pretty sure he would come to and head down and protest. The notion that this wouldn't immediately cause massive panic For anyone whose son isn't the head of an investment bank and magnificently rich, I couldn't get over it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Then homes built on site, we're going to make it affordable. We're going to have low interest rate loans for anyone under the age of 40. We're going to have a tax holiday for anyone under the age of 30. We're going to have $25 an hour minimum wage. And if you don't want to get married and you don't want to have kids, fine. You can spend all that money on brunch and St. Barts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
But we are going to get out of this lens of trying to shove advantage into and talk about the needs and the wants and the injustice of people based on their gender, their sexual orientation, or their race. And we're just going to say, we are here to reverse engineer everything we do to the following. The middle class in America and young people are going to have the opportunity
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
to be able to have kids and have a home and live in relative prosperity. And these are the eight, 10, 12 programs. And stop rolling out every special interest group, which all it says to the 24% of people that don't qualify for a democratic special interest group, that we're not going to discriminate against you. We're about the poor and the middle class rising up. That's it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
That's your only identity politics. Because even these polls are like, how do we get Hispanics back? No, you don't want Hispanics back. You want the middle class back. And you want to stop telling people you should vote for me because you're Hispanic and I'm better for you. Hispanics don't want you to talk about them as a group. Try and group
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles into the same group as Cuban-Americans in Florida. They have entirely different priorities. And the notion that the daughter of a Taiwanese private equity billionaire needs affirmative action is just fucking stupid. All of our programs should be focused on color, specifically money. If you don't have money in America, you need more. And corporations and the top 1%
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
should be paying a lot more, lowest taxes in history for corporations since 1939, 25 wealthiest Americans paying an average tax rate of 6%. And everything that has happened over the last 30 years is an attempt to cram more money into the top 1% of corporations. But for God's sakes, get away from these polls and this discussion of how do we get Black voters back?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
No, how do you get the middle class back? Stop the identity politics.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
This was tone deaf even for the Trump administration. Your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I think you have your sister soldier moment. And I say, you grow the fuck up. I'm not here to play identity politics. I'm here for young people. Programs to focus on young people would right now disproportionately impact and benefit young men who are struggling. It would disproportionately impact young men of color who are really struggling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And look, Democrats need to come out of the closet and acknowledge the following data and truth in America. And that's the following. You would rather be born today, and this is a victory we should celebrate, you'd rather be born today non-white or gay than poor. And that's great. That's a sign of our victory. So who are we going to help?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
We're going to help the poor and we're going to help young people. And by the way, the way you calm special interest groups down who are used to Democrats showing up and pandering to them is you say, folks, do the math. There's a 70 percent overlap. between many of the special interest groups who count on the Democratic Party to represent them and poor and middle-income households.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
As MLK said, if you don't bring along the white poor, you're never going to make that much progress because it creates resentment. It also creates accidental racism where when you're at a school or anywhere, you immediately look at someone left and right and think, okay, did they get in? 54% of gay men are attending college. It's 38% of straight men.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, at some point, we just have to acknowledge the data and be the party of the middle class instead of rolling out every special interest group and having Michelle Obama, who I adore, go, who's going to tell them this might be a black job? That is not helpful. That is not helpful. And the only people that don't parade on stage are young men.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
when they're in fact are the ones who have probably fallen further faster than anyone. So get away from the identity politics. The discussion around how we get back Hispanics is only going to alienate more Hispanics. It's to say we've made tremendous progress.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
We are here to lift people up who are poor and make sure the middle class is the most prosperous middle class living in the most prosperous country in the world. And here are a series of programs. And if you want me to talk about
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
What goodies you get because of the color of your skin or your sexual orientation or whether you have indoor or outdoor plumbing, other than protecting a woman's rights to family planning, I'm not going to engage in that conversation. I'm here for the middle class, full stop. I think that message really resonates. It gets a lot of moderates back in the fold.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And it gets the white poor back in the fold. And I think a lot of non-whites are absolutely ready to have that conversation. They're sick of being categorized and taken for granted that I vote for Democratic because you're going to throw more goodies at me because of the color of my skin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
No, they they. And. And Trump can point to a bunch of data from 16 to 20 that non-whites actually did okay during his administration. Now, granted, it was all debt-fueled, which is a tax on young people, but that's the argument. We've got to stop these deficits. They're going to fuck our children in 10, 20, 40 years. It doesn't matter what color you are, what sexual orientation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
If we keep running up deficits, you're all going to be fucked. That's the argument.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Right. That's not a bumper sticker, is it?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
We sold out the Y. We sold out the Y. Oh, my God. I'm so excited about that. I keep rubbing it and Kara switches face. I don't know if you heard.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I'm like, I don't know if you heard, but me and the much younger Jess Harloff sold out the 92nd Y in about three minutes. I'm like, we've never done that, have we, Kara?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
There you go. Actually, now all of a sudden I feel a little threatened and a little jealous.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah. I think you guys, yeah, that's an interesting thought. Don't get any ideas. Remember who discovered you. All right. That's all for this episode. Actually, I think Rupert Murdoch discovered you. All right. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. What a thrill. Its own feed. Folks, we're doing great, but we need you to subscribe to our own feed so we can hit certain benchmarks and bring in the big advertisers. That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds. You won't hear anywhere else if you subscribe to our distinct feed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
This week, Jess will be talking with Senator Gallego. Make sure you follow us wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss an episode. Jess, I'm glad. that your little girl is doing just fine. And again, I don't know if you've heard, we're doing an event at the 92nd Y and we're sold out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Thanks, everybody.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah, I mean, there's so much here. First off, one of the things that's really disappointing was, I think in the first Trump administration, he did find really talented, bright people and surrounded himself with talented and bright people. And I don't think that's the case here. I think the litmus test is, will you do anything I say? well, are you willing to go out and lie?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Are you willing to go out and just speak non-truths? He's looking for acolytes and cult members, not for competent professionals. I mean, just looking at the last commerce secretary under Biden, Gina Marie Raimondo, she was a venture capitalist, a lawyer, the governor of Rhode Island. She was outstanding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And anyone who dealt with her thought, this is someone who does an outstanding job of representing U.S. commerce interests domestically and internationally. And this guy's going off and saying that Just stupid shit. First off, if you're guilty of Social Security fraud, I doubt you're going to complain. I think you probably want to stay under the radar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Sky Galloway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And if there's anything Doge has proven is that there's a lot less fraud and waste initially theorized, including Democrats. They're having trouble finding fraud and waste. And just a few things about Social Security. It arguably is the most successful social program in American history. It's taken senior poverty from about...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
They think it would be somewhere around 38%, and it's taken it to below 10%. So it's been hugely effective. Now, what I will say is, and we might differ a little bit on this, and I'm looking for points of friction because we're usually in sort of violent agreement. I do believe, well, you said that you paid into it, it's yours. I don't agree with that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Jess, we are literally bigger than the NVIDIA conference. We're maybe even bigger than Taylor Swift. We have sold out in minutes the 900-seat auditorium. At the literally the Cathedral of Wokeism, the 92nd Street. We are sold out, Jessica Tarloff. I know. We are sold out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I think the reason they call it a Social Security tax, not the Social Security pension fund, is I don't think you or me have rights to Social Security when we hit 65. And the notion that I paid into it, I should get my money back, actually, the majority of people take out well more than they actually put in.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And if we're going to, I believe that nobody over the age of 65, or maybe even under the age of 65, should live in poverty. And I'm absolutely not against cutting Social Security benefits for anyone who needs it. I believe Somewhere between 10 and 30 percent of people who get Social Security right now should not receive it because they don't need it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And that is the wealthiest generation in the history of this planet are senior citizens. And the fact that every year we affect a $1.2 trillion transfer from young people who are not doing as well as they have in past generations to the wealthiest generation in history means something is wrong. And I do think that the initial instinct around reforming Social Security is a good one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It's something I would like to see someone take on because I think when the program was started, people were living on average 10 to 15 years. They were dying much earlier. They weren't making as much money. They weren't working as long. So to means test it, And slowly but surely increase the age limit or the age qualification. We just need to do it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
There used to be, I think when the program was initially conceived, there were 12 young people paying into the system for every one person taking money out. Now it's three to one. And if you were really serious about this, this is how outrageous our economy has become in terms of the transfer from young to old. So it's a program that should keep seniors out of poverty.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It shouldn't continue to be a wealth transfer from the young to the old who are already, as an aggregate, the wealthiest generation in history. We need serious reform. We need to dramatically change. cut the costs. It's been way too politically dangerous to get near. $40 billion child tax credit gets stripped out of the infrastructure bill.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Old people have figured out a way to vote themselves more and more money. It needs to stop a good, I'll go as high as a third of senior citizens should not be getting Social Security. Your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Basically no one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
It might be enticing to try and sleep through the next four years, but if you're wondering how to survive a second Trump term while staying fully conscious, Pod Save America is here to help you process what's happening now and what comes next. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, John Lovett, Tommy Veeder, John Favreau, and Dan Pfeiffer wade hip-deep
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
and put aside your petty, stupid fucking differences because this is an existential threat because you no longer have a sane and quite frankly, decent ally that I don't want to say you shouldn't have, I'm not saying you took them for granted, but quite frankly, they realize now a big brother's not going to save us here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We have to develop our own unified approach to an economy, our own unified approach to a war machine. And I think it might actually be very unifying. In addition, Going on a war footing sometimes or preparing for a war footing can actually be good for an economy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
My trip was great. I was in Zermatt. I'm basically now... If someone told me I could never ski again, I would say, well, how much will that cost me? All I can think about is the ACL I'm going to tear, and it's cold, and I don't know, skiing's not my thing anymore, but it's a good way to trap my kids on a mountain. And it's European skiing. It's all about the lunch. And you go and you drink lunch.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
People are disappointed that the Russian economy hasn't sunk as fast as some people thought because actually a war footing helps juice an economy, at least in the short term. This bullshit that the Ukrainian government the war in Ukraine has somehow been bad for the U.S. economy. Yeah, it's sort of expensive, 60, 65 billion a year. Okay, fine. Military budget's 800 billion.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
By the way, about 95% of that has gone back to U.S. military suppliers and has juiced the economy in red states. I wonder if it might actually bring unity to Europe, which is that Europe might actually be a union
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
again, that the Brits realize they have more in touch or more in common with the continent than they thought, and maybe even do something like a backseat move where they become more integrated again with the EU. They increase their military spending, and they put up a front that says, okay, we've got this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think this is an opportunity for leadership in Europe to say, Ukraine and Germany has said this, we've got your back. We recognize that this is a huge loss, but be clear, you don't need to surrender and fold right away. And the other silver lining is,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I don't know if you've seen any of these Republican town halls, but there are enough people who have grandparents who fought in the war, who remember how terrible Russia has been in terms of our own interests, and hate the idea that America is surrendering. to Putin, that we are surrendering to a gas station posing as an economy who is only taken seriously because it has so many nuclear weapons.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think the majority of Americans, as evidenced by that data, think, wow, this is just too much. I am not down. I don't understand why we are surrendering. It makes no sense. It is not good for the world. Even the far right is having trouble. I mean, okay, Tucker Carlson goes and gives Putin a lap dance and can't get over those amazing shopping carts at their grocery store.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Folks, I have been to Russia. I mean, we are not going to have an outflow of American citizens going to Russia. You can be sure of that. It is not a great place. They have nothing on us, folks, nothing. This is not a society, an economy, or a leadership to look up to. And I wonder if the silver lining here is that Europe becomes a union again.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
NATO actually hopefully comes back stronger, because I think it'll take some time, even if the Americans try and unwind it. I don't think they're going to be able to. And Europe puts forward a more unified front against... And they've been doing it. They've been spending more than us. But I hope this is the wake-up call. And I was thinking about...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
You know, this blitzkrieg of information to try and confuse everybody, DEI, Doge. I read this morning they're trying to like partner, bring back Andrew Tate. It's all a fucking sideshow to get you to look away from the fact that they are trying to recalibrate the world order. And this is unacceptable. And I think it's unacceptable to most Americans. And I hope this
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
people who do not want to be surrender monkeys show up at the ballot box in about, whatever, about 22 months and send their congressman a message that we are not down with this, that you need to speak up and say this is not right. Anyways, I'm trying to think of what could go right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And yeah, it's great. And I enjoy that. And time with my boys. So it was wonderful. What did you do last week?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
How do you think that manifests? Like, if you were to guess what the—on the ground, how do you think that shows up in today's electoral politics? What do you think happens?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, this is a messaging issue in my view, because one, okay, it's 60, $65 billion. And what we've failed to do is show that the majority of this capital, a vast majority of it ends up back in the U.S. economy, back in red states.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And the way I would position it is it's a stimulus program to help manufacturing in the U.S., help create jobs, and that regardless of what you think of Ukraine, if we stop doing this, it's going to result in a dramatic reduction in money and jobs and prosperity across mostly red states.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
That this is no different than, okay, when we send grain abroad for food aid, if you stop doing that, it would hurt farmers in Iowa. And just to contextualize it, it's $62 billion. And what have we gotten? Let's put the moral arguments aside because the moral argument is why do we give a shit about trench warfare in Ukraine when my son can't find a job or I can't afford my diabetes medication?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think that's a fair argument. Okay. Let's just look at it from an economic standpoint. For approximately 1% of our spending, we spend $7 trillion, so less than that, the majority of which comes back to red states. It comes back to U.S. manufacturing. We get to take out a third, or so far taken out a third, of Russia's kinetic power. We've destroyed a third of their tanks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We have put their economy on its heels to a certain extent. We have defanged what was supposed to be one of the most ferocious armies in the world. We have reduced the likelihood of terrorism against Western allies and terrorism domestically because a lot of their proxies who they were supporting have been castrated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
They do not have the bandwidth to wreak havoc, which they have done since the end of World War II across different satellite countries because they are bogged down in a war. And it shows that essentially our enemy can be pushed back when the West gets attacked together and unifies without, by the way, without a single American boot on the ground.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
A manager's charge at the end of the day is to allocate capital to its greatest return, to a greater return than your peer group. The president is the greatest allocator of capital in history, thereby the greatest manager in history. The best ROI, the best example of great management over the last 10, 20, 30 years is the $60 billion stimulus program in the U.S. that has resulted in the defanging
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
the pushback of an enemy at very little cost to us. And that cost comes back to us in the form of jobs in the U.S. This is, distinct of the moral argument, this is a great deal for us. It is a great deal.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Would you rather have Russia with this superior fighting force that the whole world is scared of, or to have a third of its army taken out, to have a ton of its soldiers, and I hate to say this, killed, To have China thinking twice about invading Taiwan, saying what a small motivated army can do that's technically literate and backed by the West.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
The West is a much safer place with the pushback that the incredible Ukrainian army has provided. Kind of at very little cost to us. I mean, this is chump change. This is just not a lot of money when you think about the fact it ends up back in our economy. It's not as if this is not the problem, folks. Social Security is going to be $1.3 trillion this year. This is $60 billion.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Elon Musk has made $210 billion since the election. This is $60 billion to make the world a much safer place with a strong message that when the West comes together, is it an insurmountable fighting force and could push back on a murderous autocrat. This is about messaging. Do away with the moral arguments. I think those will be made on their own, but just say, this is a great investment.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We'd be stupid not to continue making this investment.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
What? Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We do. All right. Let's take a quick break. Stay with us. Support for PropG comes from Grammarly. Think about the most tedious part of your job. Is it writing the exact same email you've already written a hundred times? Some studies have shown that 88% of professionals spend more than half their work week on repetitive writing tasks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, like that feels a little creepy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Well, imagine you had an assistant that could take the small stuff off your plate and help make your writing more effective and persuasive. You're in luck. because that's why Grammarly exists. Grammarly is your AI writing partner designed to help improve your communication. It's not just a glorified thesaurus.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Grammarly can give you writing prompts, help with brainstorming, and can even help you strike the right tone for your intended audience. And the best part, they offer enterprise-grade security and will never sell your data. So you can have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your data is completely secured.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We've used Grammarly at PropG, and as I've said before, it has made us more efficient and takes our written work and makes it just, quite frankly, more competent. Get more done with Grammarly. Download Grammarly for free at grammarly.com slash podcast. That's grammarly.com slash podcasts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We're taking Vox Media Podcasts on the road and heading back to Austin for the South by Southwest Festival, March 8th to the 10th. What a thrill! We'll be doing special live episodes of hit shows, including Pivot. That's right. The dogs go into the great state of Texas. Where should we begin?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
with Esther Perel, a touch more with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe, not just football with Cam Hayward, and more, presented by Smartsheet. The Vox Media podcast stage at South by Southwest is open to all South by Southwest badge holders. We hope to see you at the Austin Convention Center soon. Visit voxmedia.com slash SXSW to learn more. That's voxmedia.com slash SXSW. Welcome back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We're just one month into Trump's second term, although it feels like an eternity. Trump's approval is sinking. See above, silver lining, with polls showing him underwater and his aggressive budget cuts aren't helping. Doge is slashing jobs at the TSA, FEMA, and even the NIH unit researching Alzheimer's. Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson is cheering on Musk's crusade to shrink the government.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But he's also throwing cold water on Musk and Trump's idea to send Americans $5,000 rebate checks with the supposed government savings. Some Republicans say it's unconstitutional. Others call it a political stunt. And budget experts warn it would need congressional approval if the savings even exist.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, I definitely, there's something about, I've noticed that when women, after they have kids, like seven, eight years later, especially women who I think got a lot of confidence from their looks, when their kids get a little bit older and they realize they've spent 10 years doing nothing but raising kids, Everyone talks about dude's midlife crisis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But Trump and Musk are plowing ahead, promising the Doge dividend will put money in voters' pockets. The rebate idea is already causing a split within the GOP, with Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski calling parts of Doge unconstitutional and disastrous. Could this be the breaking point where Republicans finally push back on Trump?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
into the week's political news and fish out some political analysis you can trust. Yes, Tommy's shoes get ruined. Yes, he'll do it again tomorrow because the endeavor is worth it, and so is your sanity. Tune into Pod Save America wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, with respect to Doge, again, I think, I mean, it sort of goes to, okay, what to do? A common psychological warfare technique is to overwhelm the opposition with so many different outrageous things and so many different aggressive topics, issues, inbound missiles, that you're overwhelmed and become flat-footed. I suffer from this. I don't even know where to start.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And the way you respond is the following is, okay, you don't need to respond to everything online. You don't need to take up everything with emotion and anger. You should cite experts. You should bring in data. And then pare down what you're going to focus on in terms of your pushback. So, for example, I think Doge is a giant fucking weapon of mass distraction. $50 billion. $50 billion. Fine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
They want to try and right-size government. People are understandably concerned that there's a lot of waste. Government needs to be right-sized.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think the wrong messaging is all this quote-unquote injustice that I get these national forestry people are wonderful and that there's going to be diapers on the side of your favorite trail, and that they got an email and they've been fired after 18 years of service. But I think a lot of Americans say, welcome to the fucking work week. This happened to me or it happened to my cousin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I have never seen midlife explosions across some of my partners and their friends. Oh my God, they go crazy. So you got that to look forward to. I love how you brought that up and you kind of like that, that you didn't mind the pervy As long as it was a little bit. It sounds like you kind of didn't like it, kind of did.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Private equity came in and bought out our chiropractic clinic, and we got our phone shut off. I think what is happening to a lot of these workers has happened to a lot of people in the private sector. And to be blunt, there isn't a groundswell of sympathy, I think, or empathy they were hoping for.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And people think the government needs to be reined back in as it has been on a regular basis, including under Clinton and Gore. Now, having said that, what I would focus on is the incompetence. I would focus on the fact that, okay, they didn't save $8 billion here, they saved 8 million.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, they fired the nuclear, the people overseeing our nuclear stockpile, only to rehire them, which makes it more expensive. Oh, you can be clear that the people regulating Tesla's self-autonomous driving unit, they've all been fired, right? That this is essentially corruption and incompetence at very little money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And the thing they should link this to is, okay, while they're off here playing Keystone Cops and playing incompetence girls gone wild here, they want you to look over here at $50 billion in savings. Okay. They're planning with with the tax cuts that will benefit me, I ran, I looked at the new tax proposal and I ran my W-2 through it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I'm gonna save a million dollars a year with Trump's tax cuts, right? Fine, government's too big, save us that 50 billion. But be clear, you're not fooling anybody. You're planning to increase taxes on future generations by the biggest tax increase in history. It's 900 billion here. Let's just come together and agree on
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Somewhere between 12 and 18 times the amount of the $50 billion we're arguing over in terms of Doge. While everyone is obsessed with Doge because it makes for good TikTok and people know people in the government, the real story here is somewhere between $600 and $900 billion a year increase in taxes on future generations. I think that's what we should be focused on.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I traveled a lot. I made a lot of excuses and left town.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah. No, I was out. So along those lines of children, today we're going to be talking about Trump turning on Ukraine, Trump's honeymoon coming to an end, and Mitch McConnell's retirement announcement and legacy. Let's bust right into it, Jess. One month into his presidency, Trump is making a dramatic pivot toward Russia, upending decades of U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, like Medicaid, 80 million people, one in six households or one in six kids, 40% of births, the elderly who are disabled. I mean, this is, and also it is actually a really well-run cost-effective program. It provides health coverage for low-income Americans at a lower per person cost than private insurance.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
So Medicaid actually helps the economy because unless you're gonna decide you're gonna let people die, of their cystic fibrosis, or you're gonna let old people, the disabled, wither away, what is the most cost-effective way to give people some dignity to make sure that kids can't actually, we can provide their medication, we can provide their in-home physical therapy for the disabled.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Well, this is a lower cost way to do it. And it is very popular. And the fact that they're, you know, hey, look over here at $50 billion in Doge savings and we'll give you a $5,000 check, but we're going to cut, what, $600 to $800 billion from Medicaid? I mean, this really is, it is, in my opinion, showing their true colors.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And that is, at the end of the day, the most remarkable thing about the Republican Party is that it serves not the 1%, it serves the 0.1%. And the fact this is all a giant ruse to say, look over here while we cut taxes on the very wealthiest Americans. And I do think this is probably a bridge too far. I think they will probably check back on Medicaid.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I hope they don't because I think this could probably be the beginning of a pretty serious clean sweep or close to a clean sweep once we have the midterm elections happening. But Medicaid is, I would say, maybe with the exception of Social Security, is the most popular social program in America, maybe even more popular when you look at its effectiveness.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
foreign policy while previous Republican leaders championed a tough stance on Moscow. That was kind of their go-to. Today's GOP is largely silent as Trump moves to cut support for Ukraine and cozy up to Putin. His administration has even floated excluding Ukraine from NATO, and he's blaming Zelensky for a war Putin started.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But this is great messaging for the Democrats that, okay, do you know anyone on Medicaid? This is who they're coming for. And if you think, if they can cut, you know, 16 times what they say they're going to cut in Doge, that's what they're planning to cut from Medicaid. It's not like that. It's like, at some point...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Is somebody, and we need to be a Republican, going to give them a, do you have no sense of decency speech, right? At some point, somebody needs to stand up, and I think someone is going to find their backbone here. The budget proposed just endorsed cuts to Medicaid by $900 billion. This is just this is extraordinary.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
It's just so insane. And I think the messaging so far has been pretty good around this. But the notion that Okay, we're a household that makes $50,000 a year. That's our tax receipts. We spend $70,000. That's our government expenditures, $7 trillion on $5 trillion in tax receipts. And we are $350,000 or $35 trillion in debt. But we're going to cut our expenditures by $500,000.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
and send a check to people rather than paying down our debt. I mean, it's just, does anyone do math anymore? Have citizens gotten to the point where it's like, you know, I just give it up. My kids are fucked. Just run up their credit card. I don't care. I do think there's going to be enough people who are going to go on.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
social and say, this is just stupid to start sending checks when we're planning to run up the deficit another $900 billion a year to send checks to people for $5,000 rather than paying down the debt. That absolutely, again, to your point, that just makes no sense. All right. One more quick break. Stay with us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac poll shows that 81% of Americans, including 73% of Republicans, don't trust Putin. So why is Trump ignoring them? Jess, Trump's team is pushing for a peace deal on Putin's terms, which European leaders say would weaken Ukraine. If this strategy backfires, what are the long-term consequences for U.S. influence and alliances?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Welcome back. Before we wrap, last week, Senator Mitch McConnell announced he won't seek reelection in 2026, marking the end of a four-decade career that reshaped American politics. As Senate GOP leader, he cemented a conservative judiciary, steered his party through shifting ideological tides, and clashed with Donald Trump in recent years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
His exit raises questions about the future of the GOP and the battle for his Kentucky seat with former Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Rep. Andy Barr already in the race. Jess, what do you think McConnell's legacy will be?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, no, I'm calm. I'm fine. I'm just fine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
So I'm a full-blown ageist. And do you know who else is ageist? Biology. My son had a Halloween party. He was 14. There were 15-year-old girls in my house that are more qualified to be senator than Senator Feinstein was in the last year of her Senate. They would have done a much better job. They would have had a much broader grasp and understanding of the issues than Senator Feinstein did.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Put these people on a fucking ice floe. Enough already. You have to be 30 years of age to become a senator. Why? Because a 29-year-old, they believe, does not have the experience, the maturity, or the cognitive ability to make decisions on behalf of a country.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But someone who doesn't know where the fuck they are and freezes on a stage when asking questions, someone who—someone who literally—there is a—I believe it's a Republican female representative who literally doesn't know where she is. It's tragic. She's suffering from late-stage Alzheimer's. Biology says, hold my beer, when mostly Democrats talk about, scream ageism.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And because we have a system with Citizens United where the incumbent almost always wins, and these people must get great reservations at great restaurants in D.C., and they decide to never leave, we need age limits for both the Supreme Court and for our elected representatives. Enough already. I mean, make it something low like 80 or something like that. But at some point, it is time to go.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
His legacy will be the following, in my view. showing to the world just how much Senator Schumer sucks. And that is this guy, call him Machiavellian, call him evil, he outplayed Democrats every step of the way. While our leadership decided to send a strongly worded letter around all these outrage around Merrick Garland, he always won. He managed to pack the courts up and down.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And when a 14-year-old girl has to carry a child from incest to term, when a woman is bleeding out in an emergency room parking lot from sepsis because a doctor is worried about going to jail, it is because our leadership were fucking neutered and didn't want to go gangster the way McConnell did. McConnell was shameless. He is the graveyard digger for democracy, and he was highly effective.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We need more Democrats like that. I want to see the same sort of shamelessness that Speaker Emerita Pelosi brings to her fucking corrupt insider trading. I want to see some of that gangster corruption, some of that gangster backbone, some of those big fucking balls to negotiations with Republicans. His legacy... Maybe he was right, maybe he wasn't, but he sure as hell was effective.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And this is the problem that the Democrats suffer from and what I have suffered from my entire career is they cannot discern the difference between being right and being effective. He was much more effective than Democratic leadership. Yeah. Can we disparage him and say that he was evil and that he did the wrong thing? Yeah. Hold my beer, bitches. He outplayed us days one, two, and three.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, Senator McConnell voting against Hegseth and Patel is like Hannibal Lecter deciding he's a vegan on his deathbed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, he did?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, that's right. He voted against Hegseth and Gabbert. You know, great. These folks seem to develop a conscience after they leave Congress and then go on Bill Maher or when they decide they're resigning. That doesn't... I don't think he deserves any, quite frankly, any props for that. All right. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Jess, by the way, I hope for you this week that at some point in the park with your kids, someone comes up to you and says the following. God milf. Oh, that's good.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
That's good. I've been waiting. I haven't been able to focus on anything else. Our producers are David Toledo and Chenenye Onike, our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. What is real? Our own feed. There you'll get exclusive interviews with smart voices in politics and ours.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Jess, have a great rest of the week. I hope you have a ton of inappropriate comments coming your way. I can't wait.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think that we take for granted that the number of people who have not died or the number of people who've died at the hands of another human being declined dramatically post the World War II order. That the number of children who died because of hunger or infectious disease has absolutely plummeted. That the number of people who get to
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
be with their dying partner because we embrace civil rights, that the opportunity for a Black girl to become a lawyer or a doctor based on her merit without being held back based on her ethnicity, the color of her skin, her gender, her sexual orientation, that the post-World War II operating system in the West has been the most prosperous system decent, righteous era in history.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And central to all of that was this post-World War II order where Western democracies would have each other's back, that we had disagreements. But at the end of the day, we recognize that elections, rights, rule of law,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
a certain level of decency, not demonizing special interest groups, that we had been, we brought a group of people out of the darkness, Germany, and allied, turned our enemies into our allies by, in this extraordinary move of vision, the Marshall Plan invested in our former enemies. And we had this new world order of the most prosperous nations in the world who had each other's back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And we took this operating system for granted. It was so incredible. it yielded such incredible fruit for so many people that we kind of took for granted that, well, of course, that's a default operating system. Why would we do anything else?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
So when Trump decides to ignore history and give in to a murderous autocrat that is invading Europe and lie to say things like Zelensky is a dictator or that Ukraine started this war, I think even the Russians are shocked at this shit. I think they're like, what? Yeah, how did this happen?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And you just can't help but think, okay, so is this essentially Trump saying to Putin, let's carve up the world, let's have spheres of influence. You have these rights to Antarctica or to the North Pole now that all the ice is melting. You can have domain over these nations, whether it's Ukraine or Turkey or Crimea, and you make your money, I'll make mine. Europe, they're fucking wimps.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I'm sick of them. I'm sick of them lecturing at me, whatever. We'll just carve up the world. And you get yours, I get mine. And we're dictators and we're autocrats and we're both going to make a shit ton of money. Other than that, I can't find reasoning for it. Is there a silver lining here? I think Europe is saying, okay, we can no longer depend on the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
and we can no longer depend on their umbrella of military support. That might be a healthy thing. Europe is substantially increasing their own military budget. But this is an upending of the world order since World War II that has been the most prosperous country You know, the North Atlantic Treaty has been the most prosperous operating system in the history of our species.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
So this is, in my view, while everyone's focused on all this bullshit and this misdirects of DEI or Andrew Tate, or even Doge, I think is a misdirect. This really is the story. This is the thing we should be focused on. And that is, do you really wanna break up what has been the most successful alliance in history? Do we really wanna have a reputation for abandoning our allies and saying, okay,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
history is wrong. When a murderous autocrat invades Europe, we shouldn't be worried.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And there's some merit to those statements.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Can you believe that? It's not easy to believe that. It's not easy to make Nazis less likable. And we figured it out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
How much did you miss me? How much did you miss me? Is it tough?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I love this term. Well, what if what could go right? And I wonder if I see this and I was just horrified. I mean, first off, Senator Marco Rubio, like, who the fuck are you? But literally, and when I mean that, it's not like, who are you to say these things? But I have no idea who this individual is. He was this cold warrior. That's how his foreign policy stance was. He was a cold warrior.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And now he's signing up to the notion that Ukraine started the war. That would be like FDR saying, well, what were those ships doing in Pearl Harbor anyways? The Japanese, I can see why they attacked us. This is just insane that we would be surrendering, that we would say, OK, that's it, where we surrender. And I wonder, I'm trying to see the silver lining here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think Europe is more impressive than people give them credit for. You know, Dassault makes incredible money. Jet airplanes, the German tiger tanks, and the manufacturing capability there is incredible. The economies of Italy and France are still relatively big economies. The UK has some of the best universities in the world. Europe, this is a wake-up call. Get your shit together and unify.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It looks as if we are the gang that can't shoot straight between these ridiculous, feckless attempts to be angry at the Joint Address or march down to federal buildings and wave our cane. It's clear the leadership is divided and has no control over the caucus. They're responding late. One of the strategies that the GRU sort of invented and that Trump has adopted is flooding the zone.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Every day throw so much shit out that they react to and chase that we can slip through almost everything because they're not unified. They don't know which arrow to put their wood behind. And so let's announce we're letting the Tate brothers back into Florida. Everyone goes apeshit. Let's blame a helicopter crash on DEI. Everyone goes apeshit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And they're not looking at kind of the bigger issues that America cares about or they could actually have some reasonable chance of pushing back on. America, quite frankly, over the last couple of weeks has been the nation of surrender. Trump surrendering to Putin and the Democrats surrendering to Republicans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And his argument was that, look, Schumer's argument was that all we were going to do here was play into Trump and Musk's hands by closing the government, shutting it down,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Jess, so this is going to be like every other show. You're going to have to carry it. I got home at about 2 a.m. last night from Mexico. Very jet lagged. Was up till 4. Took a Xanax. And I woke up about 10 minutes ago. Cool. And I'm feeling a little, I don't know. I feel like a Democratic member of the Senate. I don't know where I am. I just want soup.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Everyone in the government or nearly everyone in the government would be furloughed except where he could invoke some sort of emergency powers to keep air traffic controllers and effectively never end the furlough and essentially shut down the government. And they didn't want to let him do that. We're at that point where we need to take that risk.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And that is the government is no longer a government of the people. When you are sending plans, when you are denying court orders, when you have the richest man in the world who has no congressional oversight or approval going upstream of those programs and cutting out funding to things like USAID, which by latest estimates is going to cost 3 million lives this year.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
then, okay, it's no longer a government of the people. You have usurped government, and we're not down with that. We are fine. Let's shut down government. And they also miscalculated. I listened to Senator Schumer on his follow-up on The Daily, and he said that, effectively, he thought, okay, this is, without it, the entire government would be shut down and we would be blamed. No, we wouldn't.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If we then... whatever it is, 45 days of inauguration or what is it, 60 days now, the government is shut down. People would feel this and I believe they would hold Trump responsible.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Okay, he's inaugurated and the government gets shut down and it's not reopening and people aren't getting their diabetes medication and we're having trouble with flights and people aren't getting their Social Security payments. This was essentially the Democrats saying, we are so fucking disorganized. We have such an inability to punch back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I mean, for God's sakes, the first thing they should do, it's like when I was in Sunday school, they used to say, what would Jesus do? That was meant to be a framework for decisions. What would Jesus do? And now my attitude is for the Democrats. I am so fed up with their feckless, stupid rationalization of doing the weakest thing possible. What would Mitch McConnell do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And what Mitch McConnell would have done here was said, this is an unacceptable policy. Unfortunately, Americans, and he could show data, don't agree with what's going on in the government. we'd like to work with the president, but the Republican party is so off the rails in terms of American priorities, we refuse to sign this bill and force them to negotiating table.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And also there was an in-between, there were several steps along the way, including a filibuster where we probably could have got some. I mean, this literally is like, oh, our biggest fears about how just incredibly weak and our inability to punch back because we have really weak
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
unstrategic leaders with absolutely no command of their constituents, that all bubbled up and said, yeah, your worst fears are being realized here, that there is no adult supervision. The kids are running wild at the Whole Foods and there's nothing we can do. There's absolutely, absolutely nothing No parenting here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And the outcome here is I'm now convinced that the new junior senator from New York is going to be AOC in 2028. I think Schumer's out. I think he looks so incredibly weak. I'm just sick of being bested by people who have control of their caucus. Thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I'm looking for people to do my work for me. And I have just absolutely no understanding of my surroundings or the current situation. So back to you, Jess. What's going on?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, I agree with all that. My only thing is the social media being kind of put out there as we're fighting back feels like they hired someone's niece to do their social media. They just look so unnatural and so uncomfortable doing it. But this was an opportunity for the Democrats to at least fight back. And Americans will take bad policy over weakness.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I think that one of Biden's losses was when you talked to him about When you talk to voters about policies, people vastly favored Biden's policies over the stated policies or non-policies of Trump. But they just they they just weakness and a lack of resolve are just death knells and politics.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And right now, the Democrats look fragmented, weak and just like we're clutching our pearls all the time and complaining and yet have an inability to even punch back. And this we just look weak. We look defeated and we look like, I don't know, agents of surrender. All right, Jess, we're going to take a quick break. Stay with us. Support for Profiteer comes from ShipStation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So uncomfortable fights are just part of it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah. Just lean in. And what was the... Let me help. So I'm very good at running other people's lives. Give me the situation. I'll tell you who is right, who is wrong, and what you need to do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Support for Prop G comes from Mint Mobile. Sometimes it can be nice to spend a little extra money, like when you want to spoil your child, or take your partner to a special restaurant, or when you want to show your parents you do make enough of your job. But no one wants to spend all of their extra money on a phone plan. Luckily, there's Mint Mobile.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
New customer offer for first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fee extras in Mint Mobile for details. Welcome back. The Trump administration is facing sharp criticism after ignoring a federal judge's order to halt the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
The White House argues the order came too late as the planes were already over international waters. It's weird. I heard planes can actually turn around. But legal experts warn this move could mark the start of a serious constitutional showdown.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Meanwhile, concerns over immigration enforcement are also growing on college campuses where a Palestinian activist and Columbia University student leader, Mahmoud Khalil, now faces deportation. His arrest has sparked fears the administration is targeting political dissent under the guise of national security.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Jess, the administration claims it wasn't actively defying a court order rather than operating within the legal gray areas. What are the legal consequences of this move?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, this is really, if you think about I mean, it's sort of deciding, all right, we don't have a country. If we're not going to have laws, an easy way to reduce a lot of crime would be to do away with search and seizure laws.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And that is if for whatever reason your local law enforcement or federal law enforcement can just come raid your house, raid you, incarcerate you, hold you for as long as they want until they're satisfied they're either right or wrong, you would see a drop in crime.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
it might be you with that knock at the door and that we're going to pay for a certain level of insecurity around, you know, overtime crime and those rights. And that rule of law and that democracy attracts so many talented people and makes people feel so good about America that ultimately results in a greater quality of life, greater prosperity, greater economic growth.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
This is essentially saying, okay, we're now in an autocracy and the people in power get to kind of make the laws and basically Not listen to the government. So there are literally no checks and balances. The Republican Party, who is in control, has said, I'm willing for an unelected official who was not born here to essentially usurp my power as an elected representative, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So that branch of the government is gone. Then sort of the last man standing or the last defense between us and total autocracy was supposed to be the courts. And they have said, we don't give a shit what the courts say. Yeah. I mean, when I saw it, the courts have ordered these flights to stop. Then that means the flights can't go or can't turn around.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Well, they said they basically stuck up the middle finger and said, stop us. So this feels like when you challenge the court, nothing happens here. they will have the incentives and the signal that they are now the law, that the White House, the Trump administration and the supporters are now the law.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
The judges are now similar to Republican representatives who are so scared of being primaried or a weak and feckless Democratic Party that there's effectively, we've gone from checks and balances to absolutely none of them. They've all been sort of shut down. And the one that kind of tested my resolve around this, or I had some a moral dilemma, if you will, is Mahmoud Khalil's arrest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And it did tickle my progressive censors.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I think an individual here on a green card who is inciting violence, in my view, and shitposting America and making a campus environment less productive and kids can't go to class and basically tearing at the fabric of America, and also the legal argument for deporting him, is that when you're here on a green card, you are not supposed to promote or endorse terrorist activities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
That is a legal argument for deporting him. And I can see making that legal argument. The problem is the way they went about it, and that is he was effectively disappeared. And that is he was arrested and detained, and his family and his lawyer couldn't even find out where he was. And it ended up he had been transferred to a facility, I believe, in Louisiana.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And that's the thing that's really upsetting and bothersome. And as much as I would like to see this individual having had been expelled and maybe losing his, I imagine he's, I don't know if he's here on a student visa or a green card.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Just green card. Not just green card.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, it's the best you can have. It's a great card. The bottom line is this, is that regardless of how shitty the speech may be, if you start rounding up people and deporting them for political speech, be careful for when that knock comes on the door, because eventually it means that if you have political speech.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
that is counter or detrimental or disparaging of an administration that now appears to be ignoring court orders and is suing and intimidating and saying publicly now that people at CNN and MSNBC should be prosecuted. I mean, we are, you know, we're effectively in a full, I don't know what you want to call it, dictatorship where speech is now chilled.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So as much as I would like to see bad things happen to this individual because I think he's created incredible dissent and that he's wrong and that he's inciting violence, if he hasn't really broken any laws and this is just political speech and he's getting disappeared and deported, who's next? And what qualifies as political speech that is worthy of deportation? So there's a lot here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It feels as if
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
because we show absolutely no resistance, no coordination, no backbone, and quite frankly, it feels as if the flooding the zone has the public looking in so many different directions over if and what to respond to, that this is now... I used to think that the focus should be on Ukraine, our surrender to Russia over Ukraine, the deficits, but this feels like it really is something that Democrats should be focusing on and messaging, and that is
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
have we broken down all of our constitutional checks and balances that in fact make us a democracy and a country? And the last week, I would think the last week, and I'm trying to think if I'm being somewhat, I'm catastrophizing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It feels like the actions of the last week, if they go unchecked and the Democrats and the public don't coordinate, mature, gestate a really thoughtful, strong response to this, that we have pretty much taken a pretty strong step away from a democracy situation. to an autocracy. What are your thoughts about Mahmoud Khalil's arrest?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Sure. No, I understand. I understand. No, the real fissure here is between you and horrible couples who are those couples who decide they're not giving their kids screen time. Those are awful people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, I do think that Democrats have a habit of sticking out our chin and having this fist of autocracy stone come for it. And to your point, if I had gone down as a faculty member of NYU with a big sign saying, burn the gays or lynch the blacks, they would have had no need for context. My ID would have been turned off.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I would have been shut out of academia, fired, never allowed back on the campus, never been able to work in academia again. But when Yeah, free speech has never been freer when it's hate speech against Jews. And the Republican administration has now found an opportunity to tap into that rage and that wrong and go way too far and deny the rights of everyday Americans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, those are the people that, oh, it's parenting and they shouldn't have screen time. Those are awful people. You need better friends, too. The real key here is you need to start hitting your children. That... immediately resets the operating system and brings a moment of shock, but a moment of peace to everything. And I'm in favor of giving them screen time. So first off, I totally empathize.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And this is just a huge failing, in my opinion, and has created an opening the size of the Grand Canyon for the Republicans to come in or for the Trump administration to come in and start violating everybody's rights. And I actually did advise or have been advising the Regency of the University of California on this issue. And their general viewpoint is, my advice was, this is super easy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
They were really worried about fall, what happens when the students return last fall. And because UCLA, I think probably, I think the most shameful moment I've ever felt, and there hasn't been a lot of them, For my alma mater, UCLA, it was when kids were passing out bans to non-Jews. And if you didn't have a ban, you couldn't access certain parts of the campus.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So they basically decided to prohibit Jews from certain, you know, from campus activities. And I thought, okay, what's going to happen here? And I don't know what happened, which probably means nothing. And they said, well, what would you do? And I said, it's very easy. The first protest, first sign of any protest around where there's hate speech is
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Or there are people trespassing who aren't students or the students are doing anything resembling what would qualify as hate speech, of which there's a lot. If it's a peaceful protest, of course you do nothing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
But if it's not and it turns ugly or they're occupying facilities like what recently happened to Columbia, you give them 15 minutes to vacate and then you start expelling students and let them call their parents and say, oh, that $72,000 tuition, I'm coming home. And you do that right away and word gets out really fast. And there was this bullshit argument that, Scott, these are young people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
We can't just start expelling them in a wanton kind of reckless fashion. And my response is the following. At Columbia, they expel 91% of freshmen every year. It's called the admissions process. And the notion that somehow you have a birthright to attend a private university and that you're protected by these first... You have... You're at a private organization.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It's like no shoes, no shirt, no service. They have the right to kind of determine the laws as long as they're not breaking the law. And the fact that they have come across as so incredibly anti-Semitic They have stuck their chin out, and the result is an overreaction in the Trump administration taking advantage of this weak, bigoted thinking to go the other way and have an overreaction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I do think, to your point, this is a response to an incredible lack of leadership and insanity on university campuses. I'm about to do a college tour with my son. And I'm fascinated by colleges and admission standards and data and enrollment trends.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And it's interesting, the schools that are booming in terms of applications are these Southern schools that are seen as apolitical or even a little conservative. Parents are sending their kids, they want their kids to go to college. They don't want a political orthodoxy. They don't want a school and administration that sees themselves as engineers of social engineers. It's really interesting.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Southern schools or schools that are distinctly seen as somewhat center-left are booming in terms of applications. But Columbia University leadership goes down as such incredibly misguided, weak leadership that has set up an overreaction that has been justified.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And the cloud cover for the justification of an overreaction has been what have been an incredible lack of leadership and blatant anti-Semitism. So this is, you know, this is like a lot of democratic policies. We start on the right foot, we take it too far, and we set up an overreaction because people are just rolling their eyes and thinking, okay.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Making an argument for a six-foot-four swimmer to show up to a swim meet who presents as female and then blow away everything. Didn't win a single race as a male swimmer, but is absolutely winning everything. And then having everyone on the left applaud and say, isn't that inspiring? You set up an overreaction where we begin demonizing a special interest group for no real reason.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And the same has happened here. We take things too far. We stick our chin out and we set ourselves up for an overreaction that makes things much worse than if we'd had a less insane, thoughtful reaction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I go absolutely crazy when our kids... when our kids, my kids, or other kids are loud and distracting. If they're really loud and distracting, I think you take them outside and separate them from the rest of the crew. I have no patience for that. Also, it's a very difficult situation. Actually, I'm now being serious because the reality is
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Or Wake Forest or SMU. Wake Forest, yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Vanderbilt is now as difficult to get into as many Ivy Leagues. There's so many applications.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, well, as you can imagine, I think a lot about this. And I do think it's tempting to think that because there's so much manufactured artificial stress, as someone who's going through it right now, from universities who've adopted a rejectionist exclusionary strategy, and despite sitting on an endowment the size of the GDP of a Latin American nation, only let in 500 students.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Dartmouth sits on an endowment of $8 billion and lets in 500 freshmen. Harvard sits on an endowment of 52 billion and decides to only let in 1500. That is morally corrupt. If you had a drug that made people less likely to kill themselves, more likely to get married, more likely to pay a lot of taxes, less likely to be obese, less likely to be depressed, would you hoard that drug?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
We in higher education hoard that drug. We have the resources, we have the capability, There would be absolutely no sacrifice in the quality of the students. People say, oh, but the brand would go down. When I applied to UCLA, the acceptance rate was 76%. It's now 9%. And it wasn't exactly a Joey Bag of Donuts brand back then. We have become the enforcers of the caste system.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And as much as we like to believe that, oh, don't worry, college won't matter. It does, because America is turning into a caste system, and the easiest way for corporations to evaluate human capital is based on the school they went to.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So the notion that it quote-unquote doesn't matter anymore is a lie we tell ourselves, such that we feel better about the massive amount of stress and the inequity and our disappointment in higher ed. And what has slowly happened in higher education is me and my faculty, sometimes who are 15 administrators to everyone who actually teaches higher
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I get accused of this a lot, and that is I decide I understand parenting when it's bothering me, but I'm not interested in participating in parenting when everything's fine. And so it's a little bit like selective parenting. But I think the good news is this is only going to happen to you about every two weeks for the rest of your marriage until the kids are out of the house.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
have decided that we would rather not have accountability, so we teach bullshit, ridiculous courses that have no measurable outcomes. Leadership, sustainability, DEI, ethics. Show me someone teaching ethics, I'm gonna show you a FIP, a formerly important person who hangs out at a university, makes two to $400,000 a year,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
for trying to teach a 27-year-old in business school how to be more ethical, which is such the height of arrogance. Instead of being centers of excellence, we've turned it into a political orthodoxy machine where the vast majority of the faculty are very left, not reflecting any diverse thought and where you can get in trouble for certain words. We have totally lost the script.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Our job is to give you the skills to go out and create economic security for you and your family and do great work, empower the economy. And the fact that we have become this exclusionary and this arrogant and teaching all of these bullshit courses with no measurable outcome, the result is we constrain supply. And it's not about who gets in, it should be about how many.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If a school doesn't increase its freshman seats faster than population growth, it should lose its tax-free status as it's no longer a public servant, but it's a hedge fund with classes. Higher education absolutely needs to be reformed. Anyways, that's my TED Talk.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
There you go. Well, there's some nuance there. That's what I call it. It's nuance. All right, Jess, let's take one more quick break. Stay with us. Support for Prop G comes from the NPR podcast Up First. What's your relationship to the news right now? Is it something you can possibly check 200 times a day until you feel sort of queasy?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Or do you take the opposite approach and refuse to engage with anything coming out of Washington? It can feel almost impossible to balance the need to stay informed with thoughtful self-care. But if you're looking for a way to square that circle, you might want to listen to the NPR podcast Up First.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
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Up First is a daily show that covers the three most important stories of the day in just 15 minutes, so you can learn what you need to know and then move on with your day. Every episode gives you what you need to be informed without compromising your sanity. Episodes touch on the essential stories on topics like international conflict, the new administration, and so much more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I listened to a recent episode on the situation in Ukraine and found it very even-handed and and just generally, you know, kind of fact-based. What do you know? If you're looking for more news and less noise, you can listen to the Up First podcast from NPR today. Support for Prop G comes from Nutrafol.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
That's because Nutrafol supports healthy hair growth from within by targeting key root causes of thinning, stress, hormones, aging, nutrition, lifestyle, and metabolism through whole body health. They even have a formula for those with plant-based diet. That's Nutrafol.com, promo code ProfGee.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So I think, and also I think your husband needs to realize as it relates to parenting, he's an influencer, not a decision maker. I have generally found, which is a bit of an abdication and I want to acknowledge that, but I've generally found that mom has just much better instincts around how to handle this stuff than dad. I'm a sexist that way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Welcome back. Before we go, talks between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia over a possible ceasefire are picking up steam. And the Kremlin is saying there's some reason to be hopeful. Specifically, the world's largest nation has become a surrender monkey. Anyways, after meeting with Trump's envoy in Moscow, Putin signaled he's open to a 30-day truce, but with conditions that are pretty one-sided.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
He wants formal recognition of Russia's land grabs and a promise that Ukraine will never join NATO. Zelensky has stood firm on not giving up land, but lately he's prioritizing security guarantees over getting territory back right away. Meanwhile, Americans are skeptical of Trump's handling of the situation. A new CNN poll shows 59% think Trump's approach won't lead to long-term peace.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
50% say it's flat-out bad for the U.S., and nearly 6 in 10 disapprove of his handling of the U.S. 's relations with Russia. Jess, your thoughts here?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I'll provide input around parenting decisions and then mom gets to make the decision because I find she's just more, much more in tune with the kids. But yeah, the way the kids behave in public is absolutely a point of tension for me because I think what he's doing is just, I think he's reflecting on his own shortcomings as a parent.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, this is—I see a silver lining here, and that is the U.S. 's surrender to Putin, the decision to ignore these 80-year alliances with the largest economies in the world such that they can have— sort of this, if you will, this mob deal with another autocrat and potentially thinking they can divide up the world. It's economically just really stupid. And the silver lining here is the following.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Europe may be a union for the first time, and that is the 27 member states of the European Union have finally recognized that they need to get their shit together and can't be this rich nephew reliant on Uncle Sam's largesse. They now actually believe there's just no getting around it. Uncle Sam has lost his shit, and we can't depend upon him for a military umbrella. The U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
spends about $800 billion a year on defense. NATO and all EU 27 member nations spend a total of about $400 and $450. They have not been coordinated. They've been sclerotic. They've lacked investment. They've lacked risk capital. And this might be actually the moment for them to command the space they occupy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And you have seen some signs of a pulse and of real leadership from the biggest leaders in the EU.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I believe that they basically, the bad news is that America can't be counted on, which is really unfortunate and tragic to support the post-World War II 80-year alliance that has created more prosperity in the last 80 years than the world has created in the modern economy or the history of the modern economy. But the silver lining is that the EU may get more coordinated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
They're talking about increasing their defense budgets from 1.9% of GDP to 3%. And what you've seen is the markets are responding. The quote-unquote Magnificent Seven, which consists of US tech mega caps, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia and Tesla, have been incredible performers. But this year, year-to-date, they're down 8%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Whereas the European Defense 7, that's the seven largest military contractors, are up 46% and 65% over the last year. And the Stock 600, which is the European kind of S&P, if you will, is up 9% this year. and the S&P 500 is down 2%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If you look at military spending, as much as, and there's a decent argument here that it withdraws from more productive means of spending money on social services, there is, one, a stimulative effect, and two, there is a spillover. If you look at the most valuable companies in the world, whether it's Apple or Google, they're essentially built on the backbone of
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
He feels as a man, he's a disciplinarian. And when the kids are out of control, it's a poor reflection on him.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Defense technologies developed early on, whether it's DARPA, which was built to establish a communications network such that we could communicate in a post-Soviet nuclear attack that was hubless or nodeless, or GPS, which is what essentially Apple and Android are built on. And that was developed such that we could put an ICBM in Gorbachev's pocket.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
All of these military technologies do have a stimulative and a spillover effect. And I believe, and this was one of my big predictions late last year for 2025, that European stocks are going to vastly outperform U.S. stocks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And the nice thing about this is we're all talking as if at the negotiation table that it's up to, first and foremost, the U.S., who kind of is acting as the propaganda wing of Russia at this point, and then Russia And Ukraine isn't being invited to the table around these defense talks. And Europe plays absolutely no role. Well, here's the good news.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If Europe gets its shit together and shows sort of the commitment and resolve from a spending... and a boots on the ground resolve that the US and Russia have shown in spades, they don't need the US. The Russian economy is smaller than the Canadian economy. It's less than $2 trillion. And the GU or the EU member nations add up to about 19 trillion.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So the European Union, should it show coordination, fiscal commitment, and perhaps even boots on the ground commitment, which I don't think they'll ever need to do, but show a willingness and a resolve, They don't need the U.S. And I'm hopeful that this additional spending and coordination might finally kind of stir a sleeping giant, and that is the EU.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So I think this is a new era or could signal a new era where there's some great leadership in Europe, whether it's Macron, whether it's Keir Starmer. There is an opportunity here for Europe to finally be a union and command the space they occupy, push back on Putin with or without the US's help, and coordinate and spend and show some resolve here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
They are acquiescing to a gas station that has nuclear weapons on the roof, and they shouldn't be. They are a bigger economy. They have fantastic IP, fantastic weapons producers. Both France and the UK are nuclear powers. It is time for the Europeans to step up. It's going to be costly. That's the bad news. The good news is they can absolutely step up and push back on a murderous autocrat.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And what's just so tragic here is that Trump appears to be acting like a Russian asset. There's no evidence that he is, in fact, a Russian asset. But if you were to define the actions of a Russian asset, he would fit them to a T and But the good news is I'm not sure the European Union actually needs us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I think they have all of the spending power, all of the military technology to push back on their own. The question is, do they have the resolve and the leadership?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Well, I go back to, I feel the same way. And I think a lot of Americans do. They feel despondent. And what helps me is that I realize that Yeah, as Winston Churchill said, the Americans, after exhausting every other option, will do the right thing, or will do the right thing after exhausting every other option. And we faced really dark moments before.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
80 years ago, we were rounding up Japanese American and putting them in camps, and some of them had sons fighting in the European theater in our own uniform. We do get it wrong a lot, but generally over the medium and the long term, the arc of American justice bends towards the righteous. We waited a couple of years before entering World War II.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Canada went over there first and started training allied pilots, and finally, We decided to enter the war. And I do think Americans are going to recognize that the Ukrainian people who are fighting for liberty and American values, that Canada with the largest undefended border in the world are actually our friends.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
that this move towards autocracy is so counter to everything that's wonderful and has created so much prosperity in the US, that those values are steadfast, that those values matter, and that they're worth fighting for.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So I have a lot of confidence that Americans, should we actually find leadership in the Democratic Party, and I believe we will, to your point, and you've always said this, we have a great bench, I think they're going to realize that a murderous autocrat Invading Europe usually does not end well for Europe and then eventually for us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah. So just recognize that kids ruin everything. Kids are the best thing that could happen to you that will ruin your life. And it does put a huge strain, I have found. There's actually, just to be serious for a moment, all the studies on happiness show that your least happy years are the years you're in, 25 to 45, specifically around child-rearing. You'll look back
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I do believe there's a real moment, a kind of a, you know, people were calling Keir Starmer, Keir Churchill or Winston Starmer. There's a moment here for a leader to step up and say that America needs to be America again.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I'd like to think we're getting to that point, but we have been in these types of dark places before, and American values do seem to show up, and I'm confident that's going to happen. again, here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
But this is, I would describe, and I think you're articulating it well, this does feel like a dark moment where our American values are taking a back seat to the temptation to have a strong man that's going to solve what are some very real problems here in the U.S. But I'd like to think that over the long term, after, again, exhausting every other solution, that we get it right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
There you go. All right, that's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right, its own feed. That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds you won't hear anywhere else.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts. And one last plug, join us for our live show on April 17th in New York. Grab your tickets now. The last time tickets went on sale, they were sold out in 24 hours. No joke. Link in the show notes. See you there. Jess's kids will not be there. They will not be there. Jess, have a great rest of the week.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Realize, just make it clear to your husband, always defer to mom. ADM. He's an influencer, not a decision maker.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Support for PropG comes from Grammarly. Think about the most tedious part of your job. Is it writing the exact same email you've already written a hundred times? Some studies have shown that 88% of professionals spend more than half their work week on repetitive writing tasks.
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Well, imagine you had an assistant that could take the small stuff off your plate and help make your writing more effective and persuasive. You're in luck. And as I've said before, it has made us more efficient and takes our written work, and makes it just quite frankly more competent. Get more done with Grammarly. Download Grammarly for free at grammarly.com slash podcast.
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That's grammarly.com slash podcasts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
On the period we have young children at home and reflect on that as the happiest time of your life. But what's interesting is in the moment, people without children are actually happier on average than people with children because of instances like this. But as they get older, I do find it gets easier and easier. Yours are 11 and 9?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I knew that. Oh, you did?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
No, it gets much better. I know. There's a very...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
That's really nice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
All right. Before we dive in. In a quick announcement, Jess and I are taking the show live. We are literally woke royalty right now. We are literally the Duchess of Wokistan now. We're partnering with, get this, the 92nd Street Y in New York for a special event on Thursday, April 17th. That's right, Thursday, April 17th. And you can grab your tickets right now. The link is in the show notes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Trust us. You don't want to miss this one. Literally, I've been working my ass off for 30 years and I'm an overnight woke success because of you, Jess. This is literally like, I feel like Patrick Moynihan is... It could emerge from his crypt. And who's the wokest person ever? Literally, we are woke royalty now. We're speaking at the 92nd Y. Your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I heard he's not doing that well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It's like when you found out you got on the 80th percentile in the SAT and you thought, oh, I might get into UC Irvine. Anyways, but we feel you. But this is so exciting. I'm waiting for the fallout of my other co-host, Kara Swisher. She and I have not been invited on 92nd Street Y. But anyways, come see both. Come see both at the 92nd Street Y. This is very exciting on April 17th. Today...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
In today's episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing the Democrats' fury over Schumer's vote on the spending bill. Trump challenging the courts on deportations and the latest on Ukraine-Russia ceasefire talks. All right. Let's jump into it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Last week, as the clock ran down to a potential government shutdown, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer found himself in a tough spot trying to balance a divided Democratic Party. His unexpected decision to support the GOP's stopgap funding bill sparked major backlash from House Democrats and members of his own caucus. who wanted a stronger stand against Trump's agenda.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
The bill itself slashes about $7 billion in overall spending from fiscal 2024 levels, cutting $13 billion from non-defense discretionary programs while boosting defense spending by $6 billion. With no easy path forward, Schumer's choice has left Democrats questioning their strategy for the battles ahead in Schumer's volatile political climate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
What led to Schumer's decision to back the GOP funding bill? And do you think him folding was a misread? What do you think?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I thought that was great. So, yeah, the graph that sort of indicates this is the very beginning of the last Trump administration in 17, 74% of Democrats wanted Democrats to work with Republicans and get things done. That number is now 42%. And there's a difference between being effective and being right, and right now we look neither.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
We are basically saying to the world, we're going to be the least popular kid and as a result have fewer alliances, fewer treaties, less cooperation. Because we're acting as if, you know, we think you're a fucking idiot. And we keep yelling expletives or hurling insults at the other kids rolling by us. And the next day, the kid doesn't even know what we're going to say about that kid.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
We're just so unpredictable and big. und unsere Kraft und unsere Muskeln zu flexieren und einfach nur ein wenig abwechslungsvoll zu sein. Das wird uns leider It's really going after what is a key attribute in any brand. And be clear, the brand is incredibly important. It's what precedes you. It's what puts you in the room before you're there in terms of negotiations and expectations.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But one of the key things about our brand that people don't appreciate until now is the US is actually fairly consistent. There are certain standards around free trade, rule of law, consistency. Quite frankly, we're slow to change things. We have Oh, really? Yeah, I didn't speak to him. He's, I think, about 19.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Jess, how are you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
How are you? I'm good. I'm in the great state of Texas at South by Southwest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be getting mail from the AARP. But yeah, it was sort of interesting. And I was initially going to go over and talk to him. I thought, that's just going to depress me. Anyways, I'm now going to parties with Doge's children. Aber es ist schwer zu sehen, wie wir aus diesem Problem nicht strukturell verletzt werden. Es macht einfach keinen Sinn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Okay, lasst uns einen kurzen Break nehmen. Bleibt mit uns. Die Unterstützung für PropG comes from Domo. Domo lässt dich AI und Daten schnell, sicher und innovativ vermitteln, um menschliche Inhalte wo immer und wann auch immer du sie benötigst. Jemand auf deiner Team kann Domo für leicht vorbereiten, analysieren, visualisieren, automatisieren und Daten verteilen, alle veröffentlicht von AI.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Domo geht außerhalb der Produktivität. Es ist designt, deine Prozesse zu verändern, um dich zu helfen, smartere und schnellere Entscheidungen zu machen und reale Wachstum zu beeinflussen. Alle gefördert von Domos Vertrauen, Flexibilität und Jahren von Expertise und Daten. Das ist AI.domo.com. Vielen Dank.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm all over. I just love me. I did a big, when I went on stage yesterday for Pivot, I danced around with my belly hanging out, screaming. That was a big hit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Not all applicants will qualify for the lowest monthly payments, NerdWallet Insurance Services and California Resident License Number
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That was a big hit. Yeah, no, mockery is always, the algorithms love mockery.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Willkommen zurück. Letzte Woche wurde Texas-Repräsentant Al Green ursprünglich gesensiert. after interrupting President Trump's address to Congress, shouting, no mandate to cut Medicaid, as he waved his cane. The moment led to his removal from the chamber and a 224-198 vote to rebuke him, with 10 Democrats joining Republicans in the censure.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
This split underscores ongoing divisions within the party over how to push back against Trump. Greene, who has a history of direct action, including being arrested alongside the late Representative John Lewis, seems unbothered by the consequences, saying, you have to be willing to suffer the consequences of
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Jess, was denkst du, was das sagt über die Demokratische Partei, dass zehn ihrer eigenen Mitglieder zu Censure Green gewählt wurden?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And what have you been up to? How was your weekend, I should say?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, I thought it was really, really telling in the sense that, one, it was just, I think we came out of that, when I say we Democrats, big losers. We looked reckless, overly emotional. I think our behavior just turns off moderates and emboldens Republicans. Because, look, at the joint address or gatherings of Congress, the president wins. It's a bully pulpit, there's a lot of majesty, and
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
He loves Jamaica?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Was du in dieser Situation tust, ist, dass du ruhig bist und nichts sagst. In Fällen, in denen sie einen Held oder ein Kind bringen, der viele Arbeiten durchgeführt hat, stehst du auf und applaudierst. Du bist sicher, dass du immer noch ein Mensch bist, richtig? Anstattdessen, all die Zerstörung und die Frau, die mit dem Zeichen folgt, sagt, dass das nicht normal ist.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Ich meine, Marjorie Taylor Greene und Lauren Boebert sahen wie Idioten, und wir haben es nicht gefällt, als sie es gemacht haben. Und wir sollten diese Art von Verhalten nicht kopieren. It really made us look weak. I actually thought the best moment for the Republicans was when they removed him. I thought Speaker Johnson came across as authoritative.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And we're starting to look like, I mean, it kind of made me sad just for America. It feels like we're two steps away from being, whereas in South Korea, where occasionally the Congress just breaks out into fisticuffs. It's like we're about to become that nation. And the other thing I think it reflects poorly on Democrats is clearly our leadership has no control over these people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Because this just didn't make sense for the Democratic Party. Your point is an interesting one, and that is, I've never understood why the Democratic Party eats our own. I'm still pissed off at Senator Gillibrand for getting all high and mighty and chasing Senator Franken out of office.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
She got her seat. She was essentially an unknown. And in my view, she kind of brightens up her room by leaving it. And the Clintons appointed her, right, to the Senate seat that was vacated. My understanding is by Secretary Clinton. And the Clintons don't speak to her anymore, because I think that she's not a very consistent person.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But for her to basically eat one up, for us to allow her to ruin the career of one of our most articulate and quite frankly humorous voices, counter to Trump, so that she could have an 11-second run for presidency, that was the ticket no one was asking for. Remember that? The former mayor of New York and Christian Gillibrand were both running for president.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And my favorite was she said she wanted to represent other young mothers. I'm like, you're a young mother?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm a 41-year-old woman. No, but she's much older than you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
You were good before that. I was good. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I am who I am. Aber ja, ich stimme mit dir. Am Anfang dachte ich, es ist gut, dass sie ihn zentriert haben. Und dann dachte ich, warum entscheiden wir immer, uns selbst zu essen und uns zu halten? Wie du gesagt hast, wir schießen uns selbst in den Fuß. Und ich bin mir nicht sicher, dass wir uns zerstören sollten.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, what the Republicans have that the Democrats lack is a certain level of synchronicity and coordination. And that is if you look at the relationship between these kind of conservative think tanks, conservative media and Republican talking points and discipline, they're coordinated. And the sum of its parts or the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Whereas the Democrats look sclerotic, like we don't like the person giving the response because they were too... moderat. Oh, wir werden diese random Interruptionen haben und schreien. Wir schauen einfach überall hinweg und sind unorganisiert. Und ganz ehrlich gesagt, wir haben einfach nicht unsere Scheiße zusammen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
In your 37, 38?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Und etwas, was die Leute für wählen, ist, dass sie lieber für jemanden wählen, der resolut ist und jüdisch und furchtbar ist und kompetent ist, als für jemanden, der einfach nur flächendeckend ist und nicht weiß, du weißt nicht, du hast keinen Sinn dafür, wo sie stehen. Und das ist der gleiche Grund, warum ich denke, dass unsere Handelspartner
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
die nicht den USA über verschiedene Verbindungen vertrauen werden. Ich denke, dass die amerikanische Bevölkerung jetzt die Demokratische Partei anschaut und sich fragt, Jesus Christus, wählt ein Thema. Wer seid ihr? Was seid ihr? Und die Antwort auf das ist von nicht effektiv bis zu sehr emotional. Es ist einfach nicht ein guter Blick für uns. Okay, lasst uns noch einen kurzen Break nehmen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Bleibt mit uns.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But the good news is, is that for men, 50 is the new 30 and for women, 40 is the new 80. I hadn't heard that one before.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Welcome back. Before we go, California Governor Gavin Newsom is under fire from LGBTQ plus activists after saying it's deeply unfair for transgender girls to compete in high school girls sports. He made the comments on the debut episode of his new podcast while chatting with right wing provocateur Charlie Kirk. Newsom wants a trailblazer for LGBTQ rights.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
also agreed that a Trump-Campaign ad attacking Kamala Harris over gender-affirming care was politically devastating. Speaking of Harris, she's reportedly considering a run for California governor in 2026. And she's told allies she'll decide by the end of the summer. One could cement her leadership in the Democratic Party, but take her out of the running for president in 2028.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Meanwhile, Democratic strategist James Carville has a message for the party. Do nothing. He argues that Republicans are so bad at governing, their own chaos will sink them. Jess, does Newsom's stance on trans athletes hurt his 2028 chances, especially with progressives?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That's good. Yeah, that's, that's. Es gibt einen Begriff für das, New York. Okay, genug davon. Lass uns da rein. Präsident Trump hat die finanziellen Märkte in einen Halsspin gesetzt letzte Woche. Heute werden wir darüber sprechen, dass Trump auf den Terror zurücktritt. Repräsentant Val Green wird für die Proteste, die Trump versucht, zu beurteilen, zensiert.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
What Governor Newsom really thinks about trans rights. And James Carville's surprising advice to Democrats. Do nothing. So, markets kind of very volatile this week or last week with this ever-changing trade policy. On Thursday, he delayed tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, giving industries a brief bit of relief.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Ich denke, im Allgemeinen schauen die Leute auf die Demokratische Partei und sind gewöhnt auf einige der Ideen und einige der Leute und dann sagen sie, oh, warte, aber sie sind verdammt verrückt. Und das ist einer dieser Themen. Ich habe das vor zwei, zweieinhalb Jahren auf Pivot gesagt und habe viel Ausdruck bekommen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Aber es gab eine Bicyclist oder eine Bicyclist in North Carolina, nicht eine große Rennstrecke, aber eine Rennstrecke, die groß genug war, dass es Geldpreise hatte. Und eine transgendere Frau kam fünf Minuten vor dem Rest des Publikums. Und dann sah man die Fotos von einem 6,4-Jährigen mit einem enormen Wingspan, der die NCAA-Finals aufnimmt und jeden Rekord zerstört.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Und ich denke, Amerika schaut sich das an und sagt, sie sind fucking verrückt gegangen. Und sie verteidigen das, weil sie entschieden haben, dass das ein gewöhnlicher, um einen gewöhnlichen Bonifatius zu erstellen, der sofort gesagt hat, okay, ich werde allgemeinen Sinn ignorieren. Und es hat enormen Schaden gemacht, dass wir keinen Grundsatz haben.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Und ich glaube, unsere Meinung darauf sollte sein, dass wir, wenn ein lokales Schulgebäude, wir glauben, lasst uns die republikanische Ideologie umbringen, dass auf Entscheidungen um Nuancen individuelle Schulen und Eltern ihre eigenen Gedanken machen sollten.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Wenn es eine Schule gibt, wo sie sagen, eine 14-jährige transgendere Frau würde wirklich von der Partizipation in Juniorhochschulen oder Hochschulsporten profitieren, wo ganz ehrlich gesagt die Stecken nicht so hoch sind, dann können sie entscheiden, mit ihr teilzunehmen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Aber alles, was mit Wettbewerben, Geld, Wettbewerben, Abschlüssen in die Universitäten, was auch immer es sein könnte, oder Kontakt-Sport, ganz ehrlich gesagt, nein. Und ich sehe hier keinen Kriminellen gegen die Menschheit. Ich werde nie Basketball spielen. Ich habe keine solche Fähigkeiten. Ich wurde nicht mit solchen Fähigkeiten geboren.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Und ich glaube, wenn du mit Testikalen und einem Penis geboren wirst und die Vorteile von Testosteron und dieser Bohnenstruktur hast, Unfortunately, you don't get to play women's sports because to me, the math was just so simple.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And that is, if we're going to permit this and have no regulation around it, then essentially what you're saying is all the accoutrements of athletics, all the money, the fame, the prestige, the relevance, the self-esteem is going to slowly but surely be sequestered to people born with a penis. I was just shocked feminists didn't say, no, we can't. We can't have this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And we just allowed this just strategically on an issue that really doesn't impact that many people. And I'm sure we'll get emails on that. That was where we were going to say, okay, this is a big issue for us. And we just come across as just insane.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And the one commercial that moved the needle more than anything during the presidential campaign was that commercial basically saying, you know, I think it was accusing the Democrats. Of course, I believe it was somewhat of an exaggeration or taken out of context. that we were paying for the transgender surgery of inmates.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
This to me, I think, this is Governor Newsom, who we know is running, you know, triangulating to the middle. And quite frankly, pissing off the left is a feature, not a bug in terms of your electability. Somebody is going to have to, you know, someone was saying, who's the leading candidate for Democratic nomination in 2028? And I said, it's probably Governor you really haven't heard of right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But on Friday, he was back on offense, threatening new tariffs on Canadian lumber and dairy, claiming Canada has been ripping us off for years. The back and forth has left businesses scrambling and critics warning of economic fallout. Just How do these sudden shifts in trade policy impact businesses and global markets?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Someone will rise to the moment. And I'm not even sure we know this person right now. I've always thought Governor Newsom would make a really strong candidate, because I'm convinced we're a very luxurious nation, and he just looks presidential. Also, I think he's a fantastic debater.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think he's one of maybe a handful of Democrats that goes behind enemy lines, as evidenced by the fact he went on with very conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. But this needs to be an issue that the Democrats need to pivot very aggressively. People should have rights if a local school wants to Let a transgender girl play sports, more power to you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But with respect to anything regarding, you know, advantage, no, this just doesn't make any sense. They need to pivot hard on this, because otherwise they are just handing a gift, the gift that keeps on giving, to Republicans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I felt it a couple of years ago when we were speaking about this issue. There's definitely a narrative you're supposed to sign up to. It's almost like the narrative around being a MAGA. You have to be MAGA or you could be alienated or voted off the island or Trump could go after you in primary.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
On the left, it's more nuanced in the sense that if you don't sign up to the narrative in this kind of certain ideology, you're treated like an apostate. And the blowback on this, if you didn't sign up for the narrative, and there was just no critical thinking, this kind of seemed like an easy one. But I think we lost a lot of credibility.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Anyways, what do you think of the idea of a Governor Harris?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm really split on this because she's a competent person, right? And I think she was a good Attorney General, good Senator. And she'd probably be, I'd like to think, a competent Governor. The problem is, I think when you run for President and you lose against Donald Trump, quite frankly, I think you go away for a while. I don't think...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think she'll be a talking point for Republicans and their races if she maintains her national profile. I think when you lose your president, quite frankly, I think the best thing for the party would be if she just went dark until we have a Democratic president and she's appointed to the Supreme Court. I think she'd be an outstanding justice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, I think she'd be an outstanding justice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Anyways, but my sense is she's going to be a continued talking point. I don't think, I think she'll continue to be a flashpoint for Republicans. And I wouldn't be surprised.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, I'll be curious, but given, I think she's setting herself up for real challenge and embarrassment here, because about every couple of decades, a quote unquote lifestyle mayor governor wins in California cities and in the state, because the quality of life is
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
in some of our bigger cities in California, I'm from California, is eroded so much that I think the moons are lining up for what I call like a no-nonsense kind of Pete Wilson-ish kind of governor. And I would hate to see her run and lose. I think it would basically send a signal to the entire nation that democratic ideals are kind of just totally done and gone.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
So torn on this, because I think she's a competent Ich glaube, dass sie ihre Marke und die Möglichkeit eines Verlustes und sie als konstantes Gesprächspunkt für Republikaner, um sie zu erinnern, warum die Amerikaner nicht für sie im ersten Moment gewählt haben, wird ein wirklicher Kuddel oder eine Waffe sein, die Republikanern benötigen wird.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Vielen Dank. DEI went from workplace darling to persona non grata in the blink of an eye.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Ja, so speaking being on the, or kind of political strategy, what do you think of Carville's notion that Democrats should step back and let Republicans implode? Do you think this is a dangerous gamble, this notion of just do nothing?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Whenever he speaks, you listen, because he's just so compelling and so matter of fact.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That's right. But I think your instincts are right on, and that is It's not do nothing as much as it is demonstrate more discipline. Instead of running over here and going, oh my God, Gulf of America or male versus female. No, no, no, no. Be more disciplined.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Talk about surrender in Ukraine and that they're coming after your Medicare and have experts and data and look like an adult and just hammer them The difficult thing about Democrats is not what to talk about, it's what not to talk about.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And specifically, they need to stop taking the debate around these ridiculous, stupid issues that don't affect anybody, that are clearly being thrown out there as weapons of mass distraction. Even Doge, I believe, is a weapon of mass distraction. And instead of getting all angry about 19-year-olds, whether they should be in there,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Ich verstehe es, aber die Mehrheit, oder die meisten Moderaten, sehen einige dieser Anstrengungen. Und unter dem Atem sind sie so wie, willkommen zur Arbeitswoche. Das ist mir und anderen Menschen passiert. Was sie, meiner Meinung nach, darauf konzentrieren sollten, ist ein viel schwierigerer, aber empfehlenswürdigster Teil der Daten.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Und das ist, das ist alles eine Verlängerung der Vorstellung, dass sie einen, sie werden die Defizite um 800 Millionen Dollar pro Jahr erhöhen, was nichts anderes als ein Taxingriff ist. Wir erleben gerade den größten Taxingriff in der Geschichte an jungen Menschen in Form von unvorhergesehenen Defiziten. And two, they're coming for your Medicaid. There's no way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Look at what they're planning here. They've tasked the Energy and Commerce Department with cutting $800 billion. That means they're coming for Medicaid. And anything else, again, it goes back to the same notion. The Democratic leadership doesn't have the discipline that McConnell imposed or that it appears that Speaker Johnson and Trump are imposing on the Republican Party. We just lack...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
They just lack sort of that. And instead, they take the bait and they start saying, can you believe he said this? And it's like, well, okay. Yeah, all right, we all know he's reckless and he's weird, but focus on the things that are indefensible on Republicans' part, that are popular among Americans, and hammer away on those one or two issues. So, again, it's not do nothing. It's more discipline.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Just before we wrap up here, what do you think of... What happened recently that supposedly Trump has directed, has basically said, all right, Doge is now an advisory or almost like a service to different cabinet members, but they ultimately get to make the decision around layoffs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And the notion that we decided that an individual, the world's wealthiest man, who is severely addicted to ketamine, reported by the Wall Street Journal, is concurrently being sued by two women for sole custody of their children because he's not involved in their lives.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Maybe that's not the individual who gets to bypass any sort of congressional vetting or approval to decide if veterans or children get their medical care and food. And... In addition, if you look at what so far has happened from Doge, the audit, the only thing it has demonstrated, in my view, is that the U.S. government has a lot less fraud and waste than initially feared.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
If this were a physical, I would argue that the U.S. government has gotten a clean bill of health. That this wall of receipts meant to just highlight all the outrageous waste and fraud, there's no there there. The first thing they reported on the wall of receipts was an $8 billion savings. It ended up it was $8 million and it was money that had already been spent.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And then items two, three and four, it ended up weren't even true. They are having trouble finding all of this waste and fraud that was supposedly out there. And this isn't an operation. This isn't about operational efficiency. It's about political ideology. I got an email from a Fraterniebrother, who I hadn't talked to in 30 years, a kid named Greg Townsend, kid, he's now, you know, 57.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And after graduating, you have trouble, all you see when you hear from these kids is a guy you used to do beer bongs with. And that's, you assume they're still doing beer bongs and listening to Led Zeppelin. And this guy, this man, Greg, had gone on to law school and has been working for a division of the UN, pursuing war criminals around the world, out of Switzerland.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, I was just so blown away by his work. And he said that their funding had just been shut down, but they're continuing to work because they all are so committed to creating an incentive system globally where people think twice before committing war crimes. And essentially the funding was cut off.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
So if you look at where they quote unquote have, what Doge has really done, it's not an operational or an efficiency mechanism. It's a political ideology because they just decided, I know, let's just shut down all US foreign aid. That's a political ideology. Und ich denke, er ist essentiell...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, the thing about Trump that's just so obvious that people don't want to talk about, nobody, he is literally Chernobyl after the meltdown. You get near him, you're going to die a hideous death, at least your reputation. And it's happening to Musk. I see it here at South by Southwest. People are throwing shit at Teslas.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
You know, when I talked about Tesla, I'm like, you know, zero to 1939 in three seconds. It's really hard to understand the political calculus, or the political calculus here, the economic calculus, He really fucked up. And that is the opportunity to remove inspectors from the 32 different investigations across 11 agencies against his companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Okay, that's an economic incentive to get involved and be cozy up to the president. Aber der Preis, den er in seinen Branden leistet, ist enorm. Die Leute kanzeln Starlink-Kontrakte, die ganzen Länder sagen, Polen sagt, wir können nicht auf dich oder deine Technologie zählen. Die Städte von Kanada kanzeln Starlink. Und ich dachte, das ist derjenige, der wirklich die Scheiße aus ihm auslöst.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Was ungewöhnlich ist, und ich benutze Nike als Gegensatz, Nike hat einen politischen Stand genommen und manchmal funktioniert es. When they decided to embrace Colin Kaepernick, when he bent a knee, that was a real political risk. But they did the math. And that is two thirds of Nike sales are outside of the US. No international individuals are concerned or thinks the US has race relations correct.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And about two thirds of their revenue came from people under the age of 30 or non-whites. Meaning the people that were outraged and did videos of burning their Nikes, that was probably their first pair of Nikes. They did the math and said, this is going to cement and tickle the sensors of the majority of our profits and revenue base. And Musk has done the exact opposite.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
75% of Republicans, who he's sort of lighting up or illuminating or activating, say they would never buy an EV. So he's done the exact wrong math here, and that is the group that he is most going to piss off and alienate Das ist quasi seine hohe Kundenbasis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Und all diese Scheiße in Europa, es scheint, als gäbe es in Europa einen sehr heiligen Gag-Reflex, als er versucht hat, in ihrer Wahl zu kämpfen. Aber ich habe es nie, es fühlt sich an, und ich habe das schon gesagt und ich bin falsch, This feels like a tipping point. It feels like the worm has turned. And I was thinking the Bill Burr rant against him was sort of evidence of that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But Tesla has shed a third of its value in February. And I mean, the polling on this guy is absolutely, it's just brutal. Anyways, I don't, I think, and I'm calling it, and I've been wrong before, but I think the Musk brand has absolutely peaked and is crashing. And the fall right now feels unsustainable.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, to your point, Cara was saying that Trump is scared of Musk, that he's the world's wealthiest man, which is his metric for credibility, and that the last thing he wants to do is piss him off. I think he's just going to fade away. I think it's going to be Wenn es in Wahrheit... Er wird verschwinden? Er hat einen schwierigen Job. Er wird nicht anfangen, was er denkt, könnte ein Bürokrat sein.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, it's really, it's almost getting a little bit comical, I think, a key to these negotiations. If It's really difficult to even understand what he wants. When I think about, he says, okay, Canada's been ripping us off. It's hard to exactly discern what he means. And then he'll go to, well, they need to stop shipping fentanyl across the border. And that might be true of Canada.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Er will alle Feuerkraft. He can get. The notion that these guys are going to say, okay, I'm really going to take a chainsaw to my... The incentives are, I need to get shit done, I need to reflect confidence, I need to have decent morale, I need resources to get things done, I'm getting shoved back and forth by these decisions. They need people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
The notion that they are going to decide to start cutting costs, I think effectively or operationally, It might be, if in fact he's now there on top, so to speak, might be, if you will, the end of Doge.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Got to be the Pentagon?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Es ist interessant, das war ein, glaube ich, strategischer Fehler auf der Seite der Republikaner. Ich denke, sie hätten viel mehr Kredibilität gehabt, sie hätten obviiert oder eine Art von Kritik verbreitet, wenn sie nach dem Pentagon zuerst gegangen wären. And that is, I would think it would have been much harder for Democrats to be critical of the process.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I thought that was a strategic error on their part. I would have started with the Pentagon. Any thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
All right, Jess, that's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chenenye Onikei. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can now find Raging Moderates on its very own feed every Tuesday. That's right. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. 40% tariffs are against all of you. That's right. Its own feed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds. You won't hear anywhere else. It ends up that Jess is very, not only talented, but very well connected. This week we're talking with Democratic Attorney Mark Elias about why the courts could be the biggest line of defense against Trump in a second term. Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Just have a great rest of the week.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
It might be true, excuse me, of Mexico and China, or you could at least make a philosophical argument. The amount of fentanyl that's coming across the Canadian border, I think, could fit in a backpack. It's less than 1% of the fentanyl that comes into the nation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
In addition, we're now at a point where I don't even know if the tariffs are on or off based on what hour it is, where people are going to start clearing the shelves or developing alternative supply chains and alternative alliances, regardless of whether he takes the tariffs off again, because we just have no credibility.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And the Atlanta Fed tracker, or they basically have a mechanism for protecting GDP growth, has gone from positive 4% to negative 2.8. Consumer sentiment has had its largest fall since COVID. The economy is contracting at its fastest rate since the lockdowns. It's just really difficult to understand
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
What the endgame here is, if he's putting this out to try and accomplish some big, beautiful deal that he can take credit for. Any thoughts on what's motivating the administration right now?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, so my understanding of tariffs is that They do make sense when they're used as a weapon to try and restore asymmetry and imbalance in trade. If the US doesn't have access to the Chinese auto market, then fine, you want to bring your cars over here, we're going to tariff them. Nein. Nein.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I read that the average car, should these tariffs hold, is going to go up in price somewhere between $8,000 and $12,000. The way cars are manufactured is, you actually have certain parts that leave Lansing, Michigan, go to Canada, have worked under them, then go all the way down to Mexico, have more work or assembly, and then come back to Lansing, Michigan for assembly at a Ford plant.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Some of the parts used to assemble a car go back and forth a half a dozen times across borders. So, $8,000 to $12,000 increase per car. They're talking about an average increase per household of $1,200. I mean, this is really weird. And even more so than the actual tariffs is the sclerotic reputation we're establishing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Because even if you decide, okay, we're going to do a deal and we're going to come to some sort of accommodation that works for both, who can trust that we're actually going to do what we said we're going to do? We're now talking about, supposedly Trump wants Iran... Think about another deal. We're shutting off intelligence to Ukraine and then they bomb a hotel where Americans are.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
We talk about putting it back on and putting sanctions back on Russia. I mean, it's just the world economic policy is being run on this guy's blood sugar level at that moment, which means that if you're going to base billions or if you're the EU or trillions of dollars in trade and alliances and supply chains,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
an one man's blood sugar, you decide, no, I'm going to just have workarounds, even if they're more expensive. It's just the automobile industry right now. I'm at South by Southwest and a key theme here wenn ich zu Advertisern spreche, ist, dass ihre Advertiservereinigungen runtergehen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Ich meine, das hat so viele Ripple-Effekte auf der Wirtschaft, dass ihre Advertiservereinigungen runtergehen, weil einige der größten Advertiservereinigungen sind Automobilunternehmen und sie sind literal nur, wir wissen nicht, was zu tun, wir haben alle Marketing und Spenden aufgehoben, weil wir wissen, dass wir nicht viele Autos haben werden und wir sind einfach nicht sicher, was passieren wird.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Also können sie nicht mal planen, wenn die Tarife absolut rein geht, würden sie sagen, okay, wir müssen unser Geschäftsmodell planen, wir werden Preise erhöhen, alternative Routen oder Supply Chain finden, Aber sie hätten einen Geschäftsplan. Jetzt ist das das Schlimmste der Welt. Ich denke, das ist, was Eisenhower gesagt hat.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Die falsche Entscheidung ist schlecht, aber keine Entscheidung ist schlimmer. Es gibt ganze Unternehmen, die keine Entscheidung machen müssen, weil sie nicht wissen, in welchem Umfeld sie arbeiten werden.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Oh, the queen. I don't know. You're right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
A Jewish climate scientist.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, it really is. It's very difficult to understand the trade. And the trade right now at a very macro level is the following. We're basically trashing and fraying Ukraine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
and making much more brittle and fragile these 80-year alliances with the world's largest economies that through free trade, coordination, general goodwill, cooperation towards each other, lower costs for Americans and increase the sales of our products abroad.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And now these nations are just going to figure out different alliances and even if we go back and say, hey, just kidding, we didn't mean it, love you, come down to Mar-a-Lago, they're going to say, sorry boss, you're just not a reliable partner, I don't know who I don't know who I'm waking up next to. And for me, everything comes back to high school.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And then as I saw this fantastic study that attempted to figure out and get to the bottom of why popular kids were popular. So they looked at the most popular kids in high school. Were they the best looking? No. Were they the best athletes? No. Were they the smartest? Again, no. The thing they had in common was they liked the most other people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
They were that kid that would, going down the hallway, would yell, hey, Lisa, Jim, good to see you, what did you do this weekend? And was confident enough to like other people, that those were the most popular kids. And I read this data showing that about three quarters of Americans feel pretty good about Canada. They're like, yeah, Canadians, go on.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But now two thirds of Canadians don't think of us as an ally. They have really been, I don't want to use the word traumatized, but really feel, quite frankly, just poorly treated. And it's not like they're going to get over that in six or even 12 months.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do. That's putting AI agents to work for people. It's your turn. Get started at servicenow.com slash AI dash agents. Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
If I was born in 1920 Germany, I'd probably be wearing a Nazi uniform and probably would have died on a Russian field somewhere thinking that I was serving the fatherland. You are a function of where you grew up and in what time. And you can see with a lot of young men, these are really talented young men with a lot of opportunities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So I don't feel comfortable grouping them into the bigger swath of young men in America who have a lack of on-ramps to a good living, a lack of financial security, a lack of prospects, a lack of an ability to meet a potential mate and start a family. These guys are all incredibly talented and have a lot of opportunities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And the only lesson, someone called me, a radio show called me, I didn't go on, and they said, what would your advice be to these young men? And I'm like, again, it's a sideshow, but what I would tell any young man is that we're in a high-pressure situation Do what I didn't do, and that is assemble a kitchen cabinet of people to advise you, say, this is what's going on.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Do you have any thoughts for me, whether it's your parents, whether it's your parents' friends, whether it's just friends? Because I saw being a young man, trying to express my manhood is quickly assessing the situation and then making a snap decision and trying to talk everybody into it. me being right, whatever that decision was.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
It is very hard to read the label, especially as a young man when you're more risk-aggressive and, quite frankly, don't have incredibly good judgment or reason. You're not that thoughtful. You're not that measured yet. It is really hard, if not impossible, to read the label from inside of the bottle. So the larger learning I would want to communicate to all young men is do what I didn't do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I would have saved myself a lot of heartache, a lot of professional missteps, a lot of broken relationships had I just reached out to people and said, this is the situation. Do you have any thoughts or advice for me? And you might decide not to change your mind about what you're doing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
But this is, you know, when you find yourself in kind of uncharted territory, it's just a really good idea to check in with people from different backgrounds and say, this is what's going on. It's pretty intense. Do you have any thoughts? And I didn't learn that until I was much older.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I think men have a much more difficult time because we conflate strength and masculinity with being decisive as opposed to being thoughtful and listening.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Jess, did you watch the Super Bowl?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Yeah, it was. It wasn't a good one. We were due for a bad one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, I wasn't planning to. I'm not into sports, and it started at 11.30 p.m., and I made this big to-do about how it's basically this axis of evil between shitty fatty food and then the diabetes industrial complex and that the game is boring and CET. And then, of course, my 14-year-old said, Dad, you want to watch Super Bowl? I'm like, yep, let's do it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And Dana Bash... People don't trust the government.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You are the government. That was the best line of the way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, this is a serious issue, and I want to apologize for my Nazi references because they're not funny, although it is clear that Musk and Trump have made a hard Reich turn. And also, I don't know if you've driven the new Model SS from Tesla.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, you know, he's changed his pronouns to he and Himmler. But anyways, there's a lot in there. And I think that essentially you have, unfortunately, everything reverse engineers to one key statistic in my view. And if we don't fix it, we're going to have some form of revolution, famine, or war. And that happens in every society. And it's the following.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
The ultimate social compact is that my kids will do better than me. If I work hard, I play by the rules, my kids will do better than me. The definition, I used to think the definition of love was caring more about someone than you care about yourself. And I've broadened that to, you know, you give witness and notice to people's lives. But the people who you irrationally love are your children.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, I always say to my sons, you're the only people in the world that don't want to be more successful than me. And I'm embarrassed to say that, but it's true. And when your kids aren't doing as well as you were at 30 for the first time in the nation's history, it's just a breakdown in the social compact. And people want chaos.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And so I stayed awake until the halftime show, which I thought was awful, by the way. And I get I'm not Kendrick Lamar's audience, but I thought the whole thing was just a giant snooze. What did you think?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
There's also, because we've had what I would argue is the best functioning organization. I think the most impressive organization in history is a wing of the U.S. government, and that's our military. And I think in the top five is the U.S. government. And Mel Robbins, who I think is going to probably displace Joe Rogan if Stephen Bartlett doesn't, has this new book out called Let Them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I'm sort of at the point right now where the people who are under the illusion that Trump represents them, the genius of the Republican Party is they represent the top 1% in corporations and they've convinced the bottom 99 that you should endorse us because once you get into the top 1%, you're going to love it here and you have more of a chance with us. And when Democrats keep...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
spewing out this elitist dribble and we continue to move towards a 30-year-old not doing as well as his or her parents, then the parents and the people under the age of 30 just want chaos. And what I say around some of this stuff, I'm at the point now where it's like, let them. The states that went for Trump are the states that are the biggest takers of federal assistance. And
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So just see what happens when Veterans Affairs benefits, when we disrupt and shut down those people you can't trust. OK, let's see what happens to you and dad and your neighbors and what happens in these rural, dark red communities. when there is no head start. See what happens when you shut down DEI and there is no job opportunity for veterans. I'm at the point where it's like, you know what?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You broke it, you own it. You're gonna get to find out. just how quote unquote incompetent government is, you're gonna find out that government is a lot more competent than you had originally thought. And you're gonna get a very ugly awakening in my view. And I'm sort of at the point of, all right, it's time. You really wanna see what life is like
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
In these red states, the people who are most rabidly for Trump, who tend to be in rural areas, tend to be, quite frankly, have a larger body mass index, are more dependent upon Medicare, are more dependent on government services. The biggest takers from a state perspective are the ones that went hardest towards Trump.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
which means when these payments and these programs get shut down, this isn't going to hurt us, Jess. I mean, we're upset about this because I'd like to think we have some fidelity to America and the Constitution and want to pay back based on the prosperity we've recognized because of this incredible system and rule of law and democracy. But quite frankly, this isn't going to really hurt you or me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Our kids aren't in SNAP. We're not getting Veterans Affair payments. We're not getting Social Security payments, right? We're not. Yeah. We're not dying of malaria in Malawi or wherever, right? This won't affect us. It's just fascinating, though, that the people who I think are about to get the biggest dose of like, wow, be careful what you ask for, are the ones that are most rabidly pro-Trump.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So my sense is at this point, you know, as Mel Robbins would say, let them. Have at it. You asked for it. You got it. Toyota.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, you're already starting to see it, and it kind of goes to, and we'll talk about this in a bit, potential solutions. But basically, sales of Tesla cars are diving in the EU. Electric vehicle market declined by 6% overall in January, so there is a structural decline. But sales of Tesla are down 63% in France, 44% in Sweden. 38% in Norway, 42% in the Netherlands, and 12% in the UK.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And as someone who has worked with automobile companies, they measure share in sales and basis points. And that is, if year on year, you're down a half a percent, the person running that country is sweating. I mean, these are, I mean, these literally are kind of implosions of sales. So it does appear that finally what, you know, everyone's been outraged at the lack of outrage on the left.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
It does appear that people, that the bloom is off the rose here. People no longer seem as a, you know, kind of this provocateur and innovator, but as someone who is a threat and that they just don't need to, Onus Carr, I'm curious, with all of these lawsuits and a DOJ investigation piling up, how serious do you think the legal threat is to Musk and Doge?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And what could the long-term fallout be other than, obviously, as popularity is going down? But I'll put forward a thesis. When you tell someone you can be a convicted felon and then reelect them, He's essentially decided the incentives and disincentives no longer apply to me, that I can break the law with impunity. Do you think there is a bridge too far here around these court cases?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
There was one fantastic moment when, of course, Taylor Swift got booed. That made me happy. Why is that? Is that wrong?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Is that wrong? I thought that was hilarious.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I don't know. It's like the Roman Coliseum, except lions. We have Taylor Swift, so occasionally I think he'd boo against the lions. I don't know. I found the whole thing interesting. It's like America, where we sell boner pills and opioid-induced constipation medication while giving young men CET. You know, America. I just find the whole thing... I don't know. I'm too cynical.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So when are you moving home? I'm not sure. 17 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days is what is on my calendar. Not that I'm thinking about it, but I'm looking forward to getting back to the States. Because, you know, things are going so well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
The problem is these 2 million people don't want to leave. And even more, nobody wants to take them. Albania, what's the population of Albania? Look at the border. You want to see a fortified border? Look at the border between Egypt and Gaza.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I don't think anything makes you feel more— Well, I mean, the reality is if you didn't know what was going on, I think the reality for most Americans, unless you're a veteran or a beneficiary of SNAP or Head Start, which is a lot of Americans, but quite frankly, if you're in our economic weight class, you can shield yourself from this nonsense.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
what Egypt and Jordan have decided is that the elements of this population that they cannot risk incorporating is chaos and violence. So this just doesn't seem like what I'd call a viable solution for anybody. So until we have, do we need to be creative? Yes. But I find this, most of those just sort of kind of ridiculous that, that, okay, you're going to relocate 2 million people and then,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
put up a bunch of residence inns and Trump towers and, you know, Westin hotels and then invite the rich ones back. I don't, it's like, okay, walk me through how this logistically actually makes any sense. So I don't see any viable path here. What do you think is the significance of the judge blocking Trump's federal worker buyout plan and how could this play out in the coming weeks?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I mean, I guess the question is their attitude is it doesn't matter if it's legal or illegal. If we make an offer and people accept it, then it's done. So before you can get caught robbing the bank, just spend the money and enjoy yourself. And then if you get caught, OK, we'll give the money back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
It just there is definitely a kind of like a move fast and break things kind of element here and have no regard whatsoever. For institutions or process, just see if you can get away with it. Whenever I see Republicans, I feel like they're sort of like, I can't believe we're getting away with this shit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And it's like tickling their sensors. Isn't this amazing? And I even, I don't know if I'm imagining this, but I'm wondering if they're even getting a little bit nervous, like, Jesus Christ, I didn't realize it would be this easy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I would argue you're probably a beneficiary of it and not in a good way. But what I recognize moving to London, which is, in my opinion, the second best city in the world, is it is really hard to beat America. And that is if you like opportunity, if you like a crush and a collision of culture, grit, creativity, there's just nothing like America.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Rubio was a fan.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, let's do that. But first, we have to take one more quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back. Before we wrap, Democrats are stepping up their strategy. Rallies are gaining momentum. Schumer is calling for opposition to every Trump nominee, and Jeffries is making his stance clear in negotiation letters. Jess, do you think this is the right approach? Do you think it'll be effective?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And my reductive analysis after I say this and it triggers some people molesting the earth for the last 30 years is that America is still the best place to make money and Europe's the best place to spend it. So when you're going into your spending years, absolutely spend time in Europe and go to Madrid and get a great bottle of wine for $10, not $80. Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I mean, I was happy to see those Democratic congresspeople walk over. I think at least I think they need to be seen doing anything. But the optics here, I agree with you. It felt like a senior's home when they found out water aerobics were canceled or jello night had been switched to Thursday. I mean, it just felt, oh, God, that's that's how we're going to win this fight.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
That's the army we're sending in. You know, as we try and process this, there's. I want to move to like, okay, what do we do? And there's, I would argue, and I want to put forward some potential ideas and have you respond to them. There's short-term and there's long-term. And the first thing you got to do in any sort of strategy is you got to determine where's the soft tissue? What's the leverage?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
What are our assets? What can be exploited? And Hakeem Jeffries, I thought, was actually quite eloquent and honest when he said, they control all three branches of government. There's just not a lot we can do from kind of a legislative level. And when the stuff gets to judges, it gets pushed back, but they're, you know, they're moving at this blitzkrieg speed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And my view is, okay, I think you go after the money. I like what they're doing by hacking and turning off these payment systems or intervening. I don't know what the right term would be. And I think you go after Musk's financial interests. So it's already happening in Europe, as I previously mentioned. Tesla sales are going down.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I think that our congressional representatives and people who think what's going on here is a total subversion of our democracy, to make it known that you probably shouldn't sign up for T-Mobile right now because T-Mobile has just struck a deal with Starlink. You probably shouldn't be thinking about any advertiser on Twitter. That's an obvious one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You should be thinking about, okay, United Airlines has just announced a big deal with Starlink. How do you go after the pocketbook? I think that's really what Musk cares about. It's already happening with Tesla. I don't see any reason. Should the department, should veterans groups be doing anything around Tesla, Starlink, any of his economic interests? I think you go after the purse.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
because that's what I think these people care about. Over the medium and the long term, I think you draft resolutions and say, okay, if this unelected group of people can go in and start turning off payments, we're going to propose turning off payments or anything related to Starling. Starling, I mean, Musk, to a certain extent, is a huge beneficiary, and I even wrote a post titled Welfare Queen,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
The notion that he's trying to cut off payments and claim the government is too big and then its large S is wasted. Meanwhile, he's one of the biggest beneficiaries from this large S. Should we be thinking about, one, how do we go after the economic interests
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Elon Musk to say, we're not down with this, and you circumventing democratic channels to implement what you think is right, and we're going to punish you and your companies. And there's nothing illegal. You don't have to sign up for T-Mobile that's introducing Starlink. You don't have to fly United Airlines, which has signed a contract with Starlink.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And then over the medium and long term, I think you just have to tell Republicans, okay, you realize that if you can do this, then we can shut off Starlink. We have our own programmers, and we'll find out if a judge thinks that's legal or not. I do think, though, the nuclear option is now on the table, and that is I believe that the Democrats should credibly threaten
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, check out Munich, which is an amazing city, Milan. Go to, you know, PSG game in Paris. It's just—but if you're looking to advance your career, your influence, your impact on the world professionally— Everything here, I would argue, is a kind of medium or second gear. It just can't get out of second gear. But I gotta be honest, I can't wait to get back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
to get in the way of blocking the extension on our debt ceiling such that the next Treasury auction fails. Because at the end of the day, the reason why the tariffs were rolled back is the leverage in the people that Trump listens to are corporations and shareholders. And they called him around these ridiculous Canadian and Mexican tariffs and said, do not do this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
This will have an immediate impact on the stock market. The adult in the room is the stock market and the 10-year bond. And he basically got these kind of non, I mean, these illusory symbolic concessions and then walked them back. And I think if the Democrats say, OK, you want to play Russian roulette, we're going to load the chamber around the upcoming Treasury auction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And if you want to call all your buddies and tell them that interest rates are about to spike, which will take the stock market down. And I'm still trying to figure out if that hurts the 1 percent. Well, 1 percent of America's population owns 90 percent of the stocks. So I think that the real leverage here is around money and is around, you know, you want to shut down the economy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You don't believe in a democratic process. Fine. We're going to shut down the economy and you're not going to be able to make the interest, the upcoming interest payments. And you're going to be the president for the first time. was so offensive, was so non-democratic that we felt we had no choice but to get in the way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You're about to be the first president where a treasury auction where America did not pay its debts. And let's see what happens, boss. But I'm trying to think of where we have leverage. And those are the only places I can think of because per what Hakeem Jeffries said, us just screaming outrage and waving our cane in front of a federal building, that's not working, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We need to go after the money and we need to say, you're going to be the president that takes this stock market down, you know, eight or 10% on the opening bell next Wednesday after a failed treasury auction. Your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I can't wait to get back to America.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So just reference all-time low for eighth-grade reading levels.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So a lot there. I've felt that I got into it a little bit. Is it Ronit Weinberg, the head of the National Teachers Union? Randy Weingarten. I got that one close. Yeah. Randy Weingarten.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Something. I was circling the white fish. Anyways, I said that I thought that the union she represented was using the kids as drug mules during COVID.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, during COVID, she decided that, you know, we have to protect the teachers. And she was basically saying, you've got to pay us more and give us a ton of time off. And the reality was that the population of teachers in America is the least vulnerable. It was the least vulnerable to COVID. They were young, primarily female, primarily thin. These were the least at risk people in America.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And she was using basically kids and their mental health, which we found were severely impacted by being out of school, such that she could try and find a moment of leverage to get more money for her dues-paying members.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I think teachers' unions—and I'm casting a broad brush here across all of them, but we have a tendency to sanctify all of them, not recognize them—that some of these unions are just bottom-line corrupt and really don't seem to care that much about kids despite their hushed, grandmotherly tones.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Yeah, well, that's the joke about Scotland. It's some of the finest minds in the world, and they all have the same thing in common. They left. Anyways, all right, enough of that. Today we're discussing Elon Musk's increasing government influence. I don't know if you've heard. He's this very wealthy individual who puts rockets into space but doesn't live with any of his children.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Where I would depart a little bit with you, and it sounds like also Governor Shapiro, is I am very wary of vouchers. Because I think effectively what vouchers do is like everything else in our society, the kind of the narrative of let's shut down the Department of Education and let's take money and just give people choice and give them vouchers. I think theoretically it makes a lot of sense.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
There are instances where someone would say, I'd rather take the money, put them in a religious school, or I want more choice. I get it. But effectively on the ground, I think what happens is what always happens in our government the last 40 or 50 years. It is nothing but a naked transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Because the reality is the majority of rural areas or poor areas don't have a private school option where they could use the voucher. The only reason they have a school is is because of federal mandated legislation that they have to have transportation and they have to have a school and the school has to be funded.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And all you are doing when you give, say, people a $10,000 voucher, and I'll use, I was on the board of my kid's school, there would be probably some people who are middle class who would rather have the choice. We charge $22,000. They come up with the $12,000. It would provide access to a private school. It'd be good for them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
But really what it would be is a $2 million giveaway to the other 200 families that can't afford it, and it would just take income and desperately needed resources out of the public schools in that area. So I get it theoretically, but I think on the ground, all vouchers end up doing is, again, transfer money
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
From the poorest people in the districts that need mandated Head Start and schools and transportation and food programs to wealthy people who would just get – that would be – you know what that would be, Jess? You have two kids. That would be a $40,000 gift to you and me. My guess is – I don't know if you send – do you send your kids to private or public?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So this is what a voucher program would be. It'd be a $30,000 gift from government to you and me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
He's this former South African slash Canadian slash naturalized American. Anyways, interesting cat. We're going to talk about him. Reminds me of this very popular guy in the middle of last century who some people really loved.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I would like to see, you want to talk about a way to save government tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 30 or 50 years? Do what Japan does. America has a 40% of its population is obese. That is an enormous strain on the well-being, the mental health, and our financial system. And one of the reasons healthcare costs $13,000 a year here per person and $6,500 in Japan.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We have 40%, 70% of America is obese or overweight, 40% obese. Do you know what the percentage of the population in Japan is obese? 12%. Does it? And here's where it starts. If you wanted to increase the well-being of children in America, you would do what Japan does. And that is you'd find the extra money to have a chef at every school. And the chef has one mandate. Everything has to be fresh.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
There are absolutely no processed foods allowed in school because this is what we do. We give these kids shitty, sugary, cheap food. They get obese because the deal is, okay, we can get them addicted to the food industrial complex who basically ran every fucking ant last night on the Super Bowl and then hand them over to the diabetes pharmaceutical complex. And that's the axis of evil.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
North Korea and Iran are nothing compared to the food industrial and the diabetes industrial complex in this nation. And in Japan, they say we're going to spend the money. Have you seen those interviews with the kids coming out of school? What's your favorite food? Broccoli.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
right? And they say, your job at three in the morning, these chefs get up at every school, not hugely paid, but a lot of them do it, former chefs. They go to the fresh fish market, and they have to find fresh food every goddamn day. And these kids grow up with a different sense of nutrition. I love the idea of thinking out of the box and thinking long-term, but corporate interests get involved.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And again, this is our school system and our children, what I have found, is that America is nothing but a platform to transfer money to companies and shareholders who trade and traffic in addiction. Addiction to food, addiction to opiates, addiction to sex, addiction to dopa. And we use the kids as basically body bags or dopa bags. I have gotten so far off track, Jess. Bring me back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Reel me back, Jess.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
But most people, you know, most people over time found that, well, it's interesting. They have the same hand gesture. It appears that they have the same body language. Anyways, we're going to talk about Elon Musk's increasing government influence, Trump's buyout offer to federal workers, and the latest Democrats' effort to fight back. All right, let's get into it, Jess.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
He's great on this. Yeah. He's great on this. Yeah, I agree.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We gotta go. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let's leave it there. That's it for the episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Shananya Oneke. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. Raging Moderates on its own feed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
If you want us to keep making this pasta of a podcast, please hit subscribe right now on YouTube or on our distinct Raging Moderates feed. Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts without fear or favor. That's right. That's right. The hit of the show, The One on Fox. That's what's coming next. And who is The One? That's right. It's Jess Harloff. We are immune.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We are superpower fucking immune. fearless from tweets from the wealthiest man in the world. I'm not going to read any of those 11,000 comments. I'm not. You've definitely read them all. I have not. I'm not on Twitter. I'm not on X. I'm still calling it Twitter. Anyways. And by the way, who sold his Tesla two years ago and before he sold it, took a big fat fucking dump in the passenger seat?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
That's right. That's your man. Hit subscribe now. Jess, have a great rest of the week. You too.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I've already I've already dived in the shallow.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Elon Musk's grip on the executive branch keeps tightening. His Doja crew has been popping up at federal agencies, snooping around sensitive systems. And until last week, when a federal judge blocked his team from accessing the Treasury Department's payment system, my understanding is every time they run up against a judge, they get blocked.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Republican support for Musk's role in the Trump administration is cooling off. An Economist YouGov poll shows only 26% now want him to have a significant influence. That's down from earlier numbers, Jess. Musk also tweeted at me and Cara, funny, I barely noticed my Pivot co-host over the weekend, accusing us of threatening his engineers just for calling out the harm they're causing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So, look, before I'm not going to I don't want to get into a back and forth here. What I would say is that the comments made were made by me, not by Kara. And I find it sort of telling that he puts Kara's name first and goes after Kara instead of just going after the person who he has or should have a grievance with. And that's that's me. And anyways, I'll let you go first.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Any thoughts on what's going on with Elon, Jess?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, I don't have a lot. At first, I started, this is what happens whenever Elon tweets at me or gets angry at me, and that is my phone starts blowing up with, are you okay? Is everything okay? And I'm like, I'm not on Twitter, so I'm shielded from most of the toxicity. And someone sent me a screenshot saying, of the tweet and that it had 11,000 comments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I'm like, well, I bet those comments aren't fun to read. But I mean, essentially, I start to get worried and I start to get panicked and I start to, you know, I start to get anxious. And then I realized, okay, whatever you say about Kara and me is we live with our children. We don't sleep with a loaded gun next to us. We're not severely addicted to a disassociative substance.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We're not making Nazi gestures. And he's acting like these engineers are in Guantanamo Bay when the reality is Probably the most serious thing they're doing other than denying children and veterans their payments, trying to figure out if the meme for Doge should be wearing sunglasses.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And just this notion of these billionaire tears where he can't decide if it's his struggling engineers or just proper grammar. Like, pick a struggle boss. It's like, well, you don't have autocorrect. I start to read this thing. I start to get upset. I start to think about responding. And then I think, I don't want to create a sideshow.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I want to focus on what I think is important, and that is highlighting. that we have somebody who was not cleared or approved by government or Congress, who is basically hacking into our federal systems. If China did this, it would be an act of war. Without the permission of Congress, and shutting off funds to veterans and children and the neediest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I think that's where we have to remain our focus. So, Musk saying mean things about me, that's a sideshow and it really doesn't matter. It's not important. And I'm not going to, other than, I want to stay focused on, you know, when you go into an emergency room, there's a saying called stop the bleeding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And that is if someone comes in with a gunshot and they are hemorrhaging blood, they don't take their PSA or their cholesterol level. So my ego and me being butthurt or responding or getting into it with him on Twitter, that's a distraction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We need to stay focused on the fact that we are now in a position where we've created a series of incentives where when we convict the president of being a felon and he gets reelected, he has learned that the American public, as long as they control all three branches of government, will not hold him accountable for trespassing or hacking into our most sensitive federal systems.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Now, if it gets to a judge, it gets pushed back. But they're kind of in this blitzkrieg moment of let's ask for forgiveness as opposed to permission. That's what I want to stay focused on. So I'm trying as hard as I can, and this isn't easy for me, as you know, Jess, to put my ego aside and focus what limited audience and bandwidth I have on stopping the bleeding, if you will. Your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I'm just going to unshame Kara.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, she's better at counterpunching than me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Yeah, she's fearless. And I did—I mean, it's interesting. You know, I'm thinking a lot about men and masculinity. It is interesting that the Doge team is all young men.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I do think that at the end of the day, the people responsible for this are the president and Elon Musk. And I think these— I'm going to call them kids, but these young men, young men are more risk aggressive. Biologically, the prefrontal cortex doesn't catch up until they're the age of 25 to a woman's. It is interesting that there are no women as part of this group.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Thanks for that. So I think they should be held accountable if a law has been broken here and that anyone who goes after the president or Musk for laws broken, which I believe they're trespassing. I believe that they have purposely circumvented Congress. We're in uncharted territory because you don't know if that's an actual crime.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
if that is a civil or a criminal offense when the president approves of it. I think that's for courts to decide. But I do think it's a sideshow to a certain extent to focus on these young men. To be clear, the people accountable for this, the people who are orchestrating this are the president, and Elon Musk.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And to a certain extent, the Democrats, I don't want to say who are enabling it, but have been caught flat-footed and have to figure out a way to strike back. And we're going to talk about that later in the show. But it is interesting. And just to be real here about these young men, I was thinking about it. I've said a lot.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
So first off, just because we're capitalists here and there's not anything important going on in the world, it's important to run a commercial as we start here. But effectively, a little insight into the podcast world. The RSS feed where people subscribe is what advertisers look at. And right now we're at 42,000.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Well, so as we stand here right now, the Dow's off 100 or about 200 points, which isn't huge. I think the market, what the market is saying is, And what a lot of Republicans, when they have absolutely no response for what is the strategy here, say, oh, this is, like you said, an opening salvo. What the market is saying is that he's done this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
He'll get some sort of pinky promise, as Mark Cuban said. He'll declare victory and say, oh, we got this. They're stopping the shipments of fentanyl. And people will nod, do nothing. And he'll declare victory and then take these down or eliminate them. That's what they're saying right now. The problem with this is that when you threaten people, they remember it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
He's creating an enormous opening for Russia and China to establish military bases, goodwill, cooperation between their intelligence services. less likely to cooperate with ours, less likely to call us and say, hey, we have information saying there's a terrorist organization in a cell and a bunch of these individuals have gotten on planes and are headed to New York.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
We have a lot of nations that will call, will cooperate with our intelligence personnel. I think part of the problem is I think Americans have cold comfort that one, they don't realize how many people are out there in organizations that would like to come kill us and take our shit away. And that this, our government security apparatus has been so effective
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And once you get to 50,000, for some reason, the advertising industrial complex has decided then they can start advertising with us. And keep in mind, we still have ads, but they're those shitty rotational ads that have a stranger reading them. And if you want Jess Tarlop to tell you why Athletic Greens gives her that radiant look or why I am so much better now that I have Z-Biotics, which...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And we are so strong at getting the best, better end of trade agreements and the prosperity we recognize, which I acknowledge has been crammed into, you know, disproportionately into too few people's pockets. I think people take for granted just how strong our security and government apparatus is overseas. and how much that is aided by the ultimate cloud cover of goodwill towards us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
That despite being arrogant, indulgent, loud, obnoxious, that people generally believe around the world, especially in the West, that we're the good guys, that they can count on us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And so to kind of stick up the middle finger, create chaos, do real economic harm without even a clear signal as to what it is you want in return, but just to do this because you can, even if in fact he does retract these things. I was on the board. of a large specialty retailer. And I talked to the person who runs the company over the weekend. I said, what do you think he's doing?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And he said, well, we've stocked up because we knew this was coming. So we stocked up. We got a bunch of stuff in, like six months worth of stuff before this took effect because we knew it was coming. And we're banking that...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
when he realizes when all of a sudden the price of everything goes up for American consumers, he's going to pretend that it was a victory and that he negotiated some deal and back away. And even if that comes off with as little damage as we think, That is like radiation that 20 or 30 years ago results in, you know, from now results in leukemia.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And the other thing that the only kind of analysis I did here that I think uncovered something that maybe the media isn't talking that much about is that this has, this tariff thing has Elon Musk's fingerprints all over it. What do I mean by that? If you look at Tesla to their credit versus other automobile companies, the majority of
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
goes across the Mexican and Canadian border back and forth several times because there's different parts manufacturers with different advantages or skill sets across the trade agreements in Mexico and Canada. Tesla, to its credit, has built a company that has kind of a deeper manufacturing base. What do I mean by that? The majority of the car is assembled domestically.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And you think, well, what about China? They're going to have to pay tariffs when China imposes reciprocal tariffs. Actually, the majority of cars sold in China from Tesla are produced in China. Now, some of the Chinese manufactured Teslas that are sold in Europe face a 7.5% tariff, which, by the way, he's suing them for.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But of all the companies in the automobile industry that will be least impacted by these tariffs, it's Tesla. So again, even—I mean, we talked about cutting off—he has access to the payments for Veteran Affairs, all these different things that people are worried about. Even where they don't see his fingerprints, his fingerprints are there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I believe that he had a large—a lot of influence in how these tariffs were implemented, such that it has— It has seriously diminished the economic power of his automobile rivals. And again, it's, okay, the richest man in the world now has more access to the federal government payment system, can decide to turn off or on veterans benefits. I mean, just this crazy shit. And what do you know?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
He's the richest man in the world. And it all goes to the same place. And that is, and I was talking with Kara about this on Pivot. And we'll get to this, all of the websites that are disappearing around family planning and choice and HIV and vaccines. I see this as the far right and Trump have said, it's not a war on gay people or a war on women. It's a war on the poor.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Because I think the deal they've struck is they've said, you know, poor people always have a backdoor to family planning, to vaccines, whatever it is they need. They'll be fine. They'll figure it out. This really feels like a war on the poor.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
helps me go out and drink recklessly, and the next day I don't feel as shitty. Both ads that we will do. If you'd rather hear host readovers, please hit the subscribe button on our, both on YouTube and on our dedicated Raging Moderates feed. We would really appreciate it. Please do it now. We will tell you when we hit 50,000, but let's try to get there this week. Oh my God, that was so commercial.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And the flip side of that is that the richest man in the world is now basically much more powerful than any elected representative, any governor, any senator, any congressperson. I still think Trump's more powerful because he can fire Musk. But we now have an unelected person. And what do you know? He happens to be the wealthiest person in the world. This is full idolatry of money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This is full capture by money of D.C. And I think it's going to come at a huge cost to the long-term goodwill. And it's so strange. And I'll stop my word salad here. For the first time in my life, and it feels really odd, I'm rooting for the Germans and the Canadians.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
When the German public turns out, 100,000 of them, to say, by the way, when your fucking idiot shows up and tells a far-right group here they should be proud of their culture, the majority of Germans do not believe that nor endorse that message.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
When Canada boos when the national anthem is sung at a sporting event in, I don't know if it was Toronto or Montreal, I got to be honest, I'm with them, and it feels really, really unusual.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
All right. Let's move on to banter. How are you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that the symbol of America isn't really an eagle, it's a pendulum, and that, you know, it's never at the bottom.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And if you're looking for a moment of optimism, I believe that the majority of Americans will come to realize, whether it's through an inability to rebuild their house for less than 40% more, the fact that prices are going to go up, the fact that we're going to start to meet people who are really treated unfairly, or just the fact they're going to go, you know, I'm no longer as proud to be an American as I used to be.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think there's a decent chance they have really overreached here. And some of the damage that's going to come out of this is going to frighten people who even thought they were, you know, I think a lot of people probably didn't sign up for this. And while it might feel good and like, yeah, take that, libtards. And I mean, I just find it so telling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
that some of the agencies charged with rounding up, if you will, undocumented workers, where are they going? They're going to work sites, schools and places and churches. And it strikes me, okay, if you found a group of people and said, where can we find them? We can find them where only 40% of Americans work. 145 million people have a job out of 350 million.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
These people are working, they're going to church, and their kids are going to school. Doesn't that kind of make them ground zero for what America is supposed to be? And then to go macro, and I am not a believer in open borders. I absolutely think 250,000 people coming across the border in December of 2023 got us into this fucking mess. I think Biden did a terrible job.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But at the same time, what we have to acknowledge is, okay, how did we get here? We got here. Because if America's secret sauce is immigration, the most profitable part of that sauce is illegal immigration. And we have known about it. 17% of people on a construction site are undocumented workers. There are all these videos now everywhere of all these work sites that are empty. They come in.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
It's the most flexible, profitable workforce in history. It's not Stanford graduates. It's not immigrants from India running NASDAQ companies. It's illegal, undocumented workers coming in, taking care of grandma, picking our crops, providing services for quote-unquote below market. I renovated a house. There's not a single American who will work outside. They just won't do it. You can't find them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I 100% don't care. I don't even know who Luka Doncic— That's not true. Is that a Serbian tennis player? Who is—I have no idea who that is, seriously.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
They're still in plumbing and electric. Any other job building a house? He's like, I can't find domestic workers. And they're very profitable. They don't tax social services. They don't stick around for Social Security, despite the fact they pay Social Security taxes. So they've been demonized.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This feels eerily reminiscent of the 110,000 Japanese who made the mistake of their parents being born in Japan. They did nothing else, and they were rounded up and put in camps. That was a stain on the American experience, and it feels like we're getting eerily close to some sort of kabuki version of that or some sort of karaoke version.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I don't know what the term is, a bad impromptu version of that. But this is... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Anyway, that was crazy, but you don't care. Just so you know, pretty much every male viewer and a decent number of female viewers on YouTube right now have decided you are, in fact, the perfect woman. That you not only bring a lot of intelligence and you're obviously very attractive, but you understand the latest in basketball trades. You literally are.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But I have no idea who that is. And I don't unless it's Cole Palmer. I don't care.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
What did I do this weekend? Really? My favorite weekend? I did absolutely nothing. My boy was home. My 17-year-old comes home on the weekends from boarding school. And my 14-year-old, on the weekends, he turns into, he's kind of difficult. I think, I don't know what it is about the dynamic, but on the weekends, he's tough.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think that might have something to do with it. And then we went to a one-year-old's birthday party, Snoozerama.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I keep telling you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah. Yeah. I'm out of that. I'm out of that stage. But they're nice people and I knew they'd have a bar. So it was fun. And then what did I do? Did I have any fun Saturday night? You know, really boring weekend. Didn't even watch any Premier League games. I'm headed to, after this, I'm bombing to the airport and I'm headed to Orlando.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
So welcome back. I want to talk about a couple of things and get your response in. to each of them. So a couple of the things we haven't been talking about, the US government has decided, or basically Trump has decided to eliminate and take down sites. According to reporting from Wired and the New York Times, more than 8,000 pages across government sites have been taken down since Friday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This follows Trump's orders to take down all outward facing media, sites, social media accounts that include or promote gender ideology. Topics of pages taken down include vaccines, veterans affairs, hate crimes, and scientific research.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Specifically, 3,000 pages were taken down from the CDC, 3,000 pages from the Census Bureau, 1,000 pages from the Office of Justice Programs, 200 pages from Head Start, a program for low-income children, and 180 pages from the Department of Justice. And this goes to a theme. That I'm big on.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And that is, I believe that the way Trump is implementing a misogynist, anti-gay ideology is to say to communities, if you're rich, you got nothing to worry about. If your nephew's gay or transgender or your daughter needs to terminate a pregnancy, don't worry that this is continuing a war on the poor.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Because one of the things they took down, I was reading about, was this HIV transmission calculator. where you went in and talked about the type of sex you practiced, your sexual orientation, very straightforward questions, and it said, okay, you're at high risk or low risk, but there's options available, or what type of options or programs are available for a pregnant woman who contracts an STD?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And I think about, okay, my son doesn't need that website. My son has education, education, to parents at home, money to figure things out, or my daughter would need it. This is an attack on poor people under the auspices of implementing a far-right, white Christian nationalist ideology with a wink and a nod saying, okay, but my daughters and my sons, if I'm rich, we need an out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
We need a backdoor here. Your thoughts, Jess?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Again, see above. Like, you're not smart. I am doing a speaking gig at Disney World. And that's a first for me. Yeah, I'm doing a speaking gig at it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And you should keep that to yourself. But anyways, go ahead.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
It's a perfect storm of bad things. One, social media has gutted journalism. The number of journalists over the last 20 or 30 years is down somewhere between 20 and 30 percent. And they're arguably the largest cop ever. or the most powerful cop that doesn't carry a badge to report on this stuff. And they're just overwhelmed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And in addition, the quote-unquote information that has replaced these journalists traffics in rage and makes you hate the government and hate each other, which has kind of led to this. And then you'd couple that with the idolatry of the dollar, where we let one person who happens to be the richest person in the world make these sorts of decisions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
You end up with an uneducated populist who believes in conspiracy theory, is enraged, and the wealthy or the wealthiest man in the world will start making these unilateral decisions with a lack of checks and balances, not only from a Congress that's worried about him turning his sights and his money and his algorithms on them and primarying them, but because people are just so in awe. of money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
You referenced what I think is just a national disgrace. But again, so many disgraces, we can't focus on these things. And that is the foreign aid freeze. The U.S. Congress froze foreign aid, a decision that will go down, in my view, in history as one of the most short-sighted, destructive, and frankly, un-American failures of leadership.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
To be clear, foreign aid is a rounding error in the federal budget. It's about $70 billion or $200 per citizen in exchange for that. What do we have? Sudan, war-ravaged country, is on the edge of starvation. Until last week, U.S. funds supported 634 soup kitchens feeding 800,000 people. After the freeze, 434 of those kitchens were shut down overnight in Thailand and Myanmar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Patients with tuberculosis and life-threatening conditions are being carried away on makeshift stretchers, told to leave U.S.-funded hospital within a week because they have no more supply of medicine and they have nowhere else to go in Africa. Famine-riddled Sudan is worsening. Six million people are on the brink of starvation. Four and a half million died.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Displaced people, they were on the verge of eradicating diseases, including malaria and malnutrition. Some of those clinics are shutting down. Global health, U.S.-funded HIV-AIDS programs in South Africa and Haiti has stalled, putting hundreds of thousands of lives at risk. And be clear, folks, even if you want to make the moral argument, well, that's a tragedy, but I want that $200 back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Focused on American kids? Okay, that's an argument. Don't agree with it, but that's an argument. But the geopolitical fallout here is going to come back to haunt us. China and Russia are stepping into this void while the U.S. pulls back. Beijing is deepening its ties in Africa and Latin America. Aid isn't just about generosity, it's about influence.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And Washington's retreat is just going to leave this gigantic vacuum that our adversaries are happy to fill with a fucking fraction of their investment. Putin will come up with that $70 billion if he can grab some of that goodwill.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think it's the seventh ring of hell for most of us. You have to take your kids there. And 364 days a year, I under-contribute to this whole parenting thing. And then one day a year, I take – or used to because now they're a little too old. Now they go to Universal. Universal is for teenagers, but Disney was for kids. I would take my two boys and six of their friends – to Disney for the weekend.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
So for 200—the majority of Americans, I think Republicans and Democrats, if you sat them down and said, this is the good we're doing around the world, around HIV, malaria— starvation, displaced refugees. This is what we are doing for pregnant women with AIDS, with kids, with vaccines. This is what happens if we withdraw. Are you willing to give us $200 right now, here and now, for the year?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think the majority of Americans would say, absolutely. This aid freeze isn't just a moral failure. It's a strategic disaster, weakening our allies, funding humanitarian crises, and abandoning global leadership. It's going to cost us a lot more than 200 bucks per citizen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This is the definition of a lack of strategy and taking goodwill built over decades and investments by previous Americans and taxpayers and just trashing it in the worst way. This is just so dumb.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, I don't. At some point, we're going to have to do a show on what can be done here. But I've said around Democrats, this is not a time to come together. This is a time to come to the rescue and focus on the economic impact. I do think Democrats are starting to hit back. I loved some of the Senate confirmation hearings. I think Senator Michael Bennett is an absolute hero.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
By the way, who I supported for president.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think there was a third somewhere in there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But I probably James Bennett, his brother.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, they're very impressed. But it really I know Senator Bennett. He's a really decent man. Public school superintendent. Senator was in private equity, understands capitalism. Anyways, I thought Senators Sanders and Warren were very effective. So it is good to see Democrats hitting back. But this does feel like we're in uncharted territory. Anyways, we're going to take one more quick break.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Welcome back. Before we wrap, Ken Martin's election as chair of the Democratic National Committee marks the beginning of a huge challenge after spending 14 years leading Minnesota's DFL in He's no stranger to political battles, but now he's stepping into a role with a lot more weight. His victory was a decisive one, but it's only the first hurdle.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Whoa. And that, as far as I'm concerned... Alone? Yeah, just me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Martin's job now is to unite a divided party and rebuild momentum after disappointing losses in 2024, all while preparing for a tough battle against the Trump-led GOP in 2028. Jess, with contenders including Ben Wickler, who had a lot of big-name support, what do you think gave Ken the edge in securing the win, and how do you think he'll use this momentum to unite the DNC moving forward?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I might be able to rope another guy into the seventh ring of hell just so we can complain to each other. But as far as I'm concerned, that compensates for my negligent parenting the rest of the year. I think that... I can totally see... That you enjoy it? I don't understand it, but I can totally see it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think we've done a really bad job, we being Democrats, of building our bench.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I'm trying to think.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, but my view is that we've decided to opt for 90-year-olds who engage in insider trading and won't leave. that the top of the pyramid is so stacked with right but ineffective players that we're not advancing some of our younger voices fast enough. I just think there, I think if you're a young, ambitious, and talented player,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
You want to get to America and you want to be a Republican right now because I think the Democrats have decided that it's a senior's facility. And I just think we need to absolutely elevate – I mean, for God's sakes, Amy Klobuchar, I think she's 60 or 62. She looks like a teenager compared to the rest – or Hakeem Jeffries looks like he's 15 –
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
We need to get some of these younger, more forceful people. I'm not a huge fan of AOC's policies. I love that she said, I'm not going to the inauguration. He's a rapist. I mean, where are those voices? I mean, we needed to identify a cadre of 30 or 40. I mean, Secretary Buttigieg, I like how he came out and immediately tweeted, you know, zero crashes on my watch, boss.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Oh, my God. It's so awful.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And that's an unfair statement, and he should make it. But I don't think, I think we have, I don't know, I think we're like a corporation. I think a lot of these people need to be put on an ice floe, Jess.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
You're like— I will say this. When I was at—was it Walt Disney—or was it Disneyland or Walt Disney World— They have that princess thing where you sign up your little girl and she goes in and they make her up and they put wings on her and a little princess fairy thing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Every time I saw it, I thought, this is the greatest threat to democracy of an individual who shares company with Bashar al-Assad and can't call Edward Snowden a traitor is going to just destroy the morale of people who put themselves in harm's way every day and wonder, is this person really going to have my back? And then I think, oh no, she's not the worst.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
He's the worst, that we're going to have kids who are going to lose limbs and have hands and feet amputated, which is what happened if measles, we have another measles outbreak who's selling onesies to babies that says, you know, vaxxed and, I mean, unvaxxed and what is it? What were those onesies?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, and it's just very odd, really.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And then they have that little area where she's introduced and they have lights and smoke and she comes out. I sat there for 15 minutes while my kids were going on Space Mountain or something and watched the most beautiful little girls come out and you... They come out like they're floating. And I thought, oh, my God, Disney. Like, I've made me want to buy Disney stock as emotional as I am.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, he's coming across almost as like semi-legitimate. And Senator Rubio has always been a political animal. He wakes up every morning and looks in the mirror and says, hello, Mr. President. He would do anything to increase the likelihood. And quite frankly, and I'm circling back the very beginning here around our immigration policy, they got very serious about immigration about 20 years ago.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And they had something called the Gang of Five, and they included this very young senator named Marco Rubio. And he blew up the whole thing because his pollsters decided that in Iowa, they don't want anything resembling a path to citizenship for dreamers. So Marco Rubio will always do what he believes is the most politically expedient thing, full stop. I mean, he really is the opposite of...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And my favorite statement about Marco Rubio is who would have thought that peoples with the last names Cruz and Rubio would hate Mexican people so much? He really hasn't been. Anyways, and what's strange is I can see how he flew in 99 to zero because we have just changed, entirely changed the benchmark. But what you said about, is it Senator Hassan? That was really powerful.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Actually, I think that's probably a good place to end it. I don't have anything upbeat. What are you doing this week, Jess? Let's get back to you. Talk about something upbeat. Anything going on with your kids?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Very good. Trust me on this. You cannot take enough pictures when your kids are young. I, every day I send a photo of, Of me and one of my boys when I was with them when I was a kid. I sent it to them. I texted to them at school. And you can't take enough photos.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
There you go. All right. That's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. Raging Moderates on its own feed. Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
It was these little girls. You could tell they were thinking about this all year and they picked out their outfit and they do such an amazing job. It really is. It really is incredible. But just to bring us back to reality. I had one of those moments that made me feel very depressed about income inequality, and I'm on the right side of that trade, so this is a story of privilege.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But I took the kids, and the ride Avatar, it was a three-hour wait. So you could pass out the movie Avatar on an iPad, and people could watch it before they actually got on the ride. And you just saw so many families in line holding their kids asleep. And I thought, this is borderline abusive to create something that parents have to go to and the majority of people can't.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And I did one of those VIP tours where you pay thousands of dollars And you roll by the entire line, and then the person at the front of the line operating the ride gives you a hand signal in case you want to go twice. And I remember thinking, at some point, the people in the line, it goes Planet of the Apes and they kill us all. Because this is so out of control, the disparity between the life...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
that 99.9% of Americans have to lead and the rest of us who've gotten, you know, really lucky. Anyways, it was one of those moments I thought, this is weird. This is uncomfortable. Anyways, that's my Disney story. Okay, Jess, in today's episode, we're discussing chaos reigning across the federal government. Chaos is the right word.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Trump launching a trade war with tariffs and Democrats elect a new chair to lead their party. That's kind of a snooze. The first two...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
It's going to be hard to make that sexy. All right, let's get into it. Trump. The Trump administration threw the government into total chaos with a surprise spending freeze that cut off funding for things including school lunches, college financial aid and medical research.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Then just as quickly as it appeared, the freeze was blocked by a federal judge only for the White House to insist they weren't actually backing down, leaving everyone even more confused. But that was just sort of the first ending here. Trump has been on a signing spree, rolling out executive orders targeting schools, trans kids and immigrants, even tried to blame a deadly plane crash on DEI.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And on top of that, his administration sent a mass email offering millions of federal employees benefits. a chance to resign now and still get paid through September. Workers were stunned. Legal experts are flummoxed. And no one's really sure if this is even legal. Jess, I mean this sincerely. Where should we start?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, it feels like the high sparrow and his acolytes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And you need to start. Okay. Just start. Just trust me on this. Look, this is just taking it in order, trying to... My mom used to say, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? Let's just start with the erosion. If you were to start with... We have 750 military bases in 80 countries. China has one in Djibouti in Africa.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And I think when terrorists try and transmit funds or they have a choice, a government has a choice between partnering with a U.S. company or a Chinese company or another Western company, they generally choose us. And first off, this notion that somehow America has been taken advantage of.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
As someone who has been roaming the earth, working with the biggest global companies in the world, I've done deals with world leaders on behalf of companies, not on behalf of the US government. The notion that we are somehow getting taken advantage of around the world is just so asinine. We flex our muscles every minute of every day around the world in terms of our trade agreements.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Do you think these 80 countries that host our military just decided to do it because they like us? I mean, that's some of it. But that goodwill, that power, we exercise and benefit from every day. So just starting there, the notion that this is somehow a recalibration to get back to some symmetry of equity, that's just not true.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And starting with the economic argument, not the moral argument, in Canada— First off, they don't even know what he wants. They're claiming it's because of the flow of fentanyl across the border. There really isn't a lot of fentanyl coming in from Canada. It's like 43 pounds. You could maybe make that argument for Mexico, maybe even for China, because some of it's being manufactured there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do. That's putting AI agents to work for people. It's your turn. Get started at servicenow.com slash AI dash agents. Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But Canada isn't dumping fentanyl from Vancouver. That's just not happening. And Canada can't even figure out what it is he wants. And keep in mind, this is a nation that in the Iran hostage crisis, the Canadian ambassador residence hosted or hid hostages. They risked their lives in the embassy there to help get Americans out. They followed us into Afghanistan, no questions asked.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
They followed us into Iraq, no questions asked. We have Major League Baseball. You just mentioned the NBA. We have American sports teams in Canadian cities. And we've decided to declare economic war on Canada. It's just – it just doesn't – it's not only reckless, it's stupid. And that's just on the economic side.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
We can go further into the different – the other mendacious things they're working on, but this tariff – This tariff is just – I always go to the economics. I'm like, okay, how can I figure out a way to take Brexit and expand it and supersize it where we make our nation less productive but increase costs for everyone in the United States? I know. Let's take Brexit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Let's make it 10 times worse or bigger. And then let's figure out a way to be really mendacious and mean to people in the United States and in special interest groups and across Europe. the world. Your thoughts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Support for Prop Tree comes from Viore. Oh my God, true story. I am wearing, totally coincidentally, guess what? Viore shorts. Viore's high quality gym clothes are made to be versatile and stand the test of time. They sent me some to try out and here I am. For our listeners, Viore is offering 20% off your first purchase. Plus, get free shipping on any U.S. orders over $75 and free returns.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Episode 342. Route 342 is an east-west highway in New York. In 1942, Disney released Bambi. I used to call my girlfriend Bambi, and she thought it was because she had big, beautiful eyes. No, it was because I wanted to shoot her mother with a hunting rifle.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Ezra, you talk about or you say in the book that for a future that's pro-growth, pro-technology and has pro-liberal values. What does that actually look like in practice? Give me more. Well, let's talk about, I mean, beyond just clearing out, going from NIMBY to YIMBY, like they've done in Austin or in Minneapolis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Give me an example beyond housing of how kind of a pro-technology, pro-growth, and pro-liberal values, how that actually impacts things on the ground. I think you guys could have written your book just on housing, because I think what you're saying really resonates with people, where we've turned it into an investment class.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
and turned over housing permits to homeowners and took it out of the hands of bureaucrats. And homeowners have an incentive to restrict the supply. But give me another example in another sector of how you think kind of being pro-tech and pro-growth might change our current approach.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Or can I not breathe today? Yeah, I remember, I grew up in LA. I remember coming home from school and your chest would hurt when you breathe in.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Welcome to the 342nd episode of the Prop G Pop. What's happening? The dog is home in London. I'm back in London town. People say, why did you move to London? People always say that. And I say, well, why am I in London? I'm an influencer, not a decision maker on these issues. The mother of my children said seven years ago, we're moving to London in five years or seven and a half years ago.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
So Derek, when we talk about energy policy, just to steel man this, that the very Republican state of Texas is now producing more wind energy than anyone, and that economics ultimately wins out, or that's a case study. And ultimately that creates less bureaucracy, let the market decide, more wind energy, lower cost of energy, more tax revenue to reinvest in our schools.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Isn't a conservative agenda more of an abundance agenda?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And then she actually called my bluff, came over here, bought a house and brought the kids in school and then boom. We're in London. So let's stack rank London. What's the good? What's the bad? People are like, do you like it? Do you love it? No, I don't love it. I don't love it. Let me start with the good.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
We'll be right back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup. Episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube. By the way, I absolutely love Vivintu. I think she does a great job. Ezra, I see the epicenter of all the things you're talking about are the perfect storm of bad things, whether it's an obsession with scarcity or the administrative state getting in the way of objectives or losing the plot.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
It's a world-class city, I think mostly because it became a haven for private capital or wealthy people looking to engage in tax avoidance. And let's be honest, That's what you do when you get rich. And part of the reason people are rich is because they're obsessed with money and they think about it a lot. Things you're obsessed with, you tend to be better at than things you're not obsessed with.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I think the epicenter for everything you guys are talking about is my industry, where you have, when the dean announces we've rejected 85% of applicants, what do the faculty and the alumni do? They stand up and they applaud.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I'm curious if you've thought about how this scarcity or non-abundance mindset has infected higher education and what policy recommendations you guys would make to address this problem.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Oh, right on, my brother. Literally, right the fuck on. I am here because of the generosity of California taxpayers and the regents of UC. Anyway, sorry. It's an extraordinary.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Mine was $7,000.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
No, no, no, mine was 7,000 for all seven years of undergrad and grad. Do you remember the admissions rate at UC when you applied? No. For me, at UCLA, it was 76% when I applied, and I was one of the 24%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And Prime Minister Tony Blair at the time passed a series of private property laws that said if you're a war criminal or an oligarch or just made a shit ton of money, And you're worried about taxation. You can bring all your capital here and it's safe and no one can come for it and take it. And also, whatever money you keep offshore, we will not tax.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I think it's impossible to argue against the notion that we used to have these... individuals of extraordinary talent that would practice full-body contact violence of capitalism and then became very civic-minded with the spoils of that full-body contact violence of competition. It appears now we have the former and not the latter.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
My fear, though, is that waiting on the better angels of these billionaires to show up is not a strategy. And that I have now become, I've kind of just gone full Bernie Sanders. And I'd like you both to respond to this. And I believe that we just need a massive alternative minimum tax. My tax rate for the last 10 years has been 17%. I'm very transparent about
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
From my 30s and 40s, I was averaging over 30%. Then I got very wealthy, and my tax rate has been cut in half. I mean, in order to make these sorts of big, bold investments in rail, in UC, and still have the money to pay for our Defense Department, Medicaid, Medicare, doesn't it simply, quite frankly, just come down to restoring a progressive tax policy? Derek, any thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And if you think about it, well, you don't get to do that in America. If you make a bunch of money in businesses and career or whatever and you repatriate it and bring it home such you can spend it on hookers and cocaine, that's where I go. That's where the dog goes. Then you get taxed on it, as you should be.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And in the UK, that money, as long as it stays outside of the UK, you don't get taxed on it. So we get a lot of rich people coming here. Anyways, what do I like about the UK? Let's stack rank it. It is a great city. I've been coming to London for about probably 50 years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I've been coming here since I was a little, since I was a wee one, since I was a wee skipper because both my parents are from the United Kingdom. My father from Glasgow, my mother from London. And this place has slowly but surely gotten the mother of all facelifts over the last 50 years. In the 80s, this was not a nice city. The food sucked. The infrastructure was crumbling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet. Viori.com slash PropG. That's V-U-O-R-I dot com slash PropG. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
There weren't a lot of innovative businesses here. It just wasn't where you would decide to spend a lot of money. Now it really is sort of the most probably livable city if you're coming from America and an English speaker. So there's really interesting people. It is a world-class city. Premier League football, another amazing thing. Best thing about the UK in my view, proximity to the continent.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And also, I will say the people are very welcoming here. You come here and people immediately say, oh, you're new. I had someone come up to me in the park and say, oh, you're new. Come over. We have dogs. We'll have dinner. I'm not comfortable with that. I don't want to go to a stranger's house for fear that I walk in and it's sort of weird and I think I'm trapped here for two and a half hours.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
But anyways, people have dinner parties when you arrive. Very, very nice. I found it very warm and welcoming culture. The downside, the downside. The second worst thing about it here, the business environment is really anemic, comatose. I just don't find there's the same entrepreneurial flair.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
We're back with more from Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Well, I have you. You're both great communicators. You're both strategists. You understand positioning, understand messaging. What thoughts do you have?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
So as a progressive, I found that I was sort of flat footed and just overwhelmed, just sort of they're flooding the zone with things that are meant to, I think, distract us, enrage us, male versus female, gulf of cheaper eggs, DEI causing helicopter crashes, because I don't think they want us focused on the fact that they're about to increase the deficit by $800 billion a year to give guys like me a tax cut, that we're surrendering to a murderous autocrat.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I don't know what it is, but I have found that the majority of the economy here is about serving wealth that's been created elsewhere, that there isn't a lot of organic value creation. Most of the entrepreneurs are starting businesses to serve money made elsewhere. They're starting a restaurant, they're starting a wealth management company. They're starting a hotel.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I think they're saying, look over here, because they don't want to focus on the important things that are just sort of indefensible. I'm curious what advice, and this has probably already happened, and Derek, I'll let you go first. Democratic Party calls and says, okay, we really got to figure out our messaging and our strategy here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And assuming that people understand that some of these policies are probably just economically ruinous, I don't even think it's the tariffs that are the most damaging thing. I think it's our inconsistency. You wanna see what he's gonna do around tariffs or economic policy, look at who I had lunch with last.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And you can't have a consistent, when no country knows who they're waking up next to, they're remiss to do anything with you. It's like, well, he could call this off tomorrow. That's just no way to operate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
an economy, much less a country, what advice would you have for Democrats in the DNC who say are of like mind and think, yeah, we need to take, you know, re-usurp government and constitutional authority. This economic plan is disastrous. What strategy? You're in the war room with James Carville right now, advising 2026 congressional candidates and then 2028.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
What strategies do you think we need to deploy, Derek?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
There's very little, I think, of a tech scene here. I mean, a little bit, a little bit of payments, but it's just not that same risk-taking infrastructure, whatever you might want to call it. By far, the worst thing about it here, oh my God, the weather. Jesus fucking Christ. It's cloudy and gray and 52 degrees. Well, good news is it'll be like that for the next, I don't know, seven years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Oh my God. It is just, I didn't realize. I'm absolutely going to retire to like Arizona or something. Not true. Retiring to Aspen. Retiring to Aspen. Because the sun, at least for me, I have that disorder, seasonal disorder. I don't know. Is that really a disorder? Wanting to have sun all the time? But oh my gosh, I just can't handle it. I just cannot handle it. We've been here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I want to propose a thesis. I have two questions. I'll let you guys go. You've been generous with your time. I think that we oftentimes get focused on, we studied to the wrong test. And I'm trying to think, what is the goal? What is the mission? AI, GDP, productivity.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I think it's all a means to the ends, but the ends are creating an operating system, a platform, an economy that enables people to have deep and meaningful relationships. And the three of us, I believe, all have partners and are raising children. And much to my surprise, I have found that that has given me purpose and a sense of being and a sense of satisfaction that I didn't anticipate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I wasn't planning to have children. For me, the unifying theory of everything, it should be we reverse engineer all of our public policy and economic decisions to one thing, and that is people 18 to 40 should have the opportunities to meet each other, mandatory national service, more freshmen classes, more third places, quite frankly, more alcohol,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
such that they can tax remote works, one in three relationships begin at work, such that we have more people, quite frankly, having more sex, falling in love, and then have the economic wherewithal To have children, universal child tax credit, pre-K, minimum wage of $25 an hour.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Quite frankly, just stuff more money in their pockets such that we go back to where we were 40 years ago where 60% of 30-year-olds have a kid versus 27% now. I don't think it's because people don't like kids. I think it's because they can't afford them. But the unifying theory of everything.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
is that any able-bodied American should at least have a reasonable chance that they will have the opportunity to meet somebody and the economic viability to have a family, and that everything should be reverse engineered towards that opportunity for young people, that that's the unifying theory of everything and should drive all of our economic and social policies. Your thoughts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Two and a half years. Oh, I forgot. Actually, you know what? The best thing about the UK is the schooling system. The schools are great here. My two boys are so happy, thriving, doing great in school. Oh, another free gift with purchase. I don't have horror fantasies about waking up or getting up and turning on the TV and seeing my kid's school in the news because of a mass shooter.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
You just really don't have that here. Why? Because they're fairly reasonable people. Anyways, that's my breakdown of the UK, the United Kingdom. I would say to anyone who has the pleasure or the luxury or is fortunate enough to ever live abroad, I absolutely think you should. I could not do better than my life in the U.S. I will not do better than my life in the U.S. I love it there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Ezra Klein is a New York Times columnist and the host of the Ezra Klein Show podcast. Previously, he was the founder, editor-in-chief, and then editor-at-large of Vox. Derek Thompson is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of the Work in Progress newsletter. He's also the author of the books Hitmakers and On Work, Money, Meaning, Identity, and the host of the podcast Plain English.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Their new book, Abundance, is out now. I said this off mic. I just admire you guys so much. I think you're fearless. I think you're great storytellers. Just keep on keeping on, gentlemen. Well done. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Scott, thanks so much. Algebra of happiness. A lot of young people, more young people than ever as a proportion of the population are struggling with anxiety.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I am very American. I didn't realize how American I was until I left. But you don't want to do better. What you want to do is different. And if you have the resources or the opportunity to live abroad, you should. And I think there's kind of two times when you figure it out. One, when you're young, because when you're young, you can dance between the raindrops.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And I did a podcast yesterday with Anthony Scaramucci and Dan Harris from 10% Happier. And Dan has really been, the term is brave, but very useful in helping other people discuss and address their anxiety. He struggles with panic attacks, and he talks a lot about different cognitive behavioral therapy to help them manage through that anxiety.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And he has this statement that I just love, and that is, action absorbs anxiety. And I'm going to share a story that is not a Hallmark story, but I think it's relevant. I coach young men, and one young man in junior college, about early 20s, we're just sort of talking, and I could kind of tell what's on his mind. I'm like, what's on your mind? He's like, I'm a little bit freaked out right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And I said, what's up? And he said, I've been having trouble peeing. I'm like, what do you mean by that? I have trouble peeing, but it's because I have a huge prostate. He goes, no, it's been feeling funny and weird down there, and I'm worried I have an STD. And I said, well, have you had unprotected sex recently? And he said, yes, I have. And I said, look, I know exactly how to do this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I know exactly what you need to do. Right now, right now, you need to go to urgent care or there are all sorts of STD clinics in your city, lives in a city, and you need to get tested right away. And on the way to the doctor, you're going to start to feel better because you're taking action.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And fortunately, we live in a society right now where the vast majority, if not all of STDs can even can be handled or addressed. As soon as you start taking action against this problem or this issue, you're going to feel better. Action absorbs anxiety. At the end of life, you're not going to regret what happened to you. You're going to regret being so stressed out about it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And that is, if you're worried about anything with your health, you immediately go to the fucking doctor. And maybe that's a point of privilege for me because I have the money. But if you have resources, if you're insured, if you can go to urgent care, you want to address the situation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
You can just go out, have a pint, meet friends. You don't have to live in a nice place. You're more flexible. If it's not great for your career, you can recover. Or quite frankly, when you have a lot of money. And I know that sounds douchey. Oh, we should all be able to move to Europe. Yeah, but you can't. The reason I moved to Europe, people say, oh, you wanted to get out of the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Whenever your health is bothering you, immediately, the moment you make the appointment, you start feeling better. I am addressing it. Action absorbs action. Anxiety. You want to move against this. This is really upsetting me. This is bothering me. How am I going to solve it? Fuck, I can't get an internship. I can't get a job. Well, okay. What do you need to do to get a job?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
You need to send out resumes. You need to put together a resume. When you start putting together your resume, that action starts absorbing your anxiety. It's very simple. Get out of your head. Get out of your head. At the end of your life, you're not going to be upset about
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
An STD scare, not being able to get a job or a health scare, the thing you're going to be worried about or the thing you're going to regret is how anxious you were about it. And here's what you do. You move to action. Action absorbs anxiety. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday. I'm sorry, the tea's just better here. The tea's just better. It's like porn for me is better after an edible.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
The tea's just better. Wrong analogy. Wrong analogy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
because of Trump. No, not at all. I'm here because of the U.S., not because I wanted to leave. I'm here due to the prosperity I recognize in the U.S. And the reality is in a city like London or living in Europe, especially with a family or moving, you just need to lubricate it with a lot of money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
It's probably true if you want to live in New York or San Francisco or L.A., but still, the reason I'm in Europe is because America let me. All right, moving on. In today's episode, we speak with Ezra Klein, the New York Times columnist and host of The Ezra Klein Show, and Derek Thompson, Atlantic staff writer, author, and host of the Plain English podcast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
We discuss with Ezra and Derek their new book, Abundance, which is all about how America learned to fail at abundance and how the left can fix it by embracing growth, progress, and the messy trade-offs of governing. So I did enjoy this conversation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I mean, something that plagues the United States, it's interesting, Derek and Ezra would say that the left suffers from sort of the bureaucratic state, you know, 12 times as much to build a mile of subway in New York versus Paris, which isn't known for its efficiency. We spent all this money on charging stations and none of them happened.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I don't know if that's something that just plagues the left, quite frankly. Although what's interesting is that kind of these Republican-run cities just seem to be better run right now than Democratic-run cities. But anyways, that is what it is. I enjoyed it. They're both really fascinating guys. Derek's at The Atlantic. Ezra is at The New York Times. They're both just super thoughtful guys.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And also, they seem like nice guys. And I'm glad they're doing so well. And I enjoyed having them on the pod, as will you. So with that, here's our conversation with Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. All right, let's bust right into it. Gentlemen, where does this podcast find you? Ezra, where are you? I am in New York. You're in New York. And Derek? I am in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Nice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
We were just talking about it. I'm doing a college tour with my son, and he's decided that he's interested in UNC. And I asked him why, and he said, because of the logo. And I thought, well, that's absolutely the right reason to pick a university. So your new book, Abundance, is about where America, liberalism, and the Democratic Party went wrong over the last few decades.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
You argue that right-wing populism thrives on scarcity. And the answer is abundance. Let's start there. What does that abundance look like? I'll start with you, Derek.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Okay, so abundance is a really nice word. Tell me on the ground what that means. Let's talk about energy. Does that mean drill, baby, drill? Like, how does this notion of abundance impact our energy policy?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
So Derek, I love the idea of abundance, but I'll put forward a thesis and you respond. We don't suffer from a lack of abundance. What we suffer from is this oligarchical zeitgeist where we've decided to optimize the US for the top 1%. And we don't suffer from an increase in market capitalization and an increase in wealth.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
What we suffer from is policies that essentially insert certain companies in between the consumer on some public goods, including healthcare, housing, prison system, where the objective or the metrics are shareholder value, not the public good. The private company inserts themselves in the middle. It does a great job, innovation, applies technology. And then
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
It creates market power, raises the prices, and we end up with one in four households with children in red states are food insecure. I mean, quite frankly, just to sound like a liberal, isn't our problem not abundance, but quite frankly, that we are slowly but surely sequestering all the abundance to the 1%?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
When I think about The White Lotus, there seems to be a theme or a certain... I don't know. Someone told me that it's about... It's the different seven deadly sins. What are the creative anchors you try to hold on to? If you ended up doing a season eight, what do you think would be the common themes that would still be static through season eight that are present in one, two, and three?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I'm curious with casting because when I first saw the lineup, how do you, when you think of a character and you think, okay, does it immediately go Parker Posey would be the right person for this? Or does she read and you decide that she brings life to the character? I would think casting would be such a, is it an art or a science? How do you go about it?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Welcome to the 338th episode of the Prop G Pod. What's happening? The dog is back in London. He's howling. He's howling. He's fed up with the weather, but he's got a big fur coat so he can handle 55 and rainy. You know, the weather's not that bad here. It's actually, it's spectacular in London, a good 11 to 13 days a year. I mean, those days are just fantastic.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
You've been in the business for a couple decades. Describe, give us your sense. My understanding as an executive producer at the end of the day, you've got to have business acumen. You've got to understand budgets. You've got to understand trends. You're basically managing a small business that kind of gets funding, starts up, and then closes down, and then you hopefully monetize it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
What do you see are the major trends in Hollywood, and how has that shifted your approach to the business?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I want to put forward two theses or observations as an outsider who like, I like to think I understand economics and I'm fascinated with the industry and you respond to each of them. The first thesis is that what Japan did to Detroit, kind of Netflix is doing to Los Angeles. And that is, I read that of the $18 billion content budget that Netflix spends annually
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
on content that for the first time, more than half of it is being spent overseas. And at the same time, I also read the production's down 40% in LA. Is the globalization of the media industry that's checking capital kind of out of America, specifically out of Los Angeles, is it as evident as I think it is?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
The other 352, not so much, not so much. Anyways, in Switzerland, went to Zermatt. One of the things I love about it is it doesn't have cars. It has these electric cars. And we stayed at this place called the Hotel Cherville. And we had a ski instructor that is a lingerie model and runs surf schools. in the summer in Bali. And then at night in Zermatt runs her family's creperie.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Yeah, both cities you mentioned, you mentioned two cities in Canada. Is Canada, is that your go-to if you're talking about talent versus economics or stack rank it? What do you think are the most popular places on a risk-adjusted basis when you look at costs versus access to talent and beautiful locales?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Second thesis, that the opacity of information when you run something on Netflix, you don't know how, other than them renewing the season, you don't really know how well it's doing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Jennifer Aniston's agent knew that Friends was the anchor to the Thursday night and could kind of reverse engineer to how much ad revenue they're making and had the confidence to go ask for a million dollars per episode per cast member. And now that you really don't know what's working and what isn't,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
It's essentially what I perceive as a giant flow of capital from the industry, from the human capital to the shareholders of Netflix. Am I oversimplifying what's going on there?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And we would stroll by and see this lyrically beautiful woman making crepes after she taught my kids how to snowboard for eight hours. I'm like, Jesus Christ, it's like a fucking Cinemax film. Is this for real? Seriously? Anyways, how did we get here? In Zermatt, back to London. Oh yeah, that's where we were. back in London, had a wonderful time, tried to ignore the news.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
We'll be right back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Take yourself back 22 years, and you had the knowledge of knowing where this business is gonna be today, or if someone's starting out in the business, Any kind of macro thoughts on their career that this part of the business is going to be the easiest place to find employment? This is the medium, the size of the screen. Any advice to a 22-year-old Dave starting in this business?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
What do you see as the major themes and how does someone foot their efforts to trying to take advantage of those themes in the industry?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
So America, what the fuck is going on? Is this a simulation? We're not going to talk about that. I'm done talking about it. Anyways, in today's episode, we speak with David Bernad, the Emmy-winning executive producer of HBO's hit, The White Lotus. Oh my God, little bit of surprise coming your way on The White Lotus. Little bit of a Easter egg coming right at you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I'm not going to spoil it, but tune in. It is my favorite show since Game of Thrones, which I'm watching with my 14-year-old. It's a rite of passage for us. It has politics, sex. Geography, Magic, Sibling Rival. Literally, literally, Game of Thrones has everything. I took my son to the beach in Nantucket because his mother said it was time for us to have the sex talk.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
So I took him down and said, it's time for the sex talk. He let out a scream like I have never heard before of no, and just begged me not to have the talk. And I said, fine, then we have to watch Game of Thrones because that'll give you 80 or 90% of everything you need to know.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Thank you. Thank you. . . . . ., the, P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P,實, ac, ac, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . sol a . . . . .
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
But anyways, I have been watching Game of Thrones with my 14-year-old, but I'm really excited about season three of The White Lotus. They bring together something fairly simple, but it always has themes around. I think it's the seven deadly sins. They just do such a fantastic job. And this season is no different. Tune in now. Okay, let's move on to some news.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
., in P. P. P. P. P. P. P,實, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac of P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. ,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
For the first time, the top 10% of earners, those making roughly a quarter of a million dollars or more a year, account for 50% of US consumer spending. 30 years ago, that number was just 36%. So what does that mean? More money, more spending across the top quintile. Now the economy is more dependent than ever on the ultra wealthy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
So just as we wrap up here, a lot of young men listen to the show and they hear someone successful like you and they think, I'd like to be that guy. Can you talk a little bit about that? growing up who are really the big influences in your life, people or kind of situations that sort of change your life?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And whenever I've known you for that long, but you're, it seems like you're always in like, you know, eight time zones away. How do you, and I know very little about your personal life, how do you, and maybe you don't, how do you establish any sort of momentum or traction in a relationship?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
When I first saw this though, it actually struck me that they're not spending more because I believe the top 10% control about 90% of the assets, meaning they have more assets relatively speaking than their spend, which means that they will save and invest more, which takes interest rates down, asset prices up, but isn't good for the economy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And what do you do for sort of meditation or relaxation or just to stay kind of centered given the amount of anxiety and insecurity in your industry?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
When my kids hear me in the White Lotus, I owe you. I haven't told them. I can't tell you how excited. I haven't told them. We're going to watch it. You are going to bring so much credibility to me amongst my 14 and 17-year-olds. So I owe you. Just a couple more serious questions before we go. Anyone in your life you lost or that's not around that you wish you could say something to?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And one of the things I've talked about in terms of stimulus is that if you were to put more money in the hands of lower middle-income people, the wonderful thing about lower middle-income households, if you give them a hundred bucks, they spend it, which results in a multiplier effect that's greater than if you give rich people money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And last thing, anybody, and this can be serious, not serious, you'd just love to... give a shout out to and have them be surprised that if and when they hear about this, you just are thinking of just something, someone you're thinking about and anything you'd like to say to them and it'll get back to them?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
By the way, the fact that the 10% are now responsible for half the consumer economy versus a third, just speaks to a couple of things. One, how much money they have, but also a prioritization of experiences over things. The luxury market has actually kind of gone flat, but people are spending a ton of money on things like safaris and travel and private travel and experiences.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
David Burnad is the Emmy-winning executive producer for HBO's The White Lotus. He's also known for producing Uncharted, Jury Duty, Enlightened, and, and I didn't know this, White House Plumber. He joins us from Los Angeles. David, you are so far ahead of where I was. I didn't appreciate just how precious and wonderful It is to have the kind of the friend group you have.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And what you're going to find is that you are the average, and there's signs of this, of those five guys. And so you guys building and loving each other, it's not only incredibly rewarding, it's a smart thing to do because you guys will progress and you'll fall together. And I'm telling you,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
In 15 years, you're going to look back, hopefully, on your kids and your career, and you're going to feel great. But it almost means nothing. It's almost as if it doesn't happen without that text group. And you're just a great example. I'm just so happy for your success and that you found you have your tribe of people to share it with. Thanks so much, David. And again, thanks for the opportunity.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
This was such a treat for me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Algebra of happiness. When you're overwhelmed with information overload, how do you respond? This isn't about stress management. It's about how to, if you're in an organization and you just have so much information and different touch points, or you are barraged with information that you find is like, outrageous or there's too many things going on.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I'm obviously speaking about what's going on across our government right now. And I think it's a purposeful strategy to sort of blitzkrieg you with information such that you don't focus on their true objectives or what's really important. And it's easy to feel kind of flat-footed and how do you strike back? And I, for about a week, just felt sort of overwhelmed and didn't know what to do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And I don't like the idea of being offended and outraged and responding to everything. And I think there's just some basics around communication and responding effectively when people are kind of in your face or things are happening at work that you feel overloaded by because there's so many things that upset you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And the first is to respond in a thoughtful way and recognize you don't need to respond to everything. You need to prioritize. At the end of the day, what's really important here? There might be things that are outrageous. The most recent one, as I've heard, the Trump administration is thinking about advocating for or pardoning Andrew Tate. Yeah, that's outrageous.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Who the fuck cares with some loser in Romania that was, you know, spending time sex trafficking or in a webcam business and trying to sign a vulnerable young man to his crypto? Who the fuck cares? But that's look over here. That's not important. You don't have to respond to everything. Take a beat. You don't have to respond immediately to everything and shout into Twitter or into TikTok.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
The world doesn't need to hear from you on everything. And then bring, when you do respond, pick one or two issues that you feel especially strongly about that you think deserve priority. and that you, one, have some domain expertise in, and also bring in outside experts and facts and try and be very thoughtful and methodical and unemotional. If you can be offended, you can be manipulated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And when you're offended all the fucking time, it just shows, quite frankly, you're a little bit weak and a little bit easily manipulated. This is how you effectively counterpunch. Because keep in mind, a lot of people will try and overwhelm you. You know when you get in an argument with your spouse and they're losing and they immediately start bringing up something else? Okay, don't go there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Don't go there. Or they try and gaslight you with something else. Be disciplined. Be an adult. Be a warrior around this stuff. That is... Slow down. You don't need to respond to everything. Pick the one or two issues that are most important to you. Come with data, come with experts, be reasoned, be thoughtful. This is information warfare, right? This is storytelling versus storytelling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I think a lot of this is sort of the YOLO coming out of COVID, and that is people are getting smarter. And I've read a lot of the research that says people overestimate the happiness they'll get from things, and they underestimate the happiness they'll get from experiences. In sum, drive a Hyundai and take your husband to Africa.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
You don't have to respond to anything. And if you can figure out a way not to be offended by everything, that means you are a mark. You are what they want. You are easily manipulated. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I have found that I'm spending all my money, or most of my money, on really two things. Real estate in beautiful places, one, because it's a 0.1% strategy, and I'll come back to that, and I want my kids not to be able to avoid me when they're adults and think, well, it'd be more fun to go to Tijuana, but yeah, my dad has a place in Aspen. We just have to have lunch with him every day.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Boom, hopefully they're in Aspen. And two, I buy into this 0.1% strategy. What do I mean by that? I think income inequality is only going to get worse. I'm going to fight it, but I think it's only going to get worse. I think essentially the Republican Party and the ruling party is the far right. They distract everybody with their kind of angry, coarse, anti-immigrant bullshit or whatever.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Whatever you want to call it. But what they're really trying to do is create controversy such that it's a misdirect where you look over here and avoid the compact they have with rich people. And that is a lot of rich people give some lip service to how upset they are about what's going on. But this is kind of the bargain that Trump and other right-wing governments have with rich people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I'm going to cut your taxes. So you'll offer some sort of, quote, unquote, liberal bullshit faux concern. But you're really not going to get in the way of this, are you? Why? Because poor you, poor fucking you, your taxes are going to go down. And here's the thing. I'm not that worried about me. Anyone I know in my life that needs access to Mesa Festron is going to get it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Anyone I know that needs legal protection from anyone abusing them because of employee or a violation of their rights, they're going to be fine because I have a shit ton of money to buy lawyers, right? If for some reason they started rounding up, name your favorite special interest group, which could happen with an economic shock here. in the United States. I don't think it happened in Britain.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I do think it could happen in the United States now, which is feeling a lot like early 30s Germany. I have the money for a go-back to get the fuck out of here. Here's the bottom line. Money equals rights. And the violation of rights that takes place is from the far right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
If you do believe it involves a violation of rights, you're protected from it if you're a rich person as long as you're getting richer. We are so focused on left versus right, we don't think about the real problem. The real problem or the real battle is up versus down, and that is the bottom 99 versus the top one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And what we do is we divide and distract and anger the bottom 99, so they're not focused on the real battle here, and that is the Republican Party, in my view, taking money from the bottom 99 and putting it in the pockets of the top one. And this is another example of that. But we have income inequality that is absolutely out of control.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And what you see across the wealthiest people is in fact, they're exceptionally boring. What do I mean by that? They all party in St. Barts,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
They all send their kids to one of maybe 50 schools globally, and they all want to live in one of a handful of places, Dubai, London, New York, Palm Beach, Aspen, maybe a little bit of LA, maybe Singapore, not even so much, maybe a little bit of Hong Kong, but they're losing people. It used to be London.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
London is lost, and it's still going to be a place where rich people keep a home, but a lot of people are no longer living here full-time because they pass this non-DOM Tax Act, which essentially people who, very wealthy people who are citizens elsewhere could come here and pay essentially no tax.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And then when the UK, understandably and theoretically and philosophically correctly said, all right, you got to start paying some taxes, they said, fuck you, we're rich, we're mobile, we can move anywhere. And that's the problem with a quote-unquote common sense tax policy that's progressive is people forget that the very wealthy are the most mobile people in the world.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And I personally have two friends who are very wealthy who have peaced out, who have left, who've said, yeah, I get that it makes sense for me to pay some taxes here, but I'd rather pay zero. So unless there's some sort of multilateral tax agreement and alternative minimum tax across multiple nations, you're always going to have a race to the bottom. And it was back to
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Back to rich people, there's too much prosperity being crammed into too few hands. The bottom 99 are reminded 210 times a day on their phone that they're not doing well. And then the echo effect, the epicenter of people not doing well is young people, because when a 50-year-old is not doing well, it's bad.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
But when a 25-year-old isn't doing well, it affects everybody in the household because everyone is used to their kids doing better than them. That's the bad news. Income inequality is going to get worse. The good news is it always self-corrects. Always throughout history, when it gets to these levels, it self-corrects. More bad news, the means of self-correction are war, famine, and revolution.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
We'll be right back for our conversation with David Burnett.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Here's our conversation with David Bernard, the Emmy-winning executive producer for HBO's The White Lotus.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
David, where does this podcast find you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
If I was, and there's a reason why I'm not an executive of HBO, but if I was pitched on the show, I'm not sure I would have seen it. It being this thing has sort of become a little bit of a cultural phenom. What do you think it is about this show that is tapped into it? When people ask me, I say, I love the White Lotus. I'm obsessed with it. And they say, why?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
If they ask me about Game of Thrones, I can kind of explain why I'm obsessed with it. And what is it about this show, in your view, that just sort of tapped into this kind of zeitgeist? It's turned it into kind of this phenom.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Episode 338. The .338 caliber is used for hunting larger deer species, including elk and moose. In 1938, Superman first appeared in comic books. I've often wondered what it would be like to have sex with Superman. Well, it hurt a lot, said the Invisible Man. I made that up myself, no joke.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Give us a little bit of your backstory. How did you get to this position? And what exactly does an executive producer do? What have you been doing for the last three or four months?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
The support for the show comes from UserTesting. Your brand is only as strong as the decisions behind it. UserTesting's human insights engine helps marketing product and business leaders make smarter, faster decisions with real human feedback, AI-driven insights, and the world's strongest participant network.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Episode 341. 341 is the area code covering California's East Bay Area. In 1941, Captain America debuted. What's the similarity between politicians and Marvel characters? They're now fighting amongst themselves to stay in business.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
It strikes me that a lot of this comes down to resources or money and who's going to foot the bill to continue the fight, if you will, or at least put us in a stronger position such that we can negotiate from a position of strength. And it also strikes me that the most obvious and simplest means of funding the war for another two years is to seize Russian assets.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
We have somewhere between $200 and $300 billion in Brussels. And the fear is that people don't want to do business with Russia, or excuse me, with the EU, if they're worried that geopolitically their assets can be seized. I would argue that that That incentive or disincentive to work with Europe is vastly dwarfed by the disincentive we should put in place not to invade your neighbor.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Your thoughts on seizing $200 to $300 billion in Russian assets to fund Ukraine's fight?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Welcome to the 341st episode of the Prop G-Pod. I didn't like that joke. It was an attempt to be clever, but I didn't think it was that funny. I just, I got to go back to the dick stuff. Anyways, welcome to the pod. What's happening? I'm back from Tulum. El perro está detrás desde Tulum. I've been to Tulum a bunch. People say it's really affected and overly expensive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
China in the same group as Iran and North Korea in terms of their support of Russia. And my impression, it might be the wrong impression, is that China wants to stay on good terms, mostly with everybody, and they're being polite, maybe even supportive of Russia, but don't want to alienate the rest of the world and haven't gone.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
I mean, China, my sense is if China weighed in kind of feet first behind Russia in this conflict, it would be really, really meaningful. Describe or give us some nuance to what you meant by the Chinese support of Russia in this conflict.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
It's basically kind of like granola, sort of four-star service, six-star prices. Although Mexico is absolutely my favorite place to vacation in the world. I think it's the best value. And I do like the idea of being on the beach all day, pretending to be healthy so you can go out and abuse hallucinogens and listen to a DJ for, you know, a $700 bottle of alcohol. Yeah, that makes sense. Namaste.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Equip your team with the power to validate every decision, co-innovate at scale, and build digital and in-person experiences with confidence. The best brands don't guess, they test. See how at usertesting.com slash PropG.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
So loosely, kind of a crude overview is that the world is bifurcating into sort of the U.S. and Europe and some of democracies globally, whether it's Japan or Australia. And then there's Russia, Iran, North Korea, and to a certain extent, China. And there's some nuance there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
But just as the swing voter is the most important voter in the U.S., that small group of people that swing elections one way or the other, It feels as if this new swing voters in terms of size of economy and playing both sides a little bit are India and the kingdom. And it sounds like you're saying India, if you had to tilt them towards one side, it's towards Russia.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
One, I just want to confirm that that thesis is correct. And two, I'm curious what the kingdom's role in all of this is.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Namaste. Anyways, I love it there. This was a different type of trip. It was a wedding. It was a mix of fabulous and nice people who seemed to be really, I don't know, into being together and celebrating people's love, their love for one another. Anyway, very much enjoyed it. Back in the UK, it is a spectacular day. Living in London is like living in San Francisco. I used to live in San Francisco.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
And the nine nights a year that you could actually dine outdoors, no one was ready for it. So we didn't know what to do. We were paralyzed. And it is such a beautiful day here today. I don't know how to respond. I don't know if I should take a walk. I don't know if I should take my dogs out. I just don't know what to do. I'm so flummoxed by this round, hot, yellow thing in the sky.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
So you've worked on Russia policy across three different administrations, Bush, Obama, and Trump. So I want to ask a more basic question, and that is, it is difficult for a lot of us to understand the endgame here and the strategy behind what Trump's approach to Ukraine. It feels as if he started the negotiation with Russia by folding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Like, okay, you can have everything, now let's start the negotiation. And from someone such as myself, who I think has a bias against Trump, it feels to me like Putin has agreed to buy billions of dollars of Trump coin And that in exchange, they've decided they're going to have two spheres of influence between two autocrats and carve up the world for their own financial benefit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Steal man a more logical explanation of the current complexion of Trump as it relates to Ukraine. In sum, what are they thinking? What is the endgame?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Anyways, need to get settled. Need to get back in. I slept for 11 hours last night. I haven't done that in a while. I mean, crazy, just absolutely crazy. So up today, speaking of London, speaking of London and Europe and Russia, we have Dr. Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at Brookings, chancellor of Durham University and a former U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
National Security Council official specializing in Russian and European affairs. We discussed with Dr. Earl Trump's role in the Russia-Ukraine war, the future of U.S.-Russia relations and the broader geopolitical effects of the conflict. I learned a lot from this conversation. It's a complex situation, but she kind of breaks things down in a pretty sober way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
I enjoyed sort of her, the way she framed everything. I also like the fact I couldn't figure out her politics, which I always enjoy in someone we interview. Moving on. Some news in the higher ed space. Harvard announced it will offer free tuition for families earning $200,000 a year or less.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
How do you think this plays out? Many of us are just befuddled trying to figure out the incentive structure here, trying to figure out geopolitically if Europe steps up, the resolve of Russia, whether the U.S. is in, out, in, out regarding funding, intelligence, sanctions. If you were trying to do scenario planning here, maybe it's unfair to limit you to one outcome.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
What do you think are the most likely scenarios for how this plays out through the rest of 25 and into 26?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Also, starting this fall, undergraduate students from families making under $100,000 will receive full coverage for tuition, housing, and food. Even those earning above that could qualify for some aid, depending on factors including debt and cost of living. Harvard estimates that 86%. of U.S. families could now qualify for some level of financial assistance under the new system.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
So I think this is a really nice press release. They'll get a lot of nice accolades for it. And let me be clear, I think this is fucking bullshit and a total misdirect from what is the underlying corruption that plagues Harvard and every other higher education institution. Let's break this down. It's not about affordability. As a matter of fact, this makes things worse.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
We're back with more from Dr. Fiona Hill. So I want to transition. You're the Chancellor of Durham University, one of the UK's top institutions. And I would just love to get, but you're also very familiar with the US. And the US does a small number of things really, really well. We're great with technology and software. We're great at media. We make the best weapons in the world.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
And I would argue that On a balanced scorecard, we dominate higher education, which isn't to say there aren't other pockets of outstanding higher ed, including in the UK. But as the leader of a UK higher ed institution, how would you compare and contrast higher education in the UK versus the US, and what can we learn from each other?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
And that is if you hit the lottery and you're one of two things, you're either the child of a rich person or you're freakishly remarkable, then you get shot into outer space of prosperity at an unbelievable speed of light. You don't have to take on student debt. But what about the middle class kid who's just good, not great, who's not freakishly remarkable?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
and whose father doesn't know somebody who has their name on the side of a Harvard building that gets arbitrage down from an elite university to an okay university that doesn't have the endowment of Harvard and ends up taking out huge student loans for a credential that's not nearly as powerful because fucking Harvard won't do what it's supposed to do and should do and expand its freshman class.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
So I can't resist. I didn't realize you were on the board of overseers of Harvard. So my sense is that there's just a different zeitgeist in higher ed, or one of the differences is that people in the UK think of universities as sort of a public good, and they don't feel the same obligation or gratification or ego boost by giving money back to the university.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
I just pulled up that the endowment at Durham is 110 million pounds or about $140 million. Is that accurate?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
But where I was headed with it was Harvard, I believe, has a $53 billion endowment, and it lets in 1,500 people a year.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
And in the U.S., I believe that higher ed, that we're basically the enforcers of the caste system, that we create artificial scarcity despite having the resources to dramatically increase our freshman seats, such that we can feel better about ourselves, and the value of the degree goes up for the incumbents at the cost of the entrance. And society, real large.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Do you think there's an issue with a place like Harvard? With $53 billion endowment letting in 1500 kids a year, do you think the accusation that it's a hedge fund with offering classes and not really a public servant, do you think there's some truth to that accusation?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
This isn't about affordability. The Ivy League has been affordable for a long time because they have so much goddamn money. This is an issue of accessibility. This isn't about who gets in. That's another misdirect. Oh, isn't it great? 60% of Harvard's freshman class is non-white. But wait, 70% of those people come from dual-income homes in the upper quintile of income earning a household.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Dr. Fiona Hill is a senior fellow at Brookings, chancellor of Durham University, and a former U.S. National Security Council official specializing in Russian and European affairs. Dr. Hill gained national recognition for her testimony during the 2019 Trump impeachment inquiry. She's also a best-selling author and leading expert on geopolitics.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Dr. Hill, very much enjoyed this conversation and hope and trust that we'll have you on again. Really, really, I love how Sort of just sober and calm in the way you deliver or try to break down or distill what are very complex issues. Really appreciate your time.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Algebra of Happiness Algebra of Happiness What makes a great day for you? For a long time for me, that was if I worked out. If I work out any given day, I feel like, okay, that was at least a reasonable to good day that I exercised. I feel more mentally set. I'm sort of, I've always had body dysmorphia. I always feel kind of weak and skinny. So working out makes me feel better about myself.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
So letting in the daughter of a private equity Taiwanese billionaire is not diversity. And giving a little bit of money away to people who couldn't afford it, or quite frankly, are the ones who could afford to take out student loans because they're going to graduate from fucking Harvard.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
It's good for me mentally. I associate a lot of good things with working out. So any day I worked out was a good day. That has changed for me. And that is now my new sort of go-to around this is a good day is if I can FaceTime with my oldest son who's at boarding school during the week and I can have some time with my youngest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
I usually lay in bed with him just before he falls asleep and we just kind of chat for 10 or 12 minutes. If I can do those two things, then it was a good day. They make me feel like a good dad. It's very cathartic for me. I feel grounded. I like to know that they're doing all right and they are doing all right. But when I don't see them or speak to them every day, my brain goes crazy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Is something gone wrong? Are they all right? My You know, communication, this is sort of a corporate lesson. Communication is with the listener. When you don't communicate with your employees regularly, they will start communicating with themselves and coming up with all sorts of crazy batshit ideas or conspiracies for what's actually happening at the firm. You need to communicate consistently.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
And I find if I'm not around my sons a lot and I'm not communicating with them a lot, that I start getting anxious about things. So what I want you to do or what I would suggest you do is the following. First, find out what is that one thing that every day makes it a good day for you. Is it going to church? Is it working out? And just be cognizant of it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
And also, also, it's not a bad idea to say, what one person in my life that I love immensely and know I know loves me immensely, does it make sense to check in every day, whether it's a text message, a FaceTime, or just to speak to them? And does that give you comfort every day? What makes a great day for you? This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday. I'm good now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
An average salary of undergrads, I think about 120 grads, average salary of HBS grads is about a quarter of a million first year. They can afford student loans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
I don't know if it's the edibles I'm eating or the Xanax I had on the plane to get over the jet lag. Daddy? Daddy's even angrier than usual.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
The people who can afford student loans are the ones that get arbitraged to less universities because fucking Harvard's full of people like myself who are narcissists and through a mix of arrogance and self-aggrandizement put out press releases talking about financial aid when they should be putting out press releases saying, I know, let's let in more people than a good Starbucks serves on a Tuesday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
If you had a drug, a pill that would make you less likely if you took this pill to be depressed, more likely to get married, more likely to end up in civil service, less likely to kill yourself, much less likely to kill others, much less likely to be depressed, end up incarcerated, end up being a ward of the state, would you hoard that drug? Would you say, sorry,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Sorry, we have tens of billions of dollars. We could distribute this drug to not just 1,500 people, but to 15,000, but now with absolutely no sacrifice in the quality of the freshman class. Oh, that would hurt the brand. Bullshit. When I got into UCLA, the admissions rate was 76%. Now it's 9%. It wasn't exactly... a Joey Bag of Donuts brand back then.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Whether it's owning a house or having a degree from an elite institution, this is what we're going to do to you young people. We're going to come up with all sorts of virtue signaling and talk about research and talk about brands and essentially say, okay, if you've got a shit ton of money to get in and if you're Freakishly remarkable, that's the Vaseline we rub over the lens of this corruption.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
It's not about affordability, it's about access. And if these universities that have an endowment over a billion dollars don't expand their freshman class faster than population growth, regardless of the bullshit press releases they put out,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
around financial aid, which is literally the dandruff off their fucking sleeves that means nothing, then they should lose their tax-free status because they're no longer public servants. They think they're fucking Birkenbags. That was a rant. With that, here's our conversation with Dr. Fiona Hill. Dr. Hill, where does this podcast find you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Good. Let's bust right into it. We're recording this on Tuesday. Trump is speaking with Putin today, ostensibly to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Give us what you believe is the state of play, what each party wants from this and what you think the likely outcome will be.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
So it feels to me like Putin and Trump are, to a certain extent, negotiating against themselves in the sense that without Ukraine or Europe at the table, they can agree to whatever they want.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
It feels to me that they're under the impression they get to decide what happens here without getting the OK from Europe, who's been providing 60 percent of the funding, or the people actually doing the fighting who would have to put down their weapons, which is the Ukrainian people and their army. Isn't this a bit of a, quite frankly, more symbolic than real in terms of what actually happens?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
I always like to ask what could go right. And let me outline a scenario and you tell me if you think there's any veracity or likelihood, or if I'm just, you know, there's too many biases in my scenario here, but the EU combined has an economy of $19 trillion. You listed North Korea.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
They're basically, I mean, they have, they're willing to send their kids into a meat grinder, but their economy is about, I think about $30 billion. Iran's is 500 billion. China, obviously, that's a huge economic power. But my sense is they actually have a vested interest in keeping this war going because they get to get oil on sale from Russia because no one will buy their oil.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
If the EU gets its act together, coordinates their incredible military infrastructure—they have great military, great weapons manufacturers, they have incredible IP— if they could find the resolve to coordinate and perhaps make the requisite commitment, take their defense spending from 1.9% to 3%, which they've stated, quite frankly, they don't need the Americans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Isn't there a silver lining here that Europe can actually do what they did in 1939 and say, no, we're not backing down to a murderous autocrat, regardless of whether the U.S. backs us or not? Isn't there an opportunity here for Europe to become a union and push back on their own with or without the U.S. 's help?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Okay, what's going on? I am on vacation for the week. I am in Zermatt. Why am I in Zermatt? Because I can be. And that light at the end of the tunnel where my kids are no longer going to be... I'm so freaked out about all this data. Around 90% of the time you're going to spend with your kids is before they're 18, and my kids are barreling towards 18, so...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
You're also, I mean, you're definitely, you're going, my sense, or what I've read is you're going multi-channel, that you're actually taking your podcast on tour. Is that correct?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
It feels to me like podcasting, I mean, the original guys, the Marc Marons, the Alec Baldwins, there were some kind of initial people in podcasting and Joe Rogan has endured, but there's a constant reshuffling. I have noticed, for example, I think Joe Rogan is about to be displaced either by Mel Robbins or a kid here named Stephen Bartlett.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
There's just a constant disruption in the podcasting space. And because I'm obsessed with affirmation of other people and I'm always feeling economically insecure, I check the rankings every day and I can't get over
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
just how dynamic the rankings are right now, meaning that I would bet in the top 100 podcasts, 30 of them, and it feels like 50 weren't there six months ago, which means 30 or 50 that were in the top 100 are no longer there. What are your observations? I mean, I think people think of you as a very spiritual guy and a podcaster, but you're also a business person.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
When you sit down with your team and you think about the dynamics of the business right now, what do you see out there? What do you think is shaking up the industry?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I'm spending most of my disposable time and money on spending time with them. Anyways, in place of our regular scheduled programming, we're sharing a conversation with Jay Shetty, the host of the world's number one mental health podcast, On Purpose. I found Jay to be really nice and soulful and what you would expect from someone who has the number one podcast on mental health.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Support for the show comes from the Fundrise Innovation Fund. Think of the five biggest names in AI today. How many of those companies do you own shares of? Probably not many. Maybe one, maybe two. Why is that? Because the open AIs and anthropics of the world are still private. That means unless you're an employee or a VC, you're out of luck.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
We discussed with Jay his journey from monk to media mogul. the business of podcasting, and the key to personal growth and success. So with that, here's our conversation with Jay Shetty. Jay, where does this podcast find you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
So it isn't hard to see why venture capital has been one of the most prized asset classes in the world. But unless you're worth eight or nine figures, you likely don't have access to these funds. The Fundrise Innovation Fund is different. It's already raised more than $150 million. It holds a portfolio of pre-IPO tech companies that are valued at tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
And most importantly, it's open to investors of all sizes. Visit Fundrise.com slash PropG to check out the Innovation Funds portfolio and start investing today. Relevant disclaimers can be found at the end of the show and at Fundrise.com slash Innovation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I want to kind of move more towards your domain expertise. And I'm going to start out, I want to talk about a couple of things. I want to talk about anxiety and I want to talk about finding love. And I'm going to So just so you know, my guests are nothing but a vehicle for me to talk about myself. So this is that part of the program. I struggle with anger and depression.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
That's right. I have been there. It's like a little bird's nest overlooking all of LA. Something that people consistently ask me at an age of AI and digital is, what is the key competence? What should young people be studying to find success in economic security? And my view is the only enduring skill is storytelling. And I think of you as someone who has mastered storytelling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I've been able to manage it without pharmaceuticals. I do it through exercise, time with my boys, trying to eat clean. I have a bunch of tricks to try or practices to keep me sort of even keeled and hating my life less and less every day. But things will trigger me and I'll go down a rabbit hole. And that's happened to me recently since the election or since the inauguration.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
And whether those feelings are justified or there's something deeper, I've really struggled with trying to disassociate or separate or maintain some perspective around what's happened recently in the U.S. And this isn't a political statement. I'm not saying that my— anxiety is warranted or in any way justifies or indicts what's happening. But what advice would you give to me to say, okay, Scott?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
And for me, meditation is like flossing. I lie about it. And that is when my hygienist says, do you floss? I lie and I say, yes. I very rarely floss. And when people ask me if I meditate, I lie and I say, yes. And the reality is I don't. I really don't do a lot of meditation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
So given that I'm a newbie, given that I'm struggling a little bit with anxiety, given the state of the world, give me your best shot. Give me your download on, all right, Scott, these are some best practices, some initial steps you should be taking to manage your anxiety.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I'd love to hear a little bit of the origin story around how you developed your skills as a storyteller.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I'll help. You were a consultant, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
. . . . . . ., en P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P,實 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , a la... Enhance your physical and mental wellness routines with Redwood Outdoors. Take advantage of special savings today. Visit redwoodoutdoors.com and use code PROFG to save $175.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
We're back with more from Jay Shetty. I love the way you think. You think in threes, very much like a consultant. And give us your top line thoughts on what you've learned with your partner and the relationship advice you would provide or give to more men who are in a relationship, a monogamous relationship.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Kind of invokes that old adage that women want men to change and men want women to stay the same. Anyways, I have found that with a partner that they are forced to go through to change their complexion and approach to life because they take sometimes a disproportionate, unfair amount of responsibility around that. around the kids. But you've been very dense with your time.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I just have one more question. You have a very public profile. It's impossible to have your profile and put yourself out there as openly and as provocatively on issues this important. without getting a lot of criticism. How do you deal with criticism and what advice would you be in terms of a practice for how to handle, you know, be thoughtful, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I've never, anyone who is immune to criticism, I wouldn't trust. I mean, okay, that's, I think that makes you a sociopath. So how do you deal with criticism?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Was there a moment, an aha moment, when you realized that you were good at it and that you might be able to make a living at it?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Yeah, I like that. Embrace your insignificance in a healthy way. Jay Shetty is a global best-selling author, entrepreneur, and the host of the world's number one mental health podcast, On Purpose. Born in London, Jay embarked on a transformative journey as a Hindu monk before merging ancient wisdom with the digital world.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
His podcast, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, chops the charts as one of the world's leading podcasts with over 35 million monthly downloads and features. Influential guests, basically, you name it, I won't even go through all of these. And he also has several bestselling books. He joins us from his home. In Los Angeles, Jay, I really enjoyed this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
You're sort of like enter into this like dreamlike state when I listen to you. I'm listening, but I just find a sense of calm about the rhythm and the cadence. You're really a joy to listen to. I appreciate your time and am really happy for all your success and think you deserve it. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
And what was the first medium where you monetized it? Was it books, videos, podcasts? Give us the universe of Shetty. You've built what feels like a small media empire. What is the flywheel here? What do you do for awareness? What do you do for academic heft or intellectual heft, and how do you monetize it all?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Episode 337. 337 is the area code covering southwestern Louisiana. In 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien published The Hobbit. True story. My porn name was inspired by The Hobbit. Call me Dildo Baggins.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Because sometimes you read an ad and you think, I mean, for example, we no longer do crypto ads because I read this ad and I think, I don't have the time to do diligence on this. And I just don't, it just doesn't feel right. And I actually enjoy some of the ad reads, but we always toy with the idea, wouldn't it be nice to kind of go more artisanal? I have a lot of respect for Sam Harris.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I know you've built a big subscription business. Break down the pluses and the minuses, in your view, of kind of the ad-supported model and the subscription model, and do you have a preference for one or the other?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
We discussed with Dr. K how tech addiction affects mental health, the science of relationships, and the challenges men face today. So with that, we'll be right back for our conversation with Dr. K.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
My premature ejaculation problem started when my other half dressed up as a superhero. Before I knew it, I came in a flash. Oh, God, it's all gonna end soon. Welcome to the 336th episode of the Prof G Pod. What's happening? I'm back in London after a short stint. I went to Disney World for a speaking gig and then I went to New York.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Welcome back. Here's our conversation with Dr. K., a psychiatrist and a co-founder of the mental health coaching company Healthy Gamer. Dr. K., where does this podcast find you? I'm in Houston, Texas. Dr. K., how do you describe what you do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
I love that. And tell us about your journey. You went from being a video game addict to studying to be a monk to later becoming a doctor. Give us a little bit, give us some color on your origin story.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Had a good three or four nights there, saw a bunch of friends, went out, probably drank a little too much. Oh well, daddy went deep in the paint one night. I've been trying to drink a lot less. I'm trying to cut my alcohol consumption by 40 to 60%. Und ich denke, ich bin irgendwo zwischen 20 und 30. Aber ich bin jetzt auf dem Roll. Und ich fühle mich besser. Oder weniger schlecht, würde ich sagen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Also, ich möchte zurückkommen zu einem bestimmten Punkt. Du und ich haben eine sehr ähnliche Urgenz-Story. Ich bin nach UCLA gegangen. Ich denke, UT Austin, die sind ein bisschen ähnlich. Große Land, große öffentliche Schulen. Ich habe auch eine Fraternität gegründet. Ich war 17, als ich nach UCLA gekommen bin. Ich hatte eine Verlängerung an Selbstdisziplin. Ich, wie du, hatte viele Fs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Ich war auf akademischer Probation. Ich hatte keine Videospiele, wie du. Und ich hatte kein Pornografie. Wenn ich Videospiele und Pornografie hätte, wäre ich mir nicht sicher, ob ich das hätte gemacht. Ich hatte eine Akademische Prävention, und ich brauchte nur ein C-Average, um noch zwei Semester zu bekommen, bevor sie mich auslösen würden. Also habe ich das immer wieder gemacht.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Aber ich habe mich entschieden, dass ich, obwohl es eine Art, ich weiß nicht, eine ziemlich superficielle Lebensunwahrnehmung war, insofern wie superficielle Lebensunwahrnehmungen waren, war es ziemlich gut und ich habe mich genossen. Du hast dich entschieden, auf einem Flugzeug für Indien zu fahren. Was ist passiert? Oder was war dein Denkprozess? Ich bin in Austin, in einer Fraternität.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
You know, that to me sounds like a pretty good life, even if you're not doing well academically. What inspired you to get on a plane and go to India? Like, did you hit, was there a moment where you hit sort of rock bottom or did your parents force you? Like, what happened there?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Wie verstehst du... Ich trinke viel Alkohol, ich habe viel Wein getrunken, aber ich fühlte nie, als wäre ich ein Addikt. And at some point they were definitely inhibiting my academic progress. I would argue that it was worth it. It created a lot of friendships, a lot of figuring out my limits. I've often said, I got more out of alcohol than it's gotten out of me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Ich fühle mich weniger schlecht. Ich war gerade in Regents Park, bevor ich diesen Pod gemacht habe. Ich bin ein bisschen runtergegangen. Und natürlich bin ich aus dem Zeitraum gegangen. Es gibt... A couple, one couple lessons I've taken away from previous podcasts. I did a podcast with Mel Robbins when I interviewed her for my pod.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
But it also had gotten just a touch more... frequent, I could have easily gone down a very dark path.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
If you're someone listening to this right now and you're at college or not in college and you think, I'm playing a lot of video games, I'm drinking a lot, I'm smoking a lot of pot, I'm watching a lot of porn, what are in your mind the signals that discern between what I'll call youthful, if a bit reckless behavior or irresponsible behavior and when you are an addict and you need to do something?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
So, she said something that struck me, and that is, do away with the stall or the time or the gap between deciding or thinking you should do something and doing it. I used to do, I used to be really good at this. I used to think, oh, I need to go work out. And as soon as I thought that, I tried to force myself to get up and put on my clothes and go work out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Yeah, I like that. And one of the issues I have with the industrial medical complex is like, okay, you know, Doctors Attia and Huberman, who I think are fantastic, I've had them both on the podcast, have basically declared war on alcohol. And where they see drunkenness, for most people, most young people, I see togetherness. I think there's an upside to alcohol. Und ich finde, es ist sehr binär.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Die Leute, meine Ergänzung ist, mein Sohn spielt, und ich möchte spezifisch sprechen, ich habe einen 14-jährigen Jungen. Und er spielt wahrscheinlich etwa 30 bis 60 Minuten Videospiele pro Tag. Das klingt ungefähr richtig. Und ich höre ihn auf der Straße. Und er wird diesen Kampfschrei auslösen. Er wird sagen, ich höre es aus der Straße.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und dann höre ich all seine Freunde lachen und ihn lachen und sie sprechen und es ist Gruppendynamik und Teams und lernen, wie zu verlieren. Und ich denke tatsächlich, Videospiele sind ein Adjekt in seinem Leben. Und es ist als Vater gleichzeitig.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Es gibt Zeiten in seinem Leben, in denen er sein Telefon versteckt und in den Kühlschrank geht und er pretentiert, dass er nicht gut ist und in den Kühlschrank kommt er nicht raus. Und ich weiß, er ist auf TikTok. Und es ist wirklich, und das ist eine langweilige Art und Weise zu sagen, mit Kindern oder mit Älteren, ich bin enttäuscht, ich bin enttäuscht mit meinem Telefon. Ich bin es einfach.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Wenn ich irgendwo müde bin, manchmal mache ich Entschuldigungen, um in den Kaffee zu gehen, damit ich meinen Telefon bemerken kann. Und ich bin nicht stolz darauf, aber zumindest bin ich alt genug, um es zu erkennen und es zu modulieren. Ich kümmere mich wirklich um das junge männliche Gehirn und Screen Time und Videospiele und Soziales und Porn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
What do you think, as a young man or as a parent, what are some practices or best practices for ensuring you are trying to use these things in a positive way? Is your view, put time limits on it with kids not under a certain age? With your kids, what will be your approach to screen time?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Otherwise, I would start watching TV or eating and Und ich finde, dass ich jetzt viel auflöse. Und ich muss zurückkommen zu dieser Vorstellung, dass man etwas weniger glaubwürdig ist. Also, ich denke, dass Dinge wie Aktion eine Tendenz haben, sich einfach in Aktion zu bewegen. Oh, ich muss, ich will etwas schreiben. Dann starte ich einfach zu schreiben, richtig?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und Dinge, die du denkst, sind eine gute Intention, wenn du denkst, ich denke viel. Ich möchte jemandem sagen, dass er eine beeindruckende Person ist. Ich kenne jemanden, der einen Podcast hat. Ich kenne sie nicht so gut, aber ich sah einen Clip von ihnen und dachte, das ist so smart.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Ich dachte, ich sollte ihnen wirklich sagen, wenn ich sie sehen werde, dass das ein wirklich interessanter Segment war und wie beeindruckend ich von ihnen bin. Und stattdessen dachte ich, nein, just text them now. Move to now. Mind the gap between... Eure Emotionen, eure positiven Gefühle, Aktionen und tatsächlich etwas tun. Wir haben auch, oder ich habe auch viel über Strategie gedacht.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung. BR 2018
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und das ist, ich habe einige Diskussionen gehabt, und ich will das, was in der Regierung gerade passiert ist, und was ich beschreiben würde, ist, A strange, if not illegal seizure or I think it's trespassing and a hacking of our government systems to kind of stop payments and then negotiate where we should cut funding. I think the notion around cutting funding is a really valuable conversation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
There's obviously wasting government. They don't have to put their feet to the flames of the private sector. They never effectively run out of money. Companies can borrow money, but at some point they run out of money. Whereas the government, especially the US government, is blessed and to a certain extent cursed a little bit, mostly blessed with the ability to keep printing money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Ich möchte hier etwas positiver sagen. Eine der Dinge, über die Sie sprechen, die super interessant ist, ist, was die Wissenschaft uns über die Formation von Verhältnissen und das Verlieben in Liebe erzählen kann. Was zeigt die neuesten Forschungen an, wie wir tiefe Verbindungen formen und wie die Technologie diesen Prozess reshapen oder mehr grundsätzlich darstellt?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Wie kann jemand heute in diesem digitalen Alter Liebe finden? Oh, so hard.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
So it likely doesn't have the same discipline around managing its house in a kind of prudent fiscal manner, as evidenced by the fact that we're spending 7 Trillion a year on 5 Trillion.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
I mean, I jokingly say that young people should go out and drink more and make a series of bad decisions. Doesn't that mean we should be a little bit more reckless with our emotions? Yes and no.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
in tax revenue so i'm down with that i think we should have an open and honest conversation around the department of education like what value does it add should it be reformed it's sort of enhance it don't eliminate it i think it's probably the right approach but it's a worthwhile conversation the question is should we be having this conversation with a gun pointed to our heads with a bunch of very talented young men who in my opinion are trespassing in federal buildings so a lot of people would say you're not trespassing if you're made
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Ich denke, wenn ich etwas mehr von jungen Männern wünsche, wäre es die Beziehungen. Nicht nur Freundschaften für romantische Beziehungen. Nur ein in drei Männern unter 30 Jahren sind in einer Beziehung. Zwei in drei Frauen unter 30 Jahren. Und du denkst, das ist mathematisch unmöglich.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Das ist es nicht, weil Frauen mehr ökonomische und emotional wirtschaftliche Männer wollen, also datieren sie älter. Und ich finde, ohne die Freude und wahrscheinlich mehr wichtig, die Schutzhände einer Beziehung, kommen Männer einfach aus den Tracks. Dass Frauen diese Energie in Arbeit und Freunde reinvestieren und Männer in Videospiele und Verschwörungstheorien reinvestieren.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Wie ist es, wenn ein junger Mann, der so viel Porn verursacht hat, mehr Wunsch aufbaut und mehr Risiken in Bezug auf die Begegnung von Frauen hat, oder sich in einen Kontext befindet, oder ein anderer Mann, der diesen Lauf der Glauben aufnehmen kann und die Verleumdung verhindert, die Risiken aufbaut?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
If you could give, and this is a difficult question to answer, but advice to younger men in terms of, you know, they're starting out, maybe their first job or college, as it relates to addiction, as it relates to establishing a healthy relationship, any practices you recommend? die sie auf einen starken Weg setzen können.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
a legitimate employee by the full faith of the White House, and then going in and without any sort of congressional oversight or approval under the auspices of an individual who has absolutely not been vetted by the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Welchen Hinweis haben Sie jungen Männern, wenn es sich um die Erkenntnis von Erdbeben, Screen-Time-Aktivitäten, Veränderung von Verhalten in einem digitalen Alter handelt, wo natürlich Erdbeben überall nur einen Klick entfernt ist?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
government to go in and make decisions around, they're not even decisions, they're like, we're cutting off payments, now let's start the negotiation, which literally is holding a gun to someone's head and saying, okay, now let's have a negotiation. So the question is, How do you get leverage here and how do you punch back?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Dr. Alok Kanogia, known as Dr. K, is a psychiatrist and co-founder of the mental health coaching company Healthy Gamer, which aims to help with modern stressors, including social media, video games, and online dating. He joins us from his hometown
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
in Houston and also we should note that Dr. K is also a popular Twitch streamer who engages with audiences by discussing mental health, addressing issues including addiction, motivation and depression. The Good Doctor has a book out, How to Raise a Healthy Gamer and Power Struggles, Break Bad Screen Habits and Transfer Your Relationships with Your Kids. It was published last year.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
I really enjoyed this conversation. Dr., if any... I find your story inspiring. I wish what has happened to you for more people. I think it's such a neat story and such a nice, just so nice to hear about a young man who kind of comes off the rails and then ends up on the fucking Concord somehow. I just think it's such a nice story. Congratulations on all your blessings and your success.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Chalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropGee Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropGee Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
When Republicans control all three houses of government, you're now the opposition party. And what do you do? Because something I've struggled with my entire career is the difference between being right and being effective.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And whether or not you think this is a good idea or a bad idea, and I can understand it sort of tickles the sensors of people to think, government's just gotten so out of control that them going in and kind of Breaking some eggs, if you will. I think that appeals to a lot of people and I can understand that. The question is, one, is it the right way to go about it?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Are we setting a precedent where once the Democrats get in control of all three houses, they're going to start just randomly shutting shit off? Ich meine, wird das einfach in einen heruntergelassenen Spiral kommen, wo die standardischen institutionellen Prozesse der Demokratie einfach auf den Boden gehen für beide Seiten und beide Seiten verabschieden sich von einander?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Es gab früher einen bestimmten Niveau des gemeinsamen Respektes, das ist weg. Jetzt bin ich der Meinung, dass es sich um gemeinsame Zerstörung handelt. How I think you want to think about negotiations is one, where you have leverage and two, where are the pressure points on the other party, should you ever enter into this type of hostile negotiation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And the pressure points, I think, are the following. One, I think this is all about money. And that is, if you want to get leverage against Trump, you're going to have to get leverage against Musk right now, because he's kind of the heat shield doing all the dirty work here. Musk is about money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And I think if you want leverage against Musk, you have to go after the purse, just the way they're going after the purse of these government programs. And it's already sort of happening in Europe. It is striking what's happening to Tesla sales. Get this, the annual year-on-year change of Tesla vehicles in France is off 63%. In Germany, 60%. Sweden, 44%. Norway, 38%. In the UK, 8%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
I believe the EV market is actually down 6%. But this is essentially a meltdown. But if you wanted to send a message to Musk or if they wanted to send a message to Democrats, because I think Democrats are just as obsessed with money as evidenced by the fact that our Speaker Emerita continues to engage in insider trading. Another talk show, another talk show. I think we'd be going after money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And instead of screaming into TikTok or showing up at federal buildings and waving your cane at people and saying, we're members of Congress, it's like, well, what could you do? I would suggest that you go after the purse. And that is trying to figure out a way um Leuten zu kommunizieren, dass sie nicht für T-Mobile signen sollten, weil sie einen Deal mit Starlink machen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Oder sie sollten nicht United Airlines fahren. Oder sie sollten nicht Tesla kaufen. Oder wenn sie einen Uber bestellen und ein Model Y von Tesla kommt, dann canceln sie und sagen, ich fahre nicht in Teslas. Ich denke, das ist wahrscheinlich zu diesem Punkt der einzige Weg, um ihre Aufmerksamkeit zu bekommen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Wenn man hier wirklich Gangster machen würde, oder was die Republikaner gemacht hätten, und das ist, die Regierung zu schalten, Essentially, when they were the opposition party, the Republicans said, all right, we're going to burn the village to save it. We're not going to raise the debt limit. We're going to let the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
government default on its debts, which would create essentially the ripple effect would be the treasury auction would fail. Interest rates would dramatically spike. You'd probably see a drawdown of anywhere between 10, 30 and 50 percent in the stock market. You would have kind of an economic, at least a pretty serious shock here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und ich denke, was wir leider haben, ist, wenn man in einer Kampf mit einem Oppositionspartei engagiert ist, und der Oppositionspartei zeigt eine Willenheit, nur viel weiter zu gehen als du, und du wirst zurückkehren, dann erzeugst du eine asymmetrische Vorteilung. Das Beispiel, das ich benutzen würde, ist, wenn du eine Armee hast, that's willing to put its own civilians in harm's way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And the opposing army is not willing to do that. What you're doing, which I think is the ethical thing, to not in fact bomb a place with civilians. But what you create is incentive for other armies to begin putting people in harm's way and using them as human shields. And I think right now,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
One party has essentially shown its willingness to shut down the government and the other has said, let's not do that. And I think the only way you're going to restore any sense of mutually assured destruction and get any leverage at this point would be to say, okay, we're willing to do this too. So where does this go? In the Trump administration, I think that you have effectively won
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Adults in the room, I would argue, around restoring kind of institutional norms, if you will. And that is the bond market and the stock market. And I think the Democrats at this point have to say, all right, our only pressure point, our only leverage here is probably to force the president on his watch to default on the government's debt and to give up or basically see a failed treasury auction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And this is going to happen on his watch. The Republicans threatened to do that in the last minute. They blinked. und es hat nicht auf Biden's Watch geschehen, aber ich habe den Eindruck, dass die Republikaner so aggressiv gewesen sind und so wenig Respekt vor irgendwelchen Art von Verschuldung, Anerkennung, Prozess, Institutionen, was auch immer man es nennen möchte.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Support for the show comes from ServiceNow. Who is enabling people to do more meaningful, creative work? The work they actually want to do? You know what people don't want to do? Boring, busy work. But now, with AI agents built into the ServiceNow platform, you can automate millions of repetitive tasks in every corner of business, IT, HR, customer service and more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Ich denke, die Demokraten müssen auch zeigen, dass sie bereit sind, die Regierung zu schließen. So when you're negotiating, there's really only two things you need to remember. Generally speaking, in your negotiations, you don't want to make it emotional. You just want it to be, this is what we're willing to do, this is what we're not willing to do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And two, you have to show a willingness to walk away. And in this instance, it's a willingness, quite frankly, to go kind of nuclear and leverage a nuclear option and shut the government down and have us fail on our debt and have a failed treasury auction. And again, I want you to stop and when you think about things, it might feel good.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
I oftentimes point it out in meetings, okay, this is wrong and felt really good about myself, but I thought, am all I doing just antagonizing the other side? And don't threaten to quit unless you're actually going to quit, otherwise your threats become... A little bit hollow. Already the president is developing a reputation for not living up to his threats.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
I'm going to impose these 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada. They turn around and commit to doing what they're already doing. Ich meine, sogar die Sprache aus Kanada. Wir werden die Dinge implementieren, zu denen wir uns verabschiedet haben, und er schließt sie weg. Also, macht keine Verletzungen. Macht Versprechen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und macht sie sehr aufmerksam, besonders in einer Beziehung mit jemandem, den Sie interessieren. Ich erinnere mich, ich denke, Sie müssen sehr vorsichtig sein, wenn Sie mit Menschen sprechen, die Sie interessieren, besonders mit romantischen Partnern und besonders mit Ihrem Schwester, äh, bei Verletzungen. I just think it, one, reduces your negotiating leverage if there are threats, not promises.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And two, it damages the relationship. In negotiations, you also have to remember, and we seem to be well beyond that in this instance. In negotiations, you want to remember that at some point you're probably going to have to work with the other party. You're going to have to do deals with them, get along with them, share the same household with them, raise kids with them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und es ist wert, in meiner Meinung, und das gehört nicht dazu, weil es fühlt sich so an, als hätte der Train die Station auf jeder Art von Mutual Respekt zwischen unseren beiden Parteien verlassen. Aber wenn du mit Leuten negotierst, musst du dir erinnern, ich denke, es ist okay, ein bisschen auf dem Tisch zu bleiben.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Erkenne auch, dass du in dieser spezifischen Negotiation nicht nur die Termine in diesem Moment negotierst, sondern du kreierst auch einen Kontext für die Beziehung nach vorne. So showing up in threatening nations with tariffs when you are the much more powerful economic entity, that is probably going to work in the short run. You may get something.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
In this instance, President Trump, as far as I can tell, got nothing, extracted nothing from Mexico and Canada. But we are the bigger economy. We could literally tank their economy. So if we want, we could extract our pound of flesh. The question is what happens after that with the relationship and the benefits we accrue from what is a very strong relationship.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
When these countries show up to help fight our fires, they follow us into wars in the Gulf, these relationships long term are an enormous asset. So what are you getting short term in exchange for giving up something perhaps more valuable? And that is a strong relationship. Success is the following. Success is I would argue is really just comes down to two things.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do. That's putting AI agents to work for people. It's your turn. Get started at servicenow.com slash AI dash agents. Episode 336. 336 is the area code covering North Carolina. In 1936, the first superhero to wear a skin-tight costume and mask, the Phantom, appeared in newspaper comic strips. True story.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
First, a series of small examples of discipline every day that add up to something huge. Take advantage of the flaw in the species and try and save five or 10 or 20 bucks a day. That is 150. 300, 600 Dollar pro Monat, wenn du jung bist. Die Zeit wird viel schneller gehen, als du denkst. Und das wird ein großartiges Geld hinzufügen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und wenn du 30 oder 35 bist, wirst du eine Ausgabe auf ein Haus haben. Und wenn du mein Alter bist, wirst du dich nicht um Geld kümmern. Du wirst einen Sinn für Sicherheit fühlen und mehr Zeit mit deinen Kindern und hoffentlich deinen Großeltern verbringen. Denke nicht daran, jeden Tag etwas zu tun.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und du wirst einen Tag wachen, drei Monate, sechs Monate, neun Monate und denken, wow, ich fühle mich besser. Ich fühle mich mehr sicher. Ich bin weniger depressiv. I like the way I look naked. I feel more confident. I feel less angry. I feel more masculine. I feel more feminine. Whatever it might be. A series of small efforts made every day. That is an expression of discipline.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And the second thing, the second key to success is putting yourself in a room of opportunities. Wenn du nicht im Raum bist, wenn du nicht physisch im Raum bist. Und wie tust du das? Du kreierst Allies auf dem Weg. Du schaust nicht auf Beziehungen als eine Transaktion. Du helfst Menschen, wenn sie weniger mächtig sind als du.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Jede Möglichkeit, jemandem zu helfen, jede Möglichkeit, ihnen zu machen, sich gut zu fühlen, ist eine Möglichkeit für dich, in einem Moment im Zukunft in eine Raum der Möglichkeit zu sein, auch wenn du nicht physisch im Raum bist. Hey, wir suchen einen neuen Medienführer. Und der Person denkt, ich kenne diese wirklich wunderschöne Frau oder diesen wirklich wunderschönen Mann.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Wir sollten ihn oder sie interviewen. Weißt du was? Matt ist ein wirklich guter Typ und wirklich gut, was er macht. Ich werde ihn persönlich für ihn beurteilen. Und ich hoffe... He is hired. Having an evangelist internally. And how do you create evangelists? A series of small investments every day in relationships.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
A small expression of discipline every day around money, around fitness, around kindness, such that you put yourself in a room of opportunities, even when you're not physically there. Okay, anyways, in today's episode we speak with Dr. Alok Kanogia, better known as Dr. K, a psychiatrist and co-founder of the mental health coaching company Healthy Gamer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
What do you see going on here?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code PropG. Find out why over 4,500 healthcare professionals and stylists recommend Nutrafol for healthier hair. Nutrafol.com, spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com, promo code PropG. That's Nutrafol.com, promo code PropG. Episode 339.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
We'll be right back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
339 is the area code serving the Boston, Massachusetts area. 1939, the Wizard of Oz premiere. True story, whenever I climax with a woman, I scream out, Surrender, Dorothy! Or, I'm melting.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Support for the show comes from Betterment. When investing your money starts to feel like a second job, Betterment steps in with a little work-life balance. They're an automated investing and savings app, which means they do the work. While they build and manage your portfolio, you build and manage your weekend plans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
While they make it easy to invest for what matters, you just get to enjoy what matters. Their automated tools simplify the complex and put your money to work, optimizing day after day and again and again. So go ahead, take your time to rest and recharge because while your money doesn't need a work-life balance, you do. Make your money hustle with Betterment. Get started at betterment.com.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
That's B-E-T-T-E-R-M-E-N-T.com. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. Support for Prop G comes from LinkedIn. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals, making it stand apart from other ad buys. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, seniority skills, and company revenue.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
LinkedIn has all the professionals you need to reach in one place. So stop wasting budget on the wrong audience and start targeting the right professionals only on LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn will even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign so you can try it yourself. Just go to linkedin.com slash scott. That's linkedin.com slash scott. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
So, and I don't know if the producer warned you, but basically I use these podcasts and the guests as a vehicle to talk about me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And I have one of the top domain experts in the world. On yourself or on something? I'm teasing you. On addictions. And I'm fascinated with addictions. And I want to talk about a couple of addictions I think I have. And you talk about whether they're actually clinically diagnosed addictions and what to do about them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And then I want to talk about the advice I give to young men and what I'm getting right and wrong because I... What I realize is I have a series of principles that I lecture young men about, and I don't know. I think I'm right, but I want to know what I don't know. So the first is, I believe that everyone has a certain amount of addictions. That's not true. Some more than others.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
But I think almost everybody has some level of something they do that is probably, if they did less, it would probably be better for them across their life, whether it's addictions to shopping, the affirmation, whatever it might be. And I am addicted to the affirmation of strangers. I care too much about what other people who I don't know will never know think.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And sometimes that gets in the way of my relationships with people who I do, I should care about. Someone will say something mean about me or insult my work on a social media platform, and it inhibits my ability to be close to my loved ones that weekend. I see that as an addiction, an addiction to the affirmation of others and strangers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And I think that might be something that plagues, quite frankly, a lot of successful people or insecure people. And then I would also argue I have an addiction to money, that I'm very blessed and I got kind of enough money to live well or be economically secure. And I still almost every waking hour spend a decent amount of that time thinking about how to get more money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
even when I should probably, and I talk myself into believing it's for me and my family, but it's really just an addiction. I've spent so long trying to dig out of economic insecurity that I've become addicted to more, specifically more money. So addiction to the affirmation of others, addiction to money. Are those clinically diagnosed addictions and how should I be thinking about them?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Welcome to the 339th episode of the Prop G Pop. What's happening? The dog is howling. He's busy. He's like one of those Belgian Malinois dogs. It is not happy unless it's working all the time, like roaming property or defending someone. Except I'm not like that, but I basically have the tasks of a Belgian, of a Belgian Malinois, and that is I have so much shit going on today.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I flew in last night from Barcelona, got in late. Came here, took an edible, crashed for like five hours. Now I'm up. I'm at the Faena Hotel, which I love, even though it's not really my design aesthetic. It's like a very handsome, wealthy, metrosexual Buenos Aires exploded into a hotel, which I think is pretty much the owner of this hotel.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Yeah, it's part of the thought. I believe that one of, I'm constantly saying something as a crisis, I overuse the word crisis, but I do think we have a crisis of loneliness.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Do you think you can be addicted to loneliness or that we just fill in the dope that we used to get from being social to, as you referenced, getting that hit with a low cost, low entry, low risk activity like YouTube or what have you? Can you get it? I have to force myself. It takes me almost as much discipline to get out and be around other people as it is to drink less.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I have become, as I've gotten older, addicted to being alone. And I just find it easier, comforting, whatever happens. And I know it's bad for me. Could you say a certain level of deciding to be alone, maybe more than it's healthy, could that be classified as an addiction?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And then I got to do this, and I'm going to this conference, this 0100 conference to host a lunch. Then I got to bomb up to Palm Beach where I'm doing a speaking gig. Then I'm on a plane to New York and, you know, wash, rinse, and repeat. But anyways, I'm in Miami. It's absolutely beautiful. Isn't it good to know what I'm up to? Thank God I know where he is. Thank God I know what's going on here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
How have you seen the patients and the research you see come through your office and across your desk? Which addictions or types of addictions have you seen increase and decrease?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I coach and work with a lot of young people. Specifically, I think a lot about young men. And the addiction I see emerging that I don't think is getting enough attention that just feels like a ticking time bomb to me is online gambling. And the reason I think of it as being so dangerous is my mother was a docent at the Bellagio in Vegas.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And so she used to come home with all these facts about gambling addiction. And she told me, and you can confirm or deny this, that it has the highest suicide rate because you can get in so deep. If I develop an addiction to meth or alcohol, it generally becomes pretty visible to the people around me and they intervene and try to do something. I can get so deep with gambling and nobody knows.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And then I get in so deep, I've spent my kids' college fund, mortgage the house. My spouse doesn't know what I've done. I see no way out and I decide to end it. And I see, I've just seen these stats that 50% of college males bet on the Super Bowl. And I see occasionally I'm in a scenario where I'm with a bunch of young men and they're all on their phones. And I think, oh, that's natural people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Anyways, what are we going on? Today's episode, we speak with Dr. Anna Lemke, professor of psychiatry at Stanford University and author of the bestselling book, Dopamine Nation, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. We discuss with Dr. Lemke the rise of addiction in the digital age from drugs to social media and why our brains are wired to create more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I know kids are on the phones. They're all gambling on the game they're watching. And they're not doing a hundred bucks, Liverpool will beat Arsenal. They're gambling every seven minutes. The ball's gonna turn over. What you were saying about the ref. And I know these companies and the people architecting these algorithms,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
they will figure out who's going to lose their money and encourage them to bet more. And the ones who actually know what they're doing, they will block out of the platform. So it's a guaranteed loss of income. And I like to gamble. I think it's fun. I go to Vegas, I gamble, but I assume it's consumption. I assume I'm going to lose it all.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
It strikes me that we might, and tell me if I'm being just, I don't know, hyperbolic or inflammatory or, I don't know, exaggerating or just, you know,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
worrying too much here, that we're going to have hundreds of thousands of young men, and my sense is young men, and again, I'd like you to validate and nullify this, are much more prone to gambling addiction than women, who enter the world with massive financial hangovers and shame because of the constant presence of gambling apps. Your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Plus, Dr. Lemke shares practical solutions to help build a healthier relationship with pleasure. I really enjoyed this conversation. You occasionally interview somebody, especially, and it's so rewarding when you interview someone in the sciences or the public health field, and you get the sense they genuinely care, that they want to figure this stuff out, they want to help people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
There are professors and academics such as yourself looking at gaming. I found it really difficult to find anybody with deep domain expertise or peer-reviewed research around porn. And my assumption is that professors don't want to be known as Professor Porn, that there's actually shame in the academic community. You don't want to be that guy or gal.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
It's like, well, why did you decide to do that, professor? It's the second largest category, I think, on the internet. And relative to the size of it, There's a ridiculous scant amount or dearth of research around it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I had thought that, or some of the stuff I read is that it's a small population consuming a disproportionate amount of porn that most men, young men and young women are able to modulate it. My fear around it has always been that It just being very transparent.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
One of the reasons I went on campus every day at UCLA was one, because I knew I was supposed to go to class, but two, the prospect that I might meet someone who over the medium or long-term would decide to have sex with me. Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Well, I think I sound like, I sound like most sons in their head and I think I just articulate it. And if I'd had porn available at home, I'm pretty certain I wouldn't have been on campus five days a week. I might've gone to four or three or two because it just might've been, I mean, the reality is I wanted sex so badly and my hormones were raging so much that I was willing to take social risk
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And she highlighted something, we did this interview I think about a week ago, about a lot of young men or just a lot of men have addictions to porn. And there's a lack of peer-reviewed research on it because very few academics want to be known as the porn professor. And just literally after she highlighted what an issue it has become for many of her patients,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
and go out and try and meet people. And by the way, I think that's really healthy to think, I wanna take these risks. I wanna meet people in hopes that I can have a coffee, invite to a party, establish a relationship, and at some point along the way, maybe have those types of physical encounters. I think that is really, really healthy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And I worry that, and curious to get your take, that it's not the hardcore addicts that are screwing up America around this stuff. It's that it just decreases across an enormous population of young men, their willingness to establish connections with others.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
That we're evolving, we're maturing a new species of asexual, asocial males that never get categorized or clinically diagnosed as addicts, but are just alone their whole lives and never develop these skills.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Is there a low level form of, I don't even want to call it addiction, but avoidance or replacement theory that could be even more damaging than what we think of as traditionally diagnosed addictions?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I have had no joke, three men come up to me and start talking to me and we start talking about addiction and they look around and in the very self-conscious, they say, well, I have an addiction problem. And I, and we start talking and I'm, I'm pretty straightforward. I said, what's your addiction problem? And all three times it's been porn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Super scary. We'll be right back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
We're back with more from Dr. Anna Lembke. I want to move to solutions. And I'm sure you get calls from government officials in D.C. and Sacramento who ask for your advice on this stuff. I think most of this, if I could think of one thing to try and set a context that would reduce addiction, it would be third spaces.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And that is trying to get as many young people as often as possible in the company of other young people and in the company of potential mentors, friends, and mates. I was in Israel after October 7th at the Nova Music Festival site or memorial. And I met with a battalion of IDF soldiers. And there were these young, extraordinary, fit 120 kids, 19 to 21, outdoors in the company of each other.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
and I want to learn more about it because it's something that I don't think we talk a lot about. And there's very little peer reviewed research. And as we think about men, especially young men and the access to this type of porn, I've often said that the nicest thing in my life is getting to raise children with a competent partner that, um,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Many of them go on to start businesses together, lifelong friends. A lot of them meet their spouses outdoors, serving in the agency of something bigger than themselves. And I thought, I just don't think nearly as many of these young adults are gonna end up addicts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And I thought, how can we do this a million times in different ways, whether it's continuing education, softball league, church, nonprofit, like third spaces. If I could do one thing, it would be third spaces. What is the one thing, your thoughts on that, and what is the one or two things you would want to do to set up a context of success and addiction avoidance?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
So after-school programs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
What do you think that number is? Is it 16? Is it 12? What is it?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
We age get a lot of things.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
You know, it's just, if you can figure that out, if you can find someone who you share values with, that you're aligned with around money, and that, quite frankly, you want to have sex with, and you are blessed with healthy children, that's kind of the whole shooting match, or at least that's what I've decided is the whole shooting match.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Do you have kids, doctor?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And what advice would you have? I find it difficult sometimes to discern between normal adolescent behavior, which is abnormal as far as I can tell, and when I should be worried, when I should think, okay, he takes his phone into the bathroom to watch TikTok and pretends he's in the bathroom for 10, 20 minutes. okay, is this 14 year old behavior or should I be worried?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And as someone who's been a parent and like what pieces of advice, I don't know how old your children are, but as it relates to addiction,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Are there any sort of unlocks or critical success factors or red flags in your child's behavior where you can help discern the difference between what you'll call, not necessarily behavior we shouldn't correct, you know, get out of the bathroom enough already, but where you probably think, okay, this is getting serious and might require professional intervention.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Last question, doctor, and you've been very generous with your time. Very curious to get your thoughts and take on GLP-1 drugs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Everything else for me was just like a means to an end, and I was never stated I always wanted more, more money, more experiences, more relevance, and I'm still on this fucking hamster wheel, and it's the reason why I'm here speaking to you right now. Is that fair? Is that fair? Anyways, let's stay at the faena.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Dr. Anna Lembke is a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. She's also the author of the bestselling book, Dopamine Nation, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. I really enjoyed this conversation and you're doing such important work and you have such a nice vibe about you. You just reek of credibility and I can see why you're having such an impact because
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I find myself just hanging on every word because I get the sense that you are really, I don't know, a good actor trying to just call balls and strikes. Really appreciate your good work and enjoyed the conversation, doctor. Oddsworth Happiness. I am starting, I had a bit of a gap, but I'm starting to coach young men again.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And I actually had a kid come up to me last night, this guy in his early 30s, super impressive in the ad tech market, making real good money and kind of stalking me and asking me to be his mentor. And finally I just said, dude, you don't need my help. and who I'm trying to focus on are quite frankly, young men who are struggling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And I've actually taken on a couple men my age who are trying to reinvent themselves who are struggling, but I'm doing this exercise and it's having real, it's yielding real benefits, especially with young men. And that is, I was just struck by the stat I read that over half of men ages 18 to 24 have never asked a woman out in person. They'll swipe right, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
But if I had been a young man and had access to porn, I'm not sure any of that would have happened. I mean, why is that?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
They'll email somebody or whatever it might be, or they'll, who knows, like go on Craigslist and get whatever. But there's very, the majority of men 18 to 24 have not asked a woman out in person. And that just rattled me and made me so upset and sad. When I think about 18 to 24 for me was putting myself in an environment where I'd have a greater likelihood of being able to ask a woman out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And show me someone who can ask a woman out or handle the rejection or be successful at it. I'm going to show you someone. Anyone who's good in a bar is good in a boardroom. I think it's a key skill for young men. And so the exercise I've been doing, and I talk a lot about this, is one, we're going to get fit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Two, we're going to start making a little bit of money, no matter what it is, Lyft driver, TaskRabbit. Three, we're going to put ourselves together. in a context, in an environment with strangers regularly in the context of something bigger than you, whether it's a church group, softball league, nonprofit, whatever it might be. And, and this is what we're going to do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
No joke, part of the reason I used to go on campus and probably the only reason I got a 2.27 GPA from UCLA and not a 1.87, at which point I wouldn't have graduated, I wouldn't have gotten a job at Morgan Stanley, I wouldn't have gotten into a high school of business, wouldn't have met my co-founder of Profit, wouldn't have started businesses and 30 years later, 35, be at the Faina.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And this is what we're going to recommend if you're a young man right now. I need you to approach a stranger and express interest in friendship or exploring a romantic relationship. And those are weird words. You would never say that. Hey, are you, you know, what are you doing this weekend? You want to get together, go to a bar, watch the game?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Hi, would you, you know, lay on your wrap or develop your wrap or lack thereof? Would you be interested in grabbing coffee or grabbing a drink? What have you. And that's not the win. That's not the exercise. The win is I need you to get to know. And unfortunately, that happens a lot, right? And that is I want you to go up to someone, do your best, try, say hi, would you like to have coffee?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And then call me the next day and this is what's going to happen. Most of the time, the answer will have been a no. It's usually a polite no, but it's usually a no. And then I'm going to say, how are you? And this is what you're going to tell me. You're going to say, well, I'm upset. I'm bummed. But yeah, on the whole, I'm fine. That's the victory. That's the payoff. Because here's the thing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
No is the way to success. Specifically, your willingness to put yourself in a room where you get no's. If you're not getting no's, it means you're in the wrong room. and you miss all the shots you don't take. The number of no's, no's are your path to yes and success. So here's the victory.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
You express an interest in friendship, you express an interest in romantic relationship, and you get to the no, and that's the victory because you find out, you find out you're fine, they're fine, and it hurts a little less the next time you get to a no, whether it's inquiring about a job you're not qualified for,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
whether it's expressing interest in lunch with someone who might be able to mentor you or help you, whether it's expressing interest in someone that you are physically and romantically attracted to. The reason I'm staying or get to live the life I lead and I get to partner with someone who is much higher character and much hotter than me was no.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Specifically, my willingness to get to a shit ton of no's and then mourn and move on and get through them. What is the key to success? No. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And that is because I would go on campus and go to class because I was hoping deep down or something in the back of my mind was that I was going to meet a strange woman, establish a rapport with her, and at some point have sex with her. That was very motivating for me. And that sounds crass, but I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to mate. And what I tell young men is the following.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I tell them, look, I consume porn, but I've tried to, for the last 10 or 15 years, when kind of porn came on the scene, and I think it's really good advice, especially for young men, try and modulate your use. Because some of that desire, some of that wanting to meet people such that you can make your own bad porn, is key.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
You don't wanna extinguish those flames of desire, because those flames of desire can actually result in good things. They make you wanna be more successful. They make you wanna be in better shape. They make you wanna develop a rap. They make you wanna figure out a way to make someone else laugh.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
They make you wanna have a plan such that you're more attractive, such that you might, in fact, be able to get out there and establish your own romantic relationships. Anyways, what's the bottom line And the advice I would give to anybody, but especially young men, look, most people consume porn. Is that true? Most men, I think, consume porn. I get it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
But try and modulate your use and try and figure out a way to develop the mojo, the desire, and the skills that you can get out there and start making your own bad porn. So with that, here's our conversation with Dr. Anna Lemke. Dr. Lemke, what is this podcast behind you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Sounds good. So let's bust right into it. In your bestselling book, Dopamine Nation, published back in 2021, you argued that constant access to stimulation is rewiring our brains. Four years later, has anything changed or any additional observations between then and now?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Something that I'm especially concerned about as the father of a 14 or 17 year old, especially with a 14 year old, and my colleague, Jonathan Haidt talks a lot about this, is that the rewiring is especially, or I guess the more appropriate term would be the wiring of the brain as children are going through puberty, that that can be especially damaging.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Are we about to flush into the economy or society millions of essentially dopa addicts that if they don't find it on their screen, they're going to find it elsewhere?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Support for Prop G comes from Nutrafol. We all deserve to love our hair, but sometimes that's hard to do when you have less of it than you used to. According to Nutrafol, a lot of factors that can contribute to your hair issues are actually a reflection of what's happening on the inside, including stress and hormones.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Talk about the different types of addiction. There's obviously addiction to screen and there's drugs, there's alcohol, there's pornography, there's gaming. Is there any way to sort of stack rank these addictions? And I was always told, I'm pretty open on my podcast. I love marijuana. I loved it in college. I took kind of a 20 year break because I was working my ass off.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Now I've started using it again and I enjoy it. And I actually think it's additive to my life. But I remember people telling me that it was a gateway drug to more serious addictions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
If you were to sort of stack rank different types of addictions in terms of what is the most dangerous or what perhaps is a gateway to other things, any thoughts about sort of the hierarchy or the waterfall of different types of addiction?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I've observed something and I'd love you to get, or I'd love to get your thoughts on it. I go to a lot of conferences where there's a lot of young, successful people, whether it's South by Southwest, or I go to this event called Summit. And I've noticed over the last, going to these events for the last 20 years, that young people are not drinking.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
But it's not as if they've gone healthy or healthier. The aspirational set likes to think they've discovered a new technology and that they're innovators. And now they're all doing ketamine. Not all. A lot of them have substituted ketamine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
or traded out alcohol for ketamine, ecstasy slash molly, 2C, which I guess is a mix of ketamine and molly, even to the point where they would roam around these conferences with their own concoction using eyedroppers and different means of, I mean, it's just staggering to me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I was on, I went to this thing called Summit at Sea and it was on a cruise ship and I went up and ordered a drink and the bartender said, Jesus, someone's actually ordering a drink. And this is amongst a crew doctor of wealthy young people who would generally be a line at the bar. Oh, and the one I missed was mushroom chocolates. And I imagine there's a lot of edibles in there too.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I've just seen an enormous, and if you look at, it's having such weird knock-on effects. In London, 40% of nightclubs have closed since pre-pandemic because kids aren't drinking. And some of that is they don't have the money anymore. but they're swapped out. They're under the impression that it's healthier or less bad for you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And they'd rather do mushroom chocolates and have one drink or Molly, and they see alcohol as old technology. I'm curious if you see... This is just anecdotal evidence, or if you see real evidence of this, and what your thoughts are around addiction and what it means for society when we're no longer two martini lunches, we're maybe doing a little bit of ketamine and trying to get on with our day.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
agents episode 335 in 1935 the first can beer was sold in richmond virginia and alcoholics anonymous was founded i really enjoy it it's the only place where i can pee in an uber and then show up and tell other guys who've peed in an uber that it gets better go go go Welcome to the 335th episode of The Prof G Pod.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
So it strikes me when we talk about mutually assured destruction, it strikes me that the two entities that would have to come to some sort of agreement around regulation or a pause, it would be the U.S. and China. And I'm sure there's other entities, but those are the lead dogs, right? Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Do you think it's realistic that the Chinese would be sympathetic to this argument and that there's enough mutual trust to say, look, we got to, I don't want to say slow down, but put some of this behind wraps, share with each other.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
I mean, this was sort of Oppenheimer's, was it Oppenheimer's initial vision that we share this technology and say, okay, when one gets too far out ahead of the other, that's a problem. We need to control it together and realize that if one gets too far out in front of the other, the temptation to destroy the other is too great, at which point that person will destroy it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
We'll make sure they can strike back in some limited fashion. Do you think it's realistic? And maybe realistic or not, it's something we've got to do, that we try and strike some sort of treaty with the CCP and with China?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Our own producer, Claire, ordered from 1-800-Flowers and she thought, Claire, bomb in here. What did you think? What did you think of those flowers?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
In today's episode, we speak with Mo Gadot, the former chief business officer of Google X, best-selling author, founder of One Billion Happy, and host of Slow Mo, a podcast with Mo Gadot. We discuss with Mo how AI could shape our lives in the coming decades, the opportunities it brings, and the risks it poses to society, ethics, and mental health.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
We also get into his latest book, Unstressable, A Practical Guide to Stress-Free Living. Yeah, that's going to happen. Yeah, I'm going to read a book and all of a sudden, Mr. Stress is going to leave the neighborhood. Call me cynical. Color me a bit skeptical. What's going on with the dog? What's going on with the dog? So I am in New York after a stop in Orlando where I went for a speaking gig.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
I think of a little bit of this, how I would couch some of your comments is you think we're entering into what I'll call an age of equivalence. I don't know how to, my semantics might be off, but I think of
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
america was able to develop and sustain certain competitive advantages manufacturing mostly because the german and japanese infrastructure had been leveled then services infrastructure and then a technology you know whether it was because of ip risk-taking multiculturalism and we were able to maintain
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
one, two, three decade leads and find the next thing and establish more prosperity and create and consume a disproportionate amount of the world's spoils. And tell me if I'm saying this correctly, you now believe that our competitive advantage around these things is shrinking from 30 years to 30 days.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
So it sort of should bring on this incredible age of cooperation and we should stop deluding ourselves that we're going to be able to get out ahead and win. Is that an accurate summary of what you're stating?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
I have absolutely no sense of Orlando other than Disney World, which is the seventh circle of hell for parents. Essentially, I do almost no parenting, 364 days a year, and I compensate for all of it by agreeing to take... my boys and their five or six closest friends to Walt Disney World, which is just, I mean, that is cruel and unusual punishment for a parent.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
An inability to sustain an advantage and all it does is create fear and weaken relationships and make one side more likely to strike while they're ahead and create workarounds because they're, you know, nothing creates innovation like war and the threat of survival, right? And what also really resonated was, and I've been saying this, I think Sam Altman is Sheryl Sandberg with hushed tones.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Sheryl Sandberg was weaponized for femininity, her charm, her maternal instincts, gender, the important conversation around gender, to basically take what was a company that was creating rage, making our discourse more coarse, depressing our teens, and make it seem more palatable, to basically rub Vaseline over the lens of pretty mendacious behavior.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
And I feel like Sam and his hushed tones and his, that's a real concern. You know, Senator, I'm worried too. Meanwhile, I'm about to raise $40 billion to a $350 billion market cap. I mean, it's just, I have been to this fucking movie before and we are falling for it again and again. And so I want to propose something and have you respond to it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
And this is literally, you just inspired this thought. Yeah. similar to the way we have the UN or NATO. We have a new organization, and the two founding members are China and the US. And it's total open. There's offices in DC, Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. Every room, every team has a mix of US and Chinese scientists, regulators, such that it's almost impossible to hide anything.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
We're all working on the same damn thing. And we're trying to solve the world's most difficult problems, food distribution, health, poverty. We're working together, but we're also making sure there's a very, very thick layer of supervision and enforcement such that we are constantly testing, how would you make bioweapons?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
And then we're sending our crawlers out to see, is anyone working on this that we don't want working on this? And we together try and like what Interpol was doing, where we had multilateral cooperation around the drug trade and arms shipments. But we have this multilateral organization that says, total transparency.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
But anyways, not doing it this time, just bombing in, speaking to a lovely group of people, then getting back on a plane and going up to New York while I spent four days. with the team and do a bunch of, I find New York, I get so much done in New York. There's something about, I don't know, everyone just seems to be on high, if you will. By the way, it's fascinating.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
And our job is to dole it out where we see the most opportunity to increase stakeholder value. And the stakeholders are all seven and a half billion people on the planet. And we're there to ensure that there's trust and transparency and ensure that the bad guys don't get this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
and start doing, and we're gonna cooperate around either sequestering this or ensuring that the development of it to make weapons or create a new super virus, that we are hip to these things before anybody else and act against them. With that type of organization, do you think that's possible? And in your mind, do you think that that has merit?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
All these members clubs are opening. In the last couple of years, there's been Zero Bond, my favorite, Casa Cipriani, downtown, weird location. They put a ton of money into it, has that Italian vibe. I get the sense it's trust fund kids from New Jersey, but that's just me. And then what else has opened up? San Vicente Bungalows is opening up from Los Angeles.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
So everyone assumes it's going to be cool. And I'm excited about that. The Crane Club, which is the guys from the Tao Group who are probably the most successful nightclub. Like pretty much a giant fucking red flag is when you find out that your daughter's dating a club promoter. But these guys made good in...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
It made so much dough and cabbage and really kind of professionalized the industry, if you will. And they're the folks or the power behind Crane Club, so it should be interesting. And then I went to another one last week, and it's my favorite so far based on my Snap impressions. Chez Marco. Ooh, hello. Hello, ladies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
I don't know exactly how to describe it other than the thing that struck me was it was super cool, super crowded, and the thing I liked about it was it was intergenerational. What do I mean by that? There was a lot of young, hot people. It was a good thing. It was a good thing. New York, by the way, is run on hot women, hot young women, and rich men. That's it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
For everyone else, it's a soul-crushing experience. Anyways, and then it had people my age, and then it had parents eating and dining. And I love that whole sort of like, we can be cool at any age, which is becoming increasingly important to me as I Me come 100 fucking years old. Anyways, I love being back in New York. New York's on fire.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Yeah. In every war, there's a new weapon that kind of changes the game. And I think people don't talk about this enough, but I think drones are the new. I mean, I think about millions of self-healing assassin drones and AI and the AI under the direction of some individual puts together a list of people who are not in the way of my wealth or my power.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
and those drones can be released at one of a thousand different, I mean, you can really get very dark very fast here. So I'm gonna try and segue out of this into something a little bit more positive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Yeah, it's definitely grumpy old men. It's grumpy, grumpier, and grumpiest. But I do find, whenever I speak to you, you manage to distill something down to something understandable and actionable for me. I love the idea of this multilateral agency. I was thinking in a zero-sum game philosophy that we need to get out ahead. We need to develop AI. We shouldn't be shipping NVIDIA chips to China.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
I was part of that crew.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
And what you have taught me is, okay, what if we cooperated around not only releasing it for the betterment of humanity, but also, quite frankly, policing the bad stuff together and being 100% transparent with each other and just saying, not only are there no secrets, but it would be impossible to have secrets amongst each other because we've just decided we're in the same office space.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
I really love that idea. And I think that as I think about candidates that I want to support in 2028, I do, or 2026, I do have access, mostly because I have money. But I think this is a really interesting view. Anyways, thank you for that. Your latest book, Unstressable, A Practical Guide for Stress Reliving, addresses the pervasive issues of chronic stress in modern life. In an interview...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Still think it's the greatest city in the world and am excited to be here. I'm also going to talk to Mo about specifically, I think there's a paradigm shift going on in AI. A little bit of a teaser, a little bit of a teaser. I'm like those promos for all those YouTube videos that say, the secret to happiness is... And then they cut out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
on the diary of a CEO with, by the way, Stephen Bartlett, who I believe is going to be the next Joe Rogan. You described stress as an addiction and a badge of honor. Say more. Why are we so addicted to stress?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
But we're going to talk to Mo about what I think is, I think I had a realization around what is, how the whole AI economy might shift. Anyways, with that, here's our conversation with Mo Gadot.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
How do we deal with stress in a more sustainable way? And as we wrap up here, are there any quick fixes?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
One of my favorite Steven Spielberg movies is this movie called Bridge of Spies, and this Russian spy who's been unmasked by the U.S. government is in court. He's being tried for treason or spying, and he's potentially facing life in prison. And his lawyer, I think it's Tom Hanks, says, aren't you nervous? Aren't you stressed? And he looks at him and says, would it help?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Well, let's start there. Surprises of February. What are surprises in February from an individual such as yourself in Dubai?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Anyways, Mo Gadot is the former chief business officer for Google X, the founder of One Billion Happy Foundation and co-founder of Unstressable. He's also a best-selling author of books including Solve for Happy, Scary Smart, and That Little Voice in Your Head. Mo, I mean this sincerely.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
You bring my stress down because I find you inspiring and relaxing, and you distill things into kind of actionable solutions. Really always enjoy speaking with you. I think you're really a profound thinker. Thanks for your good work. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
you know i feel overreacted a bit and then underreacted a bit and you know life life there you go i hear you so uh let's bust right into it the last time you were on i think it's about a year ago and you're a little you're sort of our go-to this mix of spirituality and deep technical domain expertise and we were talking as you might guess about kind of our need to control the response to AI.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Give us what you think the kind of current state of play is in AI, given some of the recent developments and how that may have influenced or did it influence your worldview or your predictions around or thoughts around the future of AI?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Support for the show comes from ServiceNow. Who is enabling people to do more meaningful, creative work, the work they actually want to do? You know what people don't want to do? Boring, busy work. But now, with AI agents built into the ServiceNow platform, you can automate millions of repetitive tasks in every corner of business, IT, HR, customer service, and more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
So I 100% agree with you. The idea that everything from which buildings are these targeted bombs, bomb first, what our perception of our government, election strategies, all of these things are now being decided by algorithms programmed by a very small number of people. That creates, I think, a lot of concern.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
The steel man argument is that if we don't iterate around the public's usage of these things, that other entities will leap ahead of us and their intentions are even more malicious than ours. That while capitalism perverts things, at its heart, it's not malicious. It might be indifferent, but it's not malicious. And the fear is that if we let other entities
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
entities run unfettered with AI in the sense that it becomes the Wild West and the public provides feedback and these models leap out ahead of ours, that ultimately the trade-off between a capitalist motive is worth it relative to letting other societies get out ahead of AI. Respond to that argument.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
And that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do. That's putting AI agents to work for people. It's your turn. Get started at servicenow.com slash AI-agents.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Are You Worth in America? (with Michael Sandel)
By the way, when we drop a pod from one of our sisters, our brother pods in the Vox Media Network, it's usually something that's really good. And that's why we get to cherry pick. And for those of you who don't know Preep Arara, He's very thoughtful, very soulful, and very dreamy. And by the way, he's my number. He's my one call.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Are You Worth in America? (with Michael Sandel)
If for whatever reason I end up in a prison somewhere, he's like my one call. And I've told him, if you ever see my name come up on your phone, it's not I want to hang out. It's pick up the fucking phone because daddy is in trouble. The dog's been picked up by the dog catcher and needs help. Needs help. Anyways, with that, here we are with Stay Tuned with Preet.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Are You Worth in America? (with Michael Sandel)
Welcome to another episode of The Prof G Pod. This week, in place of our regularly scheduled programming, we share an episode of Stay Tuned with Preet, a podcast in which former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara breaks down legal topics in the news and interviews leaders across politics, law, and culture.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Are You Worth in America? (with Michael Sandel)
In this episode, Preet speaks with Michael Sandel, a professor of political philosophy at Harvard and the author of several books, including his latest, Equality, what it means and why it matters. They discuss what human nature can tell us about governance, how higher ed can foster free expression, and how we might navigate deep moral disagreements in our politics.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
waiting for us to open the doors of the stadium. And that hit me really hard seeing a need that was so much greater than what we were prepared to meet. And then actually seeing us turn away more than 3,000 sick people who had come, many of them had walked even for more than a month from neighboring countries as the word had spread.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And they didn't get a chance to see a doctor because we didn't have enough doctors.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I loved it. I took 50,000 photos the first year. I got to watch every single patient pre and post-op. And the cool thing was I actually had a pretty big email list that I developed. So like it or not, You know, you went from getting an invitation to the Prada megastore opening in Soho to Alfred is 14 and suffocating to death on his face with the tumor pictures. So there were some unsubscribes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I mean, back then, email open rates were basically 100%. You know, you sent an email and people opened it. So some people got off the list, but others began to forward it. And the list actually grew exponentially. And I think some of my friends were just fascinated. Like, weren't you doing Coke with Scott like last month? And like, where's Liberia? You know, what is this hospital ship mission?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I was blogging a lot. I was sending out photos and videos. And I wound up raising money for the organization, over $100,000. just by telling these stories. So I think that was kind of this aha piece that maybe the same gift for promoting could be aimed in a completely different direction and could be used to raise money that helped people get these life-changing surgeries.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So the year ended, I just signed up for a second year. And it was really in that second year that I went into the rural villages and I saw people drinking dirty water. And I had never experienced dirty water in my human life. I was born into a middle-class family. Water came out of the sink.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I used to sell Voss water for $10 in the clubs to people who wouldn't even open the water because they were drinking champagne instead. So I saw humans drinking toxic, contaminated water from brown, viscous swamps, from green ponds. And I learned that half of the disease in the country was waterborne. And that half the country was drinking dirty water.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Simply put, Scott is just an inspiration. I've said that in 100 years, there's a few people I know that I think will be remembered, but I think Scott is right up there. He's brought incredible inspiration vision, innovation, design, technology to the world of nonprofit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I had this, you know, eureka moment in year two saying, here we are with not enough doctors turning thousands of sick people away with stuff growing on their faces. But yet half the country doesn't have the most basic need for health met. And at the time, there were over a billion people drinking dirty water on the planet out of six billion people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
One in six people alive were drinking unsafe, dirty water every day. So I remember showing the pictures I was taking in the villages to the chief medical officer. And at the end of that second year, he just simply encouraged me, says, why don't you go make this your problem? Why don't you go back to New York and bring clean water to everybody in the world?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I was like, all right, I guess I'll try. So the second year ended. I was 30. I was broke. Nightclub promoters, at least I was not good at saving money. I was very good at spending it. And I just came back. I'd given everything that I had to Mercy Ships and the people that I'd met in Africa. So I came back really penniless.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Then I found out that my club promoter partner had not dissolved the company. So I came back to a big tax debt. And he said, sorry about that, but you can sleep on my closet floor for free in Soho.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I'm sure so many founders you've had on here, you know, they... If we really knew what we were doing, we probably wouldn't have done it. Right. Or if we knew how hard it would be. Right. So I think that ignorance really helped.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Well, I'll be honest. I don't talk about this, but the actual place that I was staying was a little bit of a drug den. People would come in and do drugs, but it was free rent and the couch was where I could work with a laptop. You know, I learned by nonprofit for dummies or whatever, you need a board. You need this thing called a 501c3. You need to hire lawyers. I didn't have money for lawyers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And in those early days, what I did have was two years of photos and stories. that Brian Stevenson from EJI talks a lot about proximity. I had the authority that came with proximity to this issue. I had been in these villages. I had seen wells drilled. I had seen how water changed people's lives. And I had the photos and the videos to prove it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So in those early days, I remember going to Double Seven or Lotus and I would get led into a DJ booth and I'm clicking through on a laptop You know, photos of people drinking dirty water. I remember, you know, people would say, Scott, dude, I'll give you money, but you are killing my buzz.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I'm not, I want to be clear, I'm not passionate about potable water in Sub-Saharan Africa, but Scott is just such a visionary that, you know, he'll be a great fiduciary for your money. And just personally, I just think a great deal of him and the transformation he's gone through. So it's, I mean, I just think about it. It really is an inspiring story.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Can we... But I was so passionate about sharing my experience and what I'd seen and inviting them to be a part of it. And, you know, it turns out very little money, maybe no surprise, came from the people who were going to nightclubs. So those former contacts, the people who were buying bottles, were not the ones who were buying wells.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
But... The first idea I had was to throw myself a birthday party in a nightclub on day one during fashion week. Nightclub promoters always, you kind of call in a lot of favors. You have a birthday, everybody knows it's going to be good. It's open bar and, you know, everybody comes out. So I tried to turn my birthday into the day one fundraising event.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And it was a place called 10 June in the Meatpacking District. I remember putting out this big plexi box at the door. And if you wanted to get into my birthday party, you had to put $20 into that box. And I actually remember there was a weed dealer who I knew very well. And he put $500 in the box.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And he said to me, this is the first charitable gift I've ever made in my life, but I trust where it's going. Wow. And, you know, what I learned as I talked to everyday people was there was a lot of mistrust when it came to charities. There were a lot of people who were cynical or skeptical about where charitable donations went. I would hear, you know, the expression, the black hole of giving.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Charities are black holes. I don't know where my money goes. So I wondered, what if I created a charity where 100% of all the money we would ever raise would go directly to get people clean water?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I wasn't sure how, it was a very non-traditional business model, but I talked to the lawyers about it and they said, well, if you open up two distinct bank accounts and you promise to put all the public's money in one account that only builds water projects, and then you raise overhead in the second account from other people, yeah, you could do this. Right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I remember going down to the Commerce Bank on Broadway and Bond in New York City and opening up these two accounts. And I promised to that birthday party that all the money would go directly to help people living in a refugee camp in northern Uganda. So I raised $15,000 that first night. I remember we audited it. I take a lot of photos. You know, a bunch of people are counting the money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
From the $20. Yeah, 700 people came. Unbelievable. Yeah. And I take that money and we build our very first well in Uganda. We fix a couple wells. And then we document it so carefully with photos and video and satellite images. So we send people the Google Earth satellite coordinates, pictures, and we said, look, this is where your money went.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
You came, you gave $20, and people are drinking clean water because of you. And that closed-loop proof of concept was so... powerful and so unique. Other charities weren't doing that. They were not telling people where their money went. They just kept asking for more and more money that I realized I was really onto something.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So that became kind of the first pillar of how we would reinvent or reimagine charity for this generation, how we would take the cynic and the skeptic and say, you know, come look at us. We're going to do things very, very differently.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
The second then follow-on idea was, wait a minute, if money isn't fungible in the way that we've set up the structure, I can build technology that tracks every single micro donation to the source. If we're going to be building infrastructure in Malawi and Uganda and Bangladesh and India, these are real things. They're water projects with actual costs and an actual location.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I remember meeting the founder of Google Earth and he's like, yeah, you could put all of that up. You could be the first charity in the world just to publish all of that completion data on Google Earth. which we then later moved over to Google Maps. So proof became this second core pillar of the organization. And then the third really was just a brand.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I wanted to build an inspirational, dynamic, beautiful brand. I wanted to be the apple of charities, the charity that inspired people with hope and opportunity and not shame or guilt. Yes. And, you know, I figured if I put these three things together, we might actually have a shot at helping millions and millions of people get clean water.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
We might actually have a shot at building a movement that tackled this problem in our lifetime. We'll be right back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast, for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube by the way I absolutely love Vivian too I think she does a great job
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Yeah, we've already passed that, yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
You know, it's interesting. I mean, in some ways we're doing the same things as when we started 18 years ago. You know, we've now raised over a billion dollars, which is not that much money, you know, at this table, right? The people who have sat in this chair. But we've been able to mobilize a couple million people to give that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So the money has not come from governments or primarily foundations or corporations. It's been everyday people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I'll say as well, we've really helped bring awareness to this issue. And I think that the entire sector has grown. We now stand at 700 million people without water on a close to 8 billion population. So we've gone from one in six alive to one in 10, one in 11 alive. So we've actually made huge progress. And I think that's important because
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
You know, with any of these paralyzing global issues, I think to some people it feels like there's no end point. Yes. Right. We're just sending more money to Africa, you know, sending more money to these. No, we're actually making huge, huge progress. The biggest challenge that I tell our team is, you know, no one listening to this podcast woke up this morning.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
turned the tap on, took their shower, used filtered water for their coffee, maybe grabbed a bottle on their way to the gym or the yoga studio and said, my gosh, I'm so grateful for the clean water, to the privilege that I was born into. Let me go find a water charity so that I can go help people who are suffering. We have no customers, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I think the biggest challenge is how do we get people to even pause and consider the problem that they have never experienced?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I still am looking for that key, you know, the unlock to generosity. I've picked up some things around the world. I'll tell you one really powerful conversation I had. I was about to go and ask somebody for $10 million. Young tech entrepreneur, been a part of a multi-billion dollar IPO, and I was flying out to Hawaii, and I stopped in San Francisco, and I was meeting somebody at the Battery,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And he was an older gentleman. I think he was a Goldman Sachs partner for many years. And I said, hey, I'm about to make this ask. So this is more money than I've ever asked a human for. I don't get any of it, right? I mean, 100% of it goes straight to the... But I said, how do you feel when someone asks you for a whole lot of money? And he said, one word that has just changed the paradigm for me
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And it was not what I was expecting. I was expecting him to say offended, uncomfortable. And he said, I feel flattered. He said, I feel flattered that they think I would be that generous. And I wound up making the $10 million ask, actually getting a $12 million gift from that family. And I had an experience a couple years later where I was going to make another $10 million ask. And I asked...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
the founder, and I did it in a really interesting way. And it was a kind of a beautiful proposal that spoke to the way that he had made his money. And he got back to me a couple of months later after getting this proposal. And he says, you know, that was really beautiful. Thank you for honoring me and my family. He said, I have only one question. Why did you ask me for so little?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I said, well, because I didn't have the guts to ask you for 40 million. And he said, well, I'll do that then. He said, I need 10 years and I can send four right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I think those two things, that it's okay to stretch someone, it's okay to ask them to think about radical generosity, to think about using their resources to end the needless suffering of others, maybe in a way that they hadn't even contemplated before. And I still think maybe we're just not asking for enough.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Maybe we're just leaving so much human capacity for good, for generosity on the table by not being bold. Somebody told me once at Fundraiser, listen, there's only three things that people can really say. And if you're okay with all three of them, then you just got to keep showing up. So what can people say? They could say no. They could say less or not now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And if you're okay with all three of those, right? And how many founders here have had no pitch decks and people probably crapping on their ideas, crapping on their pitch decks. So you have to really be able to take a lot of no's. And I guess the fourth category is when people say they're going to do it and they don't do it. That's probably the most frustrating.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I'd rather just not be strung along and But I remember that I go home, if I hear seven no's in a day, my kids still think I'm great. My wife hopefully still thinks I'm great. And then you get up the next day and you go ask and ask and ask. And there's something almost freeing about the fact that none of it is personal gain. I froze my salary six and a half years ago.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I haven't even taken a cost of living increase. I wanted to kind of take... you know, that incentive completely out of the work. So if I raise, you know, 100 million this year or a billion for the poor, it doesn't impact me at all, right? It's money going through your hands. And I remember just an early driver, I was sitting with a tech founder, you know, unicorn startup, multi-billionaire.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And over the years, a lot of people have said to me, why don't you just start a company and make a lot of money and give it away? You know, you seem like- I would ask you that question. You seem like, you know, it's just very logical. I've probably had hundreds of people say, you know, why don't you go start something, dude? Like ring the bell, you know?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I would always ask them, how much have you given away? And let's say early on my number was, okay, well, I've given away 50 million through Charity Water and I've given away 250. Now at a billion, I'm starting to thin out those people. I know very few founders and probably very few founders sitting at this table who have given a billion dollars to the poorest people in the world.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I think we're in the beginning of the second inning. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A mechanic gets dispatched, turns up on a motorbike with tools, fixes that project, the community pays for that repair, and then they move on to the next one. So, you know, using a smart thermostat...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Well, when I was four, my mom almost died. Like you said, I was born in Philadelphia, actually. We had moved to Jersey to get closer to my dad's job. And we had just bought this very ugly gray house at the end of a cul-de-sac in the dead of winter. And we didn't know that we had just bought a house with a carbon monoxide gas leak.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And we start getting these strange symptoms, headaches, and migraines. And on New Year's Day, 1980, my mom passes out. She's unconscious on the bedroom floor, and she's essentially the canary in the coal mine, which leads to the discovery of massive amounts of carbon dioxide in her bloodstream, leads to the discovery of the leak, which was a improperly installed heat exchanger in the basement.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
the same idea to create a well where water can continue to flow over time and you know the uprates, you know that it continues to work in year three or year seven or year 10 as an association. So that's a really exciting sensor program that's still going on. We're working on four different sensors now for different water program types in different stages of R&D.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And we're raising all that funding separately as well. So that's not actually coming from the public donations. You know, that's an R&D fund. The second, you know, just example, I remember when VR first came out. Do you remember it was the Samsung phone that you would slide into that? It had Gear VR, right? And then Google had that little cardboard box. It was Google Glass.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I remember going somewhere, some conference, and it was Marriott, and they put a headset on me, and I was in the penthouse in Dubai, looking at Dubai. And I just remember thinking, wow, I could take people to Ethiopia or Malawi or Nepal to a village without water. And we're pretty scrappy too. There were no VR cameras on the market. So I got GoPro to donate eight GoPros.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I found this guy, Chris Milk in LA to turn it into a 360 rig. And we went to Ethiopia and we shot this beautiful eight minute VR film of a 13 year old girl who gets clean water for the first time in her life. And people would put on the headset and see the swamp. that she was sharing with animals. It was fecally contaminated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
They saw the rig, the million dollar drilling rig with Ethiopian drillers roll into her village and jump out and start looking for groundwater. There's this moment where they strike water and her father picks this little girl up and he's dancing and he's spinning her around.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And then at the end, you watch her walk to the well, pump it, and taste clean water for the very first time in her human life. And as primitive as the technology was, we would put headsets on people and they'd be weeping. Eight minutes later, they have tears streaming down their face. And we wound up using that film to raise millions and millions of dollars.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And my dad has an HVAC guy friend come over, and they rip this thing out, and I remember this crumpled heater on the curb that really didn't did irreparable damage to our family. What happened with my mom specifically is her immune system irreparably shut down after the carbon monoxide poisoning, and she was disabled and invalid for the rest of her life. My dad and I bounced back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
We took it to our Met Gala, and after dinner served to 350 people in black tie, we served 350 VR headsets on trays. And we pressed play at the same time. We took everybody out and back in eight minutes. And the minute the film finished, we just asked them for money. We helped 100,000 people get water in that moment.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I'm always wondering how can we use technology to further the mission, which is really simple. The mission is just to get everybody on earth clean water. Yeah. That's the drop the mic moment. There is a finish line. When 703 million people have water, we're done. It's done.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
It's a world where every human has the most basic need for life met.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I mean, I think I was almost a slave to the consumerism that I was pursuing, all the markers of success. However, and I've heard this actually from a lot of our donors, a lot of people will have a number in mind, and whenever they reach that number, the number changes. And I'm worried that if you live that life You know, it's almost like the cartoon, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Like the carrot is just out in front of you. And, you know, it's consumption and more houses and more planes and more cars. And, you know, for me, I'm only speaking personally, it didn't bring happiness. So, you know, the animating quote... In my life, almost 17 years ago, there was a guy who worked for me and he was passing a New York City bodega, a deli.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And there was this saying on one of the boards outside, do not be afraid of work with no end. And it came from an ancient rabbinic text. Do not be afraid of endless work. And in some ways, I think the one path is endless spending, endless attaining, endless consumption, endless accumulation maybe, or endless service.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I love that idea of if your work, if the work is showing up and saying, first, how can I be a great husband? How can I be a great father? How can I be a great friend? how can I be a great leader of an organization? And how can I serve? How can I make the biggest impact to people living, you know, close to me in my local community, in the global community, there's no finish line to that, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
It's the same way that there's never enough. There's no finish line, but you get to look back and like, oh, wow, we've helped 20 million people get water. Okay, hopefully I get to look back and say, oh, we've helped 100 million people on planet Earth. We've got this problem solved.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
You know, I was at Madison Square Garden not too long ago with my wife and, you know, Madison Square Garden holds a little less than 20,000 people and it was sold out for a concert. And I was like, we've done this a thousand times. Like you would have to build a thousand Madison Square Gardens to contain 20 million people. I was sitting in a thousandth of the impact
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
We were only sleeping in the house. We were sleeping upstairs. She was 24-7 unpacking boxes, you know, putting things in the basement and got the brunt of the exposure. So life had a radical change at four years old when I became a caregiver. Dad was a middle-class business guy, worked kind of in the electrical engineering space. Mom had been a successful writer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I haven't met these people. I'm never gonna meet 20 million, 20.2 million people with water. But that's the pursuit. How do I use what I've been blessed with, my time, my talents, and my money, and my personal money as well. I also believe in giving. I have to eat my own dog food. I need to be as generous as I'm asking other people to be. How do I use that in the service of others?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And it's, I think, you know, provides for a fulfilling life where you know that it matters.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
She was a journalist, and everything just stopped for her. So she was allergic. The best way to describe it is she was allergic to the world. If it was chemical and if it smelled, it made her sick. perfume, car fumes, fabric softener. There were signs on the outside of our house, keep out, chemically sensitive patient.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I remember if I went to church and a lady hugged me and I came back with a little whiff of perfume, I would have to strip naked in the garage, change into surgical clothes, like hospital scrubs that had been washed in baking soda. And then I was allowed in my own house. So that was kind of, you know, chapter one of life. Very traditional Christian family, non-denominational.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
My parents prayed a lot. They went to church and they really would rely on their faith to get them through, you know, what would be decades of sickness and illness. So I grew up in that context, going to Christian school, then, you know, a public high school. I wanted to be a doctor.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
When I grew up, I had dreams of going to Johns Hopkins so that I could get a medical degree and cure my mom and then cure others with her condition. Didn't smoke, didn't drink, didn't sleep around, didn't cuss. You know, was on the good path. And then act two started at 18 when I came to New York City and somebody took me to a nightclub.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I remember it was called Club USA and there was a slide that went from the balcony into the throng of the dance floor. And I remember going down that slide And feeling like I had arrived. You came out a new man. I came out a new man.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I announced to my parents that instead of going to Hopkins, which I probably couldn't have gotten into anyway, I would be moving to New York City to become a nightclub promoter. Because I learned that this was a pretty unusual profession that you could party for a living.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So if you were not allowed to smoke or drink or have sex or cuss, you could actually do all of these things with reckless indulgence and get paid. if you got the right people in the right clubs, which is where my story intersected with Galloway because he was a customer of mine for many, many, many years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Oh, Scott. I used to host Scott back in those days. My parents are horrified that their only son is now in New York City filling up nightclubs before he's even legally allowed to be in clubs. And I joined a band, I grew my hair down to my shoulders, so I was playing in a rock band part-time.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I was going to NYU part-time just because dad had saved up and it felt like I should take a couple courses and eventually mail him a degree that I never even saw for years. And I just loved every minute of it. I mean, this was lights and glamour and dinner at 10 p.m. with fashion models and other people's money and other limousines.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And, you know, it was kind of the dawn of bottle service where we all realized that you could sell a bottle of Absolute Vodka for $300. Yeah. That cost 20.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
When did that happen? So this is... My years were 1994 to 2004. Okay. So this was clubs like Lotus, Halo, Sweet 16. You know, this is before kind of marquee for people that, you know, know that club. It was Peter Gation at the Limelight and Tunnel, Club USA, Buddha Bar down on Varick. So it was... I mean, I just loved every minute of it. And it also felt rebellious.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
You know, I'm living out my childhood, the childhood I never got by having fun and having, you know, illicit fun. So, you know, I play this out for a while and I'm climbing up the ranks and I'm trying to chase models and make sure I own a BMW or Mercedes and have a nice place. And it's exhausting. Number one, it's really an unhealthy schedule. Your dinner was at 10 p.m. The club was at 12.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
After hours was at 4 a.m. And going to sleep was at noon. High on cocaine, taking Ambien to come down so that you could wake up at 7 p.m. and do it all over again.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I don't have a problem with that. Well, I didn't for a while. I think it was Hemingway that said, you know, going bankrupt, like it happens slowly and then suddenly. So I remember this one moment on Houston Street where I was crashing at a friend's place and it was noon. And I remember taking sheets and comforters and trying to block out the light.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
at 12 o'clock and looking out on Houston Street at people in suits on their lunch break, you know, getting salads. Doing life. Salads. They had gone to the gym when I was at the After Hours Coke bar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And just remember thinking, wow, this is so unhealthy. And the kind of end of chapter two for me happened in Punta del Este in Uruguay. I was on a vacation over New Year's Eve. I'd been in the business a decade. And I just, I had enough of the things that I had been chasing to realize that they were not going to make me happy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I think I realized just how far I had come from this little boy who wanted to be a doctor to help others. Yes. The little kid who played piano in church and prayed and wanted to live a, you know, virtuous, high integrity life. And I missed home. I mean, in some ways it's kind of like the parable, the prodigal son, you know, he finds himself
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
halfway around the world covered in pig feces, you know, spoiling everything about his life and like wanting to come home. So I came back from that vacation feeling, knowing that a pivot was not needed in my life. A 180 degree course correction was in order. And I got the idea to, I grew up with this kind of Christian principle of tithing where you give 10% of your money to the poor.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Well, I thought, what if I gave 10% of my time? What if I gave one year? Penance is probably not the right word, but kind of as a tithe of the 10 years that I had selfishly wasted. And I went and tried to serve others. Could I find my way on a humanitarian mission? And would I have any skills at 28 years old that would be useful to others? So I, you know, I'm a pretty extreme guy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So just to be clear, I've been extraordinarily unphilanthropic the majority of my life. And the only time I ever gave money before the age of 40 was so I could go to some cool party and hang out with cool people and pretend I was being philanthropic. So I wouldn't describe myself as unphilanthropic.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I sell everything I own and I start applying to the famous humanitarian organizations I've tangentially heard of. Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, World Vision, the Red Cross, Salvation Army. It turns out that none of these organizations are interested in hiring a nightclub promoter, even for free. So I'm denied by everyone. And I just remember being so frustrated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I mean, here I'm ready to go. I'm ready for the life change and no one will take me. So finally, this one organization writes me back and I dusted off an NYU degree that I'd barely gotten majoring in communications because it was the easiest thing. And I found this one organization and they said, Scott, if you pay us $500 a month,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And if you're willing to go live in post-war Liberia, West Africa, which at the time was the poorest country in the world, having just exited a 14-year civil war, they said, we'll take you on as our volunteer photojournalist. And I'm like, great. Here's my credit card details. When does the mission start? And they said, a few weeks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I finally have one organization who was willing to give me a shot at a year. And in some ways, I didn't even know it then, I was uniquely qualified to do this volunteer job as a promoter, as a storyteller.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Now, I had been telling the story for 10 years that if you get past my velvet rope, if you spend lots of money in the club, if you rub shoulders with a celebrity or a movie star, your life has... Yeah. So I had actually been promoting 40 different clubs over 10 years. And I got a chance to promote something very different.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And this group was a charity that consisted of doctors and surgeons and nurses who would all give up vacation time. They would fly to West Africa and they would offer free medical services to people who had no ability to afford them. And they operated, which was unique, from a 500-foot hospital ship.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So an old kind of broken down converted ocean cruise liner had been gutted and turned into a state-of-the-art hospital that sailed up and down the coast of Africa with 350 volunteer crew, all paying $500 a month like me, which helped the organization run. So I had never heard of Liberia before. I couldn't have found it on the map. You know, I joke, and I don't think this is hyperbole.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I'm trying to catch up and invest in nonprofits that are really well run, where I believe that I'll get a great return on investment, and that is they'll have a big impact. And the two areas I'm focused on are mostly our teen suicide prevention and vocational programming for young men.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I think I thought Africa was a country not made up of 50-some. Geography had been a distant past. I learned quickly. And my third day there, I had a really important moment where it was called the patient screening. And in advance of the ship landing, with the doctors coming into the port, a small team had posted flyers advertising the coming of these doctors throughout the country.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And these flyers had pictures of conditions that we treated, cleft lips, cleft palates, flesh-eating disease, facial tumors, people who had been burned during the war who needed reconstruction. And, you know, we arrive at the port, my third day in Africa. We wake up at 5 a.m.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
and the government has given us the soccer stadium, the football stadium in the center of the city to triage the people who had come and put them through our stations and then hand out these surgery cards. And I knew that we had 1,500 available surgery cards. And when we turned up around 5.30 in the morning to the parking lot, there were over 5,000 people
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – How Bobbi Brown Built A Beauty Empire
So I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed working with those companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Wages
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Wages
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Wages
I'm Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice. A key question for all business leaders and owners. Are you paying your people a living wage?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Porn
I'm Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice. Young men face a variety of obstacles to thrive. One of those obstacles, on-demand porn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Red States receive more federal funding than they pay in taxes. Republican leaders, who are under the delusion they control the power of the purse and won, are instead quietly expressing concerns over what doge cuts mean for their constituents. Dismantling USAID hurts Kansans, who sell their crops to a government program that fights hunger abroad.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
NIH-Cuts threaten jobs in Alabama, Florida, Nebraska and other red states. One of Louisiana's Republican senators believes plans to gut the FBI will hurt his state. Cuts to the VA fall on a key Trump constituency as veterans skew Republican by two to one. Delete the Department of Education? Trump carried four of the top five states that received Title I funding for low-income students.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Louisiana, Mississippi, Arizona and Alabama. Amid a chaotic transition, the White House mistakenly elevated the wrong person to acting FBI director. In any other administration, this kind of fuck-up would have been endless fodder for comedians and congressional investigations. In this administration, it barely gets a footnote. Brian Driscoll, aka Driz, will likely be fired soon.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
But the G-Man's response to an attack on his colleagues and the rule of law is a lesson in leadership and masculinity, defaulting to protection. Even if we lose, weakens him, as it inspires others to do the same. Think about this. A man who makes Nazi gestures owns the majority of satellites and space launch capacity and has usurped the power of the purse and Congress.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
A recent poll shows many moderates favor effective, move fast, break things, over right, checks and balances. Autocracies are seductive. In the short term they seem effective. A third of Americans on both sides of the political spectrum favor an autocrat as long as he, let's be honest, it's always a he, is aligned with their views.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
The same man is openly threatening other companies with government retribution if they don't spend money on his companies. Für die Demokraten und die Republikaner ist dies kein Zeitpunkt, um zusammenzukommen, sondern um zu retten.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Viele, oder die meisten Amerikaner bis jetzt, fühlen sich nicht anders als unter der neuen Regierung. Und sie mögen die Idee, schnell gegen Probleme zu kämpfen, die sie glauben, aus der Kontrolle geflogen sind. Grenzüberschritte, Regierungs-Largesse, wachsende Ideologie.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Der Blitzkrieg, der die Verbrechung von Alliieren verursacht, die Verzeichnung von Wasserböden und die Verabschiedung von Putin, hat viele Amerikaner, besonders Demokraten, flachgelegt, auf die Enttäuschung gewartet. If you believe that democracy should not surrender, as Trump is urging Ukraine to do, then the seminal question is, what to do? Honest answer? I don't know.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
However, I do have some ideas. Nobody had Elon Musk as master of coin on their 2024 election bingo card. Seizing the levers of the federal payment system was strategic and elegant, as it gave the White House a single point of control, with influence over government priorities and policies via control of money flows. I do something similar when my sons are misbehaving.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Rather than attempting to parent hard, I just remotely shut off their phones' internet access. Department of Dad Energy. Dode. With the seizure of power, and money is power, Musk can reward friends, punish enemies, impose his political will, and effectively delete government agencies and departments by shutting off funding without worrying about pesky constitutional oversight.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
This is techno-authoritarianism. Musks dominion encompasses the public and private sectors, physical and digital realms, and even space. In a 2007 essay, Musk-Ally and Doge-Co-Architect Peter Thiel argued for a new Alexander the Great, i.e. a king or dictator to cut the Gordian knot of our age. The chief obstacle, according to Thiel, America's constitutional machinery.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Thiel schrieb, Quote, Unquote. Mein Pivot-Co-Star Kara Swisher beschreibt diese Mentalität als, quote, Let's wipe the slate clean, then we'll build the civilization we want, unquote. The problem? A plurality of American citizens did not vote for this vision, much less these individuals. Trump won.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
In our system, the ideas he campaigned on can now become policy, assuming he has the votes in Congress. Musk ist der mächtigste Vizepräsident in der Geschichte und er wurde nicht mal gewählt. Seht euch die Zeitung von Musk hinter dem Resolute-Desk an, folgt von der surrealen Oval-Office-Pressekonferenz, wo Trump den Rolle als geriatrischer Vizepräsident zu Musks Politik-Blitzkrieg gespielt hat.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Ich glaube, wenn ihre Gedächtnis, die die Libertards zu eignen hat, abschließt, werden die Republikaner im Kongress realisieren, dass sie einen Monster erschaffen haben, den sie nicht mehr kontrollieren können. Musk's digital coup subjugates the right as much as the left. His attempt to hijack the government also hijacks the MAGA agenda.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
By the way, at some point Americans will realize the conservative-progressive battle is a misdirect. The real fulcrum, where the battle is being waged, is up-down. Rich versus not rich. The wealthy and corporations whom Trump and Musk listen to will put up largely symbolic resistance to an emerging autocracy. They aren't going to suffer, as the world now offers civil rights for sale.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
The 1% can move anywhere by influence and ensure everybody in their circle has access to Mifepristone. The savings from Doge are again a misdirect from an enormous tax increase on today's youth via the deficits we'll register if Trump's tax cuts go through. I know a lot of very wealthy tech executives and financiers. The key to their wealth, yes, much of it is luck, not their fault.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
And much of it is talent. However, the real secret sauce is a focus. The acquisition of wealth is an obsession for the, wait for it, Wealthy, pro tip, anybody speaking at a university who claims they never thought much about money, is obsessed with it. The right's defense of Musk, that Doge is some patriotic gesture, is laughable. His focus and his only focus. Er wird ein Trillionär.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Sein Volontärismus ist ein Versuch, die Obstacke zwischen ihm und größerem Geld zu klären, spezifisch Regulierer und Fair Play. Musk-Kultisten offern oft das gleiche, ah, schucks, er kann sich nicht helfen, er ist so authentisch Rap, wenn er sagt oder tweetet, seltsame, rexistische und einfach dumme Dinge. Aber sein Id?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
is always in check when it comes to saying anything about China, where officials likely feel they have leverage over Musk. So measured, so thoughtful, so disciplined, so obsessed with money. He recognizes he doesn't enjoy the umbrella protection of the First Amendment in China and accusing a member of the CCP of being a sex criminal, his go-to, would likely result in swift economic retribution.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
He may or may not suffer from Aspergers, but he definitely suffers from being an asshole. And by the way, for those of you bots waiting to fill the comments section with cries of TDS or an obsession with Musk, you're wrong. I've been clinically diagnosed with DAS, Democracy Addiction Syndrome. And bitches, after four weeks of this nonsense, incompetence, surrender, my affliction is spreading.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
If it's possible to hold our government hostage by capturing the federal payment system, then we need to work upstream of Musk's choke point. Already the Treasury Department has exhausted roughly 60% of the extraordinary measures at its disposal to delay a default on our bonds.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
The rates on the 10-year Treasury bill, however, indicate that Congress will raise the debt ceiling, as both parties have done 78 times since 1960. But what if Democrats refuse? A dozen GOP senators and 49 House Republicans, more than 20% of each conference, have never previously voted to raise the debt ceiling. Democrats have a strong stand here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
If they credibly threaten default, rates on the 10-year T-Bill will increase and equities will likely suffer. This will be painful, but the pain will primarily fall on the 1% and corporations, i.e. those who own 90% of assets and have influence over Trump. In effect, the markets could do what Congress won't. Reign in Trump, kick Musk to the curb and demand the US remain a nation of laws.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
In March the government will run out of money, unless Congress acts. If the government shuts down, roughly 3 million federal workers will stop receiving paychecks. Stiffing the military, air traffic controllers and people who keep our food and water safe is stupid. It hurts them and us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
At the moment, however, a sleep-deprived alleged ketamine abuser who makes Nazi salutes is cutting off funding for programs he dislikes and promising buyouts to federal workers with money that isn't there. Hakeem Jeffries is correct when he says there's little Democrats can do legislatively to stop President Musk. But Democrats shouldn't do anything legislatively to enable him either.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Here again, Democrats have a decent hand to extract concessions, as a shutdown is upstream of Musk's power. Musk's wealth is the source of his power and his main point of vulnerability. One third of his wealth is tied up in Tesla stock, which briefly rose after the election, as the market priced in kleptocracy, but has plunged 30% since December.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Proteste an Tesla-Lokationen in den USA zeigen, dass andere sich ähnlich fühlen. Tesla's brand value dropped 26% year over year, due primarily to Musk entering the political arena. His behavior in Europe, where he endorsed Germany's far-right neo-Nazi party, stoked a race riot in the UK, and stands accused of manipulating algorithms on X to influence public discourse in France...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Das hat Tesla-Sales verursacht. In China, Teslas zweiter größter Markt, sind die Verkäufe jährlich um 11 Prozent geringer. Letztes Monat hat BYD viermal die Zahl der EVs verkauft, die Tesla verkauft hat. Musks Politik ist schlecht für Amerika. Wir müssen sie schlecht für sein Geschäft machen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Musk hat einmal tweetet, Quote, zwischen Tesla, Starlink und Twitter, ich habe mehr real-zeit globale ökonomische Daten in einem Kopf als jemals. Quote. Frage. Ist es in Amerikas besten Interesse, für einen Mann die kombinierte Macht von Henry Ford, NASA und William Randolph Hearst zu haben?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Starlink ist ein großartiges Produkt, aber die wachsende Bewertung, die Musk über globale Kommunikation erzeugt, ist erstaunlich. Musk kontrolliert bereits halb die Satelliten in der Orbit. Er plant, in den nächsten fünf Jahren bis zu 58.000 mehr zu starten und verspricht, das Niveau zu 500.000 zu erhöhen. In der Politik schlägt das Pendulum immer zurück.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Die Demokraten sollten klar sein, dass sie, wenn sie den Kongress wiederholen, die Dominanz in den Satelliten von Musk beurteilen und Regulierungen beurteilen, um im Interesse der nationalen Sicherheit zu arbeiten. Notieren Sie, dass das auch gute Politik ist, weil Musks Popularität auch bei den Republikanern sinkt. Denken Sie daran, als würde man Greenland invadieren, wenn Greenland Raum wäre.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
In the meantime, Senate Democrats can block government contracts Musk companies rely on by filibustering funding legislation, as Republicans do not have a filibuster-proof majority. When I interviewed historian Niall Ferguson on my podcast, he said British politics is a game of cricket between people who went to Oxford. Whereas American politics is a blood sport.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
I'd argue Niall misses some nuance. Recently, democratic politics have felt like a stern game of bridge at the rest home. For MAGA, the coarseness of our discourse is a feature, not a bug. Musk und Trump verstehen das. Sie spüren violente Rhetorik und leveragen politische Gewalt, wie am 6. Januar, weil Angst ein nützliches Werkzeug ist, um Follower und Opponente in Linie zu halten.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Gestern begann ein DOJ-Offizier falsche Angelegenheiten von Menschen an Musk und seinem Team zu verurteilen und Angelegenheiten an Offiziere zu senden, um ihre Kommentare zu klarifizieren, also sie zu enttäuschen. Ja, freie Sprache, unless it's our guys. This is an attempt to cast a chill on opposing speech in what can be described as the fascist hymn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Speaking of fascist hymns, the Wall Street Journal reported on February 19th that Linda Iaccarino is now a brick in the fascist wall, threatening to leverage her dear leader's influence to block the IPG-Omnicom merger if they do not advertise on her platform.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Despite credible threats, Trump has removed security details protecting his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, General Mark Milley and Dr. Anthony Fauci, to name a few. In response, Democrats marched to a federal building and did their best impression of a seniors facility when Jell-O nights been cancelled.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Die Demokraten sollten es klar machen, dass wenn sie in die Macht zurückkehren, Trump und jeder, der sich auch in den digitalen Krieg engagiert hat, auch ihre Sicherheitsdetail verlieren. Es geht um Incentiven. Wir müssen über die stark bewortete Liste gehen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Was ich hier vorgelegt habe, ist langweilig und unkompliziert, verglichen mit der Geschwindigkeit und zerstörerischen Kraft eines 19-jährigen Computeringenieures, der hoch auf den Bergen liegt. My concern is for America, but I'll be fine. The people who will pay a far greater price are Trump voters, who believe this fight is for them. It's not. It's against them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Europe Becomes a Union
I'm Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice. As President Trump upends the post-World War II order, it's finally dawning on Europe that it can no longer rely on America. Europe becomes a union, as read by George Hahn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Elon Musk, Welfare Queen
I'm Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice. This past weekend, Elon Musk called me cruel, mean, and deceitful. Two and a half years ago, I called him a welfare queen. You decide. Cruel, mean, and deceitful, as read by George Hahn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
I like real estate, as no other asset class allows you to lever up 5 to 1 with a low down payment and a deductible interest rate. But the idea that homeownership is the best or only way to build wealth is a lie fomented by the National Realtors Association that needs to die. This lie leads to dubious financial advice for the people who buy homes that don't outperform the market.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
And it makes those who aren't able to buy feel like failures. But the most toxic byproduct of this lie is that it encourages incumbents to inflate the value of their assets by making housing scarce. Americans want to build wealth, and Democrats should speak in aspirational terms.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
But if housing is the primary or only vehicle for wealth accumulation, we shouldn't be surprised that our political fault lines are rich against poor, rural against urban, and old against young. If economic security is the nutrition of a capitalist society, then maybe we need to stop thinking of housing as an investment, but a consumable, like food, energy, education.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
The construction of millions of low-cost units for young people, coupled with tax-advantaged incentives to invest in the market, would result in a better path to wealth. In addition, we need to remove housing from the growing list of sources of anxiety for young people. It's housing, not an investment strategy or the arbiter of whether you're worthy enough to mate, start a family, or earn status.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Economic security and deep and meaningful relationships are the American dream, not a mortgage payment. The call sign for the next administration should morph from drill baby drill to build baby build.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Democrats need to be the party of ideas, not indignation. Our Project 2028 series will address critical issues facing American society through a no-mercy, no-malice lens. We begin with housing. The U.S. doesn't have a housing crisis, but an affordability crisis. Roughly one-third of Americans rent, and nearly half are cost-burdened, i.e., they spend 30% or more of their income on housing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Since 2019, rents have increased one and a half times faster than income in most U.S. metro areas. In purely economic terms, increased housing costs reduce labor mobility and productivity as workers can't afford to live in high-growth areas. When human capital can't be invested in the regions offering the greatest returns, it dampens growth.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
One research project estimates that removing housing constraints, i.e. lowering costs, to increase the liquidity of human capital would increase GDP by $1.4 trillion. In some, there may be an economic as well as a social justification for government investments in housing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Elevated housing costs also take a toll on health, as families who struggle to afford housing often delay medical care, eat less healthy food, and have higher levels of anxiety and depression. But the most catastrophic consequence of unaffordable housing is that 770,000 Americans are homeless.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
According to one study, communities where the median rent is more than 32% of the median household income are likely to see sharply higher rates of homelessness. But no matter where they live, homeless people suffer intense physical and mental harm, put a disproportionate burden on public services where they live, and reduce the quality of life for all citizens.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
The common denominator for struggling renters and the homeless isn't identity, but money. Increasing support for Section 8 housing and rent control may provide short-term relief, but in the long term, these programs become entrenched and suppress development. The quickest way to help poor people afford housing is simple. Pay them more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
As I've written before, I believe minimum wage should be $25 per hour. There are approximately 32,000 homeless veterans in the U.S. While vets account for only 5% of the total homeless population, housing them is a good place to start as they're politically popular and have access to benefits. A federal No Homeless Vets pilot program could be a platform for testing solutions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
It could also provide what's missing in American politics right now, renewed confidence that the government can take on big challenges. Owning a home marks one's progression into adulthood, starting a family, and building wealth. But for many Americans, the American dream has become a hallucination. This is especially true for young people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Between 1984 and 2024, the age of the typical first-time homebuyer jumped from 29 to 35. Since 1963, home prices have increased three times after adjusting for inflation, while the median household income increased about one and a half times. Nationally, the average home price-to-income ratio is 4.7.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
It's significantly higher in California at 8.4, Washington at 6.3, Massachusetts at 6.3, New York at 5.7, and Florida at 5.7. Housing experts say we need to build somewhere between 1.7 million and 7.3 million additional housing units. In the same way Ernest Hemingway described the process of going bankrupt, we got here gradually.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Then suddenly, as the pace of home building has yet to fully rebound to the rate before the Great Recession. Increased costs for labor, building materials, and regulatory compliance have all contributed to the problem. The cost of building multifamily housing in California, for example, spiked by 25% between 2010 and 2020. Nationwide residential construction costs rose 19% over the same period.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Construction costs have stabilized since the pandemic. Labor costs grew 3.8% over the past year, while the cost of materials was flat. Mass deportations and tariffs, however, will likely increase the cost of both labor and materials. Democrats don't have the power over tariffs and immigration, but they can champion cost-effective building.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Manufactured homes, which are built in factories and finished on-site, are 35% to 73% cheaper than homes built entirely on-site. In Los Angeles, many homeowners can't afford to rebuild after the fires, as quotes for new construction can be two times or more what insurance will cover. A partnership between a nonprofit and manufactured home startup
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
aims to donate 100 pre-built homes that cost around $260,000 each. To rebuild L.A. quickly, local leaders should hyperscale this kind of building. When I interviewed housing economist Jenny Schutz on my podcast, she told me housing policy is relatively simple, but the politics are hard. Case in point? Around 75% of residential land in the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
is zoned exclusively for single-family homes, the most costly and least dense type of housing. Rezoning for multifamily housing and taller buildings would make it easier to build. At the federal level, the bipartisan YIMBY Act encourages block grant recipients to track and remove barriers to housing construction. HUD grants along the lines of Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
which Congress authorized $85 million for in 2023, have helped localities purchase land for affordable housing, streamline the building application process, and add local staff to fast-track affordable housing proposals. We should double down.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Likewise, we should pass the Bipartisan Housing Supply and Affordability Act, which would allocate $1.5 billion in technical assistance to overhaul local zoning rules. Local governments and neighborhoods, however, hold most of the power here. Reform is costly and time-consuming, as new rules must contend with a confusing legislative labyrinth.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
The effects of an over-lawyered process are most apparent in blue states. A significant number of Californians left for Texas in search of jobs and affordable housing, the chocolate and peanut butter of economic growth. To win national elections, Democrats need to demonstrate that they can govern. The winning move? Go hard at zoning reform, cut red tape, and encourage development.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Such a pivot could make for strange bedfellows. Zoning reform means taking on environmentalists and wealthy homeowners. The standard property tax model imposes taxes on land and structures. This discourages building, since new construction will be taxed. we should reverse the incentives and tax only undeveloped land, encouraging development while cutting taxes on existing homes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
The idea has been proposed in Detroit and New York City to reduce the number of vacant lots in those cities. In Pennsylvania, several cities have used a similar split-rate tax that taxes structures at a lower rate than land. One study found that split-rate tax models can increase high-density housing units between 2% and 10%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Embracing the strategy could rebrand Democrats from tax-and-spend liberals to tax-cutting builders. This week, the California legislature released a report examining the state's failure to build enough affordable housing. The author's conclusion? The planning process is slow, crippled by red tape, and vulnerable to frivolous lawsuits, making it too damn hard to build in the Golden State.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Exhibit A? In 2024, the state Supreme Court resolved a three-year battle over a 1,200-unit Berkeley housing project. Neighborhood groups argued that the noise predicted to come from college student housing amounted to a pollutant under the law. The neighborhood groups lost, but the case illustrates the larger problem.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
By the way, UC Berkeley has been there longer than any resident, and the scarcity model weaponized by administrations departments and existing homeowners is morally bankrupt. But that's another post. NIMBY homeowners have fashioned a state law, the California Environmental Quality Act, into an anti-growth cudgel.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
A California legislative analyst's office study found that CEQA litigation delayed construction by two and a half years. Only 20% of CEQA lawsuits target greenfields, i.e. converting open space to housing, while 85% of CEQA lawsuits were filed by groups with no track record of environmental litigation. A California state senator has introduced legislation to fast-track CEQA cases.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Lawmakers in states and localities with similar laws should follow suit. Rents in Minneapolis increased by only 1% between 2017 and 2022, largely because developers increased the housing stock by 12% during the same period. Meanwhile, rents in the rest of Minnesota, which only boosted housing stock by 4%, increased by 14%. The unlock?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Minneapolis reformed zoning laws to encourage taller multifamily housing projects and eliminated parking minimums that can cost $50,000 per space. It's a similar story in Austin, where city officials waged a decade-long political fight to tackle housing affordability through rezoning. Austin's new rules allow for single-family homes to be built on smaller lots...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
apartments to be built closer to single-family homes, and denser development along a planned light rail line. NIMBY homeowners tend to be loud and politically connected, giving the impression that their views represent the broader community. That is not the case. YouGov polling suggests that Americans may be more receptive to local development than previously thought.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Support for building more single-family homes polls at 90% nationally, 81% locally. For senior housing, national support polls at 88%, local support is 84%. Nationally, 76% of Americans want more apartments built, while 65% support building more apartments locally. Low-income housing and homeless shelters are the least favored housing types, but even there, local support polls at 2 to 1.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
If you're a politician, you've been given a green light to ignore NIMBYs. Despite the conventional wisdom, people lose money in real estate. Homes are illiquid capital-intensive assets that come with phantom costs, insurance premiums, maintenance bills, and property taxes, all of which are expected to rise due to climate change.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Owning also limits diversification, as homes are close to workplaces, meaning a local economic downturn or a natural disaster could wipe out your equity at the same time you lose a job. Historically, the S&P averages a 10% annual return, outpacing housing at 4% to 8%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Moreover, real estate brokers typically charge around a 6% commission, 60 times the transaction cost you'd pay for a low-fee ETF that tracks the S&P. The advantage of homeownership is forced savings, as people don't want to risk the hassle and shame of eviction. Another advantage? Owning can stabilize monthly housing costs relative to rents.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
But when I sold the business, my tax rate on the proceeds, owning, was 17%. Even before selling, every small business owner gets an enormous shield, the power to push all manner of personal expenses through the company income statement, thus making them tax deductions for the business rather than taxable income for the owner.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Income that's acquired by selling an asset for more than you paid for it is a capital gain. and isn't subject to ordinary income tax rates. Capital gains rates, federal, max out at 23.8% instead of 37%. That's still not the biggest loophole.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Capital gains are only taxed when realized, typically when sold, so owners' assets grow tax-deferred, some you can depreciate as they go up in value, and their sales are timed to minimize taxes. Earners lose 20% to 50% of their gains from sweat every year, a massive gravitational pull. Owners enjoy cleaner propulsion. As their wealth grows, the taxes are deferred until they sell, if they ever do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
But wait, there's more. The biggest tax break owners can register is dying, which resets the basis of their assets, so their heirs never pay taxes on the increase in value. Still, there's more. The most indefensible loophole award goes to the carried interest loophole, which permits investment fund managers to pay capital gains rates on their compensation fees.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Tax policy groups have been lobbying to close this loophole for years, and Congress nearly did it in 2022. But Senator Kyrsten Sinema took $2 million from the private equity industry, aka owners, and saved their $14 billion loophole. It's well known that our leaders are whores. What's more surprising and disappointing is what cheap whores they are. $2 million for $14 billion? But I digress.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Owners are so tax-advantaged that if they do have earned income, they often shield that from taxation as well. Donald Trump paid virtually no income taxes on the $427 million he made from The Apprentice, where he had an actual job, by offsetting that cash income with paper losses on his real estate properties. Real estate is another of the most tax-advantaged industries.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
In 2007, Jeff Bezos made $46 million in actual income, yet he paid $0 in federal income tax because he was able to shield that income with paper losses as an owner. In reality, his wealth increased $3.8 billion that year. In 2011, not only did Bezos pay no income tax again, he claimed and received a $4,000 child tax credit, a program intended to lower child poverty.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
If you paid federal income tax in 2011, you helped feed Jeff Bezos' kids. Don't worry. He's fine. Timing. A key advantage of control over timing is state income tax arbitrage, practiced often by company founders.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Several years ago, the media discovered the phenomenon of California entrepreneurs moving to Texas and Florida, and there was a lot of jazz hands about those states' friendly business climates and youthful energy. The truth was simpler. Texas and Florida have no state income tax, and many of those founders were about to recognize enormous gains via sales of stock that had become worth billions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Elon Musk, who moved to Texas in 2020, sold millions of shares of Tesla, saving an estimated $2.5 billion in California income tax. When Washington State enacted a tax on income from asset sales, Jeff Bezos decided to spend more time with his father in Florida, which has no income tax, and sold 50 million shares of Amazon after he relocated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
If taking advantage of Washington's schools, roads, and tech ecosystem to build wealth and then declining to pay taxes back to the state sounds wrong and a massive additional burden on middle-class taxpayers who can't peace out to Coral Gables, trust your instincts. The best time to pay taxes is never using the infamous buy, borrow, die tax strategy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
It's tax season in the U.S. 60 million-plus Americans' taxes are so simple, the IRS could process them automatically and just send a bill or refund check. Instead, the average American spends $270 and 13 hours filing their taxes each year. Spoiler alert, the IRS is the least popular federal agency. Last month, Doge came for the tax man.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Wealthy owners take out loans secured by assets such as company stock or real estate and live off the loans, which are not considered taxable income, instead of selling the assets, which would incur a taxable gain. When the owner dies, the stock goes to their heirs who, with their stepped-up basis, can sell enough stock tax-free to pay off the loans and start the cycle anew.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
This creates dynastic wealth, the lack of which used to be a key point of differentiation between Europe and the U.S. Used to be. Collection All of these strategies are legal and enabled by the complexity of the tax code. But that complexity also affords owners another means of avoidance – cheating. Skirting taxes stems from the complexity of the tax code itself.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Wealthy filers can take deductions that don't apply or classify income in inappropriate ways – And without an exhaustive analysis of the facts, there's no way for the IRS to determine what they've done. Some of the losses Trump used to offset his income from The Apprentice may have been illegal.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
The IRS believes he claimed hundreds of millions of losses on a Chicago real estate project twice, burying the double dip under a mountain of tax paperwork so tall it's taken the IRS a decade to dig through it. Owners can also choose to cheat bluntly, failing to report substantial income and making up fake expenses and losses. This was New York hotelier Leona Helmsley's strategy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Before going to prison for tax evasion, she told her housekeeper, quote, we don't pay taxes, only the little people pay taxes, unquote. Offshore entities are a time-honored strategy for tax evasion. Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, concealed $16.5 million in income from the IRS in foreign bank accounts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
The Treasury's analysis suggests $600 billion in owed taxes are not paid every year, equivalent to the total income taxes paid by the lowest-earning 90% of taxpayers. The avoidance is solely the domain of ownership income. 99% of the taxes owed on wages get paid. Owners can do this because Congress has starved the IRS of funding, and the agency audits fewer and fewer returns each year.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Revenueing these inequities is nowhere near as difficult as it would be to address many of the other challenges facing America. The most obvious and glaring remedy is to fund the IRS, enabling it to collect hundreds of billions in taxes owed but not paid.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
The Inflation Reduction Act was supposed to allocate $80 billion to the IRS over the next 10 years, but Republicans have attacked the measure, cutting $20 billion from the plan and keeping the IRS budget flat in 2024. Every $1 invested in tax enforcement targeting the wealthy returns $12 in revenue. To be clear, this isn't harassment, but enforcement.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Most externalities are a function of incentives, and the government has incentivized owners to be incredibly aggressive on their tax returns, as there is little chance they'll get caught. If you were on a highway with no police, would you speed?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Eliminating the special treatment given to capital gains is a simple fix that would increase tax revenue without increasing the tax burden of most Americans, reduce the incentive to cheat through misclassification, and make the tax system more fair.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Half the IRS workforce, 90,000 people in total, is reportedly on the Green Mile. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are inching closer to extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts. This is good news for the wealthy, i.e., owners. Lowering tax rates and decimating IRS enforcement capabilities is stupid. We get $12 back for every $1 given to the agency. but it's only a misdirect.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
so would eliminating the step-up basis upon inheritance, which wipes away billions in taxes owed by the wealthiest people with little justification or social benefit. We should remove the income gap on Social Security tax, currently a paltry $160,000, which would help shore up the Social Security trust fund and make the tax code, not rates, more progressive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
we should restore the highest marginal tax rate for owners to 40%. Biden and congressional Democrats have proposed all of these changes in recent years, but to no avail. Since ownership carries with it some inherent tax advantages, a transaction tax would raise revenue from ownership in a fair manner.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Numerous proposals, including one from Mike Bloomberg, for a 0.1% tax on securities trades and other financial transactions could raise nearly $80 billion per year, with the potential side benefit of damping high-frequency trading, which adds volatility without benefit to the markets.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
we should also levy a compute tax on cloud and AI services, as the wealth created by these innovations is accruing mainly to the wealthiest owners. Compute is the new energy, and this is a chance to avoid the mistakes of fossil fuels, where we give tax breaks to owners and stick earners with gas taxes, among the most regressive surcharges in our system.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Finally, and most transformationally, Congress should take a chainsaw to the tax code, cutting the thousands of handouts to the ownership class that have been stuffed into it by lobbyists. Theoretically, finding the political will shouldn't be difficult, as the majority of Americans are getting screwed by lawmakers representing a small number of their fellow citizens.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Ironically, the Trump tax cuts paved the way for this change. By doubling the standard deduction, Trump ensured that just 10% of taxpayers take any itemized deductions, meaning 90% of voters should support eliminating the rest of them. Still, it may be a challenge, as the most valuable asset owners own is Congress.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
We should reinvest some of the hundreds of billions of dollars per year gained by these changes to make the system fairer for earners, i.e. the young. Expand the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit and raise the floor required to pay any tax at all. Currently, it's set by the standard deduction at $14,600 or $29,200 for single or married households.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
That would shield more lower-income households from federal income tax and reduce the impact of regressive state and local taxes. Lower the rates paid by higher but not highest-income taxpayers. The professionals and entrepreneurs who 60-hour-a-week climb up the professional ladder shouldn't be rewarded with a 45% tax burden. This will make earning the way to ownership, a.k.a.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
the American dream, more feasible. I am troubled by the trend away from patriotism, fomented by a tech billionaire class that conflates luck with talent, shitposts America, and prosecutes an economic war on the young. But America's promise does not resonate unless it's backed by performance.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
We diminish what's great about America when we fail to talk about what's broken in America, especially when the fixes are within our grasp. In defense of shielding owners, lobbyists and our representatives in DC argue the wealthy are our most productive citizens, can better deploy capital, and need incentives to keep innovating.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
There is some truth to this notion, but we aren't lowering taxes on the bulk of today's innovators, the super earners, or on future innovators, young people. Instead, we are ensuring a failure to launch by transferring more wealth to owners and seniors. The three legs of the tax stool are corporations, super-earners, and super-owners.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Corporate taxes are at their lowest levels since 1939, and the wealthiest Americans are paying single-digit tax rates, meaning the entire funding burden of our country rests on the super earners and the young, who will have to survive the tsunami of debt we are aggregating to finance this inequality. This is capitalism collapsing under its own weight.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
America, like any country, is a product, a mix of benefits that come at a price. America's been the best value globally for the better part of three centuries. Other than drugs, there is no other product so many people are willing to risk their lives to obtain. However, the value of America has diminished for super earners and the young.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
We talk about taxes and enforcement when the real juice is the tax code. Our tax code exacts a high price on earners, and the price is even higher when enforcement is rendered a paper tiger, as the shortfall is either added to the debt or used as a pretext for cutting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
We're charging the former too much and keep asking the latter if we can borrow their credit card. The bad news? This was deliberate, our decision. The good news? We can decide to fix it. Life is so rich.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
As Warren Buffett once said, there is class warfare in America, quote, but it's my class that's making war, and we're winning, unquote. This post was originally published last May, but the war remains the same. Owners are crushing it, earners are getting crushed, and the battlefield, aka the U.S. tax code, continues to be a weapon of mass distraction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Over the past several decades, America has waged a covert war against the young. One front in this war is our income tax system, which favors owners over earners. Young people are almost all earners, while owners are typically older. And the tax code is a wealth transfer vehicle for owners to garner a greater share of our common wealth. The good news? It can be changed. Back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
If you get a paycheck, whether it's salary or freelance, and that's how you pay your bills, you're an earner. Owners, on the other hand, might collect wage income, but their real money comes through profits from investments, stock sales and dividends, rent from property, and other income streams derived from the ownership of assets. To be an earner is noble.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
You work for a living, and labor is a sacred thing. Labor is the source of food, shelter, entertainment, and every material pleasure of society. We even celebrate it with a holiday, the first Monday in September. Pro tip, if you want to celebrate Labor Day somewhere awesome, try as hard as you can to become an owner. Owners also get a celebratory day. It's April 15th.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Another pro tip, if you're ever featured in a commercial calling you a hero, it means you're getting fucked. The most fortunate in our society have no holiday as they don't need one. They recognize that holidays wallpaper over the inequity faced by anybody who gets a day in their honor. Income taxes for earners are deceptively straightforward.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Take your annual income, subtract the standard deduction, $24,000 for a married couple, make a few other calculations, and then pay a percentage of what's left to Uncle Sam. And the income tax rates for most people are low. A two-adult household making less than $100,000 per year pays 10% or less in federal income tax. Many pay much less or none at all. Sounds reasonable, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
But there's a catch. Several catches. First, for those paying only 10% or less of their wages in income taxes, other forms of tax are a heavier burden. At the federal level, Social Security and Medicare add almost 8%. then all states collect taxes, and most state tax systems are regressive. All told, lower-income people pay a greater portion of their income in taxes than many rich people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Sales tax, property tax, and other government revenue sources – licensing fees, permits and filing fees, and car registrations – take a larger bite out of lower-income households. In low-tax Florida, the most regressive state, low-income families, earners, pay 13.2% of their income in state and local taxes. The middle class pays 9.1%, and the top 1%, owners, pays just 2.7%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
In fact, lower and middle-income Florida households pay about the same in total taxes as they would in high-tax California. The next time you hear someone complain about low-income people who don't pay any taxes, remind them that income tax doesn't exist in a vacuum. Low-income people often pay over 25% of their income in taxes. There's a myth that the rich don't pay their fair share of taxes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
The reality is most rich people, the super earners, pay more than their fair share. A married household making more than $500,000 per year is in the top 5% of households by income and pays an effective federal income tax rate around 25%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Half a million dollars may seem like a lot, but careers that pay that well require expensive college and graduate degrees, entail long hours, offer little job security, and they're typically in high cost of living locations with high state income tax. In New York or California, add another 10% onto that 25%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
With other taxes, including sales tax, the total tax burden borne by mid-career professionals can reach 40% of their income. The baller who makes seven figures plus is often working for the government. Their total effective tax burden can approach 50%. Until, that is, they can make the jump to light speed, i.e. become an owner. Think of building wealth as launching a rocket ship into orbit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Rockets burn 95% of their fuel to escape Earth's soupy atmosphere and incessant gravity. Once you get to orbit, you're a master of the universe, covering thousands of miles with just a touch of propulsion. Wealth is similar. The atmosphere is your expenses. The distance traveled, your income. Most of us never generate enough current income to make the jump to space and become an owner.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Save enough to invest so our primary sources of income are passive. Saving your first $100,000 is incredibly hard. The next $100,000 is tough, but you now have momentum and start to see the curvature of the earth. Once your current income is substantially greater than your expenses, and you've deployed an army of capital that fights for you and your family in your sleep, you've made the jump.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
What we've done with the tax code has rendered the atmosphere thicker and gravity stronger. Go to law or medical school or live at the office, and you'll see your current income increase, but you'll also lose a bigger share to taxes, and the harder it gets to save and escape the gravity of being an earner. Imagine if taxes worked like this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Everything you spend that's remotely related to work is deducted from your taxable income. Clothes you wear and food you eat during the work week, your car, your internet and cell phone bills, furniture and square footage where you work at home, like the kitchen table, etc., all taken off your income before taxes. Pretty much anything you do on days you're working, deductible.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
All past investments in education, deductible. If you spent more than you earned, as you did in college and graduate schools, you can roll over those losses as deductions in future years. In the meantime, deduct any credit card interest you're paying. Any money you don't spend, that's not taxed until you retire and start spending it. If you give it to your kids, it's never taxed at all.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
If this sounds familiar but awkward, it is. It's our tax code through the lens of the owner. The federal income tax code looks progressive. The highest marginal tax rate is 37%, more than three times what the average American pays. But the published tax rates are a weapon of mass distraction. They are the rack rate published on the door of your hotel room. Owners never pay the rack rate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
They barely pay at all. Unlike earners' taxes, owners' taxes are complex. As a result, determining the total tax burden of the very wealthy is difficult. But here's what we know. In 2020, the 26,000 households with an income over $10 million paid 25.5% of their reported income in federal taxes, plus 5% to 10% in state and local taxes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
But as I'm about to explain, much of the cash they received isn't taxable income, and most of the increase in owner's wealth is never taxed at all. The White House has estimated that the 400 wealthiest households pay an effective income tax rate of just 8.2%. And ProPublica found that the wealthiest 25 households pay just 3.4%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
We can't say for sure what percent owners pay on average, but it's less than most of their employees pay. This complexity results in a transfer of wealth from earners to owners. The tax code has exploded from 400 to 4,000 pages in the past few decades. If you have GPS, advisors, loopholes for the wealthy, you want races run at night.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
If the government is meant to decrease suffering and add happiness, then our current system makes no sense. Paying taxes of $5 million on $10 million in income is the difference between flying first class and flying private. Paying $15,000 on $60,000 in income might mean foregoing a second child. Capitalism means accepting a society of winners and losers. And that's okay.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Wealth is a great reward for hard work. And talent is what drives us to create value. And capitalism has brought prosperity to billions over the past 150 years. The problem is the system, if left unchecked, becomes increasingly inequitable and unsustainable. We've morphed from capitalism to cronyism, rigged in favor of owners. How? Three ways. Calculation, timing, and collection. Calculation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Amateurs focus on tax rates. Professionals zero in on the calculation of the income to which those rates apply. In the 1950s, the highest federal income tax bracket was 91%, except nobody paid it. The tax code was a mosaic of loopholes, ensuring high-income taxpayers were able to shield most of their income. Now the top rate is 37%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
But while the colors and fabric have changed, the owner's tapestry of tax avoidance still exists. Owners receive cash from a range of sources. Rent from tenants, dividends from stock, interest from loans, distributions from trusts, profits from investment partnerships, loans and lines of credit from banks, proceeds from asset sales, and more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Much of this income is shielded by pages of tax code defining what is and is not taxable. Owners who invest in the oil business leverage tax code provisions Section 263, intangible drilling costs, Section 613, percentage depletion, Section 611, cost depletion, Section 167, geological expenses, Section 199, domestic production deduction. Section 193, tertiary injectant expenses.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
And Section 469, active losses. That's just one industry. Entrepreneurs are barely visible to the Treasury standing behind the tax code. Section 1202 excludes the first $10 million received in the sale of a business, a provision that saved me millions of dollars when I sold my firm L2 several years ago. When working at the firm, earning, I was paying 40-plus percent taxes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
The road to fascism is littered with accusations of overreacting. So, color me overreacting. It's both the correct response and impossible to overreact. Never forget. Never forget.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
It's the final day of dry January. I tried it. Didn't last. I'm now drinking, again, like a Pan Am pilot in the 70s. Anyway, the 22% of U.S. adults who abstained from alcohol this month will get a personality upgrade just in time for the Super Bowl. Ostensibly, the Super Bowl is a contest between the two best football teams, but really, it's a platform for the real economy. The addiction economy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
As Matthew McConaughey says in the latest ad from Uber Eats, quote, the whole game is basically an elaborate scheme to make you buy more food, unquote. Super Bowl ads are a proxy for the addiction economy, as advertisers for the food industrial complex, beer and alcohol brands, online gambling, crypto, and social media platforms offer you dopa on demand. But there's a downside to gorging, no?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Not to worry. There will also be ads from the medical pharma industrial complex for products that manage some of the damage. Pundits claim we live in an attention economy. We don't. Attention is just a metric for addiction. The addiction economy is broader, encompassing media, technology, alcohol, tobacco, gaming, pharma, and health care.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
The world's most valuable resource isn't data, compute, oil, or rare earth metals. It's DOPA, i.e. the fuel of the addiction economy, which runs the most valuable companies in history. Addiction has always been a component of capitalism. Nothing rivals the power of craving to manufacture demand and support irrational margins.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Sugar and rum were the DOPA delivery systems and currency of the triangle trade. Later, the British East India Company was the Sinaloa cartel of the 19th century, producing and distributing a product China became addicted to, opium. At its peak in the last century, big tobacco acquired customers with TV ads and endorsements from doctors.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
But the addictive ingredient, nicotine, is how the industry extracts $86,000 to $195,000 per customer and costs those customers $1 million to $2 million in expenditures, opportunity costs, and healthcare expenses. Historically, the most valuable companies turned DOPA into consumption.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Over the last 100 years, 15 of the top 30 companies by cumulative compound return have been pillars of the addiction economy. The compounders cluster in tobacco, Altria plus 265,528,900%, the food industrial complex, Coca-Cola, plus 12,372,265%, pharma, Wyeth, plus 5,702,341%, and retailers, Kroger, plus 2,834,362%, that sell both substances and treatments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
To predict which companies will be the top compounders over the next century, consider this. Eight of the world's ten most valuable businesses turn DOPA into attention, or make picks and shovels for these DOPA merchants. Given a choice, most lab rats will pick sugar over cocaine. They'll even self-administer electric shocks for a sweet boost.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Sugar stimulates our reward system 20 times faster than cigarettes. Food companies engineer processed foods not to maximize nutrition, but to hit the so-called bliss point, the exact combination of saltiness, sweetness, and other tastes that make their product delicious, but not so delicious that consumers feel sated after a small serving. In other words,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Their food is engineered for more, not nutrition. The industry profits at the expense of its customers' health. According to a 2022 meta-analysis, 20% of American adults are addicted to food. Consumption of processed foods raises your mortality rate by 25%. The U.S. has a diabetes epidemic and an adult obesity rate of 40%. Compounding this public health crisis?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Food companies have a history of purchasing their competitors. Diet companies. In 1978, Heinz bought Weight Watchers for $72 million. Unilever paid $2.3 billion for SlimFast in 2000. Nestle purchased Jenny Craig in 2006 for $600 million. In 2010, the private equity firm that owns Cinnabon and Carvel ice cream purchased Atkins Nutritionals. Most of these diet brands were later sold.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
These acquisitions are akin to Pablo Escobar buying the Betty Ford Center. McDonald's used to brag, one billion served. Considering the history of weight loss and diabetes drugs, desoxyfedrine, fen-phen, metformin, etc., pharma might just as easily brag, billions prescribed. After the food industrial complex makes people sick...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
We hand them over to the healthcare industrial complex to treat the chronic conditions of these lifelong customers. GLP-1 drugs are the most effective weight loss drugs to date, as they make us feel fuller for longer and suppress hunger cravings by modulating DOPA levels. About 12% of U.S. adults have now taken a GLP-1. and the average GLP-1 user spends 11% less on food and beverages.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
But it's early days for GLP-1s. Cost remains a barrier, and only one-third of employer health care plans cover GLP-1s for non-diabetic patients looking to lose weight.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Anecdotally, a Bloomberg Businessweek profile of Bowling Green, Kentucky, where 4% of the residents take GLP-1s, tells us that restaurants, grocery stores, health care providers, gyms, and clothing retailers are all feeling the GLP-1 impact. If 60 million of the roughly 100 million U.S. adults who are obese took the drugs... Goldman Sachs estimates GDP could grow by more than 1%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
As their full impact and second order effects play out, GLP-1s will likely transform the economy. Some people, smokers, used to reach for a cigarette immediately after finishing a meal. In the movies, they'd reach for a cigarette after sex. Today, most restaurants are smoke-free, but phones are ubiquitous before, during, and after every meal.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
We used to pick up a landline, Google it, to reach out and touch someone. Now that everyone has a cell phone, we spend 70% less time with our friends than we did a decade ago. we're addicted to our phones. And even when we're not seeking our fix, our phones are seeking us out, notifying us on average 46 times per day for adults and 237 times per day for teens.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
In college, I spent too much time smoking pot and watching Planet of the Apes. But when I decided to venture on campus, my bong and Cornelius didn't send me notifications. The compounders here are in your pocket. Sales of iPhones have made up roughly half of Apple's revenue since 2009. Of late, the company has rolled out screen time tracking and other anti-addiction tools.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Apple's brand positioning is a bartender opening an AA chapter. Alphabet is incentivized to maximize screen time as 76% of its revenue comes from targeting eyeballs with advertising. Alphabet is a niche player in the device market, but its Android OS, 73% market share, is the perfect gateway drug, as it's open source and free.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
It took us 20 years to wake up to the danger of opiates, and about the same time for the phone. But it is happening. Eighteen states have passed laws restricting the use of phones in school, and roughly three-quarters of schools have policies restricting their use in the classroom.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Yonder, a firm that makes locking pouches for phones, has increased sales to schools by 10x since 2021 to $2.1 million. When Mark Zuckerberg released a video announcing the end of Facebook's fact-checking program, Jimmy Kimmel joked that Zuck was dressed like a Molly dealer from Chechnya.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
The shoe fits. The difference? MDMA makes you euphoric while social media makes you anxious and depressed. As my NYU colleague Jonathan Haidt put it, the unconstrained combination of phones and social media has been, quote, the largest uncontrolled experiment humanity has ever performed on its own children, unquote. So far, the results are a mental health crisis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
8% of teens are addicted to alcohol or drugs. 24% are addicted to social media. Unlike other platforms, TikTok is built around affinities, not the social graph. If chasing likes from our friends is digital heroin, TikTok's AI is fentanyl. The algorithm rapidly calibrates what triggers a user's DOPA response by feeding them hundreds of videos every hour, turning the user into a blissed-out zombie.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
According to a lawsuit filed by the Kentucky Attorney General, users can become addicted to TikTok within 35 minutes. The same lawsuit cited TikTok's own research, which stated that, quote, Unquote. We're hardwired for addiction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
We're also wired for conflict, as competing for scarce resources has shaped our neurological system to swiftly detect, assess, and respond to threats, even before we're aware of them. As technology advances, our wiring makes us more powerful and more vulnerable. We produce DOPA monsters at internet speed. We can wage war at a velocity and scale that risks extinction in the blink of an eye.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Human beings evolved in small, cooperative groups, where loyalty meant survival. This instinct makes us naturally favor in-groups, our people, our nation, our ethnicity, and distrust out-groups, foreigners, outsiders, the other. Genocide exploits this instinct by amplifying group identity and dehumanizing outsiders, making mass killing seem justified or even necessary.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Violence repeated becomes routine. What was unthinkable on Monday becomes standard procedure by Friday. Removing the security details of our political adversaries who are under real threat from foreign enemies is simply repackaged violence. In sum, it's Tuesday in America. This week marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Army.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Our proudest moment, in my view, was America's role in arresting this genocide, which represents the very worst perversion of human instincts. Now the U.S. risks becoming the font of this abomination. The president has repeatedly said that, quote, immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country, unquote.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
The world's richest man is making Nazi gestures and told a far-right group in Germany, quote, it's good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything, unquote. Our worst instincts remain static. It's our technology that's evolving.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Instinct morphing into fear and demonization, coupled with propaganda, rail transport, and Zyklon B, gave rise to the largest murder site in history. What might happen if these same instincts take root in a nation with unprecedented industrial might, armed with social media and AI? We need to cauterize this hate. people and bots in the comments section will accuse me of TDS. Have at it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
When I was, I moved to New York in 2000 and I didn't know anybody. And almost right away, I made good friends with a couple guys and I said, oh, you got to come to St. Parts for the holidays. I'm like, yeah, I'm down. And we knew enough people that knew enough people that were billionaires that own boats. And they would always have these crazy parties.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And this one guy who was always on the boat, he was this really handsome guy with great fashion and always had the hottest women around him. His name was Andrew. And Andrew was rolling with all these billionaires. And I remember seeing him, or I had dinner with him in LA once, and he rolled up in this electric blue Ferrari. And he was pitching me. He said, I have a fund.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Sound fine. That's good. Okay. Okay, enough of that. Back to me. So last night... So I don't know if you heard, but Chiltern Firehouse is burned down. So daddy needs – and by the way, I'm pretty sure that I – oh, I think I told you this. I was borderline hypertensive, which means I almost had high blood pressure. I was 140 over 80.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I try and find value stocks or something. I was barely listening. And he said, and I'm giving like 22% returns last year. And my... It might bullshit me. A, I didn't have much money back then, but I'm sort of like, yeah, this is way too exotic for me. But he had raised and he listed all these billionaires in St. Barts that he had raised money from. And I knew most of these guys by name.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And it ends up that what he was doing was taking money and giving money back to previous investors on redemption, claiming they got 20% returns when he was using the money as his own personal kitty. That is a Ponzi scheme. taking investors' money to pretend you're giving returns back to older investors, hoping new investors will see these false returns and put in more money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And that's what Madoff did. I don't think it's fair to call this a Ponzi scheme. What I think this is, is a massively levered bet. Because at some point, So they're buying Bitcoin and then they're borrowing against that Bitcoin. So they're levering up and then they're borrowing as much as they can on that. They're just massively levering.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
He's making a hugely levered bet on an asset, and people have decided it's a legitimate asset class because people think it's a store of value. What you're saying is ultimately over time, I think, an asset really isn't an asset unless it's producing some sort of underlying cash flows, that it's not a security.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
My sense of this is pretty simple. You're going to get huge returns if Bitcoin goes up because he's levered the shit out of the Bitcoin he's bought. And it's going to go way down because he's levered the shit out of the Bitcoin. But he's not taking money and falsely claiming returns.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And I uploaded all my results, my urine, my blood, all this shit, and basically everything came back. And I uploaded it into ChatGBT, and it said, okay, dumb shit, drink less. And so I just did my blood pressure last night. And it's 127 over 74 something, which means I'm back to, you know, the fucking rock star superhero I've always been. And I was trying to figure out what's changed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
The notion that people are diving too aggressively into the deep end of a pool in a market that that is overvalued, and then massively levering up. Leverage is how smart people go broke, right? And as we've discussed on this show, we're big believers that the U.S. market has become too expensive and it makes sense to de-lever or perhaps exit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And also, to be fair, everyone thought Bitcoin was a hedge against markets. It's not. It's ended up being much more correlated to the markets than anyone had anticipated. And the Bitcoin maximalist, or whatever the term is, would claim that, oh, this is the perfect hedge against other assets. Well, actually, no. It's pretty tightly correlated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
If the market pukes tomorrow, there's a 70%, 80%, 90% chance that Bitcoin goes down. So I think your argument is buyer beware because this is a levered bet that's levered to a market that's already bubblicious. This is like the pop here could be really, really loud. And Michael did say that you have to be able to survive this volatility. This volatility is massive. Right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
The one thing he said that I really liked was he said, you know, fire is dangerous, but if you put fire in a car, it can move the car. I thought that was very sexy the way he said that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I think you're a little jelly.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I will meet you in the comments section. We'll see what people say. Yeah, we'll meet in the comments section. And I can tell you what the comments will say based on who owns Bitcoin and who doesn't. Yeah, exactly. Or you're just going to be 50-50.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And I'm convinced that my blood pressure has come down 13 points because Chiltern Firehouse has burned down. I would go there twice a week. I'd have four to five makers in ginger. So that's 10 makers in ginger. Four to five each trip? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Daddy goes deep in the pain. Oh, wow. I told you I'm a better version of me, a little bit fucked up. You've seen me fucked up. I'm nice. No, I agree.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast, for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube by the way I absolutely love Vivintu I think she does a great job
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
So your first point's the right one. It's almost comical that they've called for them to declassify their share structure. Good luck with that. Now, I think what they'd wanna do is show up and say, we have a huge stake here and we wanna help you. The thing about activism that I learned is that
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Typically, when you go into a board of a company, you find out that you're not as smart as you think and they're not as dumb as you'd hoped. And I don't do hostile plays anymore because what I find you want to do is you want to show up with a big stake and say, we're here to help. We're smart people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Yeah, and so that's 10 makers and ginger a week. So I'm basically drinking a half a bottle of makers. So I'm convinced, and I'm glad no one was hurt, I'm convinced the reason my blood pressure has come down is because Chiltern Firehouse burned down. That makes a lot of sense, yeah. I'm trying to find the new place. Last night I went to Soho Muse. I told you about this, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And we want to be assets and help you brainstorm and maybe even provide more capital, provide introductions, brainstorm strategically. I find that's just a much more effective way to try and build shareholder value. And activism, and one of the reasons I was drawn to it because it suited my personality, it attracts a disproportionate number of assholes. And they come out guns blazing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And what they fail to realize is that the people they're trying to embarrass publicly with their poison pen letters, unless it's really egregious, are humans and will circle the wagons and defend it even if your points are right. So my approach around this stuff evolved to, okay, we're big shareholders. We want to work with you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Our default kind of operating system is to be great shareholders and great partners. But if in a year or two years, you're either stonewalling us or just making stupid decisions, we're going to go gangster on you. But we're here to help. We're going to try and get along. I find that's a more effective, what I call forceful yet dignified approach to this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Now, Lyft is an example of a number two that has not been able to establish differentiation. And it has been a shitty place because Dara has made some really deft moves around acquisition of food delivery services. he's just done a really good job. And they've kind of run away with it. And since the IPO, Lyft has lost 85% of its value, while Uber shares are up nearly 80%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Year-to-date, Lyft is down 11%, Uber's up 18%. Uber trades at 3.6 times sales, and Lyft trades just at 0.9, half its historical average. So this company... is struggling. It doesn't have the scale and it doesn't really have a niche to kind of focus on and sort of send a brand identity.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And the example I would use is a car pulls up, it has an Uber light, and then I see it turn off its Uber light and it's a Lyft light. So, okay, if there's no differentiation in driver or equipment, That means, okay, and Uber's got scale. That means the only thing Lyft can do is compete on price. And if you're hiring the same driver in the same cars, how do you compete on price?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
That's just a downward spiral. You don't have the scale. So Lyft needs to find a strategy. Now, what should they do? I would not circle the wagons. I would invite these guys in. I don't know how much of the company they bought, but I find the best thing to do on an incumbent board is to say—the best way to shut up an activist is just to put them on your board, to say, come on in, the water's fine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And put them on your board. If they've purchased a lot of shares and then they have to shut up because of Reg D or insider disclosure rules, see if they have good ideas, listen to them, and get them kind of on your side, if you will. So that's how I would handle the activists. The tougher problem is what the fuck does Lyft do? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Last I heard, you haven't been yet. Is this your first time? I went last night. So fucking Soho House decides, okay, we've let in too many riffraff at Elson. And we need a place for the players.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Small cap player. I called them and they're like, no, we're sending out invitations slowly to members. I'm like, what the fuck? I'm a member. And she said, no, it doesn't matter. So anyways, I called someone who knew someone who knew someone. Went last night. Nice. Not Chiltern, but still pretty nice. And definitely like you could tell it's sort of a little bit of another level.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And tonight I'm going to this place called Kensington Gardens, which is, I guess, also a new hotspot. So I'll soon be hypertensive again. Interesting. What's going on with your drinking?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. cle住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住et Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Doesn't matter what the trends are.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
You go into that because if you're great at computer science, you're going to get a job. If you're just a standout programmer, even if they're firing computer systems engineers, if you're great at it, you'll figure out a way to stand out and find work. If you think, oh, I'm just fantastic at biology, boom. I could be great at this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
To acquiesce to the Trump administration? Perhaps. Someone from the administration come up to him and say, okay, now put your elbows on the table, you fucking coward. Anyways, sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. That's all I have to tell you. A martini.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Go into it and ignore what the trends are because you don't know where the world is going to go. Now, for the rest who are thinking, I just want to be an economic animal, I think sort of the universal or the most athletic degrees are take a decent amount of – if you can – I think you really benefit from finance and economics courses.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I think you absolutely benefit from the sciences courses because if you have an understanding, a preliminary understanding of chemistry or biology, you kind of understand a little bit of everything. That is the building blocks of life. Business mimics biology. I mean, even the little kind of courses I took on astronomy or astrophysics, you start to go, wow, you see that in everything.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Also, I wish I'd taken more English. Communication is the gangster skill that I think will endure. So your ability to write well, if you can develop that skill, you can more easily develop a skill around all communications mediums. I think that one of the reasons I write so much is I want to be a great speaker. I want to be great
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
on podcasts, and I think it all starts with your ability to write well. So I would wish I'd taken more English, more biology, an understanding of history, I think is really important. And also try and be, and this isn't a class, try and be as social as possible. Because A, it's an unbelievable opportunity to develop friendships and relationships. And at Google, when they put out a job opening,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
They get 200 CVs in minutes and they shut it down. And then they invite in 20 people. And 70% of the time, the person who gets the job is someone who has a friend at the firm that is advocating for them. And so what is the easiest way or likely the way you're gonna improve your odds the most of getting a job is having a lot of friends. How did you get a job, Ed?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
You had a best friend whose mom knew me. And they love you. Literally, Joanna Coles called me and said, you'd be stupid not to hire this kid. That's what she said. She'd be like, I think her words were, I am not getting off this phone until you commit, until you promise. I really owe my life to Joanna Coles. That you are hiring my son's friend, Ed Elson. And I said, well, what does he want to do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
She's like, it doesn't matter, you fool. What a legend. Yeah, but it works, right? So I get the sense, you know, I mean, you've got a lot of flaws, but I get the sense. I get the sense you have really good relationships. You take your friendships seriously.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And that's how you got this job, is you got someone in your life who just really cares for you and basically told his mom, help Ed get a job, or Ed... Ed said he knows this guy or likes this guy. Can you call him? I heard you know him. You want to get a job. You got to be good. Learn the basics. I like the sciences. I like communication and storytelling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
But the way you get a great job and the way you change the trajectory of your professional career is relationships. And while you're in college, it is a great opportunity to establish a lot of really like great, deep, meaningful relationships.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
The best programmers understand logic, and they're almost like internal construction managers. They're great project managers. And also, someone's going to have to give these LLM prompts and build the system. So there's still going to be a need for them. It's just like anything else that...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
that gets digitized when technology comes into a sector, it usually takes the top 10% and they earn three times as much and the bottom 90 make less or aren't there. And I think that's happening in that field. The resonance here is day after tomorrow, I'm headed to the US with my oldest son for a college tour. And we've been
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Thinking about, you know, there's an opportunity set of 100 colleges, and we're going to seven of them in five days. And we've been thinking a lot about it. And I said, all right, what are your criteria? And he's like, you know, I want a place with a great biology department. He's amazing. That's what he came up with because he's really interested in biology and he had some real aptitude for it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And he said, what are your criteria? I'm like, I just want a small number of things. I want you to go somewhere where I think you're just going to have an amazing time because I had an amazing time in college. And if I could give my kids anything, I just want them to have the same amazing time I had. I want you to learn about yourself. I want you to learn about others.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I would love for you to acquire some skills, specifically some skills around storytelling, communication. But more than anything, more than anything, what I would hope for you is that you experience, enjoy, endure a ton of relationships. I just want you at basketball games, in classes with 400 people, on campus all day long, and
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
tutoring people, getting tutored, hanging out, drinking with friends, playing ultimate frisbee, playing intramural sports. I just want you bumping off people all day long and creating just a raft of relationships and friendships. That's what I'm looking for. And so we're going to all these kind of
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
land-grant schools that are big public schools with football teams and intramurals and fraternities and sororities. I don't know if they'll do that, but tons of student clubs where they just feel like, quite frankly, like college. And I think a lot of parents feel this way. I think a lot of, if you've looked at the applications trends, the Southern schools are booming and
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And quite frankly, it's like how collegey and how fun do they sound? We want our kid to go have fun. Schools like Wake Forest are booming. Their applications are booming. SMU, Vanderbilt is now more difficult to get into than many Ivy League colleges because a lot of parents and kids have said, I want my kid to have a college experience, full stop.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
That's the key. It's like anything else. You got to be good. Being intelligent, being hardworking, that's table stakes in this economy. The differentiator is the depth and number of relationships you have.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
It's not so much as a prediction, but an observation. We have this clown car called the cabinet right now. And I just think this is going to start to hit the economy. Strategy is two questions or one key question. What can we do that's really hard? And the biggest mistake people make in strategy is that they think they're punching a speed bag and people aren't going to punch back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And every nation we have levied tariffs against, they have levied reciprocal tariffs. They have punched back. And some are getting really smart. EU and Canada, I love this, have decided to pick products where they're going to put especially onerous disproportionate tariffs on products that originate from red states.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And the whole world is sort of deciding now, including our allies, that they have this common enemy called this clown fucking car called the United States. And there's just no way that that doesn't begin to hit our economy. So I and it's dangerous to make predictions about the economy. I just don't see there's any way that this doesn't impact us in the back half of the year.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I don't I think he has dug himself too deep. And if even if you were to say tariffs are off, just kidding. Nations are reconfiguring their supply chain and it's going to start to show up in Q3 and Q4 numbers in some. I'll just say I think we're headed for recession in the back half of the year.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
So two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, 67%, are incorporated in Delaware. And that generates, get this, $2.2 billion in corporate franchise taxes annually. That's almost a third of the state's budget. And I would imagine it's really high margin revenue. And as you mentioned, Musk, they basically denied or voided Elon Musk's $56 billion Tesla compensation package, despite shareholder approval.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And you can go back on the tape. We said, whenever this happened, six or 12 months ago, Bad decision, bad board, but they get to make this decision. And that for the courts to overturn it was a judgment call on what is quote-unquote fair compensation. And if you want to talk about compensation in America around CEOs, you just shouldn't use the word fair.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And in capitalism, the owner of the asset or the majority of the assets get to nominate directors who get to decide correctly or incorrectly the compensation of the CEO. And the moment someone weighs in and starts using words like fair or unfair and overrides the decisions of the people voted in by the owners of the company to make these decisions. In my view, you have government overreach.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
So I think they screwed up here. I think intrastate competition is a good thing. I think other states, in this instance, Texas, saying, okay, we want to compete with Delaware for companies to list here and offer them lower fees. The problem is there is a social good there. to some of this around the disclosure requirements and how a board behaves that is a social good.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And I worry that there's a race to the bottom around governance that ultimately hurts retail investors. What are your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Today is number 1,461. That's how many beers there are in a Canadian brewery's presidential pack, offering one beer for every day of Trump's presidency. Ed, what's the difference between America and Canada?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I bet if you surveyed Americans on if you said, what comes to mind when you say autonomous driving, the most common answer would be Tesla. And the reality is, and you brought this to my attention, Waymo is just miles ahead of Tesla. Tesla doesn't look very close to a competent self-driving or autonomous vehicle. And I took a Waymo six months ago in LA, and I was kind of blown away by it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
America has really nice neighbors.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I mean, they're up and running. They have 200,000 paid rides weekly across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin. I love the idea of autonomous driving. I don't... I'm trying to think how elitist this is going to sound. I don't like the drivers. I don't want any conversation. I assume they're going to take me the wrong way, which is probably not very nice. I get mad at them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I tend to get drivers who think they know the back roads, and I'm like, it drives me fucking crazy. I don't want them to ask me about the temperature, if I want to stream my radio. I'm an awful person. I don't... I don't want to talk to anybody.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Yeah, I'm wondering what my star rating is. My general approach to service is I'm not easy to deal with, but I tip big. That's my approach. Which, that's pretty obnoxious.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Yeah. First word douche, last name bag.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I'm feeling very Canadian. I'm feeling super Canadian. Actually, I don't know if you know this, but Canada both passed same-sex marriage and now marijuana, which means actually they're interpreting the Bible correctly. Leviticus 20.13, if a man lies with another man, he should be stoned.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
The question I would put to you is they just raised— at 5.6 billion or last year, they raised 5.6 billion, I think at a pre of 40 and a post of 45. So at revenues of $50 to $75 million, that means they're trading somewhere between, I don't know, 70 and 90 times revenues. Would you invest in Waymo at 70 to 90 times revenues right now?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
This feels like, if they can maintain this, this feels like a 2027 IPO that'll be pretty big.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
How did JFK break his arm?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I mean, think about any business that said, okay, for every city, there can only be two software companies. Right. And the governing body ruled by the owners of these software companies get to decide who the entrants are or are not.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And then if they basically have one league, that means you extract rents from the players where you're the only game in town and you get to decide how much money the maker don't make. So it's – and it's especially bad in tennis where the players command only 18% of the total revenue generated by the sport compared to basketball where the players get 50% and soccer get – they get 61%. So –
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
By helping Jack off a horse. Jack off a horse. Break your arm.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I love this. And I love that Liv came in and basically challenged the monopoly of the PGA. So I think competition is a good thing. But this is a perfect example of corruption with this veneer of benign goodwill because people have such affection for sports. But these are monopolies and the rents being charged to ticket holders or consumers are
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And advertisers who have a limited supply of games, et cetera, and to the players themselves, bottom line, it's corrupt. I love this ad. I love it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Yeah. Yeah. I'm reaching. I'm reaching.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
You may be right, because I don't know what the kind of established law is, but you want to talk about corruption. Start talking about the international bodies that don't even have to abide by anyone. They live in this kind of nether netherland where there's no essentially they're not subject to laws of any one nation. And they've established such monopolies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And people have tried to take them on, and it hasn't worked. Ted Turner started something called the Goodwill Games, trying to start a competitive. My big idea when the World Cup was going through all of this nonsense, I do work with Nike, Adidas. And I brought up with both of them, I said, why wouldn't you basically start a nonprofit and host a competitor or start a competitor at the World Cup?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And just give all the money back to the, you know, try and break even, but basically try and root out the corruption that about six, eight years ago, the corruption at UEFA went just absolutely insane with paying off local officials. And it became about bribes, what host country got to host the World Cup.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
So anyways, I would like to see, I hope this works, but I trust that you've done the homework here and don't think that you think the courts are going to side with the league.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
You know what it is. I had that same anxiety that when my partner asked me, you know, wakes up, it's like, oh, something. And I'm like, happy birthday anniversary. It's like, okay.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
There's just no getting around it. BYD has surpassed Tesla on almost every level in terms of tech. And Tesla sales in China have been cut in half in February. They're down 49%, while BYD's rose 161%. Their latest vehicle is 75% less expensive, so four BYDs for the price of one Tesla.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
This feels like it sort of is a metaphor for China in general, and that is in the last three months, China has kind of evidence or indicated or a metaphor for the resurgence is BYD. A year to date, BYD stock is up 64% and it trades at 33 times earnings, while Tesla is down 38%, but still trades at 166 times earnings or said differently. And I love this stat.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
The market values each Tesla car sold at 425,000 in market cap, and each car from BYD, even after this run-up, for $39,000 a car. So even despite the fact that BYD's stock has skyrocketed and Tesla's has come down, I mean, think about this. The market still values Tesla at 10 times the value per car produced BYD, and BYD is growing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
So one of these, it would appear either BYD is dramatically, and this is the question, is BYD dramatically undervalued or is Tesla dramatically overvalued? And of course, I believe the answer is yes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Oh, my gosh. Ed, that's great because you get your driver's license this year, right? Yeah, exactly.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Constantly. The first thing I say about you when people ask me about you is I'm like, everyone said, people say very nice things about you. And I would say, you know, he's 25. And people are like, I know. That's so amazing. So, wow, 26. That's not as impressive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Support for the show comes from NerdWallet. You've got a life to live and kids to pick up, but the nerds have already done all the work. You just answer a few questions and boom, the right auto insurance provider right there. You just saved a lot of time and a lot of energy. Using your brainpower to what matters most to you? Smart.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast, for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube by the way I absolutely love Vivian too I think she does a great job
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Advice to you at 26? Try and get a great shape. I think every man under the age of 30 should be a fucking monster. You've still got a ton of testosterone and great double twitch muscle and great bone structure. And you're going to spend the rest of your life from 35 on just trying to maintain. So get to a really good place physically.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I think this is overdue. And just to call balls and strikes, I think that this is a benefit that we've derived from the Trump administration. I don't like the way they're going about it, but for a long time, everyone has been saying that Japan and Germany and Europe have been freeloading or freeriding off of the military umbrella and expenditure of the United States.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And finally, it looks like they're stepping up. And I do think that that is a direct function of Trump's withdrawal or basically saying, you can no longer count on us. I mean, this will be good, I think, for the German economy because they're outstanding in manufacturing. So you would think that they would make great weapon systems. And I like the idea.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I think Germany is a well-run, well-governed place. And like I said, I think defense spending could be the stimulus. And also, I'm trying to play this trade. I think the Europe and defense trade is going to be a big one. And I've just recently made an investment in a European company. aviation company that I think has some defense opportunities. And I'm doing it based on two things.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I'm hoping to get sort of a double whammy of capital flows into Europe and also the increase in defense spending.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Say yes to everything. Invest in relationships. Try and establish as many friendships. It gets harder to establish friendships as you get older. So try and establish as many friendships as you can. And in the meantime, work around the clock. Try and get professional trajectory such that you can have economic security by the time you're in your 40s and 50s and spend more time with your family.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
The rivers are reversing. European equity funds registered their largest four-week inflows in nearly 10 years. And that's the most significant rotation out of U.S. into European equities since 1999. And a B of A survey showed that 60% of investors expect stronger European growth in the next year, up 9% from just two months ago. So 9% of people thought Europe was going to grow. Now it's 60%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
The thesis I would have going into this is that they're estimating or they're proposing that the European Union is going to go from 1.9% of GDP on defense to 3%, a $19 trillion economy. You're talking about $150 to $200 billion in additional capex that the market wasn't expecting just six months ago. And that's annual. And where is that going to go?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And what companies are going to be in front of that tsunami of capital? And not only that, with the tension between the U.S. and Europe, it used to be, okay, Europe, increase your defense spending. And by the way, please buy our submarines and our missiles. And there's no fucking way they're doing that now. Germany might say, in order to build these systems, we might buy some parts from U.K.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
and Italian companies or French companies. But no, we're not going to buy from the U.S. Sorry, guys. It'll be an intra-European stimulus. I think it's really fascinating. I'm also quite optimistic about it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I like the fact that Europe, what I think is kind of the home of a lot of progressive liberal thought and really has been kind of a beacon of light for, I don't know, philosophy and democracy and kind of modern civilization. I'd like to see them get their time in the sun outside of just Zara and LVMH.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Any mistakes you made at 26 that I should avoid? I made a lot. I think my biggest mistake was I wasn't as kind as I should have been. I looked at relationships as a transaction if I wasn't getting as much attention. I exited the relationship. I saw my employees.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I started companies from the age of 27 as kind of a transaction where I thought if I'm not getting more value out of them than I'm paying, I would fire them. Well, you've had a massive turnaround on that. Yeah. Now I'm like, no, it's just the wrong role. Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I came of professional age in the Bay Area in the 90s, and there was this general zeitgeist that if you were talented and nice, it meant you were talented. But if you were talented and an asshole, it meant you were Steve Jobs. It meant you were a genius. And there was this terrible... zeitgeist or cultural norm that being an asshole somehow indicated that you were super talented.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . . . . . ., the, P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P, gener a. , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , a el... They manage or they train or they create the service standards and they just get all high margin, incredible revenue.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And I adopted that. I was never mean, but I could have been a lot kinder professionally with people. And also personally, I looked at my relationships as a transaction, not as like, how do I How do I end up on the right side of the ledger? And then something I did right was I spent a ton of time with my mom. And I know that sounds sort of lame, but I was very close to my mom.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
We spent a lot of time together. She constantly came, stayed with me. I constantly stayed with her. And that was, you know, I'm an only child. So that was very rewarding. I'm really glad I did that. That's about it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
In addition, they found another way to make a shit ton of money and that is they said, okay, let's take a $5 million or an $8 million condo
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
in a high-rise on the beach in South Beach, and we've branded the almond residences, and we can charge $12 million for it because they get hotel amenities and the branding, and the owner, when he or she is not there, can put it back into the rental pool, and they rent it out, and they split the revenue. The owner gets 50%, and the brand gets 50%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
So I get someone else to finance the construction of something, ridiculously overpaid for it, and then it continues to make revenue for me because of the brand. I mean, this really is a lesson in the power of brands, a lesson in the power of demographic trends, and a lesson in kind of business models around you don't want to be in the business of owning the capital.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
You want to be in the business of managing it and taking revenue off of the top.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Just to keep it real, I want to talk about a couple other hotel stories. When I was right out of business school, I started a company called Profit, and we did consulting, and we would just take any engagement. And I took an engagement with a pager company, helping them figure out their customer service, and it was in Minneapolis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And I went with my friend Lee Lotus, and I remember it because it was the day of the Clinton-Bush-Perot debate. And we got a hotel for 39 bucks a night, I think at the Minneapolis airport. And we had to go out and try and buy nose plugs or some like weird Vaseline to put under our, or weird scent to put under our noses because it stank so badly of smoke.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
It literally felt like someone had fallen asleep and been burned alive by the smoke. And then the other one was I had a client, I think it was Roots or some Canadian company in Montreal, and it was my own company. We're a small business, so I think it was like 70 Canadian. And I checked in, and it was 1993, and whatever, I was your age, so the first thing I do, I settle in and I turn on porn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Yeah. And it's not working, so I call down to the front desk. I'm like, the TV's not working. So this Asian woman comes up. It's the White Lotus scene again. Yeah, it turns on the TV, and of course, the porn comes up, and it's like going in and out. So she sits there and starts banging on the TV, and occasionally the porn comes in, and it comes out, comes in, comes out. Were you not ashamed?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
You're at a point right now, so up until the age of like 22, you're basically a total draw. You're a total liability for your parents. As a young man, I mean, especially think about you. You're literally out of central casting for parents right now. And any time you spend with your parents right now, they're just going to get so much enjoyment out of.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Oh, it was fucking humiliating. It was like crazy embarrassing. And I remember thinking, and then this couple, this family of like five is looking for the room. They come into my room and start going, where's room 308? Is my porn is coming on and off my TV. She's banging on the TV. And I looked at the couch. I remember the exact moment I looked at the couch and it was covered in plastic.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And I thought, this is where people come to kill themselves. This is that kind of place. She said, I want out. I can't fill this void in my chest. I'm going to go check into this hotel. Anyway, so I've seen hotels from all ends of the spectrum. You've seen all of it. I'm sorry, what was the question, Ed? What was the question?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Look, I believe in a really aggressive inheritance tax. I don't believe in dynastic wealth. One, it's bad for society. So rich kids get into the best schools and also inherit the money so they can start businesses. And there's a myth that the middle class is a naturally occurring organism. It isn't. It requires additional redistribution of income.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And Republicans and the incumbents would like us to believe that, oh, no, the middle class is a naturally occurring organism and it'll come back on its own. No, if you don't take money from corporations and the most fortunate among us and redistribute it in the middle class, the middle class throughout history eventually goes away.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And what you have with dynastic wealth is you're taking capital that should go back into the ecosystem and just creating these dynasties of unproductive rich people. Now, the good news is that most of them aren't very happy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And so for me, the reason that you can justify an exceptional inheritance tax is that additional capital or inheriting more than, say, 10 million bucks, that doesn't increase the happiness of your kids. I know a lot of rich kids, and I know a lot of kids who are not rich, and the levels of happiness are not greater among the rich kids.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
So if the whole point is to create a society where people can have purpose and meaning and live a happy life, and they're getting no additional happiness, if you let them inherit more than, say, $10 or $20 million, then what's the point when you could redistribute that capital to other people and give them more of a shot? So I hate dynastic wealth.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
But what you're seeing, and I see it, I mean, I think I've always resented rich kids because I'm not one of them and I was always jealous of them. But what you're talking about is already happening, Ed. I mean, when you go to these nice hotels, there's people in their 50s and 60s, and you can tell it's probably their money. And then there's a whole raft of a younger generation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
To be clear, some of them, whether it's tech, some of them, you know, whatever it is, but a lot of them are there with their parents' credit card. It's already happening.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
100% no. The returns are shitty because it's a vanity investment. So there's a lot of people that love it. I'm sure they have some sort of deal. People love the idea of investing in almond. So that means they can extract, they can get very cheap capital, which spells shitty returns. So I would bet... that it's just not a great investment. It's like timeshares.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And, you know, it's sad, but it's impossible to realize or really register. It's impossible. Have you ever lost anyone close to you? Just my granddad last year. Yeah, but that's natural. I would say that's sort of, you're sort of expecting that and the fact you've been at grandparents.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I haven't seen the paperwork on the underlying dynamics, but because so many people love the idea of investing in Amman, they're going to get a disproportionate amount of capital such that they will be able to offer really shitty terms. I would bet the returns will be awful, but maybe there's some psychic return of saying, oh, I'm an owner of Amman and I get 10% off
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I remember more hotel stories back when I remember taking my girlfriend I was trying to impress to a nice hotel in Cabo, but I signed us up. The reason I could go is I signed us up for a timeshare tour. And it was at a turn-on when I told her we had to take a two-hour tour in the middle of the day to look at timeshare opportunities. Yeah. That's what happens when you roll with a dog.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
When I laid that on her and got her down to Mexico, I'm like, oh, I got this free cocktail thing for us. She's like, oh, I'm not going to go. I'm like, you need to go. It's a timeshare pitch. We have to go. Otherwise, I can't get this room right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Do you think that's a turn on? God damn, that doesn't work.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Yeah, my prediction is that the flows of capital into Europe begin to infect not just the defense contractors, but start to infect the other sectors in the economy. And that we're going to see, I think so far, European markets are up 13 or 16%. I think they're going to be up 30% plus this year. I think this is a trade, a momentum trade.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And I think there's probably a lot of fund managers right now thinking, okay, I missed this, but it's not too late. And you're going to see just an entirely different willingness and promiscuity around allocating big pools of capital and to European stocks that haven't been there for 20 years. Quite frankly, I just think we're getting started.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Yeah. And you don't realize, especially with your parents, you don't realize how quickly it comes when they're really old. And I really, that was something I got right. I spent a lot of time with my mom. Okay, I like that. All right, fuck that. Talk about AI and GDP. Let's get on with this shit. Let's get on with tariffs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
This is tough because they say that the markets sometimes climb a wall of worry. And just as we started saying that the markets were really in trouble, it feels like the last two days have kind of rallied a bit. But I just saw this as a bit of a nothing burger. What did you think?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Today's number, 63,000. That's how many pages are in the newly released JFK assassination files, but none of them contain any revelations. Ed, what do JFK and Bill Clinton have in common? What's that? Both their careers ended with a stained dress. Oh, dog.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I think the Fed chair has basically one job description, and that is remain calm and carry on. It just wouldn't help if he showed up sweating, freaked out, and like, fuck, I don't know. I'm totally awake. I can't sleep. I'm so freaked out. And look at this data. Jesus Christ, I don't know what to make of this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
If you want someone to kind of look nonplussed, like they're sleeping fairly well and not to be too alarmed, it needs to be the Fed chair. Like if the Fed chair shows up, You know, without his shoes and like he's been on a bender all night. It's just like, and popping pills.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
If every 15 seconds he said, I'm sorry, hold on a second. And he like struggled to get his pills out of his briefcase and then like started like throwing pills into his mouth and crunching on these things. That would be good. I'd love to see, I'd love for him just in the middle of these questions from centers. Just love to see him just like... bend over and just do a giant rail academy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
What would happen to interest rates then? How would the tenure respond then?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
You know, I don't know. You say you got a feel for Chairman Powell. I feel for the American people that are You have to live under a fascist ass clown making decisions that no one can discern, like which direction we're headed in. Is that unfair? Fascist ass clown. FAC. The silver lining is the following, and that is I do think the American economy, the gears just keep turning.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And people keep innovating. People keep wanting to buy shit. People keep wanting to make money. People keep coming up with new ideas. And I think we probably overestimate the impact that the White House has on—it makes for a lot of headlines, but I wonder— I'm pretty sure we overestimated or underestimated. We give them too much blame and too much credit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
But I would argue that these decisions, it would be impossible, I think, for them not to trickle down. And the fact that the GDP estimates have already come down, I think, is evidence these decisions are not good for the economy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I love this. I think there are a few sectors that are more corrupt than sports leagues, and that is they leverage the fact that people feel really benign about them to establish regulatory capture and And they get even legislation that enables them to be monopolies. I mean, if you and I wanted to start a football team, an NFL team in Chicago, we can't.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
The NFL gets to decide they can control supply. And the owners love it because that means that they buy $4 billion and if they hold on to it for 10 years – They know it'll go up in value because they know the number of billionaires will increase as the economy increases and there's a fixed set of supply.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I mean, these things are so corrupt and they leverage this monopoly power and they extract rents from the players, from consumers. Ticket prices have accelerated. They're essentially legal monopolies. And it's just ridiculous to think that why shouldn't you be able to start a tournament, create another team?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So there's two sides of this trade, including, you know, if the CEO had control of the company because he didn't have to raise a lot of money or he was doing so well that he had that kind of credibility with the board, he could have decided what to do. And maybe he did decide that it makes sense for Eric Schmidt to take over. Now, having said that, I would not invest in this thing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
I'm ageist when it comes to startups, and that is when Eric Schmidt took over Google, he was much younger and probably willing to put all relationships and all vacations aside for a while. And now he's a billionaire in his 60s who's probably in the midst of, like many of us, of a realization that he's going to be dead soon, and he's not going to work his ass off. He's going to focus on St.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Barts and relationships and time with loved ones and going to the World Economic Forum and talking about big thoughts and climate change. To drive a company like this is a young woman's game. And what he should have done, in my view, was taken the chairman role, because I think 80% of his expertise right now could be leveraged 10, 20, 30 hours a week and kept someone else in the CEO position.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Today's number, five inches. That's the length of a live turtle that a Pennsylvanian man attempted to smuggle through airport security in his pants last week. True story, Ed. I was blessed with a seven-inch dick, but now the priest is in jail. Ed, how are you? Ed, how are you? I'm just putting it together in my head. We have all these young interns.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And also, I believe that luck is symmetrical. And in order for a company to have the kind of extraordinary success that Alphabet has recognized, that was a lot of luck. And I typically don't invest behind a person two times in a row because if it's super successful, I'm like, it's unlikely we're going to get lucky again.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And I know that's a weird thing to say, but I think a guy like Eric Schmidt, I don't get why he's doing this personally. I think he's in his mid-60s, maybe late 60s.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Well, actually, Bezos has stepped down. as CEO because he's realized he's about to die soon, so he wants yachts and thongs. I think he gets it. But I think the question everyone's asking is, Ed, why do you hate Eric Schmidt? No, look, the guy is the chairman of everyone's dreams. He's intensely smart, intensely well-connected.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
I just don't understand why a guy at that point in his life would want to do When you're the CEO of a startup, I speak from experience here, your inbox is never empty. And you have to be able to work 15 and 16 hour days. The only time I've ever really grown shareholder value is when, quite frankly, my personal life is a bit of a shit show.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Because the marketplace is competitive and gives advantage to people who are willing to do nothing but work all the fucking time. And this is not a Hallmark commercial. I'm not saying this is aspirational. And I think a lot of people go to work for big companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
to leverage their IP, their distribution channels, and their platform, and their size, and the regulatory captures so they can work 40 to 50 hours a week, not 60 to 80. You want to be in a startup? You want to be in a company like this? I think it's table stakes, even for a guy like Eric Schmidt, to have to work around the clock.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And if I were him with his wealth at his age, there's no way I would do that. Anyways, I'm bullish on Eric Schmidt, but as a chairman, I think this is a bad idea for him to get back into the game like this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Look at me. Not that I'm comparing myself to these individuals. I have Catherine Dillon run our company, so I can just make dick jokes and go to South by Southwest. That's what he should be doing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
You're accurate. It is a rich kid. My interaction with the kingdom has mostly been around involvement with hedge funds raising money and some of the investments they make. And I find that they're actually incredibly disciplined and very smart and that they hire the best and brightest from the alternative investments world to try and allocate their capital efficiently.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
In this instance, maybe their eyes are bigger than their stomach. Maybe it'll be scaled back. But I'd like to see more big, outrageous ideas proposed. I would like to see in the U.S. them say, we're going to spend several trillion dollars to build a national high-speed rail, at least up and down the eastern seaboard. I'd like to see some big, bold infrastructure announcements in the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
They're literally just note to self, exhibit 22B. If I don't keep giving them increase, they're literally every day balancing the money they'll get from the lawsuit that I'll settle out of court. Only upside for us. Oh, we have a new intern. Wait, who's the new one? That's probably Bella you're talking about, who just came on full time. No longer an intern. Oh, Bella. Hey, Bella.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
We did one. Our Infrastructure Act was $700 billion, I think. They have seven projects of over a trillion. It looks as if this one is probably unrealistic, but I think that a place like the kingdom has the money and the mandate to quite frankly be, I don't know, be out over their skis a little bit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Let me give you the pluses and the minuses of consulting. It's a great company to start because it requires little capex. Your expenses and your assets go home in the elevator every night. And if you don't have business, you can lay off people. If you do have business, you can ramp up.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So in the sense, services companies are good businesses to start because they don't require a lot of IP or dramatic capex. You can start a consulting company, as I did, by just getting a client. I got Dreyer's, and I got Levi Strauss & Company, and Williams-Sonoma is my first clients. It's an incredible training if you want to be an athlete. You have to be a good communicator.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
You have to be good with analytics. You have to be good at managing relationships. You have to be able to sell. It really is training for a triathlon or a decathlon company. I think it's a fantastic – if you're coming out of business school and think, I want a second MBA, but I want it in the private sector, consulting is a fantastic training. It turns you into a great athlete.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
You make good money. You never get really wealthy. That's the downside because the barriers of entry here, it's a multiple of EBITDA business. When I started my second consulting firm, L2, which I called Business Strategy, I turned it from – intermittent consulting engagements. I used to charge Williams-Sonoma half a million dollars to do their internet strategy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Instead, I said to Nike, give me a quarter of a million a year, and I'll meet with you every three months and just look at data and give you advice. It is a very taxing business. Again, see above, it's a young woman's game. It's very taxing on your health and your relationships because When you're in the services business, you're always someone else's bitch.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Actually, this happened to me three times. The CMO of Audi, who was my biggest client, called and said, Scott, we love you. Can you be in Ingolstadt tomorrow? And the answer was always, yeah, yeah. I'll get on a fucking plane from San Francisco flying to Munich, be in coach because it was my money back then.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Welcome to Prop G Markets. That's right. She came to... Let's talk about me. I was at Stern yesterday and I spoke to 500 students and Bella came. And yeah, I was super nice to everyone. And then she told me she works for us. I'm like, I pay you. I don't need to be nice to you. That's right. Anyways, welcome, Bella. Very good. Welcome, Bella.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
With six young people trying to figure out a PowerPoint presentation of what we were going to say to Audi that they hadn't heard from McKinsey and bomb to the Kinkos when we got to Munich at 9 a.m. to print this thing out and then fly back to San Francisco the next day. It takes a real toll on your relationships and your health. It's a very taxing industry. It's also you make a good living.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Just answer a few questions and you'll find the top insurance providers in your area right there. So get matched with the right rate for you at NerdWallet.com. Using NerdWallet is more than smart. It's genius. Not all applicants will qualify for the lowest monthly payments, NerdWallet Insurance Services, and California resident license number OK92033.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
but it's hard to get really wealthy in consulting because it's all current income. I found it fucking exhausting. I don't want to golf or have dinner. If you're having golf and dinner with people you don't really like, it means you're in an undifferentiated industry. What do you mean by that? I mean, the truly great companies don't need to socialize with their clients.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And also, if you're spending time, a lot of time getting taken to basketball games or dinners by third-party vendors, it means you're paying too much. It means you're getting ripped off. So Vanguard's not going to take you out to lunch, but your wealth advisor from name the brokerage who takes you to a basketball game, that means she is charging you onerous fees. That's a great point.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Anyways, the services business is we're all selling the same shit, and the way we differentiate is relationships. Anyways, that's my TED Talk on the services business. Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Support for the show comes from public.com. All right. And if you're serious about investing, you need to know about public.com. That's where you can invest in everything, stocks, options, bonds, and more. They even offer some of the highest yields in the industry, including the bond account, 6% or higher yield that remains locked in even if the Fed cuts rates. Bottom line?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Thank you so much for having me. Member FINRA and SIPC. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. I should also disclose I am an investor in public. Support for the show comes from the Fundrise Flagship Fund. Real estate investing is boring.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Now, prediction markets, on the other hand, or even the stock market, which can swing wildly on a headline, those will keep you on the edge of your seat. But with real estate investing, there's no drama or adrenaline or excuses to refresh your portfolio every few minutes. Just bland and boring stuff, including diversification and dividends.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So you won't be surprised to learn the Fundrise flagship real estate fund is a complete snooze fest. The fund holds $1.1 billion worth of institutional caliber real estate managed by a team of pros focused on steadily growing your net worth for decades to come. See? Boring. And that's the point.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
You can start investing in minutes and with as little as $10 by visiting Fundrise.com slash Prop G. Carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fundrise Flagship Fund before investing. Find this information and more in the fund's prospectus at Fundrise.com slash Flagship. This is a paid ad.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Well, as you know, I like to ground everything in a personal parable so I can talk more about me. So tariffs coming in, you charge a tariff. We charge tariff on aluminum and steel. And the rationale was we need to maintain a healthy domestic production or supply of steel. That kind of makes sense. If we go to war, we need tanks. We don't want to be too vulnerable.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
I'm now Pete Townsend. I'm the most talented member of the band, but fucking, what's his face? The lead singer? What's that guy's name? I don't even know who Pete Townsend is.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So great, Cleveland Cliffs and U.S. Steel saw their earnings go up because their product became more competitive because foreign imports became more expensive. But that additional incremental income was vastly outweighed by the decrease in demand for products that had to dramatically increase their prices because of the additional cost of the input of steel and aluminum into their products.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So we're net losers, even when they pay the tariff and there's no reciprocal tariff. And this comes back to my first parable. I don't know if you've noticed when we're on this show, I angle my head to the left. I guess I haven't. Now I'm noticing. You need to start investing in this relationship. You never notice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
You haven't noticed all the Pilates I've been doing to try and be more attractive to you either, you awful person. Oh, no, I've noticed that for sure. Oh, I fucking hate Pilates. Angle of your face. All right, the angle of my face. My nose goes to the right. And the reason why it goes to the right is when I first moved to New York, I was bored, too much time on my hands.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
I was doing yoga and I was doing boxing. And I got a trainer, this guy, this boxing guy, and I'd spar with him. And he convinced me, he's like, you know, you got pretty good hand speed, you're in good shape. Why don't you enter this boxing tournament at this gym, this boxing gym we belong to? And I'm like, was stupid enough to think that was a good idea. So I'm 6'2, 190.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Exactly. You're going to have a panic attack hearing that. He was the lead guitarist of The Who. But the front man, Richard Daltrey, who starred in a great movie, Pinball Wizard, very handsome, better looking than the more talented... Pete Townsend, this is where I'm going. Everyone's like, oh, oh, Roger Daltrey, not giving any love to the real talent, Peter Townsend.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
It ends up that a guy who's 5'9 and 190 and knows how to box is fucking Mike Tyson. So I get into the ring with this guy. All I hear, all I remember was the bell. And the next thing I remember was all of these bright lights because I was flat on my back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Oh my God. And my nose has never straightened. My nose now goes to the right. And here's the thing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And that's what it feels like at South by Southwest. Everyone's like, oh, Prof G.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
There are a lot of amazing female athletes that you have not mentioned at that dinner. There were.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Bella, I apologize.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Arguably one of the greatest football players in history, but you didn't bring her up. I didn't, but Andy Roddick. You brought up the white dude that plays tennis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And you went to Princeton, right? I did, yeah. Six foot three, white male. Figures. Privileged. The patriarchy. Oh, my God. Thank God I've got Claire. I totally agree with that. But literally on that stage of us with us was Megan Rapinoe, arguably one of the greatest, you know, football players in history.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So to think that all of a sudden, wow, Apple is cheap. Okay, it's not as insane as it was a month ago. But to believe that the markets are on sale right now in the U.S., no. I mean, they're not at all-time highs, but by any metric, they're still expensive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Her wife, Sue Bird, a retired WNBA player who was also, I think, won the NCAA championship two or three times.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Is that on your Wikipedia page who pays you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So supposedly, SoftBank was about to lead a round into open AI at a valuation of between $260 and $300 pre-money, putting a $40 billion round, putting it at a post of $300 or post of $340. I think the insecurity in the market right now is probably going to give them a reason to hit the sanity button and either get different terms or better terms or not do this investment.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
It strikes me that valuing OpenAI, as amazing a company as it is, as valuable or as impactful as AI is going to be, I would imagine a lot of his investors are like, it's beginning to smell a lot like WeWork. I guess my prediction is I'm not sure this round is going to close on the terms initially reported in the press because it hasn't closed yet. And it just feels to me this is too rich.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
If you're a limited partner in SoftBank, basically Masayoshi-san has tried to convince you that within five years, this will be one of the 10 most valuable companies in the world because it's going to have to have a trillion dollar plus market cap. to justify the kinds of returns for this type of risk, I think that is a difficult argument to make with any level of certainty right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Is OpenAI an amazing company at $50 or $100 billion? Absolutely. At $300 billion? I don't know. That feels very toppy to me, Ed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
This industry is arguably one of the more seminal technologies in history. The ability to – my parents had to crawl across the Atlantic over seven to nine days getting seasick to get to America. Now you can get – you can – realistically fly from London to New York in about seven hours. And if you book well ahead, you can do it for $400.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
I mean, it's just this technology has been such an unbelievable unlock for economic growth, ability to see your family more regularly, mobility of capital to its greatest return. It's been just an enormous breakthrough. Airlines, if you net out all their profits and all their costs so far, are breakeven. It's been a shitty business. Differentiation is near impossible in this industry.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
What do they have? They're all flying the same tin cans. They're all flying one of two planes from one of two manufacturers, Airbus or Boeing. They're all flying into the same airport. It's very hard to differentiate on labor or service. And Southwest was able to find differentiation around a brand. That meant freedom. OK, you just got fired. You want to head to Vegas. You make a reservation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
You need to change it. No change fees. We're not going to nickel and dime you with bags. It's freedom. It's the ability. It was total cost structure. Even the planes are super fucking ugly. They're orange because they found early on. that that was the paint that was most overordered and they could get the lowest cost on.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
They had all 737s for a long time to create scale around repair and maintenance. Everything was about low cost to give you economic freedom to take your human capital where and when you wanted. This is exactly what you just said, and that is somebody has done the analysis that says, okay, this cost of free bags is greater than the brand equity bump we're getting.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
In the short term, they will absolutely recognize a really substantial increase to the bottom line. But in an environment where it is so difficult to establish differentiation, I think they are trading off long-term margin for short-term stock gain. I remember one of my first clients, I started a strategy firm in my second year of business school, one of my first clients was Dreyer's.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And this CMO who was just incredibly smart, this guy named Tyler Johnston. And we were going into a recession, this was 1992. And I said, well, why don't you just take down marketing spend? They were a company that was always about to be acquired by a bigger food company, which ultimately they were for a lot of money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And he said, you can't take down, you always have to be disciplined about brand and marketing spend. Otherwise, all you're doing is juicing your bottom line and trading off long-term strength. And I think that's quite frankly what they're probably doing here. I haven't seen the numbers. The people from Elliott are very smart.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
But in an environment that is almost near impossible to maintain, establish and maintain differentiation, this was a tangible point of differentiation. So I would call this short-term financial engineering at the cost of long-term differentiation of margin power.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And by the way, I love hot dogs. Last night, I decided to share a hot dog with a homeless person, and he said, fuck off, get your own hot dog. Anyways, let me be serious for a second. So I started a company called Red Envelope. And we spent, basically, I love benchmarking, which is consultant speak for ripping off other people's IP.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And I was always fascinated with Tiffany, specifically how much IP and brand associations he managed to inject into this aquamarine blue box, and that elegance, sophistication. Romance, Audrey Hepburn. And I said, I'm going to start a company that is the Tiffany of hip, urban, progressive, more erotic sensibilities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And we came up, we spent a lot of time and a lot of money on a beautiful red box with a gorgeous bow. And we had people in our fulfillment center. tie the bow with hands. When a machine ties a bow, it looks like a drunk guy with big thumbs tied it. It just looks weird. And it was really expensive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And someone did the analysis and said that we actually have negative margin on some of our least expensive products when you put it in this beautiful red box. And I said, you don't get it. That is key to our brand. And so this is simply, this is why managers are supposed to get paid really well. They have to trade off
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
The temptation to add everything to the bottom line while managing long-term investments that create sustainable margin and brand power. And the thing about luxury brands and the thing about great brand builders, the analogy I use is like working out. When you work out, it's time expensive, it's a pain, and you're sore. And so is brand building. It's expensive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And the next day, it just fucking hurts. But if you're disciplined about spending and offering the services that buttress your brand associations, over time, you get stronger. You have an easier time. getting supplier relationships. You have an easier time recruiting employees. You have an easier time raising prices.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
But in a company like Southwest, I would be very careful to remove any tangible point of differentiation. I mean, how on earth do these guys compete against each other? What is Southwest's value proposition or differentiation now? Like, what is it? Well,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Yeah, I think you're being unfair. So there's two sides of this trade. And that is the way corporate governance and decisions get made is that shareholders get to decide who are the board members. And the board members get to decide who would be best for stakeholders, which is Latin for shareholders.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And the board decided that to get a guy like Eric Schmidt, who is arguably one of the most lauded, successful CEOs in history, to come run their firm, which sounds like it was struggling, quite frankly, is they decided, yeah, that is absolutely worth it. And I would imagine the value of the company is up substantially just on that press release.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
Support for the show comes from NerdWallet. Your brain can hold around 2.5 million gigabytes of data, but that doesn't mean you should waste any of it on something you don't need to, like researching auto insurance. Because the nerds at NerdWallet have already done that for you. Looking for a lower rate?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
Today's number, 0.004%. That's the chance of being born with a genetic mutation that allows you to sleep less than six and a half hours each night without any ill effects. True story, last night I had six hours of straight sleep. The other two were gay, but I woke up fulfilled.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
That's wrong. Let's enjoy it while it lasts. Today's discussion on property markets. I'm out of breath, by the way, because I did about seven minutes of working out. Yeah, I can tell.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
Just answer a few questions and you'll find the top insurance providers in your area right there. So get matched with the right rate for you at nerdwallet.com. Using NerdWallet is more than smart. It's genius. Not all applicants will qualify for the lowest monthly payments, NerdWallet Insurance Services, and California resident license number OK92033.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
I saw you doing something off mic. Secretary Hegsatz said that he did five rounds of 47 push-ups. So I'm committed to doing five rounds of 48 because I'm already very excited about whoever's going to be 48. And I did two sets of 48. So I'm trying to figure out, I'm on TikTok and YouTube, trying to figure out how to increase your push-ups. Strength. But anyways, Ed, what's going on with you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
What's going on with you as I try to out-push up the DUI hire, Secretary Hegseth? What's going on with you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
Hola, Eduardo. ¿Dónde está la biblioteca? Where are you staying? It looks like a nice hotel.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
Ask me what my favorite place to vacation in the world is as someone who's been literally everywhere. What is your favorite place to vacation in the world? Mexico. If I could only vacation one place... Would it be Mexico? I think it might be Mexico. Maybe Italy? Mexico, yeah. Really?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
It's got sort of that Mykonos amazing beach, beautiful water vibe for about 40% of the price. And the people are friendlier. Also, it's got extraordinary architecture, incredible food. I just absolutely adore...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Support for the show comes from Public.com. If you're serious about investing, you need to know about Public.com. That's where you can invest in everything, stocks, options, bonds, and more. And even under 6% or higher yield that you can lock in with a bond account. Visit Public.com slash PropG and get up to $10,000 when you transfer your old portfolio. That's Public.com slash PropG.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I mean, clearly, they're going to cut costs. They're probably going to change management and severely reduce costs. And the issue, the hard part about retail is that you have to enter into these very risky business contracts called a lease. And everybody wants the same real estate. And the owners of this real estate are smart at maximizing their revenue by signing up for a 10-year lease.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
So when you pick... I mean, you have to be very thoughtful. So, and kind of the history of retail is restoration hardware goes public and they think we got to grow. So they sign a bunch of bad leases. They're really promiscuous. And then similar to Walgreens, three and four Walgreens are not profitable. And it's a 10-year weeping sore.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Unless you declare bankruptcy, you can't get out of that lease. So you're just losing money. So real estate, what are they going to do? They're going to let a ton of these leases expire.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
As it relates to private equity and bankruptcy, that's not surprising because private equity is usually, let's take all of its cash flows and use it to lever up such that we can have more upside and finance the acquisition with cheap debt. And when it doesn't work, they declare bankruptcy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Now, having said that, the debtors or the bondholders charge a certain interest rate that calculated in the risk of default. And when the bondholders, when it defaults, the bondholders get to seize the assets. And when a private equity company or a private equity-backed company has to, you know, when it goes bankrupt,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
generally speaking the private equity all the equity capital they put in they also get wiped out so it does lever up and you know go risk on on a company but it also creates a certain sense of urgency i think private equity has been good and that good for society i'm not one of these people that says oh they're ruining everything i don't think that's true there's a lot of entrepreneurs who've made a lot of money selling to private equity and the thing i like about private equity is
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
is they're usually very good at getting management vested in terms of the upside of success. They're actually quite generous, whereas venture capitalists, I find, are primarily just, with rare exception, just mendacious fuck douchebags who pretend to give a shit about anybody and then wash the founders out. Speaking for a friend, but so I like, I enjoy working with private equity.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think debt tightens the focus, if you will. And most of the time, these things, you know, it does make sense. And also there's two parties to the trade. The company doesn't have to sell the private equity. They don't, they've entered into this agreement knowingly.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
The people who are financing this debt enter into this trade knowingly and are getting a good, hopefully a good interest rate to reflect the risk. But this is a company that's a shadow of itself. It sounds to me what I would want to know is what percentage of their leases are coming up for renewal that we can get out of, because that's the obligation here that is most scary.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And that's why a lot of retailers, good retailers, declare bankruptcy, because then they can go and cherry pick and hold on to the leases they want and get out of the contractual agreements with the leases that are hurting them. So I wouldn't be surprised. I bet this—I wouldn't be surprised if Sycamore actually does pretty well here. Do you want to hear my CVS and opiate story, Ed? Please.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
My CFO came in at L2, came in to me and said, I need to speak to you. And she's like, there's some really crazy charges at drugstores all over Manhattan. And I looked at him. I'm like, yeah, this is not me. This doesn't make any sense. I'm like, it must be fraud. He's like, no, it's not fraud. It's your assistant.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And it ends up that my assistant was addicted to opiates and was going to every doctor in Manhattan getting a script for opiates and then going into a CVS or a Walgreens and not only getting her opiates, but buying $1,000 or $2,000 in cosmetics or gifts. And she was not only a criminal, she was a stupid criminal. And she would sign for everything and have it delivered to her house. Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Get this. She managed to spend, I think, over five months or seven months, $120,000 on my corporate card. What? I had various CVS and Walgreens all over Manhattan.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Ah, that's good. Great joke. Yeah, the pedophile stuff never gets old. What's going on with you? What are you up to?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
They lost her. And I remember calling her. I'm like, look, we have an issue here. You are clearly addicted to something. There's $120,000 on charges on my card. And not only that, I'm like, she's like, oh, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm like... You signed for the shit at your address. Your signature's on this stuff.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
You decided to have someone drop it off at your apartment, which wasn't – you're not exactly what I'd call a very – this is disorganized crime. And she immediately went into rehab, claimed disability, and tried to sue us for the options that we owed her. She dropped the case when I said I was going to turn it over to the Manhattan DA if she didn't drop the case.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
But anyways, that was my last assistant. That was that was the that was my last assistant.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think Musk, when he saw this, I think this probably sent a chill down his spine. If people start canceling Starlink contracts, I mean, they're already throwing shit at Teslas on the road. I just canceled a Tesla last night on Uber. I'm starting to cancel if it's a Tesla when it comes up. I think that Canada, I think this guy's making the right move, and I think you're only gonna see more of it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think people have just had it. What's a shame is that we don't have the same type of leadership here in the United States. There hasn't been a single CEO who has stood up and said, I am not going to participate in this pay for play kleptocracy. I'm not giving to the campaign. I am not going to be paraded around. You either have laws that affect all of us or none of us, but I have had it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And we haven't had anyone that shows the balls of this leader up in Ontario. And it is so disappointing the domino theory of cowardice that has infected the rich and Fortune 500 CEOs. I can't think of one who has spoken out all under the auspices of quote-unquote shareholder value. Well, folks, your stakeholders include Americans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
It is incredibly disappointing that we aren't showing a fraction of leadership that this guy is showing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think this is what is going to probably push Musk out of government or he's going to decide he's going to try and declare victory and leave. Because if you look at Starlink customer base, I mean, Tesla is already crashing. It's literally imploding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I don't know if you saw this video of Mardi Gras and someone, a Tesla truck or whatever you call it, was rolling down and everyone started throwing shit at it. Starlink was his growth vehicle. And there's one and a half million customers of Starlink in the US. You referenced that there's 530,000 in Canada, its second largest market. That's real.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And then the number three market, Mexico, at 435,000. And then the number four is Brazil, who probably doesn't feel that great about Musk, who was threatening, was fucking with their internal politics. So You know, Starlink's value in the private markets, it's the most valuable company – one of the most valuable private companies and the most traded in the secondary market.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I don't know. I haven't counted. I can't go here. There's no way I don't come across as the world's biggest douchebag talking about the number of seats.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And I think it's a third of a trillion dollars. I think it's trading at $3 or $350 billion. That number is going to come way down because if they can't show the kind of growth that they've been showing – Also, you are seeing a lot of... You want to talk about Greenland's going. If I'm Telesat or Explore, the competitors, they have no trouble raising a shit ton of money right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And because there is about to be a big gap in the marketplace for this type of broadband provider.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Yeah, that's right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
kind of failed. You're the one I invested in, but is that what you're saying, Ed? Is that what you're saying? The one I invested in? The one I managed to pick?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Support for the show comes from Public.com. All right. And if you're serious about investing, you need to know about Public.com. That's where you can invest in everything, stocks, options, bonds, and more. They even offer some of the highest yields in the industry, including the bond account, 6% or higher yield that remains locked in even if the Fed cuts rates. Bottom line?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Thank you so much for having me. Member FINRA and SIPC. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. I should also disclose I am an investor in public.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
On the face of it, it sounds like a great idea. I mean, if you think about the most valuable companies in the world are essentially toll booths. Right. Amazon makes a ton of their money sort of saying, all right, rent our cloud services. But the real toll is that if you want to have access to half of the U.S. e-commerce market, you got to be on our platform. And then we just collect a toll.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
It used to be 24 percent of third party revenues when you put your shoe company on their platform. Now it's about they get 45 percent because. You have one toll road. They're the toll booth. If you want to reach online consumers, there's two big toll booths. There's Meta and there's Google. They collect a toll to reach every consumer that's increasingly spending their day online.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
So I love this idea of an analog toll that says, OK. We get you coming and going across this incredible feat of engineering and leadership, the Panama Canal. But you got to think to get to propel through the water a several thousand metric ton vessel and have it go another whatever it is, 6,000 miles or 8,000 miles around this thing versus just slip through that little ditch we dug through Panama.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
If they can figure out a way to collect money on the in and the out, I've never heard a transportation company say, the Panama Canal's gotten too expensive, so we're just going to take the long way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
One example, one example of reaching too far into the barrel, Aspiration, a finance firm that claims its products can, open quote, change climate change, end quote. In August, the company announced it was going public via SPAC at a $2.3 billion valuation. Change climate change. That would be awesome. Except there's a catch. This is a fucking debit card. He's so good.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Prof G. Paid for by Public Investing. All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokered services for U.S. listed registered securities, options, and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA, and SIPC. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. I should also disclose I am an investor in public.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I would have just thought that they believe that their average price per vessel of $341,000 that's charged to get through the Panama Canal, that they believe they can take that $341,000 number much higher.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I didn't immediately connect that this gets them in Trump's good graces, but I can see the argument. If so, I can't imagine they would make this sort of capital outlay. I think that would be being a bad fiduciary just to cozy up to a guy who's going to be in office another three years and nine months, and quite frankly, in about two years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think your analysis is more thoughtful than mine. I just assume that if they could put a toll booth on both sides of the Panama Canal, that if you do the math, I would bet it costs a lot more than an incremental $340,000 to take that ship around to go the long way. And they sense that and say, all right, we're capturing 10% of the savings here. We should be capturing 30 or 40%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I've switched. I'm now, when I'm interviewing people, I'm saying, oh, he's a DUI hire. I think you're a DUI hire. Yeah, I've never had a DUI. I'm surprised. Thanks for that. Back in the 80s and 90s, we all used to get fucked up and take to Sunset Boulevard and basically death traps. But anyways, good times. Youth. Youth.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
It was such an attempt to drape yourself in social justice while offering something pretty borderline fraudulent. They were saying that we take a portion of your credit card fees and invest in sustainable companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Yeah, this is a giant snooze. And just in terms of what I'm doing, I'm actually selling, starting to sell my Apple stock. Apple and Amazon have been my biggest holdings for the last 15 years. I bought Apple when it was trading at a P of 9, and now it's trading at a P of 37. Yeah, I think historically it's traded in an average around 18. And trailing 12 months, it's 37 or 38.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Forward earnings, it's 31, 32. And it's growing 2%. And quite frankly, its product lineup is just anemic. And in addition, the overlay there is I do believe that we're going to see the rivers, the flow of the river of capital into the U.S. I think those rivers are about to reverse. We've talked about it ad nauseum on the show.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
So I'm going to take the capital gains hit, and I am selling down my Apple and my Amazon, which are trading at extraordinary multiples. And with Amazon, you could sort of justify it, I think, because of their cloud business. Apple is arguably the best brand in the world, but the company is no longer growing. I think the mixed reality headset was just comical.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And so in this notion of spatial computing is going to be the next thing, I mean, they're well set up for AR. They're going to be a relevant company for a long, long time. Let me put it this way. I don't see how they can justify a PE of 37 or 38 on a company that's not growing its top line revenues. So is it a great company? Is it going to continue to be really relevant?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Yeah, I just think it's overvalued right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And if you read their website, and we got some financial information, we dug in, this was a shitty little credit card company charging onerous fees, claiming to do something they weren't doing and saying, oh, but we're a new economy company. And they had famous investors, they had actors.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Yeah, it's interesting. And it's easy for me to say because it's a very difficult business. But if Apple were coming out with its Project Titan, if Apple were just about now, and if it had not canceled Titan, it would have been coming out with a car just about now. Can you imagine how well positioned they would have been against Tesla?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think they would have found the justification for that PE just in the customer list. I think they would have built the most valuable customer list or waiting list in history. And that is, I think several million people would have come up with five or 10 grand just to be on that waiting list.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
A friend of mine, it ends up, was an investor and called me and sort of, I don't want to say put pressure on me, that said, do you want to speak to management? I think you got this wrong. I said to him, I said, we'll just call him Bob. I'm like, Bob, this is a fucking fraud. This is WeWork with a climate change veneer smeared over it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And they could have said, I think that would have justified when everyone was trying to justify the 38 PE, which they're going to run out of reasons to justify. I think they could have pointed to that list.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And the self-expressive benefit brand of Apple, which immediately identifies you as one of the wealthiest, most creative 14% of the globe because a billion people have iOS, the other real self-expressive benefit item in people's lives that they're willing to spend a lot of money on is their car. So I just think the Apple car would have been the most elegant way to say, I'm creative and wealthy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And I think they would have done a good job. They could have outsourced the manufacturing. Anyways, I think they are kicking themselves that they didn't go the distance around Titan.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
The tax implications are ugly because I bought Apple at about $8 a share or $12 a share. So I've recognized a huge gain. I've sold some along the way, but there's just not getting around it. I'm going to have to pay $22 or $23.8. percent taxes, which is enormous, but I think it's worth it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And my decision was, I have a friend of mine who runs a hedge fund that actually has my biggest allocation called Alana Partners, a guy named Orlando Marchant, who was a tiger cub and now manages money for family offices. And And he's just been sending me all these graphs about just how incredibly expensive U.S. growth is and how inexpensive the rest of the world is.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And the stat that has just blown my fucking mind is that if you were to price all U.S. assets, they would be $70, including their equity value and their debt. And if you were to price the rest of the world sans the U.S., it'd be $30. So would you rather own the U.S. at $70 or the rest of the world for $30? And I am acting on that. I am selling down my U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
growth portfolio and I'm investing in Europe. The problem is I'm already a little bit late. Europe is up, I think, 11 or 12 percent. The EU markets are up substantially and the U.S. is flat. But I am rotating out of the U.S. and my kind of growth plays. I'm overexposed in growth because I invest in a lot of private companies in the U.S.,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
But I'm going to get out of Amazon and Apple and reallocate that capital into Brazilian and European stocks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Yeah, I think I'm probably going to sell all of it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I'm so overexposed by virtue of what I do. You realize when you look at diversification, you're not only going to look at your assets, you got to look at your cash flows. Do you realize the majority of our cash flows are linked to the U.S. tech market? That's what this podcast is. You're very invested in U.S. tech.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Who listens to this podcast such that our advertisers will pay us a lot of money such that I can pay you, you know, nine, ten bucks an hour? Right. The reality is tech. You're an investor in tech. You're an investor in U.S. tech. People who are tracking South African value stocks aren't listening to this podcast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
People who track American markets, which are dominated by tech, are listening to this podcast, meaning that you, Ed Elson, if you were really, really smart about diversification, you would not be investing in U.S. tech because you are very tied. This is what I didn't understand when I was your age. I was so over-invested in USA.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I thought that was going to get more attention than the WeWork post because I thought it was even more obvious a fraud.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Running a brand strategy firm in Northern California, my entire livelihood was tied to the fortunes of tech. All my clients were either Kleiner Perkins portfolio companies or HP or Apple or, you know, I had these big kind of US tech companies. And then because that's what I knew and I thought, oh, this is where the future is, I'd take all my excess cashflow and I'd buy tech stocks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
So when 2000 came, I ended up going from being worth a lot of money for a 30-year-old, 36, to being worth negative $2 or $3 million in the space of about three months. So we are overinvested in U.S. tech by virtue of the fact of what we do for a living. So I'm going to take basically everything that's not nailed to the ground right now and get out of U.S. growth in tech.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I might go into a levered index from Drexel, but I'm going to go into a diversified mixed ETF or index around EU value stocks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Well, I mean, I just like a lot. I think Mercedes is a great company, trading at a fairly low multiple. Porsche is on sale relative to where it was. L'Oreal is an amazing company. Shell, BP. There's a lot of – LVMH has come off a lot. That's not value, but it's come off a lot. There are a lot of great European companies. I'm very excited about Europe. A lot of this is confirmation bias.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
But I think Europe has been – We've had this conversation. Europe has been left for dead. It's not. I spent a lot of time in Europe, incredible universities, a lot of very hardworking people. It doesn't have the risk capital it should, but I think that's going to change. I think PE is getting their green glands going.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And I think they're finally going to start acting like a union and take advantage of their size. So I'm very excited about Europe. And I'm very, you know, the bottom line is American tech is still going to do really well. It's just too fucking expensive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I want you to make a prediction, Ed, and I think you just made one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
So I'm excited to see you in Texas. The last time I was in Texas, I was in Lubbock and I came across a sheep farm and there was a farmer fucking a sheep on the side of the road. And I said, in New York, we shear sheep. And he said, I'm not shearing her with anyone. I'll see you in Austin. I'll see you in the great state of Texas.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
God, like community-based EBITDA, WeWork.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I loved Adam Newman's initial redefinition of EBITDA. And it was like, earnings before everything else, earnings before Dolly Parton, earnings before March Madness. It was like, let's pretend that profits are top line revenues before expenses. Let's just get rid of this pesky thing called expenses so we can say, pretend that we're profitable.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
But yeah, I appreciate the recognition and drinks on me this week in Austin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
It just makes sense. This is part of capitalism, and that is they need to consolidate, bulk up, and then cut costs. These companies should have one back end as far as news, and if they have different front-facing... brands that appeal to different audiences, that's fine. But last year, Disney's linear networks revenue declined 9% and operating income was down 16%. They're not alone here. U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
linear TV advertising will decrease an estimated 4% annually through 2030, which doesn't seem like a lot. But when it's going for another Five years, 4%, it means it's going to lose a quarter of its revenue or a fifth. And that means, you know, that's just real pain because some of those costs are fixed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
So you're talking probably, they're probably going to shed another 20 or 30% of their workforce over the next five years. I just had lunch with a fairly famous news anchor who is fantastic at what she does. And she's one of the lucky ones. She's still making a lot of money, but I think her salary got cut by 30%. And you're seeing cuts across the most famous anchors of like 20% to 80%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Joy Reid, Chuck Todd, Jim Acosta, and Lester Holt, all fantastic at what they do or did, all too expensive. And George Stephanopoulos, his contract's been renewed, though he had to take a pay cut from his previous $20 million deal. He's lucky he got his deal a few months ago. I think it'd even be less now. Rachel Maddow renegotiated. She is the friends or the anchor of MSNBC.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
She had to reduce her pay from $30 to $25 million. Yeah, cry me a river. That's not too much. Anyway, so look, the market is doing what it's supposed to do. It's reshaping. the winners and the losers. You're going to see, I think, private equity come in here. You're going to see a lot of consolidation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think Disney is a survivor because of this unique singular positioning around family and just the incredible IP they have. I also wonder if this is an interesting take private opportunity. But anyways, what are your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Well, if you look at means of production, and I did some analysis here, we're making three to four times the revenue per employee. And granted, we're small, but the means of production are so much less expensive in podcasting.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Now, granted, there aren't that many winners, but if you can figure out kind of a new media platform and keep it kind of lean and mean, you can just see what's happening here. It's just incredibly... challenging for these folks. I describe, I was jokingly describing the anchors as pilots for Pan Am in the 70s and that it's high prestige, they're banging stewardesses, everyone's impressed by them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
But I'm like, your days are numbered. Pretty sure you're going to be, you know, on an Embraer from Lubbock, Texas to Amarillo making 38,000 bucks a year. That's a great analogy. I personally, the way I register it, Is 10 years ago when I was asked to come on CNN, I just was so excited. I remember the first time Anderson had me on his show and I was so I thought, wow, I've made it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And now, unless it's someone I'm personal friends with or I don't go on because it's like the juice isn't worth the squeeze to come across as intelligent and the work and the prep you need to do. Not that many people are watching it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And plus, I mean, you're literally, you're going to be exposed to dozens and dozens of new fans. 5 a.m. on CNN. That is literally like a 90-year-old that can't sleep.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think that's great. Congratulations. I didn't know about that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
But yeah, broadcast television. What's interesting, though, is it still, you'll see this, there's still a prestige value. And that is when people see you on, I used to go on Fox every week. And when people see you on TV, for some reason, there's just this veneer of prestige, romanticism, or credibility that you don't get anywhere, unless, of course, you have a guest role on The White Lotus. Right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Ah, let's bring this back to me. Let's bring this back to me. Anyways, Linear TV, it's not doing well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Agreed. Captain fucking obvious.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think they're just overstored. I think they're doing the right thing. Again, capitalism in the markets at work. I can't believe this thing was ever worth $100 billion. What I'd be curious, I don't know if you have any information on this, is that my go-to as well, this is Amazon, another victim of Amazon. But I don't really know. Do you have any thoughts on what's actually going on here?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
If she and Putin had called this guy and said, all right, I mean, he's either this fucking stupid or this fucking corrupt because none of this shit makes absolutely any sense whatsoever. There is no evidence. There is no support. There is no empirical argument for why or how this does anything but reduce prosperity, throw our
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
throw our trading partners into the arms of our adversaries, Japan, South Korea, and China are talking for the first time about closer economic ties. So this is the inconsistency, the market capitalization loss, the general sort of reduction in the value proposition of our products abroad while increasing our prices domestically. This is Nigel Farage on steroids.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
But Trump is going to take down a bunch of Western economies in the short term. The big winner is China, because China is basically going to scoop up a lot of these trading relationships that we are throwing in the dustbin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Today's number, $6.6 trillion. That's how much value the U.S. stock market shed following Trump's tariff announcement. A record-breaking two-day wipeout. Ed, I just came from a Necrophiliacs Anonymous meeting, and suddenly it dawned on me, what happens if I die here?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Yeah, the trope or the weirdness here, whenever no one in the administration can justify, explain, or rationalize a decision he's making, they claim he's playing 4D chess, that this is so stupid or crazy that it's crazy genius and you just aren't privy to his genius yet. Enough already. That's just fucking stupid. There's a lot of smart people out there. Tell us what you're thinking and
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
You know, this notion that, oh, all will be revealed as genius will be revealed. That argument doesn't hold. I think the best argument from an optics standpoint is it is true that we've lost a lot of manufacturing jobs. And at least theoretically, if you raise the price of imports, our domestic manufacturers should be more competitive theoretically, and you should increase manufacturing jobs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
The problem is they impose reciprocal tariffs. I mean, just as an example, 88% of toys under the Christmas tree are from China. Tariffs on toys I think are going from 3% to like 33 or something. So a 20% increase in the cost of toys. 90 plus percent of Americans are on a fixed budget for Christmas gifts. They just can't spend whatever it takes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
So just to bring it home, this Christmas, 90 percent of households are going to have 20 percent fewer gifts under the tree for their kids instead of 10 gifts. They're going to have eight. So the notion it's going to bring back manufacturing doesn't really hold. I do believe you could say, all right, we're going to give massive subsidies to the chips industry because it's strategic.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
It'll create good jobs. We're going to spend a lot of money on an infrastructure bill, which will create shovel-ready jobs for people here who don't have college degrees. I'm sympathetic to the argument that we need more on-ramps. But the notion that tariffs are going to somehow restore American manufacturing – It just, it doesn't pan out that way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
As a matter of fact, almost every example, this is essentially the policies of Latin America from the kind of the 50s to the 80s, and it didn't work. It was a disaster for them. And then a lot of people think that essentially China, you know, had all of this kind of cultural backlash. And basically they said Mao Zedong, his strategies didn't work. So they've totally embraced kind of
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I don't want to say open trade because they, in fact, are not open in terms of media. But let's just use that as an example. And to be fair, we should tariff the shit, i.e. ban TikTok because they don't allow meta into their country. That's an example where I think you could have tariffs or basically a ban. But essentially, meta trades at eight times sales.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
ByteDance trades at three, despite the fact it's growing faster. Now, why do our companies trade at a much higher multiple than their analog abroad? It's because one, we have rule of law here. We have higher growth. We have more innovation, great universities, more risk capital, more risk aggressive people, more flexible companies. We also are seen as consistent and that is good trading partners.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Now, All of a sudden, in a matter of a few short months since inauguration, we've gone from the rule of fair play or rule of law being a huge attribute. I mean, I can't you can't overestimate when I speak to people who've come here, who've immigrated here. They say the rule of fair. I have a close friend who runs a lot of my money from El Salvador.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And he's like, the bottom line is you can be successful in El Salvador and someone might just show up and take your money with the government's backing. Right. I have another good friend who came from Russia, said, you get the wrong, the wrong person makes a call about you, you're done. You get as much money as you can and you get out. The rule of fair law is no longer a given here in the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Consistency. being a good trading partner. No, that's no longer a rule here. We're doing used car sales on the White House lawn. So what you're going to see here, and the reason why I'm transitioning out of U.S. stocks, is even after this route, we traded a P, the S&P trades at a P of around 24, 25, it was 28. Germany's around 21, Japan 16, China 14.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
A lot of that is directly correlated to what I'll call the separation business and state. And that is business embraces rule of law and competition, and the government stays out of the way. And that is not true in China. The CCP can weigh in, and you can't rely on the Chinese government to not meddle with competition. And that's one of the reasons it trades at a much lower multiple.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
You are about to see dramatic contraction in in the multiple across the S&P, because a lot of the features that created a flow of capital into the US, consistency, rule of law, are no longer attributes that people can rely on. This will take I mean, think about it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I lost... I don't know, mid-single-digit millions, maybe $10 million on the 48 hours on Thursday and Friday. But that's the bad news. The good news is that means you have a lot of money to begin with. I'm blessed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
If we go from a multiple of 25 to say where Japan is at 16, Meta, Ford Motor, P&G could increase their earnings 60% and the stock would be flat over the next four or five years. You can't outrun multiple contraction. If you've invested in Latin America over the last 10 years, you've been fucked and you might have picked great companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
that outperformed increased earnings, increased revenues, but the stock hasn't gone up because the multiple contraction has vastly outpaced the individual earnings or revenue growth of that company. And that is what, in my view, we are about to experience here in the U.S. through this inconsistency. All of a sudden, the U.S. brand is about kleptocracy and sclerotic decision-making.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And I could kind of—I don't want to say I could kind of give a shit, but the reason I'm an emotional die-ball is I just finished up a college tour with my son, and it just is sort of this very—it's a marker in time, you know? It's just—we went to eight schools in five days, and— I decided I was going to be totally focused on parenting and not do any business calls.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast, for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube by the way I absolutely love Vivian too I think she does a great job
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And it's just sort of, you know, it's very emotional. He doesn't understand it, but he will when he has sons. But what happened on Thursday and Friday, for me, I was much more upset about the Trump coin. I was much more upset about... You know, Marines being kicked out of the service because they're transgender.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
The stock market, the Dow and the Nasdaq, are not the real economy. They're a reflection on components of the real economy, but there is some truth to the notion that that essentially the Dow Jones and the NASDAQ are essentially the PSA or the blood pressure reading of the top 10%, if not the top 1%. And what do you know?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
They've been on a record tear for 15 years and until a month ago, 72 highs in the previous 24 months, what have you. And I'm actually a fan of programs that would probably take, not purposely, the stock market down. If you were to say,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
that the alternative minimum tax on corporations who have now enjoyed the lowest tax rates since 1939, if you were to say corporations aren't paying enough taxes, we're going to have an AMT of 30%. That seems reasonable, but it'd be an enormous hike in corporate taxes because many of them, including the biggest corporations,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
names in business don't pay any because of the tax code, the stock market would go down because they would have lower earnings. I'd be in favor of that. I think people of your generation need disruption, maybe even if that means hopefully getting a chance to buy real estate and stocks at a from the incumbents to the entrants on a regular basis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And as I've said, we've done everything we can, specifically run up your credit card to smooth out disruption such that I can stay rich. If we were to raise minimum wage to $25 an hour, McDonald's and Walmart's stock would go down substantially. I'd be in favor of that. I think it's worth it. This is is a double whammy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
This goes from bad to worse in that it's not only does the stock market go down, but 98% of companies that export products are small and medium-sized businesses. 43% of US agricultural exports go to our free trade partners who've agreed to have lower tariffs. That's up from 29% in 1990. 40 million American jobs depend on trade. And that, you'd think, well, out of 355 million, that's not a lot.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Prof G. Paid for by Public Investing. All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokered services for U.S. listed registered securities, options, and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA, and SIPC. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. I should also disclose I am an investor in public.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Only 150 million Americans work. So you're talking about a quarter of our jobs are dependent upon trade and we're going into a voluntary, unnecessary trade war. So there are certain components. They're trying to play the everyman. Well, it just impacts the rich. Well, okay, that's a fair argument.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
This, to me, is like so far fucking down the list of this ass clowns, un-American, bigoted, weird behavior. I find it just sort of disappointing. All of a sudden, the most powerful people in the nation have decided enough is enough when they lose, when their portfolio goes down. Yeah, I'm a bit of a mess today, but for the right reasons. We know this is stupid, so let's bust right into it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
But when you go after policies that reduce prosperity, reduce economic growth, reduce the demand for products across every company, including those that are not publicly traded, everyone's going to feel this. Everyone's going to feel this. So that just doesn't hold water. What I will say, and I just find it, I go back to this notion, look what money has done to us. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
You did a fantastic video I thought was really powerful talking about tariffs can play a role in restoring trade symmetry. Talk a little bit about the asymmetry as it relates to U.S. tariffs and our trading partners.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ,,,,,,, ,,,,,,, ,,,,,,, from what was historically high prices. So this notion that you should lever up or margin up, no. If you have some money and you wanna be in the market, I think you really wanna look at how diversified you are geographically.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I've got to stick to our structure that producer Claire— By the way, that's super sexy when you're not flexible and have to stick to a script. Yeah, that's going to get you laid, boss. Anyways, sorry. Go ahead.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And I love the idea of freeing up money to invest. I think that's a great idea for a young person. Okay, I'm gonna figure out a way I have some cash. I want a dollar cost average in. But I think it's about diversification. But the notion somehow that the markets are on sale right now versus what? Versus Wednesday night? True. That's it. They're not on sale.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
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Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
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Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
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Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Be nicer to people. Be kinder. Order the good wine. It's Bill Bixby from The Incredible Hulk and The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Someone you probably don't know. Nope. When he was dying of cancer, he used to say to everybody, buy the good wine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Well, I'll talk about them and then I'll, I don't like to give financial advice. I'll say what I'm doing. And I'm in a much more blessed position than a lot of people for a lot of reasons. I got lucky and I'm talented. So, and I've been very open about my wealth on this program. So first off, same advice, don't panic sell. The markets could rip back up.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Work with someone, talk to some people and say, am I too invested in the U.S. market? And how can I thoughtfully and rationally and in a mature manner start to diversify away from a geographic concentration? I think that same advice goes. And also, are there opportunities to perhaps diversify? maybe ramp up my investing through consuming less, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And you don't like to tell people to consume less if they're already living close to the bone, but other opportunities to make a few cuts here and there. It's basically the same advice, almost the same advice for young people. Diversification is even more important for old people because they don't have the time to make it back. So diversification is your Kevlar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
So this should be the impetus to try and figure out if you would benefit from diversifying. Now, what I am doing or what I've done, I'm doing nothing over the next few days because I think the market could go up two or three. This guy could announce all tariffs are off on Monday and we're off to the races. What I've been doing over the last three months is I have been doing –
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I have been slowly but surely selling out of U.S.-based assets and buying European. I made my biggest private investment of the year was in a European defense company. My other one was I invested in a friend's company, Atlanta Partners, that manages specials in Latin America and Europe. I love that. It's mid-cap and small-cap and basic value.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I wanted to get away from tech, what I thought was just— Now, I also want to be clear. I've been planning to sell Apple and Amazon down, and I waited too long. So I don't get it right. I'm not a genius. I still—I lost a shit ton of money Thursday and Friday from Apple and Amazon because I know I've been thinking about it, but I always thought, well, maybe when Apple hits $250 again, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And it didn't. Now it's back at whatever—
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
So what I have done, or what I did, was I went short. I thought this thing's just too expensive, specifically AI. I lost... I don't know. I haven't even really looked. I think I lost somewhere between five and seven million bucks on Thursday and Friday in just my U.S. equities. But I got 30 percent of it back because I'm short Palantir and Tempest AI. I think AI is overvalued.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I think Palantir is crazy overvalued, so I've been short those companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I thought AI's gone apeshit crazy, and they went up dramatically, got hurt, but now they're well down. So I've got... I'm never perfectly matched in terms of net exposure, short, long, because I do think the market's general trajectory is up into the right over the medium and the long term. So I always want to have and do have a long bias.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
So I didn't get my full, whatever it was, $7 million in losses back, but I got two or three back, which quite frankly kind of... It kind of softens the blow. And I don't think it's a bad idea when you're like me and fully almost, you know, kind of overinvested in the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
because of real estate and equities and the fact that I make small investments and the fact that our business, quite frankly, and you need to take this into account, is very dependent upon the U.S. market. So I said, all right, I want to short the U.S. market. I want to short AI. So I went short on Palantir and Tempest, which I just think are just trading at crazy multiples.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
So I got some of that back. But what I am doing over the medium slash long term is I'm saying, okay, I'm probably, I was probably six months ago, 95%, 90% U.S. assets. I'm now 70%. And I'm going to try and go somewhere between 40 and 50 over the next three or six months because these cycles take a while to play out. It's not like you think, well, it's too late to diversify. Guess what, folks?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
If you want to diversify into Latin American or Asian or European stocks, they got whacked on Friday. So you might be actually, if you had some tax losses to harvest and you wanted to diversify, you're not really getting punished because while those markets didn't go down as much, they went down nearly as much. So it's still actually a decent time to diversify. So what am I doing?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I'm trying to reduce my exposure to U.S. assets. Because I do think we're going to experience multiple contraction. No way to outrun it. I'm at an age where I can't make it again or I can't make as much back again. I have been wealthy three times, which means I have gone broke twice. Or not broke, but I've lost most of it. There's a saying that... Any fool can make money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
It takes someone smart to hold onto it. I am that fool, right? I was not smart. I did not diversify because I started believing I was good at investing and going all in on NASDAQ stocks all the time because I understand technology better than anyone. Yeah, what a fucking idiot. Anyways, now I'm trying to learn. I'm like, okay, okay, I can maybe, you know, I can diversify a bit. That's my Kevlar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I'm not going to swing for the fences. I'm going to be more thoughtful this time and diversify. I believe in innovation. I believe in Europe. I believe in Latin American stocks. I hate to say it, but the Chinese, I think, are making a big comeback. So look, that's what I'm doing. I'm diversifying. I'm going more global versus just the U.S. I'm trying to pull in my chin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I'm trying to pull in my horns a little bit. And I don't think that's a bad idea when you're a little bit older. I think you want to be diversified.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I love that. I love hearing it from someone with a British accent. Yeah, you're right. You don't want to bet against America. I would argue some of the damage here is structural, not cyclical, that he's undertaking. See above. What would Putin and Xi do differently if they wanted to just cede advantage from the U.S. to China and Russia?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
What would they do differently than what he's doing right now? And unfortunately, I do believe, and this is trying to manifest, we are going to elect somebody else after even red states realize. I mean, how many TikToks are we going to have over the next few weeks of I voted for Donald, you know, I voted for President Trump and I regret it. We're going to see a lot of those videos.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
It's going to be unbelievable. I mean, no doubt about it. The problem is there has been a world order. And inconsistency in a playbook. And America has been seen, and we've taken it a bit for granted, that we were seen as the stalwart. We were seen as the base. We were the pillar. We were the mortar inside of all these bricks of wonderful democracies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And I think he's literally ripping at the fabric of the world order today. And a lot of nations, even if we bring in someone who's seen as responsible and an adult from the Republican or the Democratic side, I'm not sure the world order is going to say, you know, we've reconfigured our supply chain through Mexico. We're buying more products out of China.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
We're doing a lot more trade with Germany than we are with the U.S. now. We're getting our agricultural products from different nations. If they're going to say, oh, OK, game on again, we're back in the U.S. I think some of this damage happens. I think the hangover here is going to outlive the Trump presidency. And that's what's so awful about this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I don't think that this is I think this is going to do long lasting damage, just as the way we had a 15 year bull market run. I think you could argue this might be the beginning. of a multi-year, not three and a half, but five, 10, 12 year reversal of those flows. And even if companies, even if they get their act together, the American economy is like no other.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
People are so innovative here, so risk aggressive, the gears turn on. But the thing I don't think they're going to be able to turn around is I think the momentum now is dramatically around multiple contraction for the S&P and the NASDAQ. And I think that is just going to be a vicious hangover that'll be several years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Volatility. That's the only thing I'm comfortable predicting. You know, it'd be fun to say the market's off another 5,000 points next week. Market could go up 3,000 points. This is the only thing I'm fairly certain on. is volatility. And don't try this at home, but you're going to see a lot of traders make money buying and selling options because we're about to see the VIX go crazy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And traders love volatility because they can spot anomalies and panic selling and panic buying and weigh in with good bets on volatility. Anyways, long-winded way of saying my only prediction next week is volatility.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Yeah. So the first myth we have to take off the table is somehow that America is the victim here, right? If anyone has been flexing their muscle and imposing onerous tariffs that we've been able to figure out a way to pay, I think some of your data, 25% tariff on Japanese trucks entering the U.S., they charge us 0% tariff. I think you said 82% for sugar imported in from Brazil, they charge us 13%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Typically, if there's asymmetry, we're on the right side of the asymmetry, so to speak. This will likely be the second largest or the largest own goal since our entry into Iraq. And the biggest or the largest was Nigel Farage convincing angry Brits because the economy hadn't grown that this would be our independence day. And the economy has just basically gone sideways since then.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Tariffs make no sense. They've never made any sense. There are rare exceptions when they can be used tactically to restore symmetry in key areas where we're getting a raw deal or to protect certain industries that you need for strategic reasons. You probably need a certain amount of domestic steel production in case we go to war.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
But just to use one company as an example, Apple, the tariffs that he has imposed are gonna cost Apple $40 billion. By the way, it's the importer that pays the tariff. So they're gonna have to pay $40 billion, right? That comes right off the bottom line. The P.E. of Apple was 38. Now I think it's 34. So you're talking about a trillion dollars in shareholder losses to Apple.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And I want to come back to shareholder losses. In addition, the idea is that if you kind of raise the cost, then it inspires domestic production. To produce an iPhone in the U.S. would cost $3,500 an iPhone. So we're not moving back manufacturing. All it's going to do is increase the price of an iPhone from $1,600 to $2,300 and reduce the market capitalization of Apple by a trillion dollars.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And that is fairly typical of what happens across the board. So these – it is difficult to think of a more elegant way to reduce prosperity than And what people aren't talking about that's even more damaging is the uncertainty. People don't know how to plan their businesses.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
If he'd just come out and said, all right, 10% tariffs, businesses, both foreign and domestic, could plan their business, get on with it. They don't know who they're waking up next to. His sclerotic epileptic decision-making, he could cancel all tariffs on Monday. So no one knows what to do here. What they are doing—
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
is the largest companies, the largest economies in the world are reconfiguring their supply routes to excise American manufacturers and American services firms from their supply chain. This will take likely years, if not decades, to repair and reassemble.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
The other thing we're not missing, and Josh Brown brought this up, and I just think it was a fascinating insight, is that if you look at the products we export, a lot of finished products, a lot of high value manufacturing. By the way, we need to rebuild our manufacturing base.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Now, we have purposely traded it off because the services jobs we've replaced the manufacturing base with are generally higher paying. And we are still the second largest manufacturer in the world behind China. But we, for example, we take an NVIDIA chip, very, very high value add, and we export those chips. Those products probably have a 50 or 60 point profit margin. We import Mercedes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Mercedes maybe, maybe has a 10% profit margin. The products we generally import in have a much lower margin than the products we export because we're bigger in services and high value add products. So let's just look at NVIDIA versus Apple. NVIDIA has a price-to-sales ratio of about 24.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Mercedes has a price-to-sales ratio of 0.23, meaning if you were to go pro-rata and assume we're going to reduce a billion dollars because of these reciprocal tariffs, which they didn't think were going to happen for some reason, but let's just assume for shits and giggles a billion less dollars of Mercedes coming in because of the tariffs and a billion less of NVIDIA chips going out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
That's a reduction in market cap of $23 or $24 billion to NVIDIA shareholders, and it's a reduction of $23 million to Mercedes shareholders. In other words, if we go pari passu and lose $1 for every dollar they lose… That's not the analogy. This is apples to aircraft carriers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
The hit to our stock market, the hit to our market capitalization, the hit to the compensation via options of domestic employees that work for these amazing firms will be much greater, much greater than the hit to foreign markets. We'll hurt both. All the markets were down, right? Our market was down. Europe stocks, 600, fell 8%. UK's FTSE fell 7%. The MSCI Asian index fell 5%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
This guy has figured out a way to elegantly take down the prosperity of the global economy. And I only have one of two scenarios here. And one sounds paranoid, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong. The first scenario is this guy's just a fucking idiot. And nobody around him has the stones to to say, this is just a really bad idea and it's going to cost you a lot of votes, a lot of support.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Farmers are going to get hit the hardest. Canada and Europe are already deciding to be more strategic with their tariffs and they're going after the heart and lungs. They're going after the red states. They're either all acolytes or he just doesn't listen to them. My second scenario, and I know this sounds ridiculous, but what I would ask our listeners to contemplate is the following.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
If President Trump had received $10 billion or a commitment of $10 billion from both Putin and Xi into his Trump coin in exchange for dividing the Western alliance, for driving the biggest trading partners into the arms of China, for withdrawing from Ukraine... wouldn't that just make perfect fucking sense right now?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
But corporations, I mean, we just have two choices here. We either need to cut spending and raise taxes or have massive deficits, which are And it's important that we communicate this to people, nothing but taxes on you and Claire and the rest of the young people of this organization, just kind of laying in wait. So I find the whole – I think taxes are a really important conversation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I would like to see the best solution would be an AMT, an alternative minimum tax on corporations and the rich. And that is if you make over, say, $10 million, we want you to pay – A 50% AMT. Whatever loopholes you can come up with, great, but you're paying at least 50%. You know, well, that's a lot, Scott.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
It's not because every psychiatrist and psychologist and Daniel Kahneman specifically has shown that above a certain amount of money, you lose no happiness. Any more money doesn't make you any happier, so having a higher tax rate doesn't make you any less happy. And also, these tax rates are lower than they were in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and even in the 80s at those income levels.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
So I think tax rates could actually come down if you forced everyone to pay those tax rates. And that is you could lower the top tax rates on people if everyone paid them. You could lower corporate tax rates if everyone paid that rate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Today's number, $49 million. That's how much New York City's congestion pricing tolls brought in during the program's first month. This is an actual true story, Ed. When I first moved to New York, my first date was with a woman named Martha who took me to, no joke, a sex club. And one of us had sex, and it wasn't me, Ed. That's a true story. That's not a true story. No, it's a true story.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Oh, Elliot, they're smart people. And Jessica, who runs her activist group, is a really smart guy. And marketing is important, but be clear, this is all marketing. I'm not sure. I think BP was actually, so I ran a brand strategy firm called Profit. And I think BP was a client. And the running joke around the office was beyond petroleum.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And they'd like, you know, the ad team would hire an Asian dude, put him in a jacket and run a commercial talking about how algae is going to fuel the future automobile.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
They never spent a lot of money. I think right now, what is the research you guys did? That basically BP is allocating somewhere between three and 5% of their total capex renewables. That's just not a lot. They were never not in oil and gas. And this is basically saying, OK, get rid of all of it. Stop pretending. Stop running the ads beyond petroleum. Just say petroleum. It's here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Yeah, there's no substance here. This is them pretending for two decades, deciding that the big sunflower beyond petroleum would make them see warm and cuddly as they were belching more carbon into the air than anyone but maybe Exxon and Chevron. Because there is nothing, there is nothing like the arbitrage you get from fossil fuels in terms of the ability to do work.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
move earth, create different substances based on this incredibly cheap supply where you get a barrel, an absolute barrel of this shit that can be made into almost anything or provide energy to make almost anything. And the barrel costs 70 bucks. I mean, it's just so cheap. And these guys, these companies are just cash juggernauts. And basically, Elliot said, stop the bullshit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Stop the virtue signaling. Stop the posturing. You're a petroleum company. You always have been.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
The club was called Trapeze.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
We saw a lot of those energy stocks crash. with Deep Seek when all of a sudden people thought, oh, we might not need as much energy. And what you're saying is that was a bit of a headache. In fact, we're still gonna need a massive amount of energy. And I met with, a guy who's an energy guy, and he said, you got nuclear wrong.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
He said, and Mia kind of confirmed this in her notes, that the lag to bring energy capacity nuclear online is five, 10 years out at a minimum, and that the real play is liquid natural gas, LNG, and that you want to be looking at that space. And it'll be very interesting to see the other. There's the side note that really fascinated me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I don't know if you saw, but the number one producer of wind power now is Texas. And we should do a deeper dive at some point on the economics of wind power because it's politically, quote unquote, incorrect or politically sober, whatever the term you want to use is. Texas is the economics of wind have made it such that it is now in many ways a better bet than these dirty fossil fuels.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Met this woman, really interesting woman, nice. I was very attracted to her. And I had this big deck. I lived at one Greenwich and I had basically this like 700 foot apartment with a 3000 square foot deck, see above single and desperate. And I used to have parties and people, and I met this woman super hot, seemed super cool. Yeah. Asked her out, kept asking her out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And finally, like, I'm getting nothing back here. And she's like, I have something I think you're going to like. And she showed up and said, I'm going to handle everything. And we went to this place and it was a West village or so go underground and it's like 300 bucks for the dude and nothing for the woman. I'm like, well, that's gonna be interesting.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
You had it. You summarized it perfectly, Ed, and that is the market is so used to these companies blowing away expectations that when they don't beat expectations, they don't meet expectations. And NVIDIA beat expectations on the top and bottom line, and I think the stock's off today. I mean, it's not off hugely, but you summarized it perfect.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Expectations have become such that you're expected to massively blow away expectations. But I didn't take a ton away from this. Do you have any thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And they give you a towel, and she changed into a towel. And anyway, she ended up making out and fooling around with a woman.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
That was my pick. New York story. NYU professor, would you let your kid take class with me?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
It's great IR. It's great investor relations to turn a bug into a feature, right? A, confronting it head-on. Let's talk about DeepSeek, and this is why DeepSeek is... It's good for us. It's a very well-run company. He's an outstanding CEO. I think Josh Brown said that it's up 100x, and I guess Josh has owned it for 10 years?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I have no idea, but... I know I met Josh through his partner, Barry Ritholtz, who's also a very smart guy, and they're trying to be sort of a hybrid between a hedge fund and their business model and Vanguard, and that is every time their AUM goes up, they charge less money, but they're very smart. They're not stock pickers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Well, I guess they're stock pickers to a certain extent, but they're very much – They're sober about it. Yeah. They're one of the few funds I've ever thought investing in and even paying fees because they're just very sober kind of level-headed guys and they give it kind of – give it to you straight. And oh, yeah, those guys are like fun to go out and eat beef and drink bourbon with.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
They're such like Long Island guys. Yeah. Like, I don't even like basketball.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
100%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Look, it's an incredible company. I'm pissed off I never owned it. I have a difficult time seeing where it goes from here based on how just expensive it has become.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Oh, I was so excited. I think I still probably text her, saying if she'll give me another shot at trapeze.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
You know what would be a total gangster move is if Elliot convinced NVIDIA to become a petroleum company. That'd be a test.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Actually, also, my other New York joke. You know, New York is just full of rats. I made actually friends with this rat, and this ridiculously hot woman walked by, and I'm like, did you see the ass on that woman? He said, well, actually, I'm a tit rat myself.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Well, this isn't anything new. Europe has a bunch of these programs. I think they garner or different countries in Europe garner about 3 billion in euros each year from selling different visas. I'm on a tech talent visa here in the UK where I convinced them that I would bring unique skills and they gave me a five-year visa. But
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
There was a similar program, I think, in the first Trump administration, where if you purchased a certain amount of real estate, maybe it was for people out of China. Canada has these programs. I mean, this isn't anything new. What's different about this is the price point. And at $5 million, that's just exceptional.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And someone did some analysis and said that if you're gonna pay $5 million for a visa, it means you're worth at least $25 million. They're just not that many people that could afford this thing. So this bullshit that we might raise $5 to $50 trillion, I don't have a problem with it. The only thing is, at this price point,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Ah, that's why you come here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
If you can't figure out a way to get into America or another Western country for a lot less than this, it means you're on the run from the tax authorities or you're pretty shady. I mean, there's some analogies here. So when people ask me—by the way, I spoke at the Royal Academy of Arts last night, Ed. I don't know if you heard it, if you read about it in the press—
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I did hear, a friend of mine said he met you, this guy. Oh, the former Goldman guy came up to me and he was like, I know Ed Elson. I'm like, well, I'm good for you. He's a nice man.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Yeah, it was like a London highlight for me. Anyways, but people always ask in Q&A, how would you distinguish the U.S. from... And I say, look, my sense is, unfortunately, in the UK, most of the people I know, including the people in this room, is a room of very successful people. Their servicing wealth built or made somewhere else.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And effectively, some form of this was a hugely successful program for Britain. And that is, I think it was in the 90s, Tony Blair or the odds put in place really strict private property laws. And that is, he said, I don't care if you're an African warlord or a Russian oligarch. If you bring $100 million in the UK and you buy a $30 million house in Mayfair, They can't come for it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I mean, they, meaning any other government, can't come and take your shit away. Once you have private property here in the UK or you have money in our banks, no one can come for it. And people would argue it attracted some unsavory characters. At the same time, the majority of the capital and the majority of people attracted were just very successful people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And over the last 30 or 40 years, and I know this firsthand, having come to the UK once or twice a year for the last 40 years, London just got a dramatic facelift because it attracted so much capital. The US attracts people who want to make money. The UK and a lot of these places attract people who want to spend their money or shelter it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And I wonder what kind of person are we going to attract if they have to spend $5 million to get into the U.S.? One, it's going to be someone very rich who, quite frankly, is a little bit in a hurry. And why are they – okay, they're rich and they're in a hurry and willing to give $5 million to get into the U.S. That says to me like, okay, the local tax authorities or the local –
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And law enforcement is circling, right? And they're closing in on me and I need to get out and get to America. And so it'll be what will be really interesting. First off, this just isn't going to raise that much money because I just don't think there's that many people. The market, the total adjustable market here is not that big.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
The most interesting thing about this will be some great investigative journalist will get a source on the inside, and he or she will get the names of the hundred people that do this, the first hundred, and it's going to be really interesting to profile those people. And in one way or another, what this is, is people on the run, would be my guess.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
People who want to get out of the reach of tax authorities or law enforcement in their host nation, because there are cheaper ways to get to America than a $5 million tax This is sort of like giving the Trump administration, and Clinton did this too, a huge donation hoping for a pardon. To me, this is like effectively a $5 million you're buying a pardon, if you will, from another nation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Because I wonder if, especially with the Trump administration, if part of the wink-wink around this is you can't be extradited by another country.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Well, it has been for a while, Ed, just to be clear. If you have money, you've been able to get into the U.S. for a while.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Every Western nation at one point or another has been selling visas, has been basically, we live in a capitalist economy. If you have money, you can figure out a way to become a citizen of almost any nation with enough money. And a lot of people would argue the Trump administration is doing what the government's always done and Democrats have always done.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
They're just more transparent and more brazen about it. I've engaged in this arbitrage, and that is Claude de Jocas, arguably one of the two or three most talented people I've ever worked with, a Canadian. I went to Yale, a gymnast, just so impressive, great presence, hardworking, working at L2. Brings me, I says, can I speak to you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Brings me to the conference room and says, I'm really sorry, but I just got a message or a letter from the INS saying I have to return to Canada. And I'm like, fuck that. I'm like, don't worry about it. I'm like, I can figure this out. I've got money. And, you know, stay put. Don't worry about it. And we'll figure this out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I lawyered up with immigration attorneys and Claude has never left the U.S.,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
It's gotten much worse the last couple of years. The last two or three years, basically since the first Trump administration, and this is just shooting ourselves in the foot, that we're heavy-handed with the wrong people. We need to have borders. I'm all for deporting criminals. I'm all for the whole immigration debate, and we're going way past here, but going to the low end.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
If you wanted to solve this illegal immigration problem, all you would do is find employers. But no one wants to do that. But at the high end, this is just, it's again another distraction. It's not going to raise that much money. The most interesting thing is the cast of characters it's going to draw who actually are willing to pay $5 million so they can camp out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
It almost feels like the most expensive witness protection program in history. That's good.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I was reading that, essentially, if you look at the history of different sectors or categories of stocks... And 100 being the most expensive they've ever been and zero being or one being the least expensive they've ever been. U.S. growth stocks are at 98 right now, meaning that only 2% of the time in history have they been trading at higher multiples on earnings.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
At the same time, European value stocks. are trading at 2%, meaning 98% of the time they have traded at higher multiples throughout economic history or modern economic history. And so this isn't a prediction, but this is what I'm doing. I am starting to sell down some of my U.S. tech stocks, Apple, Amazon, and some others, and rotating into these very boring European value ETFs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
But that's what I love about this strategy because about the time everybody throws in the towel, I remember probably the best investment I would say in terms of a lack of volatility is in 2010, I started buying homes. Actually, my partner, I can't take credit, buying homes out of foreclosure in Florida. and nobody wanted Florida real estate. And it didn't seem like it was ever gonna get fixed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
That's when you invest. And I feel like just your reaction, that means it's time to invest in European value companies. And there's still some great companies, Nestle, L'Oreal, British Petroleum, Shell, Mercedes. Anyway, so I think this rotation is about to happen, or it might be three months, it might be three years. I think if you have a 10-year time horizon, I think you trim out of U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
growth and you trim into Florida real estate, which right now is European value.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I can't help it. I'm a broken clock here. Tesla is imploding. I think the stock is below $200 in the next six months.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I hate this motherfucker. I really, I don't know if you've sensed that. Really? Yeah. I have no emotional distance here. I'm changing my prediction. I think this thing goes below 150. Oh, keep it. Keep the original. I can't help it. It's at a P of 180, and its sales are off 75% in Germany. And across Europe, they're off dramatically. I think the car line is really stale.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
To be fair, the stock is still up 50% over the last 12 months, right? It had a huge run up. And the market, you could also steel man and be a weak steel man and be more like an iron man or a hay man. It's clear his activities have really hurt him in Europe and in California, but probably the market was looking for an excuse to take this stock down.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I think what will be the real interesting test here in terms of the association or affiliation of an individual's brand and their company is if Starlink starts to have contracts canceled. What do you make of this, Ed?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I think that moment happened 48 hours ago. I think it was Bill Burr. He's probably my favorite comedian. I think the guy's just a genius and he's fearless. And he's been known for being just incredibly politically incorrect. And he's a favorite... of what I'll call sort of the intelligent manosphere. And that is he just mocks the shit out of Democrats and political correctness.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And, you know, basically every viewer of MSNBC was grabbing their pearls every time they watch a Bill Burr clip. And he was just totally unafraid to be totally politically incorrect. And he went on a rant, and we should play that. We'll find the clip now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I think the worm has turned against this guy. I think that moment you're describing happened. 48 hours ago.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Yeah, but you got it right. They paid a lot of taxes. If he wants to take a victory lap for it and make a point, good for him. And he has said for a long time, there's no reason I should pay a lower tax rate than my assistant. But his obligation to his shareholders, no one's going to disarm unilaterally. I believe tax rates should go up, but I engage in tax avoidance.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I'm constantly thinking about strategies to minimize my tax bill. And there's a ton of ways you can do it legally when you're rich. And what we've seen is the tax code go from something like 400 pages to 7,000. And those incremental 6,600 pages are there basically to fuck people of your generation and transfer more wealth to my generation and to corporations. And
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Cruise lines have weaponized various loopholes. They pay less than 2% for all the tax rates. General Motors in 2023 paid a tax rate of 5%. T-Mobile, which I would think was a very profitable company, pays an effective tax rate of 0.4%. Every company is going to do the best they can to pay as little as they can. That's their job. We're not doing our job.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And that is there have been so many loopholes stuffed into the tax code. And what the misdirect is people think it's about tax rates. It's not. It's about the tax code. And I believe that as a percentage of GDP taxes, our corporations are paying the lowest taxes since like 1938. And at some point, you got to fund the government. And there's two things to do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
There's either deficits, right, or you got to charge more in different types of consumption taxes. And I've said this for a long time. There's some mythology in the tax code. The bottom half pays almost no federal income tax. They pay a lot of consumption and sales tax, but almost no federal income tax.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
The people who get most screwed in our tax system are actually most of the people who work at Prop G Media. And that is you guys make very good livings, but it's all current income and you live in a high tax domain, New York City. So even as young as you are, you make exceptionally good livings for people your age, even though you may not feel that way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
You're probably paying 30 to 40 percent tax rates at this point. That's a lot of money for a young person.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
But once you make the jump to light speed and get really rich, you can leverage all these different loopholes, whether it's 1031 exchanges where you can take real estate and roll it into a new investment, a new real estate investment without incurring a capital gain, triggering a capital gain.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Even thinking of yourself as a stock, you produce, I have stocks that produce say 100 grand a year in dividends or growth. That gets to grow, not the dividends, but the growth grows tax deferred, whereas if you're an individual making $100,000, you lose 20% of it every year at least.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
So the tax code has basically said, all right, the bottom 99, we're going to basically fund the government with the kind of – 50 to 99th percentile. And then once you get above the 99th, your tax rates plummet. And the reason why America puts up with it is that we're so optimistic that people believe at some point they're going to be in the 0.1%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Support for the show comes from the Fundrise Innovation Fund. One thing really matters in venture capital, investing in the best companies, and that's exactly what the Fundrise Innovation Fund is aiming to do, amassing a $150 million portfolio with some of the biggest names in tech and AI. Visit fundrise.com slash profg to check out their portfolio and start investing in minutes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
You know, I think at some point Nike was like selling air fresheners in their stores. And he said, get rid of all this shit. And the hardest part about specialty retail, and at the end of the day, this is specialty retail, is not what you have, but what you don't have. And that is you have a very curated, tight selection of things that send a very strong signal about the voice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And my understanding is they are cutting their beverage and food options by 30%. That means... Every three items, one of them is going away. I think that's a baller move. And this is what's going to happen. In the short run, that'll probably hurt, take a hit to revenues. It's complicated, new signage costs, new training.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
But over the long term or the medium or long term, I would argue it sends a stronger signal about what we do and what we don't do. And the bottom line is, at the end of the day, Starbucks problems are pretty basic. They were charging too much and delivering too little. And then I go into La Colombe and I'm like, hello, I'm with rich Corinthian leather.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I literally think I'm having one of several million strokes that I've been experiencing. You get to my age, Ed, a stroke is kind of like, I don't know, it's like an erection when you're your age. It just kind of happens when you're least expecting it. Every morning. Don't brag. Don't rub it in my face. Literally. Literally don't rub it in my face. It all comes back to the penis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I feel like I'm a total Euro trash, which I like. And it's simple, great coffee, and I like the crowd in there. And it just feels a little less, there aren't as many like, you know, napkins and shit on the ground, right? Yeah, absolutely.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
So far, it's been worth it. And I don't, I have no problems with out-of-control CEO compensation. I just think that should be taxed at 70% once you get above kind of 10 million. But that's another podcast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Shit, hold on a second. I had just a fucking fascinating insight and it slipped. It slipped by. Hold on. It's going to be so worth it. Oh my God. Hold on. It's going to be amazing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Oh, essentially what they're doing is they're taking money The capital they were spending on non-customers and pouring it back into customers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Well, that wasn't as good as I'd hoped.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Blinding insight.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Yeah, let's move on to T-Mobile.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Starlink is amazing. I heard United is doing a deal with Starlink. I would fly one airline over the other for Starlink. It's incredible. And I had one of those moments, you know, you have one of those technology moments the first time you bought something on your phone or the first time you use Google Maps. You're like, Jesus Christ, this is incredible. Yeah, the first time I saw porn. Wow, Ed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And nothing will ever be the same. Nothing will ever be the same. By the way, Ed, no one can make sweet, sweet love to me like me. Yeah. All right, where were we? Where were we? Oh, yeah, T-Mobile, AT&T, differentiation for telcos. So I can't imagine the pounds of flesh that T-Mobile was able to – that must have been so fun. Whoever was the Starlink representative negotiating these deals –
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
How are you, Scott? I'm doing pretty well. I found out I have to be in Orlando for a speaking gig, and at first I was bummed, and now I'm kind of sick of my kids, so I'm sort of excited. So I'm headed to Orlando on Monday, and then I go up to New York for four days. I'm excited about that. I'm going to do our... our team strategy meeting where you're all going to present your plan.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
They sat down with Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile and said, okay, let's be honest, this is going to be ugly. Who wants it? And we're going to give one of you a two- or three-year exclusive, which is going to give you tangible differentiation, which is nearly impossible. in your category, which will add billions, if not tens of billions of dollars in shareholder value, and we want it all, bitches.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
So them making these projections is saying to the market, we think this is going to be a tangible point of differentiation. What'll be interesting is when in their earnings or if they have to disclose the terms of this deal, because I bet- Yeah, T-Mobile's a winner here. The biggest winner, I bet, is Starlink because- Yeah, they're projected to hit
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
That's probably why when the Fundrise Innovation Fund launched promising to democratize venture capital, there was a lot of skepticism. But the progress they've made in a few years is hard to argue with the Innovation Fund. Thank you so much for having me. Visit Fundrise.com slash ProfG to check out the Innovation Fund's portfolio and start investing today.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Relevant disclaimers can be found at the end of the show and at Fundrise.com slash Innovation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And I'm going to say, you make too much money and you're not growing revenues fast enough. Just so you know, that's the feedback you're going to get. I'm excited. What about you? What are you up to?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Addiction is a great business, and they're executing well against it. They've taken technology, addiction, network effects, monopoly. I mean, two-thirds of social media globally is on Meta. Really well-run company. I'm addicted to Instagram. I love it. I think it's fantastic. I can't stand Mark Zuckerberg, and I'm not getting off Instagram. They continue to perform really well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I wonder if their hardware appears to be on a roll right now. They're sold out across the Utes, the number one product in 60% of Ray-Ban stores, which obviously isn't a big revenue item, but they might finally have their own hardware point of distribution so they don't have to kiss Sundar Pichai or Tim Cook's ass. Have you tried those, by the way, those new Ray-Ban Meta glasses?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I tried them about a year and a half ago. My son, I was skiing with my son, and he kept saying, Meta, take a photo. I'm like, what are you doing? He's like, I got these Ray-Ban glasses. And they're actually, I mean, this was a year, year and a half ago, and I thought they were pretty good. So headsets make no sense, but smart glasses, I think there's a future for. Absolutely.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And I think that the Zuck is probably going to get some spillover effect from the massive investment he's made in these headsets. But They have capital. They've increased their CapEx 60% to 65 billion around technical talent and AI infrastructure. Meta AI is used by more people than any other AI assistant with over 700 million monthly active users.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
You're close with your sister, aren't you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
It's integrated into Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I actually don't. I agree with that. I mean, I don't mind it when you're disagreeing with me, despite the fact you hate the homeless. Yeah. But what they have is distribution and control of the consumer. They do own the rails in a way that ChatGPT doesn't, right? Totally. And their ability, I mean, we were talking about those moments, those technology moments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I've had some chilling moments, right? where I'm going to see a Paris Saint-Germain game and I have a real pop-up and it's on hotels in Paris. I'm like, how the fuck did they... I mean, it's incredible the targeting they could use.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And it goes to the notion that Meta, more than I think almost any organization, maybe with the exception of Uber, has shown that if you can provide utility, you can violate everyone's privacy. That for all the bullshit and all the...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Whining in Brussels and D.C., young people have said, violate my privacy just as long as there's a coupon or I can see where my QX60 is if it's coming around the block. Arguably, Mark Zuckerberg right now is the most talented. I mean, he's one of the three or four most talented business people in the world, if you just look at it from a shareholder perspective. They made huge investments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
They're running away with it. And they're monetizing the fact that... I said that the core Facebook platform and now Instagram is the most successful thing in history. Communism doesn't have this many people. Capitalism doesn't have this many people. Democracy... There's no product. The Kardashians, nothing is as successful as Instagram right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
It's a product coupled with a Facebook core platform and then WhatsApp. These are the most successful things in history as far as I can tell. Someone might say, well, no, actually it's Google search. And he has been outstanding. They have been outstanding at monetizing it. Anyways, couldn't happen to a more mendacious fuck group of people, but yeah, they're doing outstanding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Well, what was my stock pick at 2020? Now I'm really patting myself on the back. I'm going to... I'm going to elevate your praise on me. What stock did I say was going to be the biggest IPO of 2024, Ed? Reddit. Yeah. By the way, went public five or six months ago. It's up sixfold since its IPO. Incredible. I am so angry. I invested. I'm so angry I didn't back up the truck.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Fourth or fifth most trafficked site in America, and it went public at a $5 billion market cap. And every other company on that list trades at somewhere between $800 billion and $3 trillion. Anyways, thank you, thank you, thank you. I'd like to thank my agent. Exactly.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
You'll be a great uncle.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I don't know. I think the market is, you know, this is a company that's now, I think it's the second or third most valuable company in the world. But, you know, the expectations, what you said a while ago, that if you don't blow away expectations, everyone's disappointed. Yeah. It grew 31%, not 33%. That's still incredible. It's also in this kind of arms race.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Its CapEx totaled $23 billion for the quarter. That's almost double what it did last year. And Nadella has said he's signaling a measured approach to capital allocation. You don't want to buy too much of anything at one time. You want to have the right ratio of modernization and demand.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Yeah, so... Shockingly, I've been looking at this. I look at the stock chart, and over the last year, it's basically flat, which I find kind of interesting. And over the last five years, it's up three and a half fold, but year to date, it's flat. So it hasn't registered the same. Is that fair? It's gone flat for kind of the last year, but I don't know if I have a lot of insight here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Great company. Good management.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Well, you're awkward to begin with, but I think you'll be probably a little bit less awkward with children.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I don't know. I think you just make fart jokes and threaten to hit them if they don't behave. That's my approach to children. But no dick jokes? You can get on the wrong list. The next time you move, you have to go next door and tell them you've moved in next door, which is a real inconvenience. It's a real bummer. All right. Well, should we start with our weekly review of Market Vitals?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Let's do it, my brother. Let's do it, Uncle Ed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I do think it's a great car. I think the Cybertruck is basically a midlife crisis in stainless steel. I think that thing makes no fucking sense. I think that's just so stupid. The thing that's always shocked me as somebody who thinks they understand brands, you know, basically Tesla is turning into a car for crypto brothers with better credit scores.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And so he's looking for more jazz hands. And also Waymo. I was in a Waymo in LA about four months ago. I think they have a big head start on them. So I don't... Oh, yeah. They've launched. They're giving rides.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Waymo's already done it. Yeah, it's here. It was really, really impressive. So at some point, we'll be right here. At some point, this thing gets cut dramatically.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Usually special charges or special revenue recognition, usually the market discounts that. In this case, it just makes no sense. This is not financial advice because you can stay, the markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay liquid. And I thought this thing was overvalued at 50 bucks a share. I know it's at 400. So we'll see.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I think we do call balls and strikes. Hail Elon. Hail Elon. When I walked into, I don't know if it's his kind of right-wing proclivities have impacted the dealer network, but I went in to their retail store in Boca Raton and I said, what colors does the Model Y come in? And they said, Viva Lasso questions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I'm just fascinated with Robert Armstrong's notion of these industries that the capture here may be captured by 7 billion humans as opposed to a small number of companies. And it got me thinking, if all of a sudden you can have 80% of chat GPT for 10 or 20 or even 50% of the price. That was Old Navy's strategy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
My first consulting engagement out of business school in 1992 was they said, what are the demographic gaps out there? And we did this for the gap. And we came back and said, single mothers, they're a huge population and they want their kids to feel good about themselves, but they can't afford the gap.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And so the basic premise of Old Navy, we came up with a new brand, was 80% of the gap for 50% of the price. And so we were part of the strategy to launch Old Navy. And Old Navy was the fastest zero-to-billion retailer in history. And generally speaking, this 80% of the value for 50% of the price is an incredible strategy. It's the strategy of Southwest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Southwest said, we can be 80% of American, Delta, or United together. for 50% of the price.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And I'm wondering if the old Navy of quote-unquote AI has come in, and where I think it impacts, I was trying to look for winners here, is that I'm trying to do a scan of what companies had put aside $100, $200, or $500 million, say a pharmaceutical company said, we need to expedite drug discovery in this great... era of AI.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
So we're going to have to put aside two, three, $500 million to build our own thick layer on top of chat GPT or pay them a shit ton of money or Airbnb or Expedia, which are probably making huge investments and working with open AI and guaranteeing them a ton of money for enterprise-wide access to their LLM. Did their costs of incorporating AI just reduce dramatically?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
are we gonna see a bunch of companies that are doing really well say, oh, and I've got good news, we're growing, and I've got great news, and that is we're gonna get all of the great taste of AI without the calories, specifically the cost.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And that reserve or our CapEx planning of 100 or 500 million over the next three years on AI, it's been reduced by 90%, and that's all gonna flow to the bottom line. So my prediction is there's gonna be a new wave
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
of i don't know you would even call them you know remora fish that are just going to get kind of get free pickings if you will because their capex just i wonder overnight if it just went down 50 70 80 percent which is going to juice their earnings over the next two or three years
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Support for the show comes from the Fundrise Innovation Fund. is just getting started. Carefully consider the investment material before investing, including objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. This and other information can be found in the Innovation Fund's prospectus at fundrise.com slash innovation. This is a paid sponsorship.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
So I think on a regular basis, it's probably a good idea to have some churn and to have some recalibration of a company. And especially, I think, with the federal government, where I would think sometimes because of deficit spending and more bureaucracy, I'll probably get a decent amount of emails disagreeing with me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I think sometimes that federal employees aren't subject to the same regular reviews or standards that the private market imposes on the private sector. So I'm kind of down with the idea of occasionally looking at the federal government or state and local agencies and reviewing it or reviewing the size of it. Having said that, as a percentage of the population,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Our federal employee base has actually been level or declined over the last 40 or 50 years. So it's not like it's swelled beyond something crazy, if you will. Now, it's not kind of the decision or what you do. It's how you do it. I do not like buyouts. And that is, I generally find that the people who take buyouts are your most talented people. Because who's going to take a buyout?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Oh, I'm a really talented 30-year-old that has all sorts of options and they're going to pay me and I've been thinking about leaving because I have a lot of opportunities outside of the... you know, the DOJ or whatever it might be. Boom. Oh my gosh, I'm going to get eight months. Okay. Hey, Google. Hey, Salesforce. Hey, Akin Gump or whatever.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I'm in and I got an eight month bonus, signing bonus to come to you. So I find it's a self-defeating process buyouts. And that is, I believe in performance reviews, I would have put more pressure on them to say, to have a thoughtful way to say, okay, let's do assessments. Because there's probably some departments that should be staffed up. The IRS should probably hire more people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
For every dollar you put into the IRS, you get 12 back. And there's other departments that should probably lose more than, you know, 5% or 10%. I find this is just lazy, and you end up losing kind of your best.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
When I was on the board of the New York Times, they did a lot of quote-unquote buyouts of different newsrooms. They owned a bunch of newspapers. And local and regional newspapers were just getting the shit kicked out of them. They just didn't have a place in the new economy. And so they would do buyouts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
the way they would do it was they would go to what I call the kind of critical employees and say, FYI, we're letting you in on this. We're going to do a buyout, but we have plans for you and want you to stay. I think in any organization, it shouldn't be that hard to identify kind of critical leadership or people who are doing, who are exceptional.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And I think there's this Hallmark version of an organization where everyone's great. And if anyone is not great, it's about the culture and we just got to find them the right role. I don't buy that. I've said for a while, and this is not, again, aspirational. You never say this in all hands.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I've kind of jokingly but have seriously said 10% of the employees at 120% of the value and the other 90% are negative 20%. And you need to identify that 10%, especially as you scale an organization and make sure that they're nailed to the ground. This is your equity stake. I'm overpaying you. You have no reason to ever leave. You're gonna do really well here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Today's number 1.5. That's the percentage of global stocks the Norway Sovereign Wealth Fund owns, making it the world's largest single investor. Norway, where the dating scene is a sauna and a hike, and then you jump into a freezing river, and if you survive, you get a second date.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
It's one thing to cut costs, but what you wanna do is you wanna improve the tensile strength and the effectiveness. It's almost like you could, I would argue, If you had a growth mindset, you'd say, I'm going to give the IRS more money, but I need them to increase tax revenues by X dollars.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I need the Department of Veteran Affairs to increase its customer service or its reviews, its satisfaction reviews among veterans by 5% a year for the next four years. And here's a bonus pool. And we'll keep hiring static. But we need you to be more productive. We need you to be better at what you do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I think that says Elon Musk written all over it, that rather than offering a carrot as well, they're going at it with sort of a kind of a blunt instrument stick. So I don't think this is the right way to go about it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Not really a joke, Ed, just sort of an observation. Here we are.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Just an observation. Let's go Norwegian. Let's make some cabbage here. This episode is brought to you by Fundrise. We think we're Norway. We think we're rich and civilized. Meanwhile, we're arguing over transgender. Meanwhile, we're arguing over Chan. Anyways, never mind. Keep that in. I'm getting so fucking old.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I'm kidding. I think you're exactly right. I don't think Starbucks, I think Starbucks has an obligation to make money, treat its employees well, be good to its community, and then pay their fair share of taxes such that we can have a more systemic approach to homelessness.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And I wonder if that same person is worried about the Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and the fact they're not letting homeless people hang out. I saw the earnings and I thought, okay, Brian Nicole is the CEO. And this guy is pretty much Jesus Christ in my book because he spent the last six years at Chipotle. So one, he owes me a lot of money. And I have eaten at Chipotle.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
When I'm in New York, I'm going to eat there basically lunch. Mary Jean, my chief of staff knows, she knows what I like. And it starts with cha and it ends with potluck. I love it there. I think he did an amazing job. The stock was up 9x when he was there. Wow. So I think that the market just wants to interpret everything this guy does and love it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Because when I looked at the actual numbers, you know, they were fine. But I think the market is looking for reasons to take the stock up under this guy's leadership. And in the last... week, it's up 11%. So he's added 13 billion. The company's increased its market cap by $13 billion, and people have been saying he's already made 50 or 80 million bucks. That's cheap.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
They got a great deal on this guy. Because the market wants to love him and the market wants to say, oh, Jesus Christ is here and he's going to figure this out. The thing that stuck out to me, you did your homework here and your observation is more insightful and has a more interesting overlay around public policy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
The thing I loved about it is it is impossible over time or very difficult to maintain the discipline to not add more menu items.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Because you launch one, everyone goes into group thing, people like it, there's some evidence, and we all start saying, oh, it makes sense to have charged lemonades or to have banana bread or to have sandwiches or to have, you just start, and before you know it, what Steve Jobs said to the CEO of Nike when he was on the board there, he said, get rid of all the shit.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
For me, the thing that really sort of pulled the finger out of the dike, if you will, or broke the seal was kids. Really? Yeah, 100%. How old were you when you had your first kid? I started late. I was 42.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
There's no perfect time. I'm very good at running other people's lives. Just do it. Just do it. It's really tough the first few years. There's never a good time to have kids is what I found.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
Well, it's sort of relaxing to, I mean, up until the point I had kids, my general thought every day was how can I be more awesome and be around more awesome people and experiences? And I want more money. All right. That was a big focus of mine. I didn't grow up with a lot of money. I was very focused on economic security. I didn't want to change the world.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
I didn't have any desire to be a good person. I don't want to be a bad person. I wanted a lot of money. That was really important to me. And growing up in a household that was financially strained,
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
kind of created those embers or that fire um the what did i what did i learn about myself having kids um it's relaxing to all of a sudden not be thinking about yourself it's so much cathartic sort of cathartic because on this is friday on fridays when i was single it was like How can I hang out with more fabulous people? How can I meet more people where I can make more money?
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
How can I be at a cooler place? How can I be at a cooler place with hotter people making more money? And it was just sort of never enough.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
Just lizard brain. And we're a competitive species. The reason that we're all smarter, stronger, faster than our ancestors is we're competitive. Some of it's built into us. Some of it is healthy. When you have kids, it's like, I'm not worried about how fabulous the place I'm having brunch on Sunday is and who's going to be there. It's like, okay, I know I'm going to soccer practice.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
And the first few years, it's tough because I'm a selfish person and that didn't fit well to being a new father. And also, I think there's a bit of a myth that having kids is like, you know, bright lights and angels singing. I really didn't enjoy having babies. I thought babies were awful. And I'm like, what is everyone? Everyone's lying. This is awful. Wow.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
And then about two or three, when they start recognizing you, they become less awful. And then it kind of flips and they actually become fun. Yeah. And then before you know it, it's just sort of for the first time in your life, you care about something. other than you or for me, more.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
And that's cathartic and wonderful and it gives you a sense of purpose that once you're gone, maybe if you've treated this child better than you were treated and you provided surplus love, it kind of checks an instinctual box. And there's I've never felt sated across anything. You said off mic before I got here, oh, you're everywhere. I'm like pissed off I'm not more everywhere.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
So I've never been sated and something's broken in me, fine. The only time I ever feel satisfied, there's a few moments they happen randomly. I'll be on the couch watching Premier League football or something. My kids, my boys will roll in. They sit down and they automatically throw their legs over mine. The dogs come in. They jump on us. And I'm like, OK, this is it. I can't imagine.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
I can't imagine more kids. I can't imagine more. I just like this is it. It's the only time I ever feel that way. Only time. And I'm an atheist. I think a lot about the end. And I believe that I'll look into my son's eyes and know our relationship is coming to an end. I do not believe there's an afterlife, but I also know I'm going to just feel more comfort. Like I actually did something.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
Like I checked a really big cosmic box because I've tried to be, and I am, you know, I try to be a great father. I'm not, but I know I'm a good father. What did I learn or what did I feel? The first thought I had is I need more money. The U.S. becomes more like itself every day. It is a loving, kind place for people with money. It's a rapacious, violent place for people without money.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
Low-income homes, the kids have higher resting blood pressure than the kids in middle or upper-income homes. This is a violent, ugly place for poor people and for the kids. And one in five kids live in a household that is food insecure. So I didn't have these romantic visions of self-worth and happiness. When my first son came marching out of my girlfriend, I was like, I need more money.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
I always made enough money to have the perception of wealth. You know, I'm talented and I'm hardworking. I always made enough money to have a nice place to live, nice clothes, head to St. Barts for the holidays. But once I had a kid and it was a kind of a strange time in my life economically, as referenced before, I'm like, OK, it's no longer about me. And there's no faking it when you have kids.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
When you're young and you're single, you can crash on a friend's couch. You can move to Houston and do whatever. crazy work on a whatever, an oil platform or what have you and make a bunch of money. Once you have dogs and kids, there's just certain expenses and responsibilities you have. And I do think it's important. I'm writing a book on masculinity now.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
I think a decent place to start for a man is to take economic responsibility for your household. And sometimes that means getting out of the way of your partner who's better at this whole money thing and being more supportive of her career. That's also part of taking economic responsibility.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
It's about having honest conversations with your partner about what economic weight class you expect to be in and who's responsible for it and what's your approach to spending. Young people almost never have those conversations. But I think that that stuff is incredibly important. And what I say to young people is they can have it all. They just can't have it all at once.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
I made huge trade-offs when I was younger and even in your age. I didn't see my kids much before the age of five because I got very motivated. But having kids really focused me on doubling down or really knuckling down, bearing down, whatever the term is, so I could have economic security because I felt a very healthy sense of of obligation to be a provider and a protector.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
I think that's a good thing. I think men should feel that way. And I embraced that and I said, okay, I'm gonna stop drinking as much. I'm gonna drink less. I'm gonna get very focused on work. I'm going to be smarter. I'm going to start saving money. I moved to Florida to avoid, to lower my burn so we could start saving more money.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
And then the typhoon-like winds of an unprecedented bull market just literally launched me into space. Really? But if I hadn't had some of that maturity that I think was forced on me by having a kid, I wouldn't have recognized the same prosperity. So for me, it was very, very focusing.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
I mean, a lot of it is specific or individual. And the key question is... What's your relationship as it relates to kids? What's the relationship you have with a partner? So I have a very competent partner who makes good money and has really thoughtful, like I'm the spender. She's much more frugal. Yeah. She was born in Poland. So she was, you know, waiting in line for fish when she was a kid.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
So she's, if it were up to her, we'd have just Krugerrands buried in the backyard and maybe take a huge risk and buy like Deutsche Bonds. I'm the more risk aggressive one. I'm the one that likes to spend. I'm more of the YOLO person. The best households are households that bring together, and both of those things are good, a mix of personality traits.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
But having a competent partner who can help you with the kids and the immense responsibilities you can partner with around not only the family, partner with romantically, partner with financially. I think that's important. So, I wouldn't just tell everyone have kids.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
What I would suggest is if you got a great partner and a lot of people specifically women are deciding now that they don't need a partner. And I think that's actually quite liberating, good for them. But do they have people in their life that can help? Because it's a lot. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of financial responsibility.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
But I would tell almost anyone that is making a decent living on up that having kids is incredibly rewarding, incredibly rewarding. And for me, it was focusing. Yes.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
Yeah, well, you sort of got to one of the answers. So the first is, and young people are very good at asking this question over and over, is sex and affection. That basically says, I choose you. It's really important. And young people are very good at determining whether that works or not. The second is values. Weird stuff like, where do you expect to be living in five years? Or do...
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
You know, my ex-wife expected to be or wanted to be living very close to her parents. I had not considered that. I did not think about that. Do you want to live in a city? Right. What's your approach to religion? You know, there's just a lot of questions around values. And then the third one you referenced that people talk about money. 70 percent of divorce filings are filed by women.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
We have a tendency to stereotype women as being these doughy,
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
victims that have no agency and men is like dopey predators right it's marge simpson incredibly high character never makes a mistake and it's homer simpson who is an idiot but deep down an okay guy and the whole the whole all life is homer coming over his idiocy while marge is just this incredibly high character person and i can statistically prove that there's a lot of good women and there's a lot of good men and there's some bad women and some bad men
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
But women, I believe, and we don't like to talk about this openly and honestly, value economic security more in a mate than men do. 75% of women say that economic viability is a key criteria in a mate. For men, it's only 25%. Wanting the woman to make money or have security. Or that it's important. In the relationship. Yeah.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
In some, women are much more attracted to a man because of his financial security than a man would be to a woman because of her financial security. And then it gets speedball and online dating, which is where everyone is meeting now. And the problem is that people don't give each other enough chance, especially, quite frankly, women who...
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
If you talk to married couples, 75% of them will say that initially one was less attracted or interested in the other. And it's almost always that the woman was less attracted to the man. Women have a much finer filter than men because the downside of sex is much greater for women. And they have a much stronger instinct to find someone who can protect their young.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
And so they are much choosier than men. So guys are driven by aesthetics initially online, but they're less choosy. Oh, she looks cute. Or she looks nice. Or she looks like she works out. Swipe right, swipe right, swipe right. Women are choosier. In addition, we have this unfortunate trend in society where young men are falling further faster than in any time in history.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
And women, generally speaking, meet socioeconomically horizontally and up. I'm sorry, women made horizontally and up socioeconomically, men horizontally and down. And the pool of men horizontal and up is shrinking. Meanwhile, and this is wonderful, no group of people has ascended faster globally than women. There are more women seeking tertiary education now than men globally.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
And when you look at some nations don't like women going to college, that's a remarkable stat. The number of women elected to parliament globally, the elected body, has doubled in the last 30 years. There are more women, single women in the U.S. now that own homes than single men. There's going to be potentially nearly two to one female to male college grads in the next five years.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
And by the way, we don't want to do anything that gets in the way of that. That's amazing. But what we also have to acknowledge is that if we don't figure out a way to produce more economically and emotionally viable young men,
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
We're going to have a lack of household formation because regardless of the Hallmark Channel movie you see, women, generally speaking, aren't interested in men who aren't socially or excuse me, aren't socioeconomically at the same level or superior to them.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
Oh, there's all kinds. When the woman starts making, or the wife in the relationship starts making more money than the man, the guy is three times more likely to be on erectile dysfunction drugs. Really? And a lot of that is his own issue, his own weird sense of masculinity, and his own insecurity.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
But again, those 70% of divorce filings filed by women, we never want to have an honest conversation about this, right? Because anything that in any way might portray one sex as not being our vision of how the sex is portrayed in media means you're anti-women. I don't think that's true at all.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
70% of those divorce filings, and the number one source of that divorce filing, there's really three things. He has an emotional breakdown, he loses his business, or he declares bankruptcy. That's the biggest cause for women wanting to file for a divorce. When he's no longer a viable provider. Wow. People think it's values or infidelity. It's not. It's almost always related to money. Wow.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
Money creates... Kind of opportunistic infection. It's sort of like there's just more likely and most anger, most households coming apart. Financial stress usually is creating the context of anger.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
But the data shows it's not as easy. Guys can find and partner with... Guys have no trouble being attracted to a woman who is not financially secure. Now, some men are like that. I'm making huge reductive generalizations here, but there's some data around this.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
Um, women, if you're on Tinder and you're a guy who's, um, making $80,000 in his five, nine, uh, um, I'm sorry, making $130,000 and you're five, nine years attractive to a woman is a guy who's six to making 80,000. So it's about $10,000 per inch. So everyone talks about height, your ability to signal women are attracted. Generally speaking, the research shows to men based on three reasons.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
The third is kindness. They don't want someone who's going to be a good person. They're impressed by men who are good to their parents and kind and go out of their way to help people and there's no reciprocal expectation. The second is intelligence. Because the smarter you are, the more likely you are to make good decisions and protect your family's offspring.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
And by the way, the fastest way to communicate intelligence is humor. I've always said if you can make a woman laugh, you can kiss her. Wow. And then the most important thing, though, to women, and people don't like to admit this, is the man's ability to signal future resources.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
It's not even he has to be rich now, but he has to have his act together such that he looks like he will be a decent provider. And the number of people, the number of men we're producing that qualify in this category is shrinking as women get taller. It's the high heels effect. 50% of women say they won't date a man shorter than them. I bet it's 80%.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
They're just not as drawn to men who are smaller than them because it's very instinctual. I need someone who will protect my young. Metaphorically, women are getting taller every day. They're killing it.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
And it's amazing. We shouldn't do anything that gets in the way of that. The question is, how do we lift up men? Who wants more economically and emotionally viable men? Women.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
So I'm parroting Richard Reeve's great work of boys to men. There's a lot of reasons. Biologically, men mature later. Their prefrontal cortex is literally 18 to 24 months behind a girl's. So two seniors applying to college, a boy and a girl, 17-year-old boy and girl, essentially the girl is competing against a 15-year-old. Oh, my gosh. So think about think about school.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
What are the behaviors we promote in school? Be organized. Be a pleaser. Sit still. Basically, education is set up for girls. I couldn't do it. And there's a lot of shame when boys, you know, just my 13 year old, the idea of my 13 year old sitting in still for an hour and a half and listening to French verbs. I think it's literally torture for him. Yeah. You also, so they're biologically inferior.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
They're also emotionally and mentally less strong. While boys are physically stronger, they're emotionally and mentally much weaker. Yeah. So we have the second most single family households in America as any country in the world. We're second to Sweden. And when we say single family home, single parent home, 92% of the time it's a mom.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
What's interesting is the girl in that household has similar outcomes, college attainment, self-harm. They seem to be doing just fine with just a single mother. A boy falls off the tracks. The moment he loses a male role model, he becomes much more likely to be incarcerated, addicted, or kill himself. It's also a really, really scary stat. Two 15-year-olds sexually molested a boy and a girl.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
The boy is 10 times more likely to kill himself later in life. That's not to say either crime is any less heinous. But what it ends up is that boys are emotionally and mentally much weaker than girls. And the single point of failure... is when they lose a role model, a male role model. And there is an entire generation of men. The dad's gone. 70% to 90% of people in schools are women.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
There's more female per capita fighter pilots than male kindergarten teachers. Wow. There are just very few men in primary education. So you have a whole generation of boys who are growing up with absolutely no contact with men. And so when I think about what it means to be masculine, you take care of your stuff. You're together. You have a plan. You're kind. You have surplus value.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
You begin to take care of your family. You're a protector. You're a provider. You start to contribute to your community. I think the ultimate expression of masculinity, it's more a call for action, is for a man to get involved in the life of a kid that's not his. And there's especially a huge need for young boys. And my mom was always really good at this. Her boyfriend stayed in my life.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
I had a guy across the hall come over one day and introduced himself to my mom. And then the next weekend he came over and said, would your son like to learn how to horseback ride? And I used to go out to a ranch in Calabasas with this guy for the better part of two years every other weekend. And he taught me how to ride a horse and he talked to me about stuff.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
And the thing is, you don't have to be a baller. You just have to be a guy trying to live a virtuous life. And quite frankly, Michael Jackson and Catholic Church have screwed it up for these men because there's an air of suspicion when a young man wants or a man wants to get involved in a boy's life. Right. have a feeling of paternal and fraternal love. Yes.
The School of Greatness
3 Keys to Becoming the Parent You Always Needed
And sometimes they don't have a place to give it yet. And what I would urge all men to do is there's an enormous cadre of young boys who need men in their life and aren't getting it.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Bist du eine gute Person? Bist du freundlich? Hast du deine Reaktion professionell zusammen? Hörst du zu? Gibst du Aufmerksamkeit zu ihrem Leben? Aber Protektor, Provider und Prokreator, ich würde gerne einen Weg finden, einen mehr aspirierenden Modell für Masculinität zu entwickeln, der als Role Model oder ein Code für junge Männer dient.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Yeah, that's what I'm hoping. Young men, there's no group in the world that's ascended faster than women. More women are seeking tertiary education globally than men now. Twice as many women have been elected to some form of parliament in the last 30 years. More single women own homes in the U.S. than single men. And urban centers... dass Frauen unter 30 Jahren mehr Geld verdienen als Männer.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und wir sollten nichts damit machen. Das ist unglaublich.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Aber der zweite Effekt, den wir geplant hatten, und wir wollen nicht darüber reden, ist, dass 50% der Frauen sagen, sie wollen keinen Mann, der kürzer ist als sie. Ich wette, es sind 80%. Sie sind nur überrascht, es zu akzeptieren. Und metaphorisch, jedes Jahr werden Frauen größer und Männer kürzer. Ist das wahr? Metaphorisch, wenn du siehst, wie viele... Oh, 100% der Frauen töten es gerade.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
50% mehr Frauen werden dieses Jahr College-Degrees bekommen. Mehr als Männer? Es ist 60-40.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Wenn wir eine echte Konversation über Mating haben, müssen wir eine echte Konversation haben. Frauen wagen sozioökonomisch horizontal nach oben, Männer horizontal nach unten. Drei von vier Frauen sagen, dass die wirtschaftliche Fähigkeit das Ziel eines Wagen ist. Nur ein in drei Männern sagen das. Wenn also der Pool von horizontal nach oben von Männern, ist verschwindet.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Es gibt weniger Haushaltsformationen, es gibt weniger Beziehungen. Und das seltsame an einer Beziehung ist, dass wenn eine Frau keine romantische Beziehung hat, findet sie mehr produktive Anwendungen für diese zusätzliche Energie. Sie channeln sie in ihr Werk, sie channeln sie in ihre Freunde, in ihre Familie.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Männer kommen aus den Rädern, wenn sie keine Beispiele für eine romantische Beziehung haben. Ich weiß, dass ich das gemacht habe. Ich war jeden Abend hoch. Ich liebe Marihuana. Und ich erinnere mich an meine Freundin, die mir basically sagte, Was es genau dazu kam, sagte sie, wenn du nicht jeden Abend aufhörst, werde ich mit dir nicht mehr Sex haben.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und so habe ich entschieden, jeden Abend aufzuhalten. Weil ich wirklich genossen habe, was wir gemacht haben. Und ich genoss die Beziehung. Ich denke, Männer brauchen diese Anleitung einer Beziehung. Und oftmals, wenn Männer nicht die Anleitung einer Beziehung haben, werden sie unsicher. Sie beginnen, sich mehr auf Konzerntheorien zu gewöhnen. Sie beginnen, Frauen zu blamen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Sie beginnen, andere Menschen zu blamen. Ich meine, die Fähigkeiten, einige der Fähigkeiten, eine gesundheitliche Beziehung zu behalten, sind die gleichen Fähigkeiten, die man braucht, um professionell erfolgreich zu sein. Und also sind junge Männer im Grunde die gefährlichste Sache der Welt. Ein junger, junger, gebrochener Mann.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und ich will nicht jeden Mann pathologisieren, der keine Freundin hat. Ja. Wenn man sich die stärksten, unfreiwilligen Gesellschaften der Welt anschaut, haben sie eine Präparation von einer Sache, und das sind junge Männer ohne viele ökonomische oder romantische Möglichkeiten.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Oh, 100%. Wow. Zweimal so viele Frauen unter dem Alter von 30 sind in einer Beziehung als Männer unter dem Alter von 30. 3 Millionen jährige Männer haben auf Dating gegeben. Sie versuchen es nicht.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Wie Role Models? Du hast es genau auf den Grund 0 eingestellt. Wenn du dir das anschaust. Also zuerst, schauen wir uns das Problem an. Wenn du in eine Morgue gehst und du fünf junge Menschen hast, die durch Suizid gestorben sind. Vier von ihnen sind Männer.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Frauen, da ist was... Sie lieben Krimi-Dramen. Da ist eine Unterschiede zwischen Krimi-Dramen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Da gibt es ein paar seltsame Sachen. Also, zum Beispiel, Frauen sind nur so gewohnt, zu versuchen, zu verurteilen. Ungefährlich sind Männer komfortabler mit Gunplay und sind erfolgreicher darin. Aber wenn du siehst, wo ein Mann kommt, ein Junge kommt aus den Tracks. Es ist, wenn er einen männlichen Rollenmodell verliert. Mehr Single-Parent-Häuser als in jedem anderen Land, außer in Schweden.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und das interessante ist, dass eine Frau in einem Single-Parent-Haus, wenn wir Single-Parent sagen, meinen wir 92 Prozent der Zeit die Mutter.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Das Familiengericht ist sehr bias gegen Frauen, für viele gute Gründe, einige weniger gute Gründe. Eine Frau in einem Einzeltäterhaushalt, die mit der Mutter lebt, hat die gleichen Hochschulabschlüsse, die gleichen Bedingungen von Selbstmord und Depression, die gleiche Wahrscheinlichkeit von Depression. Sie ist in Ordnung.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Once a boy loses a male role model, he becomes dramatically more likely to be incarcerated, less likely to go to college, more likely to engage in self-harm. What most of the studies show is that while boys are physically stronger, they're mentally and emotionally much weaker than girls. They mature later. They're more prone to violence. They're more prone to self-harm.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
They're literally 18 months behind their prefrontal cortex. They're biologically less mature. And without the male role model, the deep voice, die Anerkennung, das virtuöse Role Model eines Mannes, sie kommen aus den Tracks.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und wenn du siehst, viele unserer Gemeinschaften, wie viele Single Parent Homes sie haben, wenn du siehst, dass viele Kinder nicht in Nachwuchsprogrammen sind, Kinder sind obese, spielen nicht so viel Sport, also haben sie nicht so viel Interaktion mit einem Trainer. Vielleicht wissen sie nicht einen Pastor, weil sie nicht zur Kirche oder Tempel gehen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Es gibt Millionen junger Jungs, die wachsen und das erste männliche Role Model, das sie haben, ist ein Gefängniswirt. Und also, die Lösung, wenn du versuchen würdest, mit Programmen einzuwenden, ist, okay, ich denke an ein anderes, ich denke an, ich gehe zurück zu Masculinität. Der erste Kreis in der Masculinität ist, dass du dich selbst kümmerst.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Du bist in guter Form, du hast gute Selbstwahrnehmung, du bist ökonomisch wirbar, richtig? Du kümmerst dich selbst. Nächster Ring, du kannst anfangen, deine Familie zu kümmern. Okay. Hilf deinen Eltern, hilf deinen Brüdern. Du kannst anfangen, die Leute am Arbeit zu kümmern. Du überpustest sie. Du bist für sie interessiert. Du bist empathisch mit ihnen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Verlustwerte Werte. Und dann denke ich auch, wir müssen eine Art Gestalt oder eine Default oder einen Zeitgeist in unserer Gesellschaft kreieren. Wir sind eine der ultimen Ausführungen von Masculinität. ist, dass du einen Interesse auf den Wohlstand eines Jungen nimmst, der nicht deiner ist.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und leider, wegen einigen sehr unfreundlichen Fällen in der katholischen Kirche oder gut publizierten Geschichten über... Chuck E. Cheese. Oder Michael Jackson. Oh, ja. Ich war auf Bill Maher und ich sagte, mehr Männer wie du, Bill, müssen in der Leben eines jungen Mannes involviert werden. Er ist ein einziger Typ, er ist ein guter Role Model.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Er sagte, ich kann nicht involviert werden in der Leben eines 15-Jährigen. Weißt du, was sie über mich sagen? Und das ist das Problem. Weil es viele Männer gibt, die viel Liebe geben. die viele Brüder und Brüderinnen lieben.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und wenn du nur eine kurze Untersuchung der Leute in deiner Arbeit und deiner Nachbarn machst, wirst du Single Mothers oder viele deiner Freunde finden, deren Söhne an Schwierigkeiten sind. Und du musst nicht ein Baller sein, du musst nur ein virtuelles Mann sein, der versucht, dein Leben zu leben. Und meine Mutter war wirklich gut daran.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich hatte einen Mann in der Halle kommen mit seiner Freundin und sagen, wir gehen Horsenreiten. Und er hat mich mitgenommen und er hat mich mitgenommen. Einige meiner Moms Freundes bleiben mit meinem Leben zusammen, nachdem sie gebrochen wurden. Ich hatte einen Stockbroker. Theo, when I was 13, I walked into Dean Witter Reynolds with $200 my mom's boyfriend had given me.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich kann dir nicht sagen, wie begeistert mein Chef ist, dass ich hier bin. Ich habe nie, wenn mein Chef-Chef herausgefunden hat, dass ich kommen würde, wollte sie mit mir kommen. Ich habe gesagt, was ist es mit deinem Content, den du magst? Er hat gesagt, nein, ich glaube nur, dass er wirklich heiß ist. Und ist es ein Mann oder eine Frau? Ja, ja.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
And I bought 12 shares of Columbia Pictures for $16 a share. And every day for two years, I'd go to Emerson Junior High pay booth, put in two dimes and call him. I wasn't a very popular kid. Two or three times a week after school, I'd go to the stock brokerage.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Das hat mich cool gemacht später im Leben. Ja, auf einen bestimmten Punkt, ja, sicher. Aber dieser Typ, Sy Saro, dieser 30-jährige Junge, der Dean Winter ist, und 46 Jahre später habe ich von Sy gestern einen Text bekommen. Wir sind noch nah dran. Oh, das ist cool. Ja, wir sind aus einander lebenslos für 30 Jahre gegangen und dann haben wir uns wieder verbunden.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich habe mich tatsächlich bei meiner Klasse gefragt, um sie zu prüfen, und sie haben es gemacht. Aber... Ich liebe dieses Statement. Ich denke, die echte Ausführung von Mannheit oder einer guten Person ist, Bäume zu planen, die man nie unterstehen wird. Aber ich denke, mehr spezifisch für Männer, ich frage dich direkt. Ja. Mentorst du jene jungen Männer oder Jungs? Lass mich darüber nachdenken.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Verstehst du, in New York gibt es große Schwestern und große Brüder? Es gibt drei mal so viele Anwesende für große Schwestern als es gibt für große Brüder.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich denke, Männer werden gesagt, dass wenn du einen Interesse auf den Leben eines Jungs nimmst, dass es etwas falsch ist und dass Leute davon verurteilt werden müssen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ja, da war ein Kindertagesstätten in Kalifornien, wo es alles gemacht wurde. Aber Theo, was du mit deinem Sohn sprichst, Du kannst immer noch eine große Rolle spielen, denn ich kann das beurteilen. Es gibt Forschungen, die zeigen, dass dein Bruder gerade, besonders wenn er 15 oder 16 Jahre alt ist, er ist eher auf dich zuhören als sein Vater. Wow. Also habe ich das bemerkt.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Nein, Mary Jean Ribas, Freunde seit 20 Jahren, eine wunderschöne Frau. Und mein Prof. G. Markets Co-Host, Ed, von dem ich nicht mehr in ein Büro kommen kann, hat entschieden, mit mir zu kommen. Du bist also ein legendärer Prof. G. Arbeit von zu Hause, Ed. Sie zeigen sich immer.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich war wirklich glücklich. Ich habe Sport gespielt, also hatte ich Trainer. Ein paar von meinen Moms Freundes, wie ich gesagt habe, nachdem sie gebrochen sind, sind sie in meinem Leben involviert. Ich hatte Cy, den Stockbroker. Und ich bin auch ein großer Fan des griechischen Systemes an den Schulen. Ich habe eine Fraternität gegründet. Ja.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und während die Leute darüber reden, dass jeder seine Treue finden muss. Du musst deine Brüder oder deine Schwestern finden. Du musst die Welt zu einem kleinen Gruppe von Leuten schränken. Und für mich, ich glaube nicht, dass ich aus UCLA ausgebildet hätte, wenn ich nicht in einer Fraternität eingeführt hätte. Ich habe plötzlich einen großen Bruder bekommen. Ich hatte Ruhepräsidenten.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Wir hatten alle Tabs auf uns. Wir gaben uns alle eine riesige Menge Scheiße, aber es war wie ein Leitpunkt.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Du konntest den Jungen mit dem Radikal, mit dem tollen Fenster, um dir das neue Feld zu geben.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Aber es muss kein Sport sein, es kann ein Band sein, es kann ein Chess-Club sein, es kann eine Kirche sein, aber jeder muss seine Tribe finden.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Es gibt viele systematischere Dinge, die wir tun können. Ich bin ein großer Fan von vocationalem Programm. In Amerika gibt es diese Art von Zeitgeist, dass wenn dein Kind nicht nach Dartmouth geht und bei Google endet, dann fehlt nicht nur der Kind, sondern auch du als Eltern. Und zwei Drittel unserer Kinder werden mit einem College-Degree enden.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
3% von LinkedIn-Profilen in den USA sagen Apprentice. Es sind 11% in der UK und Deutschland. Wir brauchen mehr Apprentice-Kultur und wir müssen stoppen, Trades-Jobs zu schämen. Ich denke, wir sollten die Jungs starten. Wir sollten sie ein Jahr später starten. in Kindergärten, weil sie wirklich biologisch weniger matur sind als ihre männlichen Völker.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Du merkst das nicht so sehr, weil du keine Kinder hast, aber ich habe einen 14-Jährigen. Mein 14-Jähriger hatte gerade eine Halloween-Party, 15 Mädchen, 15 Mädchen. Die Mädchen sind 14. Ein paar der Mädchen sehen aus, als ob sie der jüngere Senator aus Pennsylvania wären.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Sie sehen 35 Jahre alt aus. Und sie tun so, sie tun so alt. Sie wachsen einfach schneller. Ich denke, wenn ein Universum nicht schneller in den Freitagsschulen wächst als die Bevölkerung, sollte es seinen Betriebsstatus verlieren, weil es kein öffentliches Service mehr ist. Es ist ein Hedgefonds mit Klassen. Ich bin ein großer Fan der Idee eines mandatorischen nationalen Service.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich habe in Israel etwas Zeit verbracht. Despite the existential threats and the problems in Israel, there's less young adult depression in Israel than almost any Western country. And I think it's because of national service. They're serving the agency of something bigger than themselves. They're outside. They're in great shape. They're learning how to handle weapons, equipment.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
It's where they meet co-founders of businesses. It's where they make lifelong friends. It's where they meet potential mates. So I think mandatory national service would be huge for us.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich habe Badge 1, ich habe Badge 1, Badge 2, und ich hatte einen Schmerz und konnte die Pull-Ups nicht machen. Und ich habe ein Jahr trainiert, Pull-Ups, und ich bin wieder stark geworden. Und jetzt sind die Werte weggegangen, weil es Fatshaming war. Und wenn du in den Hallen von NYU gehst, wirst du all diese Unterstützungsgruppen für Frauen sehen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Weiße Frauen in der Konsultation, Golden Seeds, Frauen im Venture Capital. Es gibt keine Unterstützungsgruppen für Männer.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und ich glaube nicht, dass Männer einen Platz in unserem politischen Weltraum haben. Ich glaube, die linke Seite sagt den Männern, um ehrlich gesagt ein bisschen kräftiger und krüller zu sein. Es ist Schwierigkeit und Stärke, die ein bisschen übergebrochen sind. Aber auf der linken Seite ist ihre Definition von Masculinität und ihrer Empfehlung an Männer, mehr wie eine Frau zu sein.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Also müssen wir die Vorstellung wiederholen. Ich meine, ich sage es witzig, wenn russische Truppen über die ukrainische Grenze kommen, willst du ein bisschen dieser Big Dick Energie. Oh, ja. Es ist nichts falsch, wenn man physisch stark ist.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich denke, jeder Mann unter 30, unsere Bohnenstruktur und das doppelte Muskel mit dieser unglaublichen Substanz, die Testosteron, ist eine fucking tolle Sache. Du wirst dich jetzt auf deine Physik und deine Kraft erinnern. Und du wirst wünschen, dass du ein Monster bist. Jeder Mann unter 30 sollte in irgendeinem Raum gehen können.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
und wissen, dass wenn Shit real wurde, können sie alle töten oder sie ausruhen. Und das ist ein wundervolles Gefühl. Es macht dich weniger krank zu körperlichen Krankheiten, es macht dich attraktiver zu Freunden, es ist weniger möglich, depressiv zu sein. Und du wirst derjenige sein, der auf Bars bricht, nicht der, der unsicher ist, richtig?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Das ist Kraft, die Begegnung von Kraft, die Begegnung von Schutz, die Begegnung von initiativen Beziehungen. Ich habe meine Kinder gezwungen, Ich mache das nicht mehr, weil ich genug davon habe, aber als wir das Haus verlassen haben, habe ich gesagt, ich werde sie nicht mehr reinlassen, ohne dass sie mit einem Fremden gesprochen haben.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und es war einfach für einen von ihnen, es war schwer für den anderen. Ich habe gesagt, geh einfach zu ihnen und kümmere dich um ihren Hund und sag ihnen, welches Hund es ist. Weil deine Fähigkeit, Kontakt zu initiieren, ist wichtig, um einen Job zu finden. Es ist nicht einfach, Anfänger zu e-mailen oder in eine seltsame Interview zu gehen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Aber ich wollte nur kurz darauf hinweisen, dass ich denke, junge Menschen müssen eine soberere Konversation mit sich selbst haben, Und das ist, ich frage meine Kinder, wenn ich sage, meine Kinder, meine Studenten, wo sie sich ökonomisch und in Bezug auf Influenz erwarten, und 70 Prozent davon erwarten, in den Top 1 Prozent in zehn Jahren zu sein.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Deine Möglichkeit, Interesse zu zeigen, romantische Interesse, während man jemanden sicher fühlt. Demonstrieren Exzellenz. Woher demonstriert ein Mann Exzellenz gerade? Er geht nicht zur Arbeit, geht nicht zur Kirche, spielt keine Sporze, geht nicht in die Schule. Woher demonstrieren Männer Exzellenz und verbinden sie mit Verhältnissen? Aber es gibt...
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Wir sprechen viel über Misogynie, es ist ein riesiges Problem, es war schon lange her, aber was wir nicht sprechen, ist Misandrie. Was ist Misandrie? Hatte von Männern. Ja. Habt ihr jemals das Wort toxische Feminität gehört? Die Leute benutzen das Wort nicht. Aber toxische Masculinität, es ist fast so, als wäre es nur ein Wort.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ja, es gibt definitiv, aber es gibt definitiv, und wenn du siehst, wenn du die Stats schaust, aber Männer kämpfen wirklich hart. Wir haben keine heimische Probleme, wir haben keine heimische Probleme, wir haben eine heimische Probleme. Wir haben ein Opioid-Problem, aber wir haben wirklich eine heimische Opioid-Problem. Drei aus vier Heimischen, drei aus vier Erwachsenen sind Männer.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und wenn du vier aus fünf Menschen hättest, um sich zu töten, wenn sie in einer speziellen Interestgruppe waren, würden wir etwas darüber tun. Und es gibt eine Lack von Empathie. Wegen des 2000-Jahre-Head-Stars, den wir bei den Frauen hatten, gibt es eine Lack von Empathie für die Männer. Oh ja. Wie? Oh, komm schon.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Auch als ich aufgewachsen bin, Theo, als ich in der 90er-Jahre professionell war, sind 98 Prozent, zumindest der Venture Capital, zu den 24 Prozent der Bevölkerung, die weiße, heterosexuelle Männer waren. Wow. Okay, so Männer hatten das. Ich sehe, was du sprichst. Bis in die letzten 30 Jahre haben Männer literally einen 2000-Jahre-Headstart gehabt.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Aber weil es an meinem Vorteil ist, bedeutet das, dass ein 19-jähriger Mann für es verurteilt werden sollte? Es ist einfach keine Erkennung, dass ein 19-jähriger Mann mit einer einzigen Mutter in Appalachien Er hat keine Vorteile.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
You know, you're like, I don't know. It's a nuanced conversation, though, Theo, because... Yeah, I know it's nuanced.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und was ich gefunden habe, ist, dass, wenn du in den Top 1 Prozent von einer Influenz, von einem echten spirituellen Wunsch aus deiner Arbeit, aus einem finanziellen Standpunkt, musst du fast alles in zehn, wahrscheinlich 20 Jahre. Die Kapitalistische Gesellschaft ist sehr gut dabei, herauszufinden, wer wirklich für den vollen 110 Prozent drin ist.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
But we're talking about the bias against males. Our education system, the business I'm in, is highly biased against men or boys. 70-80% der Grundschullehrer sind Frauen. Wer wird sie natürlich schampionieren? Jemanden, der sie sich selbst erinnert. Was sind die Verhältnisse, die wir in der Schule promoten? Organisiert sein, ein Vergnügter sein, still sitzen. Du beschreibst im Grunde eine Mädchen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Sie sind mehr per capita Frauen-Fighter-Piloten, als es männliche Kindergartenleute sind. Wir brauchen keine männlichen Kindergartenleute, denke ich nicht. Oh, sicher. Junge Männer brauchen männliche Rolemodelle.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Ein Beispiel dafür, der Bias. Ein Junge ist auf einer behavior-adjustierten Basis zweimal so möglich, dass er ausgeschlossen wird. Du hast ein Mädchen und ein Junge, zwei verschiedene Zeiten, das selbe Verletzungen, Verletzungen auf den Chemie-Test. Der Junge ist zweimal so möglich, dass er ausgeschlossen wird, als Mädchen. Ein schwarzer Junge ist fünfmal so möglich, als er ausgeschlossen wird.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Also, viele der Probleme, über die wir reden, Selbstmord, Depression, Lack von Erfolg in der Schule, ist wirklich schwierig bei jungen Jungs, und es ist noch akuter bei Nicht-Weißen. Wenn man in der Schule kommt, Die ganze DEI-Sache, richtig? 60 Jahre her waren es nur zwölf blaue Menschen in Princeton, Harvard und Yale zusammen. Das war ein Problem.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Also geben sie den Vorteil oder einen Aufstieg mit race-based affirmative action war die richtige Sache, um das 60 Jahre her zu tun. Jetzt, dieses Jahr, identifizieren sich zwei Drittel der Harvard-Freshman-Klasse als nicht-weiß. 70 Prozent dieser Leute kommen aber aus dualen Eltern-Upper-Income-Häusern.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Wenn man also die Tochter eines privaten, ehrgeizigen Taiwaner als Billionär einlädt, ist das keine Diversität, das hilft niemandem. Ich würde also sagen, dass Affirmative Action eine wundervolle Sache ist, aber es sollte auf Farbe basiert sein, aber diese Farbe ist grün. Ein weißer Kind aus Appalachien hat so viel zu verdienen. Ich bin ein Beneficiär von Affirmative Action. Ich habe Pell-Granten.
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E547 Scott Galloway
1994... Oh ja, ich habe sie. Da bist du. Ich denke, das ist der Weg. Denn das Wundervolle an Amerika heute ist, und wir feiern nicht genug den Erfolg von Amerika. Junge Leute wollen es nicht posten, als hätten wir keinen Erfolg gemacht. Wir haben einen unglaublichen Erfolg gemacht. Und so verdammt verdammt wir sind, wir sind weniger verdammt verdammt als, glaube ich, jede Nation in der Welt.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Du würdest lieber in Amerika geboren werden, und das ist eine gute Sache, du würdest lieber heute geboren werden, Und die Statzen zeigen das. Du würdest lieber gay oder nicht-weiß geboren werden als arbeitslos.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Die Leute, die eine Hand hoch brauchen, der beste Weg, um zu identifizieren, wer am stärksten verletzt ist und die größten Obstacke befindet und die größten zusätzlichen Ressourcen und ungeheuren Hilfe verdient, ist ein arbeitsloses Kind. Wir müssen aus der Identitätspolitik raus und auf die Wirtschaft konzentrieren.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich kenne niemanden, der den Niveau des Erfolgs erreicht hat, den Sie erreicht haben, ohne ziemlich alle auf Arbeit zu gehen. Und es kommt zu einem Ausgleich. Es kommt zu einem Ausgleich von Beziehungen. in Bezug auf dein eigenes Fitness, dein eigenes mentales Wohlsein. Aber von der Zeit von 25 bis 45, ich erinnere mich wirklich nicht mehr viel mehr an das Arbeiten. Wirklich?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ja, aber du fühlst diese Druck, richtig? Ich meine, du bist hier in New York, du hast einen guten Gast.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich denke, dass die Masculinität ein soziales Konstrukt ist. Wir müssen entscheiden, was es ist. Und es ist nicht nur Menschen, die als Männer geboren wurden. Bevor meine Schulter kaputt war, hatte ich ein Crossfit. Und ich habe in den letzten 20 Jahren mehr und mehr Frauen gesehen. Einige Frauen zeigen eine wundervolle Masculinität. Ich bin zu Männern gefangen.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Meine künftigen Freunde sind mehr feminin. Sie sind mehr aufmerksam. Ich habe männliche Freunde, die mich um mich kümmern. Aber ich denke, diese Dinge als Kode zu verwenden, könnte ein guter Hinweis für junge Männer sein. Es gibt nichts falsch damit, Geld zu verdienen. Es gibt nichts falsch damit, stark zu sein. Es gibt nichts falsch damit, Sex zu haben und Romantik und sexuelle Partner zu finden.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Und das als Hinweis zu verwenden. Warum sind Frauen, zum Beispiel, warum sind Frauen gefangen, zu Männern. Worauf sind sie gezwungen? Und das ist in der Übersetzung. Und es gibt Forschung darüber. Nr. 3, Kindheit. Sie wollen einen Mann, der zu ihren Eltern nett ist. Sie wollen einen Mann, der andere gut behandelt. Sie wollen einen Mann, der über andere denkt, auch wenn er nicht vor ihnen ist.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Der sie gut behandelt, obwohl sie sie nie wieder sehen. Nr. 2 ist Intellekt. Und das geht anthropologisch weit zurück. Der Mann, der gute Entscheidungen für die Tribe macht, der Tribe ist mehr möglich, zu überleben. An einem Punkt, typisch in der Geschichte, sind Frauen viel mehr gefährlich, weil sie geboren werden, und sie sind viel mehr physisch gefährlich.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Also, eine Frau will einen Mann, der klug ist und gute Entscheidungen macht. Zum Beispiel, der schnellste Weg, Intellekt zu kommunizieren, ist Humor.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Ich sage es schrecklich, meine Vorstellung von einer Frau ist, ich lache, ich lache, ich bin nackt. Wenn du eine Frau lachen kannst... Oh, wow. Wenn du eine Frau lachen kannst, schau dich an, du siehst schuldig aus.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Ja, und ich sage nicht, dass das der richtige Weg ist. Ja, nein. Aber es war mein Weg. Und ich regere es nicht.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Ja, aber das ist ein guter Einfluss auf die Nummer eins. Okay. Und das ist die Fähigkeit, Ressourcen zu signalisieren. Ja. Und es muss nicht unbedingt ein Baller sein, aber du musst einen Plan haben. Ja. You have to be the guy that's disciplined. One of the reasons women are attracted to men who are in good shape is it shows you show up. It shows you have discipline.
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E547 Scott Galloway
So if I could give you any advice in that specific situation, it would be, oh, hi, are those flowers? By the way, I have one of the 10 biggest podcasts in the world. Boss, that's how... Anyways, but you get my meaning.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Three, kindness. Two, intellect. And one, your ability to signal resources.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Du hast etwas sehr wichtiges gesagt, und das ist, ich wurde gefragt, also ich bin ein Entrepreneur, ich habe einen Erfolg registriert, und ich frage mich, was ist das Geheimnis deines Erfolgs? Zum einen war es, smart genug zu sein, in Amerika geboren zu sein. Es gab mehr Möglichkeiten. Du wärst lieber gut in Amerika als in fast jedem anderen Land. Wow.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Es ist wirklich so, du hast mehr Angelegenheit hier, wenn du hart arbeitest und du eine gute Person bist, um erfolgreicher zu sein als in jedem anderen Ort der Welt. Und nichts davon war meine Schuld. Es war meine Eltern' Schuld. Sie sind auf einem Schiff gefahren, einem Steamship, in den 60ern aus Europa. Sie haben einen großen Risiko genommen, der mir einen großen Vorteil bezog.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Ich kam in die professionelle Zeit in Kalifornien, wo ich eine freie Bildung hatte, die zugänglich war. Ich kam in die Zeit im Internet. Und als ich dein Alter war, war es so, dass all mein Erfolg in meinem Geist wegen meiner Charakter und Grit war. Und dann, als du älter wirst, merkst du, dass viel deiner Erfolge nicht deine Schuld sind.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Aber wenn ich ein Ding gut gemacht habe, ist es das, was ich Verlust nenne. Und das ist, ich habe für Junioren, Junioren und Senior-Klasse-Präsidenten gespielt. Ich habe drei Mal verloren. Und aufgrund meines Rekordes habe ich entschieden, für Studenten-Body-Präsidenten zu spielen, wo ich aufgehört habe, es zu warten, es zu verlieren. Ich habe neun Unternehmen gestartet, sieben haben gefehlt.
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E547 Scott Galloway
I can't tell you how many women in Whole Foods and other places and other retail establishments I've been rejected by. But the reason I get to live the life I lead, the reason I'm with a very high character, attractive person, is because I have always been able to endure rejection. And that is the key, that is the skill.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Because one of the great things about America is we don't embrace failure, that's bullshit, but we tolerate it. Wenn dein Geschäft nicht funktioniert, aber du bist ein guter Person, werden deine Investoren dich wieder unterstützen. Und wenn du eine Frau ansprichst und Interesse erweckst und sie nicht interessiert ist, wirst du beide in Ordnung sein. Ja. Und zeig mir einen Mann.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Zeig mir einen Mann. Wir kennen alle diesen Mann. Du denkst, okay, er ist ein guter Mann. Er ist modisch erfolgreich. Er ist nicht so attraktiv. Und er ist mit einer so hohen Qualität Frau. Ja. Dieser Kerl ist nicht leidenschaftlich vor Verletzungen. Dieser Kerl hat durch neun Frauen gezyklet, die gesagt haben, weg von mir.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Bevor er die eine Frau gefunden hat, die ihm die Chance gegeben hat, lustig, kinder, Sie hat sich gefühlt. Sie liebte die Art und Weise, wie er seine Eltern behandelt hat. Das Wichtigste für den Erfolg in Amerika ist, was Winston Churchill sagte, und das ist die Willenheit, zu verlieren, oder deine Fähigkeit, zu verlieren und nicht deinen Sinn des Enthusiasms zu verlieren.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Und das eine Ding über Jiu-Jitsu und über Sport ist, ganz ehrlich, es lehrt dich, zu verlieren und am nächsten Tag zu zeigen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Right? So I think you got to put your kids and mothers got to put their sons in an environment where they... This is off and it's ringing, so that's the government.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Anyways, your willingness or your resilience, your ability to move through rejection without losing your sense of enthusiasm.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Du merkst, dass... Ich meine, hier ist die Sache. Ich weiß, du bist religiös. Ich bin ein Atheist. Ich denke, an einem Punkt werde ich in meine Kinder Augen schauen und wissen, dass unsere Beziehung zu einem Ende kommt. Und es ist ermutigend. Es ist einer der größten Unlocks meines Lebens, weil ich merke, wenn ich auf diesem Podcast verpissere und du nicht viel von mir denkst,
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich bin überrascht, aber ihr werdet bald tot sein. Und so bin ich. Es macht wirklich keinen Sinn. Alles, worüber wir uns fürchtet, wir sind ein Grupp von Mieten auf einem unerwarteten Rock in einem der Billionen Universen in 10 Billionen Galaxien. Wir sind nicht mal hier, um einen Augenblick zu bekommen.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Also warum auf der Erde würdest du nicht so viel Limon oder Früchte aus diesem Limon ausdrücken, wie möglich? Weil, wenn du denkst, du hast etwas Verrücktes gemacht, wenn du dich für die Frau bei Whole Foods fürchtest, Jeder, der dich gesehen hat, jeder, den du dich überrascht hast, sie, die gehen sofort weiter, sich über sich selbst zu denken. Und es ist egal, weil du bald beide tot wirst.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Ich finde das befreiend. Warum würdest du nicht jemandem kommen und ihnen sagen, dass du sie admiresst? Und es ist auch ein Unlock für mich, emotional. I started telling people I love them. I started telling people I care about them. I started, when I was single, going up to people outside of my weight class and telling them I was interested in them romantically. Most of the time they'd say no.
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E547 Scott Galloway
And guess what? We're both going to be fine because we're both going to be dead, Theo. It doesn't really matter. So this ability to get back your embarrassment, get over your fear, for me, that sounds strange, but it comes from a recognition that dass ich nicht so lange hier sein werde, und weder sie noch ich.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Es ist ein enormes Unlocken, weil wenn du dir denkst, was du gesagt hast, ich meine, um Gottes willen, du bist wie dieser Baller, du bist ein hübscher Typ, der einen Top-10-Podcast hat, und du wirst von einigen Frauen bei Whole Foods enttäuscht. Kannst du dir vorstellen, wie es die meisten Männer fühlen? Ja.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Also, was du tun musst, und was ich mit meinen Söhnen tue, ist, ich versuche, sie zu ermutigen, zu sagen, okay, Geh raus, sprich mit Fremden, sprich mit seltenen Frauen. Ein weiteres Zeug hier, versuche deine Verwendung des Pornos zu modulieren, so dass du an einem Punkt so verdammt hübsch wirst, dass du die Risiken nehmen wirst.
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E547 Scott Galloway
But we were talking about Schule und Gesellschaft und ein Bias gegen Männer, das Männer schmerzt, richtig?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und was ich sagen würde, ist, dass eines der größten Obstackel, die Männer gerade befinden sind, die teuersten, tiefsten Ressourcen-Firmen im ganzen Weltraum sind, die die brennendsten Gedanken haben und die größte Kapitalität haben und die beste Technologie haben, alle versuchen, das Gleiche zu tun.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Sie versuchen alle, Männern die falsche Vorstellung zu geben, dass sie eine vernünftige Faktsimile des Lebens haben, auf einem Bildschirm mit einem Algorithmus. Du hast keine Freunde.
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E547 Scott Galloway
They can have a fake life. They can have a life on a screen with an algorithm. So you don't need friends. Having friends is hard. Remember making your posse of friends in elementary and junior high, trying to break into the right pecking order of friends. It was high barriers of entry, but it was high barriers of exit, right? And you learned a lot together. And we used to take off
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E547 Scott Galloway
Ich glaube, die Eltern übertreten ihre Kinder jetzt. Ich liege in meinem Moms Haus um neun Uhr am Sonntag mit einem Schwinn-Bike, einem Abba-Zaba-Bar und 35 Cent und sie würde mich für 14 Stunden nicht sehen. Aber was sind Technologien, was sind die brennendsten Unternehmen auf der Welt, die am besten gesourcet sind? Du brauchst keine Freunde. Du hast Reddit und Discord.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Du brauchst nicht durch die Verleumdung zu gehen, um einen Job zu bekommen und einen Schuh zu kaufen und auf Zeit zu zeigen. Trade Krypto oder Stocks auf Coinbase oder Robinhood. Du brauchst nicht durch die Verleumdung, die Verleumdung, die Verschwörung zu gehen, um eine romantische Beziehung zu erstellen, auf Daten zu gehen, Being funny, trying hard, enduring rejection, following up. Why?
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E547 Scott Galloway
Why would you do that? You got you porn. And what we got to tell men, what we got to convince them of, is over the long term, nothing wonderful is going to happen to you on a screen. Ever. And also, you porn is a distant second to your porn.
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E547 Scott Galloway
I'm convinced I wouldn't have graduated from UCLA if I didn't think there was a reasonable probability that if I went to class and went on campus at UCLA, I might meet someone. That was my far. And I, quite frankly, if I had you porn at home and I had these new AI girlfriends, I'm not sure I would have ever gone on campus. So this is what young men are facing. They're facing a low risk situation.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Low barrier of entry, reasonable facsimile of life, that over time they get depressed and lonely. Because the reason romantic comedies are two hours and not 15 minutes, is this shit is hard. But here's the good news. It's worth it. It's absolutely worth it.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Hat das Sinn gemacht? Ich habe über diese Wahl nachgedacht. Ich habe über diese Wahl nachgedacht. Und ich war vocal, ich unterstützte Harris. Ich war überrascht, sie wurde getötet. Sie wurde getötet. Sie hat sie verloren. Sie hat sie verloren. Sie hat sie verloren. Sie hat sie verloren. Sie hat sie verloren. Männer unter 30 Jahren tun es schlechter, als sie es schon lange gemacht haben.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Die Wahl zählt nur zu einem Teil der Daten für mich, die Ergebnisse. Für das erste Mal in unserer Nation, für das erste Mal in 275 Jahren, A man or woman at the age of 30 isn't doing as well as his or her parents were at 30. That's never happened before.
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E547 Scott Galloway
A man... For the first time in our nation's history, a man or woman at 30 isn't doing as well as his or her parents were at 30. Wow. It's always been, your kids are doing better than you on average. Right.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Ja, und das wird kräftig klingen, aber... Die Chancen, die Sie auswählen, werden sich breiten, sobald Sie professionell erfolgreicher werden. Das ist die schreckliche Wahrheit des Kapitalismus. Die Veränderungen werden die Beziehungen mit Ihren Eltern, die Beziehungen mit Gott, ich weiß, Sie sind eine spirituelle Person, die Beziehungen, die Sie haben mit sich selbst.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Not only your self-esteem, but it creates rage and shame in the household. And who's doing really poorly under 30? Men. The average 70-year-old ist 72% reichere als vor 40 Jahren. Die Anzahl der Menschen unter 40 ist 24% weniger reich.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Und 210 Mal pro Tag bekommen sie eine Notifikation auf ihrem Telefon, um zu erinnern, dass sie verfehlt sind, weil es scheint, dass jeder im Almen Hotel ist oder fliegt in einen Golfstream. Aber ich bin nicht... Jeder sagt mir, dass die Wirtschaft gut ist. Ich höre immer über Krypto, die zu 80.000 Dollar geht, der Stockmarkt schlägt 71 Höhen in den letzten 12 Monaten. All diese Dinge sind wahr.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Aber ich lebe zu Hause und ich kann nicht Geld verdienen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
But when your kids aren't doing well, you're not interested in hearing about territorial sovereignty in Ukraine. You're not interested in talking about trans rights. Your kid isn't doing well. And when your kid isn't doing well, you don't want change. You don't want a Democrat. You not only don't want change, you want disruption. You want chaos. Oh, yeah.
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E547 Scott Galloway
And you also, you want some of that, what I'll call male energy back. And look at how Trump positioned himself. What did he do? Crypto. Embrace of Cars and Rockets, Elon. What medium? Did he go on MSNBC and CNN and Fox? With the UFC fights. And he went on podcasts. Your podcast.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Aber die Welt ist unfair, so wie es mit Männern zu tun ist. So lange wie unsere Trajectorie von Erfolg, professionell und ökonomisch, hoch ist, haben wir eine disproportionate Anzahl an Chancen, die wir auswählen.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Wow. And it veers towards women. Podcast, Joe Rogan, Trump geht auf Joe Rogan, 40 Millionen Views auf YouTube, 15 Millionen Downloads, average age 34, 55 Millionen 34-jährige Männer versus 1 Million 7-jährige Frauen. Und was weißt du? Lass mich schätzen, er war auf deinem Podcast, oder? Ja. Okay, er war auf, wer sind die Jungs, die ihn nennen?
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E547 Scott Galloway
Seine Strategie war, ich werde die Top 10 Podcasts nehmen, Acht von ihnen lehnen rechts und links nach links. Ich gehe auf jeden von ihnen. Ich gehe nicht auf CNN oder Fox. Ich fliege in den Testosteronsturm. Und die Medien der Männer sind gerade Podcasting. Das ist, wo junge Männer gehen.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Oh, es ist ein Desaster. Mein Kollege von NYU, Jonathan Haidt, hat dieses Buch geschrieben, das heißt The Anxious Generation. Jonathan Haidt? Haidt, Jonathan Haidt, H-A-I-D-T. Okay. Grundsätzlich gibt es viele peer-reviewed-Recherche, insbesondere Recherche, die gerade aus Oxford gekommen sind, die zeigen, dass es ca.
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E547 Scott Galloway
einen 60%-Eingriff in Selbstmord, Ernährungsverletzungen und Anxiety für Menschen gibt, die zu viel Zeit auf Social Media verbringen. Stell dir vor, du hattest Social Media, als du in der Schule warst?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Social Media ist schlecht. Es ist schlecht für Teen Girls und es ist schlecht, wirklich schlecht für junge Männer. Es gibt eine lineare Korrelation zwischen Angst, Ernährungsprobleme mit jungen Frauen, Angst vor Männern, weil es so ist, dass man nie die Hochschule-Kafeteria verlassen kann.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Und es ist besonders hart an Mädchen in der Hochschule, weil Mädchen physisch und verbal verletzt werden, Mädchen verletzt man verhältnismäßig, und wir legen diese nuklearen Waffen in ihre Hände. Sie sind tatsächlich ein bisschen... Sie können etwas niedriger sein. Und dann nimmst du Online-Dating. Jedes Mal, wenn du einen Sektor digitalisierst, wird es ein Win-or-Take-most-Environment.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Jedes Mal, wenn ein Sektor über das Internet geht. Also, Retail war früher Storys. It becomes online. Amazon now controls 50% of all e-commerce, right? We used to go to the Encyclopedia Britannica, to the library, to microfiche, to different newspapers. Now we go to Google. Google has 93% of search. Yeah. Social, Facebook and Meta owns two thirds of all social media.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Online dating, everyone has access to everyone. You think that's good? It's not. Because women all want the same dude. And if you have 50 men on Tinder and 50 women, 46 von den Frauen zeigen all ihre Aufmerksamkeit nur zu vier Männern. Wow! Das bedeutet, dass 46 Männer über vier Frauen kämpfen.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Und die Wahrheit ist, dass diese Frauen Sex mit den Top 10% haben können, aber sie werden normalerweise keine Beziehung haben. Und weil diese Top 10% von Männern 80-90% der Möglichkeiten haben, Sie können sich mit dem, was ich als Porsche Polygamy bezeichne, engagieren. Und das heißt, es ermöglicht nicht langfristiges gutes Verhalten. Es ermöglicht ihnen nicht, sich zu entschärfen.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Huge trade-offs. Yeah. One of the things I wish I'd done, I wish I'd started with kids a little bit earlier. I only, I have two boys. One of my biggest regrets is I wish I had a third, I wish I had a daughter. Ich denke viel darüber, wie viel ich es genieße. Und ich habe so hart gearbeitet, dass ich nicht viel Zeit mit ihnen hatte. Und sie sind weg.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Während als wir Kinder waren, ging man in deine Kirche, in dein Tempel, in deine Hochschule und du hast deine Gewichtsklasse herausgefunden. Es gab acht junge Frauen in deinem Tempel, acht junge Männer. Und du hast dich sozusagen verabschiedet.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Und Männer hatten die Möglichkeit, Exzellenz zu zeigen, an einem Punkt. Wenn du mit verheirateten Paaren sprichst, die seit mehr als 30 Jahren zusammengekommen sind, sagen 75 Prozent davon, einer war viel interessierter als der andere und war immer der Mann, der viel interessierter war. Aber in der Zeit sah sie, dass er nett war. Wow. Sie hat mit ihm gearbeitet. Er war gut, was er gemacht hat.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Also, wo demonstrieren Männer jetzt Exzellenz? Und dann geht ein Mann online. Schaut euch das hier an. Auf Tinder muss ein Mann, der eine gewisse Attraktivität hat, 200 Mal ein Swipe-Right machen, um einen Swipe-Back für einen Kaffee zu bekommen. Und dann ghosten vier von fünf dieser Kaffees an ihm. Seine Screen wird wieder aufkommen und sie wird entscheiden, nicht für einen Kaffee zu zeigen.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Also muss ein Mann, der eine gewisse Attraktivität hat, auf einer Dating-App 1.000 Mal ein Swipe-Right machen, um einen Kaffee zu bekommen. So fühlt er sich von Frauen enttäuscht. Er wird viel mehr versäumt, mit misogynistischem Content online zu sein. Und er hat sich auch auf Kaffee geworfen, weil er sich da sitzen und riechen hat.
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E547 Scott Galloway
Das A-Jährige, der immer mit mir ins Bett schläft am Sonntagmorgen, ist weg. Und ich sehe die Leidenschaft, die meine Freunde mit einigen ihrer Mädchen haben. I really messed up. I'm blessed to have two boys. I'm a glass half empty kind of guy. I look at stuff. I know rationally I'm blessed to have two boys, but I look at it like I wish I'd had more kids.
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E547 Scott Galloway
So again, we have a tendency in our society to assume that all divorce is the man's fault, that the man is either a predator or not a good person and the woman has no agency and she's the victim. And the reality is 70% of divorce filings are filed by women.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und die Mehrheit dieser Divorzverhandlungen, wenn man sich anschaut, warum die Frau für einen Divorz verabschiedet wurde, ist es nicht Unfidelity, es ist nicht eine Verlängerung von gemeinsamen Werten, sondern der Mann hat etwas passiert, was ihn weniger ökonomisch nützlich macht. Ein mentaler Ausbruch, eine Verletzung eines Geschäfts, eine Verlängerung.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Frauen schauen immer noch auf Männer, primär als Anbieter. Und wenn ein Mann, ein Mann, der durch einen Divorz geht, So young men are four times as likely to kill themselves. A man two years after divorce is eight times as likely. He no longer serves a role in his church. He no longer serves a role in his primary relationship. He might lose his kids.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
One out of three men have no contact with their children after six years. So he has literally no role.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
After six years of divorce, one out of three men has absolutely no contact with their children.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Well, it's hard when you're not around a lot. So what I would suggest is that Ich denke, wir müssen junge Menschen ökonomisch leveln. Und ich denke nicht, dass man nur Männer für ökonomische Programme richten kann. Ich denke, es ist zu politisch. Aber ich denke, wir müssen den Kindertageskredit wiederholen. Ich denke, wir brauchen ein massives Programm, um mehr Wohnungen zu bauen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich denke, wir sollten nationale Nuklearenergieprojekte haben, ähnlich zu dem, was Truman in den 50er-Jahren mit dem Nationalen Highway Act gemacht hat. Das wird Hunderten von Tausenden von guten Millionen von gut bezahlbaren Jobs für junge Männer.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Wenn du dir die Situation in unserer Wirtschaft anschaust, mit AI und den Innovationen im Digitalen, dann ist die Friktion Energie. Wir werden nicht genug Energie haben. Wir werden nicht genug. Nuklearenergie ist in meiner Meinung die kleinste Form von Energie. Wir werden eine riesige Menge nukleare Powerplätze bauen. Das sind gute Jobs. 70% der Jobs waren für junge Männer.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Das ist eine gute Sache. Let me back up. Die größte Innovation in der Geschichte ist nicht das Mikrofon oder das Smartphone, sondern die amerikanische Mitte. Die amerikanische Mitte ist ein Unfall. Es ist nicht normal, in der Geschichte eine Mitte zu haben. Die amerikanische Mitte wurde in Amerika so geformt, dass sie 7 Millionen Männer aus dem 2. Weltkrieg zurückgebracht haben.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
I mean, I don't know much about you, but I would argue that I'm not one of these people that says you can't be happy without kids. Aber ich wollte keine Kinder haben. Ich wollte reich und großartig sein. Das waren meine Prioritäten. In dieser Art und Weise. Und was ich fand, ist, dass all das ein Ende ist. In einer Kapitalistischen Gesellschaft musst du ökonomisch wirksam sein.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Sie haben Exzellenz und Uniform gezeigt. Sie waren in guter Form, sie waren stark. Sie haben echte Heroismus gezeigt. Und dann hat Truman eine Reihe von Programmen vorgelegt, die sie ökonomisch verbessert haben. Die GI-Bild, die FHA, die subsidisierten Wohnzahlen, das Nationale Verkehrsgesetz.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Er hat Millionen und Millionen von Männern geschaffen, die, ganz ehrlich gesagt, wirklich starke Bürgerinnen und Bürger waren, die sich auf Frauen attraktiv machten. Es gab große Haushaltsformationen und es gab den Babyboom. Und das hat Millionen von amerikanischen Häusern erschaffen, die dachten, ich will anderen Menschen diese Möglichkeit geben. Ich will Frauen in diese Möglichkeit bringen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich will keine Weißen in diese Möglichkeit bringen. Endlich will ich gaye Menschen in diese Möglichkeit bringen. Es hat eine mehr liebende, genere, was ich liberalen Gesellschaft nennen würde. We have to feed the middle class. And the part that's failing the middle class right now is young men. So the question is, how do we level up young men, quite frankly, economically?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
And I think it's a variety of programs, national service, more job programs, more apprenticeship. What does national service mean? Two-year mandatory national service to get out of high school. Oh, I see what you're saying. You serve either in the armed services, maybe going to senior care, maybe you help the, you know, whatever it might be.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Das größte Gesetz in der Geschichte, oder zumindest in Amerika, in den 50er und 60er, und der Grund, warum wir so einen produktiven Kongress hatten, und sie zusammengekommen sind, war, weil sie in demselben Uniformen arbeiteten. Sie waren nicht blau oder rot, sie waren Amerikaner, richtig?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Es gibt kein Rot oder Blau. Es sagt nicht Demokrat oder Republikaner. Also ein riesiges Leveln. Ich würde gerne, was Portugal gemacht hat. Portugal hat gesagt, wir werden in einen Vertrauensplatz für Hedgefondsleiterinnen und Hedgefondsleiter. Und die schönsten jungen Leute in Portugal haben eine Sache in Ordnung, sie gehen weg. So, weißt du, was sie gemacht haben, Theo?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Sie haben entschieden, keine Steuern von 20-30 Jahren. Und es kostet sie nicht so viel, weil die meisten von 20-30 Jahren nicht viel Geld verdienen. 40% unseres Budget geht an Junioren. was weniger Geld für die Bildung, Programme, Investitionen in R&D verdient, was mehr produktive Investitionen sind.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Wir haben ein politisches System, in dem alte Leute immer mehr anwesend sind als alte Leute, die sich mehr Geld anwesend wählen. Das 120-Billionen-Dollar-Kosten-der-Lebens-Vergleich für die Social Security fliegt direkt durch. Der 40-Billionen-Dollar-Tax-Kredit, um junge Familien zu helfen, wird aus dem Inflation Reduction Act ausgelöst.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
We need to massively economically lift up young people, which will disproportionately benefit young men who have fallen further faster and quite frankly make them more attractive. And people are going to start having kids again. 40 years ago, 60% of 30-year-olds had a kid. Now it's 27%. The average age of a homebuyer this year is 54. 40 years ago it was 36.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Sonst wird dein Kind diesen Stress erfüllen. Es wird Stress auf deine Partnerschaft einbringen. Aber für das erste Mal in meinem Leben Es gibt diese Momente, Theo, wo du Premier League-Football siehst und deine Kinder rollen rein. Sie springen auf den Tisch und die Jungs kommen rüber. Und deine Kinder lassen sich natürlich ihre Beine auf dich.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Are people not buying homes and not having kids because they don't want them? No, they can't afford them. And guess what? When a guy shows up and says, I am not economically viable, You are not going to be able to buy a home with me. I am not going to be able to protect you. The woman doesn't want to pair with this guy. We need a massive lift up of young people.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
And everything we do is nothing but a thinly veiled transfer of wealth Von deiner Generation bis zu meiner. Covid, 6 Trillionen Dollar in Stimulus. 85% davon wurde nicht genutzt, 85% davon wurde nicht gespendet. Also wo ging es hin? Es ging in den Stockmarkt. Der Stockmarkt schießt allzeit Höhen. Die Haushaltspreise sind von 2,90 Euro, der mittleren Haus vor Covid, zu 4,10 Euro.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Das ist toll für mich. Ich habe Stocks und ich habe Häuser. Ed, mein Co-Host von Profit-Markets, er kauft noch keine Häuser oder Steine. Was passiert also? Wir spenden alles auf seine Kreditkarte. Wir haben diese riesigen Defizite, die er zurückzahlen muss. Ich bekomme also Champagner und Kokain mit seiner Kreditkarte. Wir müssen diese verrückten Defizitspenden stoppen. Die einzige Sache, die...
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
das dieses bipartisane Verhalten durchführt, ist rechner Spenden. Wir brauchen eine ökonomische Verantwortung und wir müssen die Werte von den Angehörigen zurück transferieren und die jungen Menschen hochleveln, was die Gruppe, die am schnellsten nach vorne gefahren ist und die jüngeren Männern zunimmt, zunimmt.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Wir müssen jüngere Männer mehr ökonomisch verfügbar machen, so dass sie Haushalte formen können.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Junge Männer haben es... Ich meine, auf einem Niveau haben die Menschen mehr Aufmerksamkeit in unserer Nation, als sie es schon lange hatten. Aber junge Männer... Es gibt definitiv in unserer Gesellschaft einen Bias gegen sie. Wenn du auf der Webseite der demokratischen Nationalen Kommission gehst, gibt es eine Seite, die sagt, wer wir servieren.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Sie spellen tatsächlich aus, wir sind die demokratische Partei, das ist, wer wir servieren. Und es listet 16 demografische Gruppen, von Asienern und Asienerinnen und Asiener, zu Black-Amerikanern, Veteranen, den verletzten Immigranten. Ich habe es erhöht, es sind 76 Prozent der Bevölkerung. Wenn du also 76 Prozent der Bevölkerung anstreben willst, bist du sie nicht anstreben.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Du diskriminierst gegen die 24 Prozent. Und wer sind die 24 Prozent, die nicht erwähnt werden? junge Männer. Die demokratische Nationalkonvention war eine Parade jeder spezifischen Interessengruppe, aber sie haben niemals die Gruppe erwähnt, die am weitesten, am schnellsten und, ehrlich gesagt, in meiner Sicht, die am meisten Hilfe braucht, und das sind junge Männer.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und das ist das einzige Mal, dass ich das Gefühl hatte, und vielleicht hast du es auch in anderen Orten, wo ich dachte, das ist genug. Als ich dein Alter war, kam ich nach New York und stand in einem Hotel wie diesem. Ich wollte jeden Nachmittag anfangen zu denken, wo gehe ich heute Abend, das ist cool. Ich war gestern bei Equinox, das ist ein cooles Gym.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Also brauchen wir eine produktivere Konversation, die die Statistiken anschaut. Viermal so möglich, dass sie sich töten, dreimal so möglich, dass sie sich verletzen, zwölfmal so möglich, dass sie sich verletzen. Wenn das bei irgendeiner anderen spezifischen Interessengruppe passieren würde... We'd be weighing in with programs, with empathy. And here's the thing. Empathy is not a zero-sum game.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Gay marriage didn't hurt. What does zero-sum game mean? Well, there's a feel. When I talk about young men, people go to Well, that's going to hurt women. No, it's not. You know who wants more economically and emotionally viable men? Women. Women. Civil rights didn't hurt white people. Gay marriage, in my opinion, didn't hurt heteronormative men. It didn't get in the way of me marrying a woman.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
And having empathy for men isn't going to hurt women. Women in the United States are not going to flourish if men are flailing. And they are. Und weil es Männer sind, und weil ich die Privilegien erkannt habe, gibt es eine Lack von Empathie für sie. Und ganz ehrlich gesagt, weil einige, ich würde sagen, ziemlich unproduktive Stimmen in diese Flasche geraten, vor fünf, zehn Jahren.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Viele Leute hatten eine Art Gag-Reflex, als du über Männer sprichst. Und weißt du, wer die Anzahl auf diesem Thema führt, von denen ich am meisten E-Mails bekomme? Mütter. And it goes something like this. I have three kids, two daughters, one son. One daughter is in Chicago in PR, the other is in graduate school at Penn, and my son is in the basement vaping and playing video games.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und wenn man sich die Wahl anschaut, die beiden Gruppen, die am stärksten weg von der Blüte nach Trump flogen, waren zwei Gruppen. Menschen unter 30 Jahren, junge Menschen machen es nicht gut. Und die zweite Gruppe und die überraschendste, 45- bis 64-jährige Frauen, oder anders gesagt, Mütter. Ja. Also das war in meiner Meinung, die Kinder sind nicht in Ordnung, oder die Testosterone-Elektion.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und das ist, wenn deine Kinder nicht gut machen, willst du alles öffnen. Alles was du willst, du willst nicht nur Veränderung, du willst Chaos. Und ein Typ war der Chaos-Kandidat.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Er ist ein toller Kerl. Ich weiß nicht, ob du Vakzine hältst, aber lass uns schießen. Nein, nein, nein. Es gibt nichts, was ich mehr liebe, als nicht krank zu sein. Vakzine sind das Beste, was in der modernen Gesellschaft passiert.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich bin bei Zero Bond, das ist ein mehr exklusiver Club. Ich verabschiede mich mit diesem interessanten, heißen Gruppe von Leuten. Morgen kann ich mit mehr interessanten, mehr heißen Leuten verabschieden. Das ist, wie viel Geld ich dieses Monat gemacht habe. Kann ich mehr machen? Es war einfach mehr.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ist das richtig? Ja. Ich glaube, jeder, der dir sagt, wie du deine Leidenschaft folgen sollst, ist bereits reich. Ich denke, das ist dein Job. Ich denke, dein Job ist es, zu finden, was du wirklich gut machst. Okay. Weil ich denke, viele junge Männer verletzen ihre Talent für ihre Hobbys oder verletzen ihre Hobbys für ihre Leidenschaft. Okay, sie verletzen ihre Hobbys für ihre Leidenschaft.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich wollte ein Fußballspieler werden, als ich 17 war. Und ich wollte ein Pädiatrist sein. Ich meine, was ich gefunden habe, war, dass ich wirklich gut an Analyten bin. Und sehr wenige Jungs wohnen, die denken, ich bin wirklich gut mit Daten. Und die Mehrheit der Quote-unquote-Passion-Felder sind wirklich dreckige Industrien, weil es zu viele Leute gibt, die in sie investieren.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Es sind 180.000 Leute in der SAG-Aftere-Union, die Union, die die Schauspieler repräsentiert. 83% von ihnen im letzten Jahr qualifizierten nicht für Gesundheitsinsurance, weil sie nicht mehr über 23.000 Dollar verdient haben. Sie machen keine Filme mehr. Versuche, ein DJ zu sein. Weißt du, wie viele Highschool-Basketballspieler in die NBA kommen? Ich meine, es ist verrückt. Ich weiß es nicht.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ja, es sind sehr wenige. Je romantischer oder sexierter die Industrie ist, desto niedriger ist die ROI auf deinen Erfolg. Das ist dein Job. Finde etwas, die du instinktiv gut bist, für die du eine Affinität hast, für die du irgendwann vielleicht in den Top 10% oder Top 1% bist. Und hier ist das Wichtigste, es hat eine Employmentrate von 90 plus Prozent.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Weil, wenn du gut bist, ich renoviere ein Haus gerade, und dieser Typ kommt rein, er ist der Soapstone-Typ, er weiß mehr über Soapstone als jeder, er ist dieser irakische Immigrant, und er hat sich wirklich darauf eingelassen. Und er war sehr offen mit mir, er macht 1,8 Millionen Pound pro Jahr, er schließt 800.000 Pound pro Jahr, richtig?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Die langweiligen Industrien, die langweiligen Arschlöcher sind dort, wo du eine große Menge Geld machen kannst. Ja. Sei ein DJ an den Wochenenden. Sei ein Welder in der Woche. Das ist richtig. Finde einen Job, an dem du gut bist, an dem du groß wirst, der 90 plus Prozent Arbeitsplätze hat. Wenn du einfach gut in dieser Industrie bist, wirst du das machen. Und das ist das, was passiert.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Rechtssatz. Jemand, der einen Degree in Rechtssatz hat.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und das Einzige, was ich... Das Einzige, was ich je gesagt habe, okay, das könnte genug sein, ist meistens in der Präsenz meiner Kinder.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Arbeitstätigkeit. Okay, verstehe. Unabhängigkeit in Basketball, DJ, Kunst, Modellierung, Sport, ein Club, ein Restaurant. Ich würde sagen, die Unabhängigkeit ist 90 Prozent. Ja. Weil es zu viele Leute gibt, die zu wenige Jobs suchen. Richtig. Also, ich will deine Träume nicht zerstören.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Wenn du ein DJ sein willst, willst du der nächste Lionel Messi sein, dann mach sicher, dass du sehr früh glückliche Signale bekommst, dass du in den Top 1 Prozent bist, wo du dich brauchen wirst. Richtig, weil du zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt die Chancen spielen musst. Well, this is what you become passionate about. You're going to see this as you get older.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
You become passionate about taking care of your kids. You become passionate about taking care of your parents. You become passionate about going to the Hotel du Cap or going to F1 in Austin. Ich bin zum ersten Mal nach Wimbledon gegangen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und ich würde lieber Roger Federer sein als ich. Ich würde lieber Nadal sein als ich. Aber ich würde lieber mich sein als die Nummer 5-Siegerin der Welt. Ja, wer ist das?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und alles, was ich wusste, war, dass die Nummer 5-Siegerin in den 0,0001% ist. Alles, was ich brauchen muss, ist in den Top 10% meines Feldes. Und ich kann meinen Weg nach Wimbledon kaufen. Also, finde etwas, was du großartig bist. Und wenn du großartig bist und du Geld daraus machen kannst, Du wirst eine tolle Beziehung mit deiner Frau und deinen Kindern haben.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Wir leben in einer kapitalistischen Gesellschaft. Und das wird sich nicht ändern, oder? 100 Prozent nicht. Amerika wird täglich mehr so wie sich selbst. Es ist ein liebensvolles, generöses Land, wenn du Geld hast. Es ist ein rapaces, gewaltiges Land, wenn du kein Geld hast. Und ich sage nicht, dass das so sein sollte, aber das ist so, wie es ist.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Dein Job als junger Mensch ist, was könnte ich großartig machen? Das zahlt. Es hat einen Arbeitspreis von über 90 Prozent. Und das ist, wo die Leidenschaft herkommt. Die Verzweiflung, die Freundschaft, die ökonomische Relevanz, der Status, dass du großartig bist, wenn du gute Geld verdienst, das wird dich über diese Sache leidenschaftlich machen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Mastery, Artisanship, ein Ninja-like Warrior und alles, wird dich über diese Sache leidenschaftlich machen. Egal, wie schrecklich es klingt, wenn du neun Jahre alt bist.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
I think they should be broken up. I think they're too powerful. Me too.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Well, we don't have any choice. If you're a parent and your kid is on social media, You don't have any choice. The kid doesn't have any choice. He's going to be on a meta platform. Right. And these companies are so powerful that they're able to, and they make so much money that they're able to kind of weaponize government. We've had 40 congressional hearings talking about child safety.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
And I think competition as a whole is a great way of bringing down costs. I think the best way to handle inflation is competition.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und du hast eine Firma mit 93 Prozent Teil von Google Search, 66 Prozent Teil von Social, Meta, 50 Prozent Teil von E-Commerce. Zwei Firmen kontrollieren 93 Prozent von AI, AI LLMs und den GPUs, das ist Open AI und NVIDIA. Also gibt es bereits Monopolien in der Form von AI. Es ist unglaublich.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Es gibt keinen Grund, dass jemand unter 14 Jahren ein Smartphone haben sollte. Ich meine, ich habe das schon gesagt. Ich glaube, Sundar Pichai und Tim Cook sind im Grunde genommen Krack-Verkäufer außerhalb der Juniorhochschule. Niemand unter 14 Jahren sollte ein Smartphone haben. Könntest du bei 14 Jahren ein Casino, ein Betting, ein IMAX-Theater, ein Porn-Site in deinem Kofferraum halten? Nein.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich könnte es bei 34, 37 Jahren halten. Also, und dann, nein, ich glaube nicht, dass jeder auf einer Social-Media-App unter dem Alter von 16 Jahren sein sollte. Und die Eltern steigen ein. Und viele von ihnen, wiederum wegen der Inspiration meines Kollegen Jonathan Hyde, aber die gesamten Länder banieren Telefone und Social Media.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Es gibt so viel Beweise rund um das mentale... Denk an das, was ein Ort der Verwirrung, Instagram, beginnt. Es ermöglicht 15-jährigen Mädchen, sich provokativ und sexualisierend zu bewegen, so dass ihre Freundinnen und Freunde und seltsame Männer weltweit beurteilen und sie kontaktieren können?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Verstehen Sie, es war ein Park und es waren 15-jährige Mädchen und sie sagten im Park, wir würden es wirklich lieben, wenn Sie auf Halt-Tubetops und Miniskirts showed up and then your peers get to sit around you and comment out loud and strange men from anywhere can come and comment and then contact you. Würden wir das ermöglichen? Keine Chance.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich denke, am Ende des Tages ist es unsere Schuld. Wir haben nicht in den Leuten gewählt, die diese Technologien verstehen, die bereit sind, zu diesen Firmen zu stehen. Sie sind sehr wachsend. Sie haben viel Geld auf Lobbying gespart. Und ich denke auch, dass sie in der Rückseite wahrscheinlich Deals um nationalen Sicherheit machen, um uns zu helfen, die schlechten Leute zu töten.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich denke, es ist ein nuanced Argument. Aber am Ende des Tages hat unser Regierung uns wirklich verletzt. Wenn wir uns zurücksehen, Theo, in dieser Ära von Big Tech, denke ich, dass wir die Konzentration der Macht, der Monopolkraft, die Weaponisierung von einigen unserer Wahlen, einige der Missinformationen, die rausgekommen sind, regeln werden.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Aber mehr als alles, wir werden uns zurücksehen in dieser Ära und denken, wie haben wir das zu unseren Kindern gemacht? Sie haben keine Kinder. I should know better. My son developed device addiction. My kid hides in the bathroom so he can be on TikTok. I don't know what he's on on TikTok. There's been some instances of bullying, both him being bullied and bullying others.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
And I think we're probably not as bad as some households. This is literally, there is no addiction in America. 24%, two thirds of teens are on social media. 24% qualify as addicts. Kannst du dir das vorstellen? Wir verursachen Pornografie, die Militär, Motorräder, Waffen, aber wir verursachen keine sozialen Medien. Was für eine andere Substanz, was für eine andere Firma könnte wegkommen,
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
with getting two-thirds of kids on that substance and then having a quarter of them be identified clinically as addicts. We wouldn't put up, we wouldn't and haven't put up with it anywhere else. But these guys are so smart, have so many, there are more full-time lobbyists. And there are representatives and senators. Just at Amazon. Amazon has more Vollzeit-Paid-Lobbyisten, die in D.C.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
leben, als wenn sie US-Senate sitzen. Wir sind überrunnt. Unser Staat ist überrunnt von Geld. Und wir haben nicht die Möglichkeit, in Menschen zu votieren, die aufhören, zu stehen und zu überlassen. Diese Scheiße ist schwierig und kompliziert. Und diese Firmen haben es vorgenommen. Und sie haben auch die Propaganda, um die Dielen zu öffnen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich habe Kinder mit. Ich habe Kinder mit. Hundert Prozent. Ja. Und das geht zurück zu einer Willenheit, Rejection zu verhindern, so dass du jemanden finden kannst, der eine wirklich hohe Charaktere hat, zu dem du gefreut wirst. Ich habe Freunde, die auf externen Metriken wirklich erfolgreich sind. Smart, talentiert, Baller, professionell viel Geld, aber sie haben keinen Partner.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und ich finde, dass ihre Leben eine unnötige Menge an Stress und Enttäuschung haben. Und gleichzeitig habe ich viele andere Freunde, die nicht so ökonomisch erfolgreich sind, aber sie haben einen echten Partner und alles brennt ein bisschen breiter. Und ich hoffe, ich hoffe, ich bin da, aber ich hoffe, wir haben die Chance in zehn oder 20 Jahren.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich bin sicher, du wirst jemanden finden, der Kinder hat. All of this, right? Podcast, AI, Social Media, GDP Growth, Trump. It's all bullshit. It's all a means. The ends, the whole shooting match is finding someone you care about. und Kinder zu haben. Das ist es, was ich gefunden habe. Ich wollte keine Kinder haben. Ich wollte nicht verheiratet werden.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich habe es falsch gemacht. Und man kann es nicht. Niemand, der keine Kinder hat, kann es vollständig verstehen. Und zum Beispiel möchte ich klar machen, es gibt andere Wege, um Liebe zu finden und zu erhalten. Ich glaube nicht, dass man Kinder haben muss, um glücklich zu sein.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Was ich dir sagen kann, ist, dass die Mehrheit der Leute, die ich kenne, die Kinder gehabt haben, gesagt haben, es ist ein riesiges Maß an Stress, aber es ist das erste Mal in meinem Leben, in dem ich mir gefühlt habe, dass ich einen echten Zweck und echten Sinn hatte. Und das ist das, was unsere Wirtschaft tun soll.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Sie soll jungen Menschen, speziell jüngere Männer, die Möglichkeit geben, in liebende, unterstützende Beziehungen zu engagieren und Kinder zu haben. Das ist das ganze Schussmatch. Alles andere ist das Mittel. Das ist das Ende. Oh, der G-Prof-Podcast, das ist euer... Klasse, Prof. G. Sorry. Ich mag das besser, das klingt wie ein neues Mercedes-Benz-Vehikel, der G-Prof-Wagen. Da sind wir.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich weiß den richtigen Moment, an dem ich mein Akt zusammengebracht habe und mich wirklich motiviert habe. Als ich alt war, habe ich mein Kind als unglaublich unerwartet beschrieben. Es war nicht besonders gut oder besonders schlecht. Ich wurde von einer einzigen Immigranten-Mutter geboren, lebte und starb als Sekretär. Aber es war nicht eine schlechte Leben.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Als ich 24 war, war ich mit meiner Mutter verheiratet. Keine ökonomischen Vorwürfe, keine romantischen Vorwürfe. Ich war 34 verheiratet, dann war ich wieder 42 verheiratet.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und das erste Gefühl, das ich hatte, als mein ältester Sohn die schlechte Entscheidung hatte, aus meiner Freundin auszumarschieren, es war 2008, eine große finanzielle Rezession, ich hatte alles verloren, war, dass ich Scham und Zufriedenheit fühlte. Verzeih dich. Verzeih dir. Jeder ist da gewesen, wenn du nicht gut tust. Sei eine gute Person, werde in guter Form.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Beginne, Geld zu verdienen, auch wenn es nur ein wenig Geld ist. Der Weg, viel Geld zu verdienen, ist, ein wenig zu verdienen und einen Schmerz für das Fleisch zu bekommen. Sei täglich aus der Wohnung, sei in der Firma, in der Agentur der anderen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und arbeite deinen Arsch weg und versuche zu zeigen, wie du siehst. Erlebe die einfachen Dinge richtig. Erlebe eine Versorgungsmuskulatur. Schau, ob du Geld verdienen kannst. Und sei nicht furchtbar, seltsame Frauen zu beobachten. Die Fähigkeit, eine Frau sicher zu machen, während sie einen romantischen Interesse darstellt, ist nicht nur das Ziel, einen guten Partner zu finden.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Diese gleichen Fähigkeiten werden dir wirklich gut helfen und arbeiten. Es ist nichts falsch mit dem. Du bist ein Protektor, du bist ein Provider und du bist ein Prokreator. Los geht's, Alter. Let's go to Whole Foods. Where is she?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Danke, Mann. Glückwunsch auf deinen Erfolg. Du bist ein guter Rollenmodell für junge Männer. Du bringst einen anderen Eindruck.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Glaub mir, du bist jünger als alle anderen und eines Tages wirst du aufstehen und du wirst die älteste Person im Raum sein. Es ist wirklich seltsam. Die Zeit geht schnell. Du spielst das Leben wirklich mit den Füßen und schiebst es gerade.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Aber der Moment, der alles für mich verändert hat, war, als meine Mutter sehr krank wurde, als ich in der Hochschule war. Und sie hat mich angerufen und gesagt, du musst nach Hause kommen. Und meine Mutter ist keine dramatische Person. Und so flog ich nach Hause und ging in eine Situation, in der sie früh geliefert wurde. Wir waren ein bisschen unterinsuriert. Sie hatte nur ihr zweites Mastektom.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Sie hatte Chemo und das Krankenhaus Ich habe sie primär ausgebildet. Ich war in einer Situation, in der ich nicht wusste, wie ich mich umsetzen soll. Wow. Ich habe die Ärzte angerufen. Die Ärzte kosten 35 Dollar pro Stunde. Wir hatten nicht so viel Geld.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Das Gefühl, dass du das fühlst, und vielleicht fühlst du es jetzt mit deinen Mitarbeitern und deinen Eltern, aber als Mann hast du ein sehr gesundes Instinkt, um dich zu schützen. Diese Frau war so gut für mich, dass ich sie nicht kümmern konnte. Und um ehrlich zu sein, Theo, das war beunruhigend. Und das war, als ich sagte, okay, ich muss meinen Akt zusammenbringen. Ich muss meine Mutter kümmern.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Also das war wirklich mein Fahrzeug. Ich dachte, okay, ich wollte die Wälder nicht retten. Ich wollte keine gute Person sein. Ich wollte keine tiefe Beziehung mit Gott. Ich wollte Wirtschaftsfreiheit für mich und meine Mutter. Und das war, und auch die andere Seite ist fast so reich,
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich habe auch bemerkt, dass meine männlichen Freunde, deren Eltern in Aspen wohnen und BMWs fahren, mit höherer Charakter, besser aussehender Frauen verhalten waren als ich. Ja. Und dass Frauen von Männern mit Ressourcen gefangen wurden. Nicht nur, weil sie ihnen ein besseres Leben geben konnten, sondern weil sie Disziplin und Charakter reflektieren und dass sie bessere Väter sein könnten. Ja.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Aber mein, die Grundlage war, die Sache, die mich motiviert hat, waren Frauen. Ja. Ich wollte meine Mutter kümmern und mich zu einem potenziellen Mann interessieren. Das war, als wir zusammengekommen sind.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich denke, jeder braucht einen Code, richtig? Es klingt, als ob du ein paar Codes aus verschiedenen Orten bekommst, ob es deine Spiritualität ist oder deine Kirche. Ich denke, AA hat einen schönen Code.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und es ist eine starke Sache, richtig? Und es ist ein Konstrukt, der für Millionen von Leuten funktioniert. Und das, was ich an A ist, ist, dass es sowohl eine Möglichkeit ist, sich zu verbessern, als auch sofort zu bewegen, wie du anderen helfen kannst. Es ist etwas, was größer ist als dein Selbsthilfe. Es fühlt sich auf mich an wie ein wirklich starker Code. Ich versuche, herauszufinden, wie...
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
wenn Masculinität ein Code für junge Männer sein kann. Ich fühle mich, dass viele junge Männer jetzt nicht in der Kirche oder Schule verbunden sind, mehr Einzelhändler-Hälften als in jedem anderen Land, außer in Schweden. Sie sind nicht im Service. Sie sind nicht in einer Beziehung.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Nur ein in drei Männern unter 30 Jahren sind in einer Beziehung, während zwei in drei Frauen unter 30 Jahren in einer Beziehung sind. Warum? weil Frauen älter sind, weil sie mehr ökonomische und emotional wirksame Männer wollen.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Also wenn ein Mann nicht zur Kirche geht, nicht Sport spielt, nicht in der Schule, nicht in einer Beziehung und er hat keinen männlichen Role Model, wo bekommt er seine Code?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und ich denke tatsächlich, dass, während Masculinität in meiner Sicht mit Toxizität oder etwas Schlimmem korrigiert wird, wie können wir eine moderne Form von Masculinität besser definieren, so dass sie als Code für junge Männer dienen kann? Ein Leuchtlicht, wie AA es für dich hat.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und ich denke sehr leise, und ich schreibe ein Buch darüber, und ich habe es noch nicht herausgefunden, und ich bin gespannt, ob du irgendwelche Gedanken hast. Ich denke, die drei Beine auf dem Stuhl sind die Anbieter. Wir leben in einer kapitalistischen Gesellschaft. Ich spreche nicht darüber, wie die Welt so sein sollte. Männer werden aufgrund ihrer wirtschaftlichen Bedeutung ausgewertet. Ja.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Wenn dein Sohn oder deine Tochter in einem Haushalt lebt, der ökonomisch gestresst ist, wird er oder sie einen höheren, restlichen, diastolischen Blutdruck haben. Stress aus dem ökonomischen Stress entfällt alles in einer kapitalistischen Gesellschaft. Du wirst ein Anbieter sein. Und zum Beispiel, manchmal bedeutet das,
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Getting out of the way or being some more supportive of your partner who happens to be better at this money thing than you. More women are graduating from college. Two out of three jobs now need college degrees. But you should start from the position of, I need to be economically viable.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
I need to learn a trade, a skill, get certified, show up, work hard, and try and have some discipline around saving, develop a savings muscle. Don't be that idiot that orders bottle service. Try to show you have your act together economically. Two, protector. Ich denke, ein sehr schönes Default-Setting für einen Mann sollte eine sofortige Bewegung zur Befreiung sein.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Realistische Männer brechen Kämpfe in Bars, sie starten sie nicht. Realistische Männer schützen ihr Land, sie posten kein Scheiß drauf. Real men don't complain, they're there to absorb. They add surplus value. They create more revenue for the government than they consume. They help people more than maybe they require help.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
And sometimes that can go off the rails because some men feel like it's not masculine to express vulnerability. So there's a downside to that. Maybe you don't understand the LGBT community. Maybe you don't believe in all this, what's going on with the focus on trans rights. But your first instinct should be,
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Wenn du eine Gemeinschaft siehst, die getötet wird, ob es Migranten ist, die LGBT-Gemeinschaft, dein erster Instinkt als Mann, denke ich, sollte die Befreiung sein. Wenn du jemanden hörst, der verrückt ist über jemanden hinter seinem Rücken, dein erster Instinkt sollte die Befreiung sein. Also mag ich diese Notion der Befreiung. Und der letzte, der mehr kontrovers ist, ist der Prokreator.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Ich denke, der Wunsch, Wo ich jetzt bin, ist es das Wichtigste, was meine Jungs mit mir zu tun haben. Wenn wir es wiederentwickeln, ist es sie, es ist mein Partner, der geboren ist, es ist wir zusammenleben, es ist uns, ein Pferd zu kriegen, es ist uns, viel Zeit zusammen zu verbringen, es ist uns, eine Beziehung zu haben.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Aber wenn ich es wiederentwickeln in den Grundcode, das Wichtigste in meinem Leben, ist es ich, diese sehr attraktive Frau zu sehen, am Hotelpool, am Raleigh Hotel. Und ich dachte nicht, oh, sie wird großartig sein, Land zu kaufen und es zu entwickeln. Und sie wird ökonomisch wertvoll sein und sie wird eine tolle Mutter sein. Es fing mit mir an, wirklich physisch zu beeindruckt zu sein.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E547 Scott Galloway
Und ich denke, Männer müssen sich an sich schauen und sagen, wie kann ich mich in eine Position stellen, wo ich nicht nur attraktiv zu Frauen bin, sondern die Fähigkeiten bekomme, wo ich physischen Wunsch ausdrücken kann, während sie sich sicher fühlen. Und es ist eine sehr einfache Frage. Möchtest du Sex mit dir haben? Möchtest du romantisch mit dir sein? Bist du in guter Form?
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
Cafeteria wars
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Cafeteria wars
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
Life after Ozempic
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Life after Ozempic
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
A win in the opioid crisis
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
A win in the opioid crisis
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Seoul searching
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Today, Explained
Seoul searching
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Serving your country while trans
I'm more of an X-Man fan myself. Call me Professor... Can I read minds? I can't really read minds, but I can empathize with anyone having a midlife crisis, which is essentially any tech leader, so...
Today, Explained
Democrats, where you at?
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Democrats, where you at?
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
Trump’s government purge
I'm definitely conscious of the things that are in my kitchen, in my pantry. I prefer products that are organic and that... have a shorter label. A lot of the things that I saw on Thrive Market totally fit that bill. Also with my first order, I got a free gift from Thrive. I received a Thrive Market cookbook and some almond butter and ghee, all things that are staples in my kitchen already.
Today, Explained
Back in (executive) action
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Back in (executive) action
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
The right to die
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
The right to die
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
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Today, Explained
The politics of fire
We've got a mayor that's out of the country. and we've got a city that's burning, and there's no resources to put out fires.
Today, Explained
The politics of fire
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
DeepSeek deepdive
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Today, Explained
DeepSeek deepdive
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Our trillion-dollar credit card bill
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Today, Explained
Our trillion-dollar credit card bill
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
The price of paying college athletes
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
The price of paying college athletes
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
Zuck your feelings
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
TikTok on the dock(et)
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Today, Explained
Elon's company town
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Elon's company town
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Today, Explained
No love (on the spectrum) for RFK Jr.
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
No love (on the spectrum) for RFK Jr.
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
Why is personal style so hard?
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Why is personal style so hard?
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
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Today, Explained
When Carter called out America
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
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Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
The FBI claimed Ulbricht sent a hitman he found on his own site, $150,000 in Bitcoins.
Today, Explained
The Silk Road pardon
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
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Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Danny Green committing to the Lakers on a two-year deal.
Today, Explained
The case against legal sports betting
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
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Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Guantanamo’s other history
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Today, Explained
Guantanamo’s other history
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Target misses the mark
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Target misses the mark
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Today, Explained
"Happy Sixthmas"
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Today, Explained
"Happy Sixthmas"
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
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Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
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Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
Almost Heaven
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
One year of Sphere
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
One year of Sphere
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
The making of a beauty king
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
The making of a beauty king
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
Trad wife takeover
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
Trad wife takeover
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Beige, don't kill my vibe
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Beige, don't kill my vibe
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
And I do think that is one thing that Not Like Us did is, is it certainly for people who weren't necessarily familiar with every song on To Pimp a Butterfly or Damn, virtually any household is going to at least know Not Like Us. One effort that has really been made in recent years is to make the Super Bowl halftime show ever,
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
a big collective cultural experience where everyone's kind of talking about it. And for people who might not know a whole bunch of Kendrick Lamar songs, they're still going to be able to participate in that conversation. And that's something that the Super Bowl really wants. They want this event to be gigantically culturally all-encompassing and not just about a football game.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
It is truly remarkable how recently the Super Bowl halftime show was a punchline.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
There was a very pivotal moment in Super Bowl halftime history when the Super Bowl halftime show was performed by Michael Jackson. I remember that. And he like popped out of the stands. And this was the Super Bowl in 1993. And the year before, the Super Bowl halftime show before was called Winter Magic Salute to the 1992 Winter Olympics. Hi, everybody.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
And honestly, even in the years since, and there definitely was a point pretty shortly thereafter where the Super Bowl halftime show just became... the showcase for some huge star.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
But even there, there's a stretch of halftime shows kind of in the aftermath of the controversy in 2004 with Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson, when he bared her partially exposed breast on national television and everyone got the vapors, which, by the way, was Justin Timberlake's fault, where the Super Bowl halftime shows became very, very buttoned down and very, very safe. Boomer forward.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
Yeah, very boomer forward. Even, you know, when you think about what is widely and rightly considered the greatest Super Bowl halftime show of all time was by Prince in 2007. Reach. Purple rain. That is sandwiched in between the Rolling Stones and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
And it wasn't until relatively recently, particularly when Roc Nation and Jay-Z took over the production of the Super Bowl halftime show, that they really tried to go for very, very current artists, very hip-hop forward. They've tried to kind of make the show younger and more culturally current and more... well-versed in things like hip hop. But that's a very recent phenomenon.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
Yeah. And I mean, you got to think about what's more powerful than performing at the Super Bowl, deciding who performs at the Super Bowl.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
And so there is certainly a larger conversation here around the troubled history of the NFL and black entertainers stemming back in part to the controversy around Colin Kaepernick and his national anthem protests and how Colin Kaepernick was effectively driven out of the league. And that created a lot of backlash against the NFL by black black musicians.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
And bringing in Jay-Z to help program the show kind of allowed the NFL an in with a lot of the performers that it wanted to perform at the halftime show. And so Jay-Z's history with the NFL really is a history of him figuring out how to kind of barge into the boardroom and make some of these decisions.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
I'm pretty skeptical. I mean, I think on one hand, in order to be a part of the cultural conversation and in order to be extraordinarily relevant in the cultural conversation, you can't be 100% apolitical. At the same time, it's hard to think of an artistic endeavor that is more carefully choreographed and boardroom approved than a Super Bowl halftime show.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
When you think about the number of commercial sponsors, when you think about the network association, the Super Bowl will be airing on Fox this year. There are a number of very, very powerful, very high-level stakeholders who are doing everything they can to make sure that this is a piece of entertainment that doesn't offend people.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
Is it possible that something happens that becomes viral, that becomes a culture war issue? It doesn't take much to become a culture war issue if people have a vested interest in making it one. But I'm somewhat skeptical that this performance is going to be anything beyond a victory lap for Kendrick Lamar and SZA and a way of segueing into what promises to be a hugely lucrative tour.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
Oh, boy. You know, I'm going to predict another close and exciting Kansas City win. I think Kansas City is going to pull off the three-peat. I think it's going to make a lot of people very sad. And I am going to say 31-27. Wow, you have a score.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
You know what? I'm a Packers fan, but I'm going to say go birds. All right, great.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
I'm Stephen Thompson. I'm a host with NPR Music, and I'm also on Pop Culture Happy Hour.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
I am speaking to you from my home studio, which is decked out with Packers paraphernalia. Win or lose, I'm ride or die. Go Pack Go.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
My hunch is that if people are expecting this to be some big moment for Kendrick to dunk on Drake, I think it's very unlikely. That doesn't, at the same time, mean that he's going to forego Not Like Us entirely. I think there are ways. If you think about the way Super Bowl halftime shows have evolved over the years, they've really evolved into these kind of medleys of an artist's biggest hits.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
So I think he's going to have an opportunity to kind of weave in without necessarily incorporating the stuff that is dunking on Drake. So my prediction is that you'll hear bits and pieces of Not Like Us without necessarily bringing in the parts of this song that have been controversial, that have resulted in lawsuits, etc.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
And if honestly, if I'm Kendrick Lamar, I don't want to make this moment about Drake anyway. I'm making this moment about me. I'm making this my giant victory lap as I head into a massive world tour and continue to promote this chart-topping album. I'm not worried about some rap beef. That is so last year, literally and figuratively.
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
I mean, It's interesting. For purposes of comparison, let's talk about Usher, who performed at the Super Bowl last year. I think there are many American households where if you put a tape recorder in front of their faces and said, name three Usher songs, they might not be able to do so. But then once you see that medley, you're like, oh, I know that song. I know that song. Yeah!
Today, Explained
Super Bowl GNX
Well, that song's been on the wind for a decade. True. So sometimes the idea, like, can you name three songs? If somebody is not a music nerd, if somebody has not seen Kendrick Lamar in concert, if somebody has not, you know, does not anxiously anticipate the drop of every Kendrick Lamar record, that doesn't necessarily mean that there's not widespread familiarity with this music.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, Explained
The truth about Y2K
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers, but cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special PropG Office Hour series.
Today, Explained
Canadian bakin’
We'll be answering questions from C-suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively in today's chaotic world. So tune into PropG Office Hour special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the PropG feed wherever you get your podcasts.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think pushing back on Russia for $60 billion a year and setting a signal that we are willing to sacrifice for democracies and repel murderous autocrats, I think that's an outstanding investment. $800 billion a year to give me a tax cut? Bad idea.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And all this other shit is just a misdirect to get you to look away from what is about to happen, and that is the biggest tax increase in history on you and your children.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It's a really thoughtful question. So when you hear Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren rail about billionaires and that we need a progressive tax structure, which I think is accurate, there's some nuance there in the sense that So I'll take you as an example, Trevor. I imagine you make an extraordinary living, but it's current income, meaning if you live, is your home here?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Are you a New York resident? You're probably paying 50 or 52% tax rate.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Because the majority of your income is current income, and you make enough money to be in the highest tax bracket. Now, I've made my living starting and selling businesses, and now I make my living buying and selling stock. My tax rate, I'm a Florida resident now, has been 17% for the last 10 years.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Well, here's the thing. The people that get screwed are the super earners. And then your tax rate plummets when you become a super owner. So when I was in my 30s and 40s making an extraordinary living as a consultant or as a writer, I was paying 30, 35, 45%. Once I became a super owner, my tax rate plummeted.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And this has been a conspiracy that both the Democrats and the Republicans have fomented. And where they come together is the following. And that is democracy over the last 30 or 40 years in terms of rights has become solely a function of how rich you are. Any woman in my life will have access to mesofestrone.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I could be in the deepest, reddest part of America, and if someone I know has an unwanted pregnancy, we're going to have no problem. If they start rounding up people, and people say that can never happen in America, bullshit. It happened 80 years ago. We started rounding up the Japanese, despite the fact many of their children were serving in the European market, fighting in our uniform.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It could absolutely happen here. I think we're one economic shock away from, and who knows who the group will be. It might be Muslims, I don't know, or immigrants. I think it could get very ugly very fast. It's not a threat to me. I'm rich. I can peace out to Dubai.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Some of that. Some of that. Although, just to comment on that, I actually think in America, and this is a collective victory, and we should celebrate it, I think you would rather be more non-white or gay in America right now than poor.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Say that line again, though, but you would rather be born in today's America. And this is a sign of our collective victory, but should also inform how we allocate resources and lift people up. Affirmative action should be based on color, and that color should be green.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Yes. 70% overlap. But here's the bottom line.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Trevor knows kids. You don't need any help. Right. Your kids in America today, and we should celebrate this, you'd rather be born non-white or gay than poor. The academic gap between black and white 60 years ago was double between rich and poor. It has flipped.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Where are you coming in from, by the way? Oh, I have a place. I live in London, but I have a place here. You live in London? I do, yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But then the question is, how do we help them? Letting in the Taiwanese daughter of a billionaire is not diversity or firmness.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
60 years ago, there were 12 Blacks at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale combined. That's a problem. Race-based affirmative action made sense. This year, 60% of Harvard's freshman class identify as non-white. But here's the thing, 70% of those kids come from upper-income homes. So, Where should we go?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think most Republicans and almost all Democrats agree that some people are born with wins in their face that deserve a little bit of help. By the way, I'm talking my own book. I got Pell Grants. My mother lived and died a secretary. We were generously upper, lower, middle class.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So I got unfair advantage in the form of Pell Grants because I came from a household that was considered in the bottom quartile.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think that's where it should be now. But what we have in the U.S. is a conspiracy between the 1% and any administration that says, you don't need to worry. You don't need to speak up. You're the most powerful, but bitch about it to your friends and wring your hands about what's going on. But you're not going to come out and speak about it. You're not going to refuse to go to his inauguration.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You're not going to refuse to give him a million bucks because this is the bottom line. The rich... are protected by the law, but they're not bound by it. And the poor in this country are bound by the law, but not protected by it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Your rights and your democracy have never been better if you're in the 1%, but the whole point of American constitutionality and democracy is that it's meant to protect the bottom 50. Rich people don't need democracy. They don't need rights because they have money. I have more rights than any individual in history because I'm rich. And that's what America has become.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It's become an operating system for transferring rights and money and democracy to the 1% at the cost of the bottom 99. It is total bullshit. It is un-American and is the conspiracy emerging. And the reason why so many rich people are being quiet is because they're like me. They upload their W-2s to chat GPT. I'm going to save 930 grand this year if the Trump tax cuts go through. So stop, stop.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It hurts so good. That was a mouthful. I loved it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I grew up there. Around this stuff, I'm an influencer, not a decision maker. My wife told me we were moving five years ago.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Yeah. Well, I'm on the road a lot, so she says I don't get a vote. Is your wife British? No, she's actually born in Poland, raised in Germany. Both my parents are initially from the UK.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Is that what you're saying, though?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Well, so if you... To be fair, to acknowledge the point. So if you look at... There is still an economic apartheid in the United States. Latino and black households have an average wealth of $20,000. White households, $150,000. So it's hard not to acknowledge.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
There's some nuance that when you normalize it and when you compare black Latino households with a college education to white households with a college education, things get normalized or evened out.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think we're falling into the trap of the following. I think that the algorithms and the incumbents want us to be thinking it's black versus white, and it's the old, quite frankly. Old people figured out they could vote themselves more money, and an average seven-year-old is 72% wealthier than they were 40 years ago, and the average person your age is 24% less wealthy than they were 40 years ago.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Every economic policy in America is meant to transfer wealth from the lower 99 to the top one, and specifically from the young to the old. And who it impacts most... is people of color and poor people. And the question is, how do we move to a solution?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I have dual. I was almost drafted when the Falkland Islands crisis broke out, which my mom was not anticipating. Wow. Yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
No, I just want to use a model. The University of California, which saved my ass, I think had the right approach. In 1997, they did away with race-based affirmative action, and they went to what's called an adversity score. What is your background? Do you come from a single-parent household? Do you come from an economically strained household?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Do you come from a household where someone is incarcerated? And by the way, the overlap. That's genius. The overlap is 70%. But what it also solves for is the fact that, quite frankly, Trevor, your kids should not get affirmative action.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
The identity politics ends up enraging. How did we elect an insurrectionist as president? That's an honest question. And I think this is what happened. If you look at the groups that pivoted hardest from blue to red, 2020 to 2024, it was three groups. It was Latinos who, in my opinion, gagged on the notion that because of their identity, they were expected to vote some one way.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Mexican-Americans in LA are much different and have different priorities than Cuban-Americans in Southern Florida. They pivoted the hardest. The second biggest pivot was people under the age of 30, who for the first time in the nation's history aren't doing as well as their parents were at 30. That's never happened before. The third group that pivoted hardest to the right were women aged 45 to 64.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And I believe, I believe that's the mothers of young men who are failing. This was supposed to be an election on or a referendum on women's rights. We thought that's what was going to save us for those of us who supported Vice President Harris, that women's rights were going to step into the fold. Women's rights did not show up It was not a big swing vote in this election.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
My mom's passed. My mom passed. My dad is in San Diego.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
What showed up, quite frankly, was struggling young people and their parents. Because if your kid is in the basement playing video games and vaping, you don't give a shit about territorial sovereignty in Ukraine. You don't care about transgender rights. That's a luxury rich Democrats get to have, not us. My kids aren't doing well. And so they voted for chaos and change. And this guy is so coarse.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So unconventional, so kind of non-bullshit, quite frankly, that you saw people pivot hard from blue to red.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Oh, it's a Scottish accent. Oh, he's a Scotsman. I love that. If I could give my sons anything, it would be a Scottish accent.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But the data you're missing is the following. Black women overwhelmingly voted for Vice President Harris. Yeah. But more of them voted for Trump than they did in 2020. Oh, yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
That's a strange phenomena, and that is a lot of women will vote for what they perceive as best for their husbands and their sons.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But we all thought, at least I thought, I thought Roe v. Wade being overturned. Roe v. Wade's another example.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Fair enough. I mean, I'll give you another interesting stat where Trump was really brilliant. I'm fascinated by how he won. We're on a podcast, right? Trump flew into the manosphere, crypto, rockets. Joe Rogan, he flew right into the manosphere. He said, I am worried about young men. I relate to young men. I am coarse, aggressive. This wasn't the women's referendum election.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
This was the testosterone election. And he flew right into the manosphere. And quite frankly, it was brilliant. By him going on Rogan, 40 million video views, 15 million audio downloads. He got more attention in 90 minutes than Kamala. If Kamala Harris wanted the same level of attention exposure, she would have had to have gone on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox every night for three hours for two weeks.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You know, they just wanted a better life, I think, while a lot of people came here. They came here when they were 19 and 22, respectively, on a steamship from Glasgow and London, respectively.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
She absolutely should have flown down to Austin. He saw the opportunity to appeal to struggling young men and the people concerned about them. And by the way, the struggles I talk about, I talk about struggling young men a lot, they're even more acute for young men of color. Yeah. A boy is twice as likely to be suspended as a girl on a behavior-adjusted basis. Same exact infraction in school.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
A boy is twice as likely to be suspended. A black boy is five times as likely to be suspended. So we have an education system that is not only biased, in my opinion, against males, it's really biased against males. All these problems I talk about with men, whether it's suicide, opiate addiction, homelessness, it's especially acute among non-white men.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But this is something, going back to your question, when did this happen? I feel like America, our lack, and I'm an atheist, so I'm not suggesting that church is the answer, but as a nation becomes wealthier, its reliance on a super being and church attendance goes down. But into that void fall, we still need answers, so we try and find idols.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And the new Jesus Christ of our economy are technology innovators, tech billionaires, because this shit feels like magic, and these people create... trillions in wealth, so we're fascinated by them. And I think where we came off the tracks is this idolatry of money. When I was a kid, my dad's boss had a slightly bigger house, but we all went to the same country club.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
We all went to the same school. Money buys you everything from better healthcare to better schools to a much broader selection set of mates. So we have become obsessed, understandably, with money. The idolatry of the dollar and these tech innovators has gone berserk. And so the pursuit of the dollar, in my opinion, has crowded out almost all traditional character.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
When the wealthiest man in the world and probably the most admired man in the world is making Nazi salutes We normalize that shit. Why? Because he's really fucking rich. Look what money has done to us. Look what it's done.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
If you had a friend who was making Nazi salutes at parent-teachers conferences and was being sued by two women for sole custody of their kids and you had heard from credible sources that they were addicted to ketamine, wouldn't you move in and say, hey, boss, something's wrong here? But not if you're rich, not if you can put a rocket into space or make a shit ton of money with EVs.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Money has perverted us. It has crowded out all sense of character, of decency, of what it means to be a real man. We have decided that you can get away with anything as long as you're rich. It's been a total, in my opinion, a lack of a moral failing. We used to admire cops. We used to admire people who had fidelity to their religion. We used to admire people who defended our country.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
The sexiest man I remember thinking that I looked up to was my principal. He drove a 240Z. He smelled like Aqua Velva. He wore these cool coats with an elbow patch. He can't get laid now. Do you think a vice principal has any game in any city?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think about that a lot. We should talk about it. Yeah, we're talking about it. Are we recording?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Welcome to the podcast. I'll be infinitely more charming and insightful then. So the way I would distill the difference between the U.S. and Europe is the U.S. is still the best place to make money and Europe's the best place to spend it. So my crude reductive analysis on someone at your age is you're probably still in the making money part of your face.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. to find purpose in their life through family. And they may decide not to do it. You don't have to have kids to be happy. But for God's sakes, if the most prosperous nation in the world can't offer people the prospect of meeting, falling in love, mating, and having a reasonable standard of living, then none of this is working.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
There's more opportunities that will bump off of you in the U.S. than will in triple the time in Europe. But once you get to a point of economic security and you start thinking about lifestyle, Europe's a much more civilized same place. It's great for kids.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You can get a much better bottle of wine for $10 in Spain than you can anywhere in the U.S. The people are friendly, but the reality is the opportunities and the risk capital just isn't there. For every company in the U.S., there's $5 million in venture capital. For every company in Europe, there's $1 million.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So there's just not nearly the risk aggressiveness and the opportunities to make money in Europe as there are here. So I would say, as I was when I was your age, I was very economically focused. I wasn't trying to be a better person or find a family or change the world. I was trying to be rich. And America is absolutely the best place to establish economic trajectory.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Well, first of all, thank you. Your comments are generous. I started talking about struggling young men five years ago. Real insight is when you state something that's obvious, but people weren't thinking about. And the data is just overwhelming. And that is no group has ascended faster globally than women. And by the way, we should do nothing to get in the way of this.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
More women are seeking tertiary education now globally than men. The number of women elected to parliament and democracy has doubled in the last 30 years. In the United States, women in urban metros under the age of 30 are making more money than men. more single women own homes than men. Two in three women under the age of 30 are in a relationship, only one in three men.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And you think, well, that's mathematically impossible. It's not because women are dating older because they want more economically and emotionally viable men. What you have in the US is no group has fallen further faster than young men. And it's for a variety of reasons. Biologically, their prefrontal cortex is 18 months behind a woman. So it doesn't catch up till 25.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
They just lack the executive function and the judgment. A big part is male abandonment. A lot of young men don't have the male involvement in their lives that is key. And even if you were to say that five years ago, the gag reflex was, well, what are you saying? Mothers can't raise sons? No, I'm not saying that at all. But the research is pretty striking.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
When there's a single-parent household, and let's be honest, 92% of the time it's the woman heading the household in a single-parent home, as mine was. The girl in the household has the same outcomes, same rate of college attendance, same rates of self-harm. In some, she's okay.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
The boy, the moment he loses a male role model, becomes much more likely to kill himself, much more likely to be incarcerated. What it ends up, if you look at the data, is that while boys are physically stronger, they're emotionally and mentally much weaker.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And we don't even want to acknowledge at one point four or five years ago, you could get into trouble by even claiming there was a difference amongst genders and young people. And if you were advocating for men, you were seen as a misogynist because so many unproductive voices filled this void with bullshit, thinly veiled misogyny.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Once you have money, peace out to Europe. So this is actually a question I had for you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And what we have come to realize, and the dialogue's gotten a lot better and it's mostly been led by mothers, is that empathy is not a zero-sum game. We can still acknowledge the immense challenges women face. The moment you had kids, your average salary went to 73 cents on the dollar.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Corporate America has still not figured out a way to maintain a woman's professional trajectory when she decides to use her ovaries. At the same time, young men, if you go into a morgue in the United States and there's five people who've died by suicide, Four are men.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
If any other special interest group was killing themselves at four times the rate of the control group, we'd weigh in with programs. And finally, we're starting to acknowledge that women cannot continue to flourish and our country cannot continue to flourish if young men are floundering.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It's a great point. If you were to reverse engineer, when a boy comes off the tracks and becomes an unproductive man, it's the single point of failure is when he loses a male role model.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
We have the second most single-parent homes in the world behind Sweden. And unfortunately, there's a taboo. If you were to get involved in a 15-year-old's life, if you were to look around the office and say, single mother, say, I'm Trevor, I'm going to a game, do you have a son who'd like to hang out with me? Because you're immediately suspected
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You're immediately, quite frankly, Michael Jackson and Catholic Church have fucked it up for all of us. And that is if a man wants to be involved in a boy's life, there's a bit of trepidation. Is there something wrong with him? Is he up to something really mendacious or awful? Could he be possibly a pedophile?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And this is such a tragedy because there are so many men with fraternal and paternal love to give that maybe don't have kids of their own or maybe just are concerned or see the problem who are willing to weigh in. And they're kind of told by society not to. And also, quite frankly, men are not stepping up. There are three times as many women.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
applying to be big sisters in the New York Big Sisters program is there are men applying to be big brothers. In sum, if we want better men, we have to be better men. And you're exactly right. There needs to be a zeitgeist in our society. Family court, neighbors, the moment... a boy no longer has a male role model in his life, other men need to step into the void. My mom was really good at this.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
She made sure I'm still in contact with a couple of her ex-boyfriends. There was a neighbor across the hall who used to come over with his girlfriend and take me horseback riding. I had men in my life. And sometimes there are millions of young men right now, boys, the first male role model they have is a prison guard because men aren't stepping up. And I think of, I'm writing a book on masculinity.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think of concentric circles of masculinity. You take care of yourself. You're strong. You're economically viable. You're kind. You're a fucking monster. You have this unbelievable thing called superior bone structure, risk aggressiveness, this amazing substance called testosterone. You protect others. You take care of yourself. Second circle out, you protect your family. You're a good provider.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Next circle out, you take care of your community and your neighbors and you help other people. The ultimate expression of masculinity, in my view, is to take an irrational interest in the well-being of a child that's not yours. And not enough men are doing this. And it is so easy to find them.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think you're both right. One in six men three years post-divorce have no contact with their children. Some of that is male abandonment. Some of it is just a total lack of character. You don't hear a lot about female abandonment because it just doesn't happen that much. At the same time, family court is also, you would argue, biased against men. Sometimes it literally impoverishes them.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Sometimes also the reality is in divorce, there's a lot of emotion and my parents weaponized it and tried to convince me to hate the other. And you're just more inclined to believe the person you're living with, that the other person is bad. So I think that we need to change the side and say, okay, regardless of how you feel about each other,
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You need to be supportive of each other for the kid's sake post-divorce. It's a nuanced argument with a lot of factors, but in general, there needs to be a zeitgeist in our society that the moment a boy loses a male role model, the community has to rally around that kid, the mother, the brothers, the uncles, and the men to say, we have to get men involved in his life. And that's not happening.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It's not... think about it, after-school programs, not as many coaches anymore, right? They're not going into work. My first job was at Morgan Stanley. I got a lot of male mentorship. I was in a fraternity. I remember my quote-unquote big brother in the fraternity sitting me down my freshman year and saying, you need to stop getting high every night.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And I needed a 22-year-old male that I could kind of look up to. I didn't have a lot of male involvement in my life to tell me that. My first boss, you know, was a great guardrail for me. Young men need guardrails more than young women, quite frankly, where young women get them.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
When a young woman isn't in a relationship, she reinvests oftentimes a lot of that energy into her friend network, into her professional life. When a man's not in a relationship, he oftentimes reinvests it in video games and porn, and he sequesters from society. And a tremendous guardrail for young men that they're not getting is a relationship.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think what's going on is mostly bad. I think that there's a series of... Eight-year alliances, the post-World War II order that was based on trust, reciprocity of free trade, a general notion that America might get it wrong, but our heart was in the right place, and that we believed in rights, women's rights, civil rights, democracy. We would push back on autocrats.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think you're talking about the way the world should be, not the way it is.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
A 30-year-old male that hasn't lived with a woman or been married has a one in three chance of becoming a substance abuser. And a strong friend network is incredibly important. But without a romantic relationship, men have a tendency to not reinvest in their social network and their professional lives the way that women do.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You clearly have figured out that male friendship is really important for men. They open up to other men. They can express. The people who have the most job prospects are the most social. They have an outlet with each other. Do you think in general, though, that women, once they get married, are really supportive of men spending more time with their friends?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Okay, most women see a guy spending more time with their mates as a threat to the relationship. In addition, corporations don't want men spending a lot of time with their friends. They want them making more money.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But the larger point you bring up is the following. One in seven men in America doesn't have a single friend. One in four men can't name a best friend.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And we have what I would argue is a loneliness crisis. And the most frightening thing for young men right now, in my view, is that the deepest pocketed, most talented companies in the world are trying to convince young men, especially, that they can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen with an algorithm.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Why go through the effort of trying to have friends and figuring out the pecking order and your social currency when you can go on Reddit and Discord? And why, for God's sakes, would you ever go through the humiliation, the rejection, working out, having a plan, being funny, smelling nice, enduring rejection, feeling humiliated,
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
figuring out a way to feel confident, showing the perseverance such that you can establish a romantic or a sexual relationship when you have porn. So what we have is, I think, unfortunately, we're evolving a new species of asexual, asocial males. And they're the most dangerous people in the world.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Because, and I don't want to pathologize them. We have a tendency to say, oh, they're the school shooters. Actually, the people they're most dangerous towards is themselves. They're much more likely to harm themselves than harm other people. But the one thing the most unstable, violent societies have in common is a disproportionate amount of young men who have no economic or romantic prospects.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Yeah. And we don't like to have an ominous conversation around mating. The reality is women mate socioeconomically horizontally and up, men horizontally and down. And when dating apps are now where 50 to 60% of all relationships begin, the reductive analysis is the following. Can you signal resources and are you tall? Men have very few arenas to demonstrate excellence anymore.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
If you talk to people who've been married longer than 30 years, 80% of them say one was much more interested in the other. And it was almost always the man was much more interested. But when there's no places, when men aren't going into work, when men don't have third spaces, when they're not serving in the military together, they have no place to demonstrate kindness. He was funny.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I liked his hands. He was great at what he did. And so as a result, we have this dating environment where the top 10% get literally all of the interest and the bottom 90% are just shut out. And then they become very prone to really ugly voices that say it's a woman's fault. They're much more prone to misogynistic content. They're much more prone to nationalist content.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
We would push back on war criminals. And those alliances feel like, or that playbook feels like, and maybe we're taking it for granted, has been ripped up. And just distinctive, the morality of what I think is unforgivable, surrendering to a murderous autocrat, put the morals aside and just talk about it economically.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So figuring out environments where more people can meet and more men, quite frankly, can demonstrate excellence such that they can get through the finer filter of mating that women have. The greatest innovation in history, it's not the iPhone or the semiconductor. It's the American middle class. And fundamental to that innovation was that 7 million men returned from World War II.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
They had demonstrated excellence in uniform. We gave them enough money so they could afford a home. We gave them jobs and they became very attractive to a lot of women. And we started the baby boom and we had such wonderful prosperity that American liberal households said, let's bring women into this prosperity. I know let's bring, let's bring non-whites into this prosperity.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And we got along because the majority of our leaders had served in the same uniform. So they saw themselves as Americans before they saw themselves as Republicans or Democrats.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But unless we figure out a way to level up young people and find a place where they can meet and fall in love and mate and they have the economic wherewithal to do it, we're just gonna continue to generate the most dangerous person in the world, and that is a young man with no economic or romantic prospects.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I coach a lot of young men, and one of the first things they talk about is they really want a girlfriend. And the first question I ask is, would you have sex with you? Would you have sex with you? Do you have a plan? You don't need to be a baller. You don't need to be rich. But do you have a plan? Are you going to vocational school?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Are you thinking about driving an Uber and saving up so you can get a second car to have a second Uber? Do you shower? Do you have good grooming? Are you funny? Are you willing to endure rejection? Are you willing to try really hard? you know, would you have sex with you? And there aren't enough men. How many times have we heard I've got all these great women in my life. They're so attractive.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
They're so shit together, but they can't find a man. No, they just can't find a man they want to mate with. And women are getting taller every year. They're becoming more economically viable. It's leading to a lot more divorce because quite frankly, men are not ascending in terms of picking up some of the slack logistically. So it's like, okay, you're no longer a provider.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And by the way, it's not like you're really picking up the slack at home. So women are saying you're out.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So for a lot of reasons, I think we have to figure out a way to have honest conversations with men around, okay, this is what women are attracted to, signaling resources. That's the hard truth. You need an economic plan. Two, intellect. Are you interesting? Are you funny? Do you have interest in current events?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And then the third thing, the secret weapon for men and mating that we don't talk a lot about is kindness. Women actually want someone who's going to be kind because it means you're more likely to be good to her parents and good to your kids. Where do young people find mates in America right now?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
We have some of the best trading relationships and mutual reciprocity agreements with the largest economies in the world. We trade, we get along, we trust each other, we're willing to go anywhere. arm and arm with each other. Let's look at Canada, largest undefended border in the world. That says something about our friendship. Open trade. They led us into World War I. We followed them.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You're from London? Yeah. 40% of nightclubs in London have closed down since COVID.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Young people don't have money.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And they're also drinking less. But you were talking about kind of, I think our economy has moved from an attention economy to unfortunately in an addiction economy. And I think it's especially hard on young men who are more prone to addiction because they're more risk aggressive.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think basically our economy now, the kind of axis of evil is get people addicted to shitty food, to gambling, to porn, and then hand them over to the addiction industrial complex. The most valuable company in Europe now is a GLP-1 producer. And then if you think about young men, They're much more prone to addiction and especially gambling addictions. Six and seven gambling addicts are boys.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
50% of college-age men bet on the Super Bowl. And the net income of Las Vegas is down 40% this year because everyone now has a casino in their pocket.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And the crazy thing about gambling addiction is that the addiction with the highest suicide rate is gambling. Because if you had a meth addiction, we would know it and someone would weigh in who cared about you. You can get out so far in front of your skis with a gambling addiction and no one knows.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
They were in World War II before us, training Allied pilots. I love the test of that wonderful, very emotional test of friendship that the Holocaust survivor said to Buffett when she was saying, who are your real friends? She said, my test is, I think, would they hide me? That is a very puncturing Question, right? And the reality is in the 1979 hostage crisis, the Canadian embassy, they hit us.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I love that. So I try to walk the walk. I try and coach two young men at a time. And the people I coach, quite frankly... are struggling. I get a lot of people who send me emails and say, will you be my mentor? And I talk to them. I'm like, dude, you could mentor me. I talked to some 24-year-old working at Google. He's like, I need a mentor. I'm like, you're just fine.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
The first thing I do, I try and do it in person, but oftentimes it's over Zoom. The first thing I do is the following. I say, unlock your screen. I want to see your app time. And the first thing I do to put them at ease is I say to them, I gamble. I buy options. I'm not immune from gambling. I like porn. I try to modulate my use, but I like porn because I want to put them at ease.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I'm not going to judge them. And I say, okay, everyone has an advantage. You want to lean into your advantage. Your advantage as a young person is you have a lot of capital, but you have human capital. You have more time than money. that's an advantage. We're going to find eight to 12 hours of human capital of time in your phone.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And it's so easy between TikTok, between X, between Coinbase, between YouPorn. In about three minutes, I can get them to find eight to 12 hours a week of human capital. I'm like, all right, next week, we're going to open your phone and you're going to show me that you took eight to 12 hours of human capital out of your phone.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And we're going to reallocate that precious human capital into three areas. One, you're gonna start getting fit. You need to be strong. If you're under the age of 30 and you're a man, you're blessed with an unbelievable physiology. Any man under the age of 30 should be able to walk into any room and know if shit got real, they could either kill and eat everybody or outrun them. You'll be kinder.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You'll feel better about yourself. Who breaks up fights at bars? Big, strong guys. Who defends our country? Big, strong men. You want to feel better about yourself. You want to be less prone to depression. You want to feel good about your mating prospects. You need to get strong. We're going to work out three to four times a week, too. We're going to start making some money.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You got a smartphone, you can make money in this economy. I don't care if you're a Lyft driver. I don't care if you're a TaskRabbit. Go into a Panera. I was on the board of Panera. If you show up when you're supposed to show up three times in a row, you can be making 18 to 20 bucks an hour in about a month because you're going to get a taste for the flesh.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You're going to find out that money is amazing. And when you start making money, you start getting good at it. You start figuring out what are the behaviors They get rewarded for money. Where are the opportunities? And then when you find when you buy shit, it gets your greed glands going and you start thinking about, I'd really like to go on another date.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I'd really like to be able to buy my mom something. You get a taste for the flesh of money. The way you make a lot of money is by starting to make a little bit of money. No one starts off making a hundred grand a year. Most of us have had jobs where we're making no money. And then the third thing we're going to do is two times a week,
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
We're going to find ourselves in the company of strangers, in the agency of something bigger than ourselves. Church, nonprofit, a riding class. Homeless shelter. Any soup kitchen. In the agency of something else.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And here's what we're going to do after a month of that, where the exercise, this is kind of 3A, I want you to approach a stranger and express interest in friendship or, and this is a hard one, express romantic interest while making that person feel safe. right? Hey, do you want to watch the game this weekend? Let's go to the pub. Arsenal's playing Liverpool. Do you want to go?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Hey, would you like to have coffee? An attractive woman or a woman you're attracted to. She's not dumb. She realizes, okay, you're probably interested in her. And that's not the goal. The goal is the following. The goal is no. You're probably going to get a no. They'll be nice, but they'll probably say no, right? And I'm going to call you the next day and I'm going to ask you if you're okay.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And this is what you're going to say. Yeah, I'm fine. And that's the key. The key to success is no. Because you're going to realize, you're going to realize that the people who are successful, who have romantic partners, who have economic success, had a shit ton of no's to get to that point of success. This is the scariest stat I've read.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
They hit six American diplomats, taking enormous personal risk to get them out of the country, and then they stayed behind. And if they'd been caught, there's a good chance they would have been hanged by cranes. So the Canadians... are willing to hide Americans. They are really true friends.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
51% of 18 to 24 year old males have never asked a woman out in person. Think about that. They don't have the confidence or the skills to approach a woman and ask her out. That's it. The goal is the no, because you get enough no's, eventually you're going to get a yes. I can't tell you how much rejection I've endured from women.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And the reason I am with a really high character, hot person is because I got comfortable with no.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Thank you. We'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And right now we're in a situation where they don't even understand why we're trying to levy so much damage on their economy. So this post-World War II order that America has been sort of the leader in is being ripped up. And I don't think it's a good idea. The silver lining, I like to think what could go right. I struggle with anger and depression, so I consistently ask myself what could go right.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
What could go right is that possibly Europe is finally a union. And that is they realize their rich uncle has lost his shit. Yeah. There's no more trust fund. We cannot count on the $800 billion military umbrella and the economic... what I'll call consistency and rational thinking of America. And they are talking about increasing their defense budget from 1.9% of GDP to 3%.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And I think that stimulus, I think Europe actually coordinating because of the crisis around a lack of American leadership, The EU economy is $19 trillion. Russia is $2 trillion. Russia is actually smaller than Canada.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So there's no reason that if the EU gets its shit together and starts coordinating and increasing their military budgets, they shouldn't be able to push back on Russia all on their own. And I think that stimulus and also the spillover of technology might actually create an upward spiral of economic growth in Europe.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So I'd like to think the silver lining here is that some of the most advanced countries civilized democratic economies in the world and some of those robust economies are quite frankly getting their shit together. That Europe is a union for the first time in a long time.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I realized that if someone wasn't interested in me, someone didn't want to hire me, someone didn't want to invest in my company, I was going to be just fine. It didn't get in the way. I ran for sophomore, junior, and senior class president. I lost all three times. Based on my track record, I decided to run for student body president, where I went on to wait for it, lose.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Yeah, I think on the whole, this is not good for America and the West. And I would just want to acknowledge that Eisenhower, a general, war into the military industrial complex. He said, if you build privatized shareholder gains based on a war machine, you're going to invent reasons to need the war machine.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Having said that, I would argue that we on the left are sometimes naive about the fact that the moment some bad actors believe they can come for us and take our Netflix and our Nespresso away, they will. And that I actually am a bit of a war hawk and believe in a very strong defense.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I would also argue that just economically, two points, if you look at the most valuable companies in the world, whether it's Apple or Google, they're built on the backs of middle-class investments vis-a-vis the defense department. So GPS, which is what all mobile technology is based on, It was initially a technology developed for ICBMs to put them in the pocket of Gorbachev.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
DARPA, which is what the internet is built on, was made by an extraordinary investment meant to create a hubless communications network so we could communicate with each other after the Russians nuked us. So I would argue the military spending for the most part in the U.S., has been, I would argue, a net positive.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Now, that's not to say that it should any way rationalize entry into Southeast Asia or into Iraq. These are disastrous positions. Now, as it relates to, let me go to Ukraine. I think of a manager as somebody who's just supposed to allocate capital to a greater return than your peer group. That's their job as managers. The job of the president is he's the biggest capital allocator in history.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But recognizing no is not the worst thing in the world is the key skill. And young men, because of a low entry, low risk entry into relationships with bots or AI sex dolls or you porn, have decided they no longer want to tolerate no. That is the key. But I would suggest...
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I would argue that the decision to allocate $60 billion a year to Ukraine is one of the best investments that has ever been made in the modern world. In exchange for that $60 billion, to your point, We've kind of defanged the reputation of this supposedly ferocious army of Russia. It was five days and Kiev's fallen, right? That did not happen. We've taken out a third of their kinetic power.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
A third of their tanks and much of their Navy has been taken out. Also, Russia is not a good actor towards us. Their intervention or introduction to our economy is to steal our IP and attack us from a cybersecurity. So them being focused on a failed war.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
a defenestration of their quote unquote ferociousness, and also sending a signal to the world that when the West binds together, we are a formidable fighting force. And all of this was without a single boot on the ground from America. In addition, that $60 billion a year, somewhere between 70% and 90% of it, has come back to the U.S. to manufacture weapons, mostly in red states.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So for about 8% of our military budget, we are keeping a bad actor occupied, reducing their military kinetic power, and sending a message to the world that the West is a formidable backer of even a small motivated army. I think this is the best money we have spent in a long time.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think it's through numbers and data. In terms of the very real justifiable argument of like, there's a lot of problems here. We should be focusing all our capital here.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
The $75 billion in USA, the $60 billion in Ukraine, I would argue is nothing but a weapon of mass distraction to get you to look away from the fact that the tax cuts that Trump is about to implement will increase our deficit by $800 billion. And the problem is Democrats don't speak in language that people can understand. This is what a deficit is.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
A deficit is a tax on you and your children in 10 to 30 years. It crowds out investment in technology and education. They create more growth. It crowds out our ability to have programs for younger people. Basically, our debt, our entire federal budget is moving towards senior citizens. Forty percent of everything goes to people over the age of 65. Interest on our debt and the military.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So we can't make these forward leaning investments that benefit you. And you're going to have to pay it back. Not me. I'll be dead by the time we run out of credibility and the Treasury market fails.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
so all of this nonsense around let's not invest in ukraine usa bring the money home the dojo 2.6 billion dollars in savings so far according to the wall street journal if you want to 6x the savings from doja stop all subsidies to tesla So your job is to allocate capital. So I think the helicopter crash was DEI, Doja, only male and female, the gulf of cheaper eggs.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It's all a misdirect from the most irresponsible spending that we're about to incur. And that is you're about to incur a future $800 billion tax every year such that I can make more money. that essentially America has become about our fiscal policies have become the following.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Give me your credit card so I can be in the club doing rails and champagne, and all you get to do is pay for it in the form of deficit. $60 billion is a decent amount of money, but it's nothing like the $800 billion a year we're going to lose in deficit spending. I think USAID is an amazing investment for people around the world to feel good about America.