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Pivot

Pope Leo’s AI Warning, UFC at the White House, and CBS Shakeups

29 May 2026

Transcription

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

0.031 - 3.219 Kara Swisher

You know, you could call me for free and I would probably do a better job.

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3.239 - 6.388 Unknown

You're not available. And by the way, define free.

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9.977 - 15.07 Scott Galloway

Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisher.

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15.117 - 17.08 Unknown

Where am I?

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Chapter 2: What are the Enhanced Games and how do they differ from traditional sports?

17.1 - 19.002 Unknown

I'm Scott Galloway. Sorry, jet lag is what I am.

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19.022 - 23.929 Scott Galloway

Scott, how is your tour going? I've gotten reports from the Castro about you. You were in my neighborhood.

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24.149 - 27.514 Unknown

Yes, I was in what is one of the most beautiful new theaters.

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27.534 - 31.138 Scott Galloway

Isn't it? Oh, my gosh. Gorgeous. Yeah. It's not new. It's really old, and they just renovated it.

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31.158 - 55.158 Unknown

Renovated it. Excuse me. Yeah. Recently renovated. It's great. It was sold out. A couple of my role models were there. David Ocker, whose course I teach now, who's 88 and changed my life. Deeds Brand Strategy at Haas. The chancellor of Berkeley who was there, who let me in with a 2.27 GPA. My sister, my niece, my nephew. So it was a nice night, as I often do.

55.298 - 69.82 Unknown

And talking about the AIDS crisis in the 90s, I started crying. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, the Castro Theater, a straight white man with erectile dysfunction crying. Yeah, that sounds about right. Oh, and the marching band. The marching band was there.

69.981 - 93.853 Scott Galloway

My lawyer, Jesse Berg, sent me. He loves Pivot, and he said it was really fun, and it was really good. I'm sad. Louis could not go. My son lives a block, two blocks away, essentially. Yeah. And he was working. He's a chef, and so he had the evening dinner shift. There you go. He was sad, but he wished you well. So how's it going? Where are you going next? What's your next thing?

93.873 - 114.717 Unknown

Well, I'm here. I'm back. I only went up for the show. I'm back in LA, and that's my favorite place to visit in the world. I describe LA as the world's most successful failed nation state. I think of it as peak capitalism here. There's more billionaires in LA than anywhere else but New York, but meanwhile, 75,000 homeless. Yeah.

114.697 - 132.807 Unknown

And it feels like, I would say it's a town built on delusion, but delusion and creativity can sometimes create a lot of shareholder value. Yeah, yeah. And I just, I absolutely love Los Angeles. I think it's, you know what it's turning into, Cara? What? What is it turning into? It's turning into San Francisco and that now everyone shitposts Los Angeles.

Chapter 3: How does Pope Leo's encyclical address the risks of AI?

352.928 - 358.173 Scott Galloway

And so it's a really, it's a, anyway. So are you appearing in Los Angeles tonight? Is that correct?

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358.193 - 360.375 Unknown

Oh, yeah. We have Ted Sarandos as our guest tonight.

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360.535 - 361.196 Scott Galloway

Great, great.

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361.216 - 363.278 Unknown

We've got about 30 friends from UCLA coming.

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363.298 - 365.279 Scott Galloway

Good. Are you sold out in Los Angeles?

365.339 - 378.111 Unknown

No, I think we're about 90%. We're sold out in San Francisco, in New York, about 90% in LA. It's a big theater. Also, I think LA, people do last minute, and there's so many distractions here.

378.131 - 381.915 Scott Galloway

Yeah, yeah. Are you in the same theater, which we did sell out for Pivot? What was it?

381.963 - 393.616 Unknown

No, I think we're at the Wiltern. Is that right? Does that sound familiar? Then I go to Vancouver Island for a speaking gig. Then tomorrow, I take the Red Eye to Miami, and we're on Miami Saturday night.

393.977 - 395.378 Scott Galloway

That'll be fun. You love Miami.

Chapter 4: What are the implications of Trump potentially merging Tesla and SpaceX?

854.024 - 872.635 Scott Galloway

This is like this, I don't, and I don't think it works as much anymore with people. Um, it's, it's deeply insulting. It, it might work in Texas. I hate to say it. I think they've The Tallarico people should take this very seriously because Kamala Harris didn't with the trans stuff that worked really well in the election, and it might work in Texas.

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872.956 - 893.059 Scott Galloway

But they're trying to, you know, paint him as gay. I think that's what they're, where's the girlfriend? I think that's what they're intimating. Trans, is he trans? He's a soy boy. You know, this is all like, and what I think about, it's so grotesque because I'm like, these are all men over 50 or whatever. I don't, I mean, Stephen Miller looks over 50, even though he's younger.

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893.039 - 918.22 Scott Galloway

But this is this, like, name-calling, bullying bullshit that is not part of being a man. Any men I know that I think are decent men. It's fine if people want to do this. When I was a kid, I went to fights with my grandfather and went to wrestling matches. He was a promoter, and he loved it. So I see the entertainment and everything else in it. But the...

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918.2 - 932.528 Scott Galloway

The soy boy trans thing that they're pushing on Tallarico is so, so ugly and toxic. And unfortunately, it does work at some point. I don't know if you think it'll work in Texas, but it might. It certainly could.

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932.648 - 954.236 Unknown

Yeah, I think there's a fairly large distinction between a sanctioned sport where it's a lot of men in top physical shape I don't like it. I don't enjoy watching it. But I think that that is a legitimate sport. It's a huge sport. It's, I think, arguably one of the most successful sports of the last several decades. It's a well-run sport, creates a lot of economic value for many of the fighters.

954.476 - 975.745 Unknown

So I think in a bipartisan way, you can say that the UFC serves a purpose and is successful. The ugliness around Tallarico is not only that one, It's not true. But two, to assume that loving an accusation that someone is gay or trans is supposed to be negative.

976.246 - 986.564 Unknown

Young people are people that if you call someone that, your opponent doesn't call you something unless they're trying to say to the world, that's a negative.

986.584 - 989.449 Scott Galloway

Right. Absolutely. No, no. A hundred percent.

989.429 - 1005.529 Unknown

And I hope at some point people regurgitate on things like that and say, quite frankly, it's, you know, someone we used to call in college, you used to call people fags to say this, to be gay is to be bad. It's an insult.

Chapter 5: How does the UFC event at the White House reflect on current political culture?

2136.743 - 2151.779 Scott Galloway

I definitely use it for some things, but I tend to use, I use all kinds of search services, but it's not only through Google is all I'm saying. It used to be only through Google. And I like the simple box. I feel lucky box. I've always thought it was fine, but I see why they're doing it.

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2152.24 - 2167.584 Scott Galloway

At the same time, a lot of people are like, now they're never going to link to anything but what they want to link to. They've just sort of ended it for most people using Google to get to say, media websites or whatever you're looking for. So that seems to be a shift.

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2167.744 - 2188.734 Unknown

I think it's a smart, bold move. I think they've been accused, when you risk what is arguably, or do any tweaks, the temptation around what is the most profitable, largest toll booth in history is When you risk, there's just probably so much momentum to like, guys, don't fuck with it. Don't change anything. So I think it's actually a pretty bold move.

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2188.774 - 2192.279 Unknown

And I do find when I do Google search, those AI overviews are actually quite helpful.

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2192.479 - 2194.643 Scott Galloway

They've gotten better. They were bad and now they're good.

2194.663 - 2196.225 Unknown

You said that. You said you like them.

2196.746 - 2197.868 Scott Galloway

I do.

2197.848 - 2218.35 Unknown

So I think it's the right thing. They have to respond, they have to push back. The reason why Alphabet was such an incredible buy trading at 17 times earnings last year was the market believed that open AI and AI queries were an existential threat to search, that it was going to become the new search. And what we're saying is they're both growing like crazy.

2219.052 - 2224.885 Unknown

But I find that I do oftentimes go to Cloud instead of Google.

Chapter 6: What is the significance of the DOJ's investigation into E. Jean Carroll?

3899 - 3918.281 Scott Galloway

Alfonsi said the exit is, quote, a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting. She added, sends a chilling message across the entire newsroom. And by the way, Sharon's not the only one. Anderson Cooper, stepping out the way he is not usually, leaving a few weeks ago saying, I hope 60 Minutes remains 60 Minutes.

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3918.301 - 3942.449 Scott Galloway

He also was sending sort of a shot across the bow there. I just want to call these two excellent journalists of 60 Minutes. And Sharon's a badass. I don't... I know her... just met her on text, actually. And Anderson, I think, has done an amazing job. So these are two really, really great journalists. And I predict that they will do just fine. But good for them for speaking out.

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3942.469 - 3966.537 Scott Galloway

And especially good, there was a student who won an award at the Emmys last night, which was named a scholarship for Mike Wallace. And he delivered a blistering attack on supporting these two journalists and supporting others like them. And I thought that person was incredibly, it's very hard to speak out. And Anderson and Sharon and this young student did so.

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3966.577 - 3975.467 Scott Galloway

And I really, you guys will do just fine. Anderson particularly, but in general, good for you for standing up. That's all I have to say, prediction.

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3975.487 - 3991.95 Unknown

I think it's a really interesting, it'll be a really interesting case study in organizational behavior and management classes in business school. And that is corporations continue to fall for the notion that if they bring in a small company they perceive as really innovative, that that small virus is going to affect the entire corpus.

3992.15 - 4011.556 Unknown

And generally, almost always what you find is that the corpus rejects the virus. It's like acquisitions work when the acquiring company has the scale and distribution or capital to help scale the small innovative company, but to believe that the innovation is going to infect the larger corporation or corpus almost never works out.

4011.576 - 4013.358 Kara Swisher

That's an interesting story. That's an interesting point.

4013.378 - 4030.976 Unknown

So let's give the free press the benefit of the doubt. Innovative little company, subscription-based, interesting positioning, and the Ellisons thought that's the kind of mojo and juice and infection we need at this larger, somewhat encephalitic corpus called CBS or Paramount. There's been Oregon rejection.

4031.196 - 4051.157 Unknown

Also, what CEOs of smaller companies fail to recognize is the following, and it's the reason why I've never been able to grow a big company to small companies, and that is, a small company is ready for our aim. The person at the top really does get to make swift, crisp decisions. I am the decider. This is the way we're going.

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