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Pivot

GameStop's eBay Bid, AI and the Midterms, and Senate Prediction Market Ban

05 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.723 - 16.884 Scott Galloway

Support for this show comes from Ferragamo. This Mother's Day, Ferragamo presents their Things I Have Learned From You collection, where the deepest forms of love and elegance are showcased. Because these lessons are not formally taught, but rather absorbed through small, everyday gestures that define a lifetime.

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17.165 - 30.122 Scott Galloway

A celebration where style, confidence, and grace are naturally highlighted with everyday moments between a mother and her loved ones. Discover Ferragamo's Mother's Day gifting selection at Ferragamo.com or in-store.

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37.392 - 51.987 Kara Swisher

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52.287 - 67.109 Kara Swisher

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67.369 - 75.87 Kara Swisher

They're a company with a purpose, as refurbished tech has proven to have a significantly lower environmental impact than new stuff. Shop now at backmarket.com.

77.808 - 100.913 Scott Galloway

Support for this show comes from Harvey AI. The future of law is agentic, not just tools that assist, but AI agents that navigate complex matters. That's why Harvey created agents that can do the work from end to end. They build a plan, pull from the secure data sources, run sub-agents in parallel, and draft work product ready for your review. So you can delegate work and own the judgment.

100.893 - 129.473 Scott Galloway

Trusted by more than 60% of the AM Law 100 and leading Fortune 500 legal teams, Harvey is an AI operating system designed specifically for legal work. Harvey, AI tailored for law. Learn more at harvey.ai. Scott, stop making sense. Please stop. Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.

129.713 - 130.614 Kara Swisher

And I'm Scott Galloway.

131.254 - 132.516 Scott Galloway

So, where are you going in the Met Bowl?

Chapter 2: What is GameStop's $55 billion bid for eBay about?

1976.844 - 2000.977 Kara Swisher

I think that's what the AI guys are going to do. I think they're just going to create a ton of confusion around this and make it difficult to pass anything. And also, they have the money. My understanding is they've already pledged about a quarter of a billion dollars. And just for reference, leading up into the 22 midterms, Pharma spent- 26. No, I'm using 2022 just as a benchmark.

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2000.997 - 2001.719 Scott Galloway

Okay, got it.

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2001.879 - 2027.213 Kara Swisher

Crypto. But the pharma lobby spent 380 million, insurance spent 159, real estate spent 139. I think you're going to see far more than that spent by the pro AI lobby, I think it's going to be sort of, uh, they'll try to couch it as we're, we're for safety and children. We need to do this thoughtfully and the anti AI will be a grassroots and it'll be focused on data centers.

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2027.233 - 2045.084 Kara Swisher

They're environmentally damaging to us. They not creating any jobs and all they're going to do is send your already soaring energy costs even higher. Um, so I, it's going to be, it's, it's going to be an interesting It's going to be an interesting proxy for how people feel about AI and technology.

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2045.464 - 2060.112 Scott Galloway

I don't know. I feel like it goes back to the Bezos thing. Nobody likes them anymore. They have become villains. They are villains now. No matter how much money they spend, people are like, I can't tell you how many people come.

Chapter 3: How did Ryan Cohen's CNBC interview impact GameStop's stock?

2060.132 - 2073.369 Scott Galloway

Scott, really interestingly over the past week, People have come up to me and said, thank you to you and I for being at least critical in a smart way, like very, you know, not just screaming about it, but explaining it.

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2074.149 - 2097.372 Scott Galloway

I just feel like these are villains now, and they can spend as much money as they want, but I don't think it's going to, I think people in their heart feel very nervous about it and very, very distrustful. And I know it doesn't correlate with how much money, like Prado, was, but the story is about corporations fucking you, tech companies fucking you. That's really what it's about.

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2098.172 - 2118.471 Scott Galloway

And I think, and it did it in a very subtle way, but they've got, I'm not so sure it's going to work. And the same thing with these, the prediction markets, as much as they're interesting, everyone's got a little funny feeling about them. I mean, obviously the Senate, nobody in the Senate should be on prediction markets if they have information. Or trading stocks. Trading, well, both.

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2118.511 - 2142.467 Scott Galloway

You're right. And predictive action is even worse on some level because it's like, let's bet on death, essentially. And it should be the White House. It should be the House. It should be all of them. It's not free speech. You have unique information. You're there for the public service. And while you're there, you're not going to be gambling, essentially, which is what I think it is.

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2142.447 - 2161.654 Kara Swisher

Look, there's two issues here, and we'll come back to this. One is how the general public feels about AI and how the brand has eroded dramatically. And then there's, in my view, we should follow the Singapore model. An entry-level minister earns the equivalent of $800,000 and 1.7 million US for a prime minister.

2161.714 - 2184.284 Kara Swisher

The objective of our elected representatives, the incentive should be you are there to make Americans wealthier, not to enrich yourself. And what Americans see right now around AI is the following. It's making a lot of people a lot of money, but the only thing I see is risk peril, according to these guys, and my electricity costs are going to go up. So I'm supposed to like this.

2184.404 - 2192.595 Kara Swisher

Oh, and by the way, the ultimate poster child for tech in this age is Musk. Yeah. And he does not acquit himself well.

2192.655 - 2193.396 Scott Galloway

No, he does not.

2193.376 - 2218.993 Kara Swisher

So it used to be Gates who was a little bit awkward. It used to be and then went on to, I think, get very concerned about public health and developing nations. Steve Jobs at a minimum was likable and seen as a visionary. The new spokespeople for tech, are Musk, Altman, right? I don't even think Bezos, he's kind of left, no? Don't you think he's kind of left the stage?

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