00:00:00
This was like deeply stupid. I mean, he's literally going industry by industry and at a minimum, he's putting
00:00:05
it into a state of paralysis. [Music] Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisser. And I'm Scott
00:00:18
Galloway. So, I've just returned from my grand tour of California. Oh, you're back already. I'm back. I took a red eye
00:00:24
last night just to get home for you so I could be in the studio and look. You're traveling too much. That worries me. Um, no. And you you received a library
00:00:31
laurate award and you were on Bill Maher. Which do you want to talk about first? Oh, so many things. I saw Robert
00:00:37
Rich. I I I did something for KQED for public uh media which was I was interviewed by PBS people and right when
00:00:44
in the middle of my interview Trump put out his executive order trying to cut funding for PBS and NPR. That was
00:00:50
interesting. Um, I then flew to Los Angeles and did Bill Maher which was really fun. which was which was interesting. And uh I gave you a shout out. Did you hear me give you a shout
00:01:01
out? No, but a bunch of people texted me that I you namechecked me and I watched
00:01:07
the episode. I thought you were really good. Also, I thought uh Speaker McCarthy was quite good and I thought
00:01:12
Bill did a really good job of Except for the woke woman thing at the end. But um but let me let's let's listen to woke
00:01:18
woman thing at the end. You mean the fact want to talk about it? I made a face and everybody noticed. Um but let's
00:01:24
uh let's he this It was stupid. He keeps going on about this woman on Love is blind. He's obsessed with her because
00:01:29
she rejected the man. Um, he just didn't like him. So, let's listen to me calling you out. But it's the idea that you're
00:01:36
the mad man theory. This idea that he's playing I know the 4D chess thing. I mean, as Scott Gallery on our podcast
00:01:42
said, it's like it's he's not playing 4D chess. He's eating the chess pieces and he and he's which is a good joke. I have to
00:01:48
attribute it to Scott. But I there's no point in being chaotic because businesses can't plan. They don't know what to do next. Even Kevin McCarthy did
00:01:55
enjoy that one. Eating the chest piece. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. That was No problem. Was got a good laugh. And we texted you. The most
00:02:01
important I know the most important thing is you look good. Yeah. Thank you. I know you said that. That was the like
00:02:07
What about what I said? What about the substance of what I said? Not to say. I I thought you you thread the needle
00:02:14
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
00:02:27
have that skill. I get angry and combative. Yeah. And it was good naturatured. I thought I thought I was
00:02:34
actually surprised to the upside by the speaker or speaker Emirita or Emiritus. And I thought Bill did a good job. I did not understand the Chichin Chong episode. Chichin Chong although they
00:02:44
were lovely. Let me They're fans of Pivot just so you know. Then they smoked afterwards as you might imagine. You
00:02:50
would have been quite comfortable. Yeah. out on the, you know, it's California and they're nice guys. Lovely. Lovely.
00:02:55
There's a lot of tension between Chich and Chong. I would say there's a little bit, especially with uh Chong. Chong.
00:03:01
Yeah, Chong seems mad at Chich sometimes. Anyway. Oh, really? Yeah. Chi is uh sort of younger seeming and more
00:03:09
like seemingly in charge. I can't tell. It's sort of like, you know, it's like being together as a as a professional
00:03:15
couple like we are. That's gonna be us in like Scott in like 20 hours. What are you doing? Um, but they were it was good. It was really fun. And then I went up to the San Francisco Public Library again and my theme of public stuff. Uh,
00:03:29
and uh and uh got the book laurate which was lovely. The San Francisco library. What does that mean though? I don't I'm
00:03:35
a laurate Scott. And so wait, insulting billionaires is now literature. What does that mean? What did you Yes, that
00:03:42
is correct. They love me there in San Francisco for insulting billionaires. Yes. in a beautiful way, in a beautiful
00:03:47
laureious way. PBS libraries. I mean, what's next? You're going like to some interpretive dance with Alan Alda. You literally could not be more woke. Yeah. Alan Alda made
00:03:59
appearance. He was delightful. Uh I mean, actually, last time I was in a library, I took my girlfriend in college
00:04:05
to show her that my dick was in the Guinness Book of World Records, and then the librarian made me take it out. Oh my
00:04:13
god. Although I have to say I haven't been in a library in a very long time that that happens to be a gorgeous
00:04:19
library but being in the stacks gave me the the feels you know hanging around in the stacks and sort of you know I don't
00:04:25
know I just have a lot of memories of the stacks as yeah I asked a librarian if she had a book about men with small
00:04:33
penises and she said well it's not in yet and I'm like that's the one that's the one. Why do you have library jokes?
00:04:40
One thing I have to say, a lot of people did stop me throughout California loving Scott and Cara. I have to say that was
00:04:46
really nice and saying we make them feel better in this very difficult time. There's a lot of like angst among people
00:04:53
and we we calm their angst down. I suggested Chichin Chong for that, but they they I tried to check out a book on
00:04:59
suicide and they said no. They were worried I wouldn't return it. Oh, that's wrong. That's just wrong. That's just
00:05:05
wrong. There's no good suicide. That's just wrong. That's wrong as usual. as usual. Anyway, it was lovely. It was a
00:05:11
lovely visit to California. I miss California. Did you go Did you go to any cool restaurants with cool hot people in LA? Uh, no. But I stayed I stayed at the
00:05:20
Edition Hotel briefly, which is Oh, what' you think of that? I keep thinking that I might stay there. I think it's too young for us. Yeah. I was like, what
00:05:27
is happening here? And it has all those sharp edges. I'm going to cut myself and bleed out on the floor. Sterile. And
00:05:32
there was a lot of like Actually, there's only one succulent. They were even they were even
00:05:37
chintzy with the succulents. Like you could only have one succulent. I like a I like succulents. But anyway, I like to
00:05:43
say the word succulent. Anyway, uh it was lovely. Uh but now I'm back in DC. So here I am. Congratulations on your
00:05:49
library laurate award. Library la Laurate. Book laurate is the technical term and you can call me Laurate from
00:05:55
now on. Anyway, we've got a lot to get to today, including Warren Buffett's surprise announcement, Elon getting his
00:06:01
own city, and whatever the [ __ ] President Trump is up to. He's done a a a a big public key he's all over the
00:06:08
place with all kinds of wacky announcements and some of them disturbing. Um first of all is the
00:06:14
president all presidents swear an oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution. They say it right when they get sworn in. But Donald Trump was
00:06:21
rethinking that promise on Meet the Press this weekend. It was a very wide-ranging interview with Kristen
00:06:26
Welker. Uh let's listen. Even given those numbers that you're talking about, don't you need to uphold the
00:06:32
Constitution of the United States as president? I don't know. Uh I have to respond by saying again, I have
00:06:39
brilliant lawyers that work for me. I don't know what he was saying. It came during a conversation about deportations. I don't know if he was
00:06:45
referring to the deportations or the constitution. It wasn't clear to me. Actually, also notable from the interview, the president continued to
00:06:51
blame former President Biden for the bad parts of the economy. And of course, he took credit for the good parts. He did
00:06:56
not rule out the use of military force to take Greenland again. said he would add uh and self-fund a ballroom to the
00:07:03
White House. I'm terrified of the gold situation. And he of course let us know that quote everything's okay," unquote.
00:07:11
Um some other fun things the president has done recently includes posting rebuild and open Alcatraz on truth
00:07:17
social and the president posted an AI image of himself as pope and the official White House account reposted
00:07:24
again on Instagram and X. uh many Catholics including they made some statements uh Catholic Catholic bishop
00:07:30
bishops and cardinals made comments. Um I I think it he's had quite a week. Any thoughts on any of these things? Well, I sort of go to I'm sort of done with,
00:07:42
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
00:07:55
our allies, that he doesn't stand on his own two feet, and he finds he takes responsibility for deporting US citizens to what are effectively black sites and then claims that he can't get them back.
00:08:09
So, lack of accountability like that, but then says he can. He also said he could. He wanted to. Well, but every
00:08:14
time he's faced with a hard question like, will you uphold the Constitution? He says, well, you need to talk to the lawyers. It's just and I'm I'm sort of
00:08:21
at the point now where I'm no longer um we know this is a person who's a stain on the American experience. the the thing that I find so fascinating and we're not focused enough on in terms of
00:08:33
being this force that's supposedly pushing back is that uh Democrats are less popular than the
00:08:39
president. And I I I think the hard conversation we need to have is okay, we all agree he's awful and a threat to
00:08:45
America and it's taken the global economy down and yet our leadership is so feckless, neutered, and ineffective.
00:08:51
They can't push back on it. And so what I would like to see is um leader Jeff or
00:09:00
Senator Bennett or someone who's you know Senators Clolobashar, I'd like to see them draft legislation that says if
00:09:08
you're a nation and you're hosting black sites and US citizens have been found to be uh incarcerated in those black sites
00:09:16
and you haven't returned them immediately and you're cooperating with this, uh we are going to economically
00:09:21
punish you severely. If you're a nation that is engaging in fraud around cryptocurrency or investing in schemes that ultimately hurt consumers around
00:09:33
the world, we may um levy the same economic damage in 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. Uh so
00:09:46
enough already. Like what are we going to do about it? I'm I'm kind of sick of reporting about how outrageous the president is. I want to see the
00:09:51
Democrats do something individually like Rahm Emanuel, there's a bunch that are sort of saying to get some muscle in
00:09:57
this. It's just it's not a coordinated effort. Doesn't Well, and also shouldn't there shouldn't there essentially be
00:10:03
legislation or a lawsuit filed that says the statute of limitations on some of the crimes I believe are being committed
00:10:09
are longer than 3 years and 9 months. And the justice system, similar to America, its memory is long and its reach is far. And for those of you Republicans who think that or members of
00:10:22
the administration or proxies of the administration who believe that you can commit securities fraud or uh wrongful
00:10:30
imprisonment, whatever you want to call this, uh God help you when there's an actual
00:10:37
DOJ, right? Because I I you know what I I think at some point the Democratic Party needs to be the party of not [ __ ] around. Yeah. And I think we're just being run over and And it's not our
00:10:49
popularity is lower than an insurrectionist right now. Uh not because we don't have the right ideas. Not because he's bad, but we're seeing it's just so [ __ ] weak. People would
00:11:01
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. Well, it sounds like they
00:11:08
don't want any of us. Really? That's the That's the That's a fair point. Yeah. Um you know, I was thinking as I was I flew
00:11:14
I flew on the red eyee last night. Uh, and I was thinking he'll pardon him. He was a part of the interview he said he
00:11:20
was sort of pushing at he was noting Rubio and JD Vance as the possible next presidents as Republican presidential
00:11:27
candidates and not himself. Um, but I was thinking he'll pardon himself on the last day for everything. Oh no, he's
00:11:34
going to party hundreds of people. But there needs No, but he's going to pardon himself. That's who he's going to pardon so he doesn't have he doesn't have to
00:11:40
face this stuff. But there should be all sorts of I just think we need to come up with creative ways and indicate that you
00:11:47
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
00:11:55
around just outraged just I agree like the out you know what our response has been my my the most ridiculous thing
00:12:02
I've seen all year Yeah. is when asked how uh they were pushing back. Senate leader Schumer responded with a strongly worded letter. Letter. Oh, Schumer's got to go. He's got to go. I mean, my god,
00:12:15
we need literally got mad. Pelosi got mad about the Alcatraz thing. It's a very good tourist attraction in a
00:12:20
national park. That's again another distraction. He knows it's never going to happen. Don't look at the fact I
00:12:27
agree. You know, don't look at the fact that my family Mhm. has has increased their wealth by $3 billion with a crypto
00:12:34
scam since I took president. Yeah. Or I I took the office. They're doing more with real estate and everything else.
00:12:41
Anyway, you're absolutely right, Scott. Oddly enough, I am actually going to California for a very brief trip uh next
00:12:47
week uh to talk to a whole mess of Democrats. You want to meet me? You want to come with me? We'll uh I I I'm in
00:12:54
Hamburg, Germany. That's kind of a that's not an easy flight for me. And I'm at I'm at the age where I'm trying to reduce the things that are bad for my
00:13:01
health like traveling across time zones all the time. I will I will channel you to them. I would I said I'll come if I
00:13:09
can yell at you. Yeah, maybe I'll talk to them. I said I'll only I can only come if I can yell at you. I did a zoom with a Republican Congress uh woman uh
00:13:17
two days ago talking about the tax status of universities and she wanted to talk about I had said about a year ago that I thought universities with an endowment over a billion that weren't growing their freshman class size
00:13:28
greater than population growth should lose their taxfree status because they need to stop being LVMH and start living
00:13:34
up to their mission of being public servants and letting in more kids and immediately a lot of Republicans have
00:13:39
picked up on that and said under the oposes of of revoking their taxfree status. And so I said to her, look, if
00:13:47
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
00:13:53
want to work on it. I've thought a lot about this. If this is nothing but a false flag such you can attack institutions that you see as um uh
00:14:01
advancing critical thinking, which lately has been bad for the Republican party. I mean, this this ridiculous
00:14:07
notion that they're revoking taxfree status because of anti-semitism. There is some real concerns around
00:14:12
anti-semitism across Ivy Leagues. This is not why they're doing that, folks. No, of course not. Of course not. The
00:14:17
whole thing is nonsense. Well, I I will say because I enjoy yelling at Democrats
00:14:22
about these things and I will just I'll just I'll continue to attribute things to you. That's what I'll appreciate that. Um I regret to inform you
00:14:29
something distracting. That Mark Zuckerberg is raw dogging life. The Meta CEO went on the Theo Vaughn podcast and
00:14:36
said he drinks coffee recreationally, which was strange enough, and that the DARE program really worked for him. Um,
00:14:43
we're we're going to leave all the awkward in uh for this one. Let's listen to the whole clip. It's so strange. You
00:14:50
drink coffee, man, or no? No. Really? Yeah. I mean, you you've had it. I have. Um, sometimes on vacation I'll drink it
00:15:03
recreationally. It's like every once in a while just like a Yeah. Just like a like a
00:15:08
celebration. Yeah. Really? Yeah. No, I I just like hate anything that messes with
00:15:15
like I don't I don't like any kind of chemicals or anything like that. Oh, really? So, you like to keep everything the equilibrium? Yeah. My sister gives
00:15:22
me such a hard time about that. She's like, "You're just sitting there raw dogging reality." Wow.
00:15:27
Oh my god. Does he know what raw dogging is? I feel like he doesn't. Yeah. I mean, again, that was it's clear he's
00:15:33
not he's pretty awkward. But what people missed was that, and this is terrible, is he's claiming that these new agents
00:15:41
he's going to put forward, these AI agents are going to solve loneliness. Yes. And I'm still stuck on raw dogging
00:15:47
that he doesn't know the meaning of it. Yes, this is the most important thing was that the three friends that people have three friends and therefore we're
00:15:53
going to replace them by um with AI bots essentially with AI and what you I mean
00:16:00
leave it to Mark Zuckerberg to be the villain claiming to be the hero. I love what you said that every accusation as
00:16:05
is a confession. Mhm. I mean this is an awful man who has taken absolutely no responsibility for the damage that he's caused. None. and he wants to uh further sequester us from one another not
00:16:17
recognizing how dangerous that is that y if you think about when you call he's doing us a favor I agree he had the tone
00:16:25
uh the awkwardness aside which was heavy here uh he had a tone of like I'm here to save you by giving you bots so
00:16:32
instead of having three friends you'll have three probably no friends and 15 bot friends which is pathetic and I get
00:16:39
I get mocked a lot for the quote unquote you talking about the the crisis of loneliness young men and you know well
00:16:44
if you're more lonely pull yourself up by your by your bootstraps and if you're only more emotionally you know in touch
00:16:49
with your emotions not having friends has so many ripple effects on the rest of your life it professionally when
00:16:57
Google puts out a job opening the person who almost always gets the job is someone who has an advocate internally
00:17:03
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
00:17:08
want to be put in a room of opportunities when you're not in it. Two, do you realize you're you're much more inclined to stay married when you
00:17:14
have a lot of friends because you have someone you can [ __ ] to about your partner? You're less likely to be depressed. You're much less likely to
00:17:21
make really stupid [ __ ] decisions financially. So money, marriage, professional opportunities are all
00:17:27
correlated to your ability to establish and maintain friendships. And so when you see on average, you know, men have gone from, you know, we now have we now have I
00:17:39
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.
00:17:45
That means that cohort of men is going to be less likely to have relationships, romantic relationships, less likely to
00:17:51
have professionally. So friendships and being mamalia, it really is an issue. It's I and again you have a bunch of
00:18:00
tech firms who are compensated to squester you from anything in the real world so you can spend more time in
00:18:06
their world so they can sell you more Nissan ads. Yeah, it's really that that was he just doesn't even the part that
00:18:12
got me and I I was at a an AI thing last night in Los Angeles, but is this idea and one of this woman who's a phil who is a sort of combined ethics issues and philosophy
00:18:25
and AI was like the thing is it didn't even occur to him to fix the loneliness problem in a way that included people.
00:18:32
Instead of this without any sense of irony, you know what I mean? like here's my solution for this and it's bad,
00:18:39
right? And and it's just there was no irony whatsoever of what he was saying that this was the way to go. Anyway, it's a really it was it was a very disturb I have to say I was disturbed by
00:18:49
every aspect and I thought this guy needs a PR person to get him to stop talking. Um but maybe it's good that you
00:18:55
see this or something else. But just he's gotten worse and more I would say twisted. I don't know what else to say.
00:19:02
It's so strange and awkward and breathy and laughing at his own jokes. It's really quite disturbing to me. Well,
00:19:08
anyway, he's awkward. You're allowed to be awkward. There's a lot of awkward young people. He's gotten to be something else. But go ahead. Go ahead.
00:19:14
Again, but that's a distraction from the fact that he keeps producing products. Yeah. They're going to make young people
00:19:20
more and more depressed and anxious and obese. And I guess I guess what I have to say is he really believes this
00:19:26
[ __ ] more than ever. I feel like like he really thinks he has all the answers. And I was a it was a tone of
00:19:31
voice. But we want to pathize these people. But again, let's move to solutions. The seven tobacco executives
00:19:37
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
00:19:43
addictive." When you are paid not to believe something or you are paid not to understand something, it is really you
00:19:50
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
00:19:57
see the world as it is. We need we need some sack in [ __ ] Congress to pass laws. I agree. Agree. So, okay, we probably shouldn't have AI
00:20:09
generated humanity and friends for people under the age of 18. We need to break these companies up. We need to
00:20:15
remove section 230 protection with AIdriven bots. So, if a kid who thinks he's in a relationship with Cersei from
00:20:22
Game of Thrones and he says, "Should I kill myself?" and she says, "I am waiting for you, my sweet." And then he
00:20:28
puts a gun in his mouth. Then [ __ ] that that that character AI gets hit hard. Instead, we want to run all these stories about how awkward and weird he is. Who gives a [ __ ] He's awkward now.
00:20:39
Now figure out distractions. Are you I like this. I like the very clear Scott. You don't want distractions. Enough of
00:20:45
this [ __ ] You're right. You're right. You love Laurate. Let's talk about someone that we all like. We'll go on a quick break and we come back. Warren Buffett is stepping down. What a legend.
00:21:00
Scott, we're back. Warren Buffett, the 94year-old Oracle of Omaha, is stepping down as CEO of Bergkshire Hathaway after
00:21:06
60 years at the helm. The surprise announcement shocked many shareholders, the company's annual meeting over the weekend. He's been aging and I think he
00:21:13
always knows himself well. Buffett named Greg Ael Bergkshire Hathway's vice president of non- insurance operations,
00:21:18
his successor. But he also said he'll hang around in a supporting role and plans to remain chairman. In addition to
00:21:23
the big news, Buffett weighed on what's happening with tariffs, saying trade should not be a weapon. He explained how trade can be misused. Let's listen.
00:21:31
Trade can be an act of war and uh and I think it's led to bad things just the attitudes it's brought
00:21:42
out uh in the United States. I mean, we should be looking to trade with the rest
00:21:48
of the world and we should do what we do best and they should do what they do best. You know, it just so sense we also
00:21:54
had a lot of stuff about kindness that was lovely. Um, as one Wall Street Journal, as the Wall Street Journal put it, there's only one Warren Buffett.
00:22:00
There will never be another. Um, I'm going to start talking about his legacy. I I was lucky enough to talk to him many
00:22:07
times and I'm hoping maybe one or two more times. Uh I one time called him because he was a very I called Burkshire
00:22:13
Hartway because they he wasn't doing any internet investing at the beginning and I wanted to know why when I was working the journal and I called and I got the
00:22:20
secretary and she said um and I thought she said can you hold please I said I have a question for Mr. Buffett, you
00:22:27
know, and I assumed I was going to get to the secret to the PR person. Phone clicks in and it's Warren Buffett. He's like, "Hi." And I was like, "Hi." Uh, and he we talked about the internet and
00:22:38
why he didn't invest in it. He later invested and made a spectacular investment in Apple. Uh, but um it was
00:22:44
really interesting and I ended up having dinner with him because I have a friend who's on the board and just as he's
00:22:49
really so sharp, so interesting, so lovely. Um, I met Greg Ael who also seemed terrific. Uh, obviously Charlie Munger who recently died. Uh, another great all the people around him are
00:23:02
great. I don't know what else. He just surrounds himself with really highquality common sense people. Um, and
00:23:07
a lot of what he said in this last appearance was just common sense about kindness, about trade. Whatever he says
00:23:15
seems so plain spoken. Um, you know, not everything he's done has been perfect, that's for sure. But I
00:23:21
just find this to be the kind of person you want to be leaders of leaders in society and it just so happens this guy
00:23:28
happens to be an investor. Any thoughts from you? Well, he revolutionized the world of investing in terms of buy and
00:23:34
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-in operations to CEO of Bergkshire
00:23:48
Hathaway. I mean, congratulations to Greg. Well, he was he was just so I this office, which is the simplest office
00:23:54
you're ever going to see. I I was surprised when I went there. There's not many people there. And that was a big
00:24:00
role, actually. Oh, he's been named as the heir. I'm I'm just saying from a title standpoint. I'm just saying that's
00:24:06
a pretty big shift in title. That's a much cooler That's a much cooler rap at a conference or at a bar. Well, I'm VP
00:24:12
of non-insurance operations. Well, I'm CEO of Bergkshire Hathaway. Those get entirely different responses. Anyways,
00:24:18
look, he the part of the the part of his speech which I watched which I thought was most powerful and which is totally
00:24:25
counter to the current administration and quite frankly what infects America a little bit is this notion that the
00:24:30
global economy is a win-lose and if you look at our economy since World War II we've 8xed our GDP we
00:24:40
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
00:24:46
best universities ities our household average household income has hit almost $80,000 which has vastly outpaced Asian
00:24:54
or European countries and this notion somehow that we've been taken advantage of and if we increase our prosperity it
00:25:01
has to come at the cost of another nation or if another nation's prosperity is going up it comes at our cost is just
00:25:07
such lame tired the most 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
00:25:19
work well because when people are doing really poorly abroad, to believe that you can protect your your shores and
00:25:25
your kids from that anger is just naive. You can't. And when people are much more prosperous, they're less likely a they
00:25:32
want to buy your [ __ ] 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
00:25:38
know what, I would like to declare war on that country because I think their extraordinary advantage has come at my
00:25:43
cost. So when you want to build prosperity across the oceans and the problem with this zero sum thinking that literally President Trump uh defines is
00:25:55
this notion somehow that we don't want other nations to do really well that it comes at our it comes at our cost. When
00:26:02
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. When other nations do well, we do really well. And
00:26:16
and he he just he just laid this out. He wasn't political. He didn't use the presidents. He didn't invoke the
00:26:22
president's name. But this zero sum gay marriage didn't come at the cost of heteronormative marriage. There's a very
00:26:29
dangerous trope in the manosphere that the ascent of women has come at the cost of men. It has not. Men are struggling
00:26:35
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
00:26:42
you want you want the world to prosper. You want your business. You want nations
00:26:47
you trade with. And if you look at it is just so obvious since 1945 if you had to
00:26:52
pick one nation that has done really well. A lot of people would say the ascent over the last 20 or 30 years of
00:26:58
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
00:27:09
Americans. Have we outsourced certain jobs and not thought about the people we were left behind? Absolutely. Is there
00:27:15
asymmetry of trade? But the fact that we're able to enjoy such materially wealthy or rich lives is in large part
00:27:21
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.
00:27:32
Whenever I go to Mkos or Abisa, I have noticed a lot of young kids from the Gulf are dominating
00:27:39
um 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
00:27:45
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. And he pointed that out so simply and so eloquently that we have to
00:27:57
exit this zero- sum thinking as as embodied by the Trump administration right now. Yeah, I thought he's just,
00:28:03
you know what, hats off to Warren Buffett. He's just classy guy. Terrific guy. Anyway, uh we're going to move on,
00:28:09
but Warren, good job. And I most delightful dinner. One of the most delightful dinners I had with well
00:28:15
really well-known people. He also ate much of my meal. I couldn't believe how much that man put away. And he's and
00:28:20
he's still walking around steak and bloom some onion thing, a bunch of potatoes. Anyway, uh it was a completely
00:28:27
enjoyable meal. Um and I was lucky I was privileged to have dinner with him. Anyway, um couple quick things. Apple
00:28:34
and Amazon reported earnings late last week. It was after we had talked. Um both companies had strong quarters.
00:28:39
Apple had $95 billion in revenue and nearly $25 billion in profit. Wow, what a juggernaut. iPhone sales were up too,
00:28:46
hitting almost 47 billion. Uh, Amazon had 156 billion in revenue and profit was 17 billion, up 64% though the cloud business is trailing Microsoft. But tariffs remain a cause for concern for
00:28:59
these companies who uh more obvious problems for these two companies than say a Google or Meta. Tim Cook said
00:29:05
tariff could cost Apple $900 million this quarter even with the company moving to manufacture most iPhones in
00:29:11
India. They're trying to do that. Amazon noted tariffs and trade policies and recessionary fears are among the range
00:29:16
of factors that could make guidance subject to change. Uh they were just signaling it. Um just for people who
00:29:22
know Jeff Bezos planned to sell up to 25 million shares in the company over the next year. Probably pretty typical these
00:29:28
sales that happened. This is a big chunk. Um, very briefly because I want to get to these Trump tariffs on
00:29:34
Hollywood really quickly, but thoughts on the on the results for those two. I thought Amazon had a great quarter. I couldn't get over this this Kyper thing. I think that's a big deal. Amazon's
00:29:44
probably most vulnerable to the tariffs because twothirds of their businesses in the US and obviously a lot of their products will be subject to the tariffs.
00:29:51
But, you know, these companies are just so well, you know, they're so wellrun. AWS grew 17% year-on-year. North American retail sales grew 8% which is
00:30:01
the slowest since the pandemic but it's still vastly outpacing any other retail or other big retailers and the stock
00:30:08
fell but you know right now I think the from the analyst community they look at Amazon as a cloud company with a retail division so they're really focused on AWS
00:30:21
and I I think the most exciting thing about Amazon right now is this is this Kyper Kyper and by the way it Kyper. I got called by the Amazon people. I completely It wasn't Cooper. It's Kyper.
00:30:33
You were right. You were correct. It's Kyper, not Cooper. Um, it's after U it's after some astronomer or something like that. I forget. I I should go look. Um, but we got it wrong. I got it wrong. Um,
00:30:47
but uh but yeah, I thought they were I think they're just still signaling. We don't know, especially Amazon and its
00:30:52
retail division. Obviously, Apple's going through all kinds of changes because of where they have to make things and pressures from the Trump
00:30:58
administration and, you know, just the cost. So, what's in Apple's favor, people are used to paying high prices
00:31:05
for Apple products. So, um this is not this is a little more price resistant. It's not like they're they're dealing
00:31:11
with um people that can't pay the extra kind of stuff, but we'll see. No, I was just going to say I thought Apple had the weakest of all of them and their sales were up 5% which beat expectations, but I I believe a lot of
00:31:23
that was frontloading and that is consumers thinking, all right, I keep seeing rumors of the phone going to
00:31:29
$2,300 with with tariffs and $3,500 was produced in the US. So, I thought a lot of people thought, well, it's time for a
00:31:35
new iPhone. I'm going to pull it forward. And I've been selling down and I've been very public about this. My Apple stake which I bought in 2010
00:31:42
because I think at a PE of 34 a company that is effectively not growing. It's priced as a growth company and the reality is it's flat and their big announcement was a another increase in dividend and share buyback which quite
00:31:54
frankly is the sign of a very mature company that does not trade at 34 times earnings meaning they're not going get
00:31:59
doing something and there's nothing you you use the word refresh. There's nothing that interesting really. And
00:32:05
also there isn't Apple intelligence which is sort of their attempted AI has been delayed again. So I I think Apple
00:32:12
is I think Apple does have a feel of a we've done so many hits we're done with the hits. Like you know what I mean?
00:32:17
Like I got to say I got to give it to them for their this this particular team which has been like I always call them
00:32:23
the the Rolling Stones, right? They keep going. But it feels like a little bit like I'm they should maybe have a new
00:32:30
fresh and refresh on a lot of things. Uh still that said they're a mustave for a lot of people including myself. So it's
00:32:36
an amazing product but but just looking at looking at it from a valuation standpoint let's look at earnings per
00:32:42
share growth right it's 10 to 12%. Microsoft is 12%. Uh they both trade at about 33 times a P of about 33 times. Alphabet is growing at 18% and trades at a P
00:32:57
multiple of 18. Amazon grew their EPS 30% and trades at a lower P of 31. Meta grew their EPS by 10% about the same as Apple and they trade at 22. And Nvidia
00:33:11
um 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
00:33:18
bottoms up fundamentals, if you look at growth in earnings and topline revenue relative to their valuation or price on
00:33:24
earnings, Alphabet is the least expensive and Apple by far is the most expensive. Yeah. Yep. I think that's
00:33:32
true. I think that's true. But they we'll see where they go. They certainly are doing better than most businesses in this country. Um some tariff other
00:33:38
tariff updates. Trump says he this one came out of nowhere yesterday. Says he's imposing a 100% tariff on movies. This
00:33:45
is not a distraction. This is strange. On movies made overseas, though it's unclear how that will work. By the way,
00:33:51
we have a trade surplus when it comes to movies. Just so you be clear, Netflix shares dropped 3% at the opening bells.
00:33:58
Disney, Warner, uh, Warner Brothers, and Paramount were also down. Uh this one I
00:34:03
just don't uh get and I'll get a couple more tariff things, but let me go through them and then we can comment on
00:34:09
uh Timu the Chinese e-commerce uh platform has stopped uh shipping products from China directly to the US and the executive director of the port of Los Angeles who knows from things was
00:34:20
on Bloomberg the other day breaking down what it means the chaos means for workers and more in the
00:34:26
riverations. Let's listen. The trucker hauling four or five containers today. next week she probably hauls two or
00:34:32
three. The dock workers are no longer going to see overtime and double shifts. They're going to probably work less than
00:34:38
a traditional work week starting right off the bat. Every four containers mean a job. So when we start dialing this
00:34:45
back, it's less job opportunities. And what happens if we get a deal? If we get a deal, it's going to take about a
00:34:51
month. Let me walk you through that real quick. About two weeks to get the ships repositioned around these major ports
00:34:56
from Chinga to Shanghai to Jia. load up all those containers and then another two weeks to steam across the Pacific to get to us. I mean, this guy's smart. He's got a lot of stats. He sees, you know, you can see it in real time. And
00:35:08
then, of course, the reberation just doesn't go to dock workers and it's truckers and it's that it just goes
00:35:13
throughout the economy. Um, the terrorist movie thing just I don't even how are you going to do? Most of Mission
00:35:19
Impossible is coming up, by the way. I'm so excited. Uh, Final Reckoning was made abroad. A lot of people there's a lot of
00:35:25
breaks in uh in England. They do a lot of stuff. There's a certain Canada um and and everything else to to save costs, but how do you there's movies
00:35:36
aren't things either. And and again, we have a trade surplus when it comes to to
00:35:42
movies going abroad. They also have big customers across the globe. That's another thing. A lot of their business
00:35:47
is not just uh here in this country. It's it's their global businesses. Um this one was just nuts as far as I could tell. I just I thoughts any thoughts?
00:35:59
Yeah, stupidity squared. More stupidity. We're a net exporter. One of the biggest
00:36:05
advantages we have as a country is that we're basically running a 24 by7 commercial on brand America called
00:36:11
Baywatch or the Fantastic 4. These movies generally reflect an aspirational view of America and the whole world consumes our media. And the notion that
00:36:22
I It's easy how this plays out. It's this exact same thing that happened with Apple is going to happen with Netflix. Someone is going to go, okay, if we
00:36:32
impose a 100% tariff on their movies coming in, which may be even more difficult to surmise than looking at automobile manufacturing where some
00:36:44
parts go back and forth across the border a half a dozen or a dozen times. This will be even more difficult because if you have an American Warner Brothers
00:36:51
film with Warner Brothers with American actors, American gaffers, but it's being filmed in Prague for tax credits, like
00:36:58
what? Okay, tell me how we tariff that. What do you tariff the tickets? What do you sales? The cost the cost of
00:37:06
production. I don't know. These are all really good questions. And then when Netflix, who consumers love almost as
00:37:13
much as Apple, start going, "Let me get this. I'm going to have to pay more at the box office and and for production.
00:37:20
They do things across the globe. For people who don't know, Netflix is he's going to send production and media
00:37:27
businesses into a flurry where they have to pause, stop, think through what is going on here. And then he will blink.
00:37:36
And then he will realize that when every European nation says, "Fine, if you want
00:37:41
us to put a 100% tariff on all of the media coming into Europe from the US, you want to see LA really take a dive." I mean, LA has basically lost most of its production business as it is. Down
00:37:53
26%. It definitely is. It's the cost. It's everything else. It's still very big there, but it's it's much less than
00:37:59
it was. But if you want to see I mean he's literally going industry by industry and at a minimum he's putting
00:38:05
it into a state of paralysis. Correct. Yeah. And I I've become pretty good friends with the guy who used to run Warner Brothers Europe. Basically, his job was to take Harry Potter and, you
00:38:18
know, Batman and come to Europe 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
00:38:29
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 I
00:38:36
need 14% royalties." We literally just suck money out of countries using our IP and he doesn't believe they're going to just say, "Okay, 100% tariff on any media coming in here." But on what?
00:38:51
That's the thing. It's like it's so someone who doesn't have a sense of how important this industry is and how much
00:38:57
well it's doing. It's just it this one is very dangerous especially these companies are sort of teetering a little
00:39:02
bit like are really trying really hard to get back on their feet with the you know with AI coming at them with
00:39:08
everything coming out with costs with unions with they've got a tough those people have a tough job now when it used
00:39:13
to all be gravy and him doing this and by the way most of them didn't know it I was at an event they're like what in the
00:39:19
actual [ __ ] was a lot of producers a lot they're like what is he tariff of what they just were utter confusion utter and
00:39:26
complete confusion and really stupid. Just actually stupid, which was kind of interesting. Um, just very quick thoughts on the ports and and these these things. Eric Schmidt, by the way,
00:39:37
had an op-ed in the New York Times worth reading noting between uh Teimu, Tik Tok, and Deep Seek China was pulling
00:39:42
ahead of us in in AI was sort of one of those typical tech people like China G or me kind of thing, but um worth reading. Anyway, any thoughts about these these this this slowdown that's
00:39:55
going to happen? And I interviewed Wes Moore today, uh, the governor of Maryland. Same thing with the Port of Baltimore, which is the other big port
00:40:02
where lots of stuff comes in. Yeah, this is a come before the storm. And I live in London, so I'm not I don't have a front row seat here, but my understanding is in about the next 4 to
00:40:12
12 weeks, you're just going to start to see things trickle through the supply chain and prices will go up and there'll
00:40:18
be some shelves that are empty. And Americans, Americans basically take their cues from their consumerism and
00:40:24
when they see empty shelves as they did in COVID, uh, the next thing they buy is a gun. They they get very freaked out
00:40:31
when the shelves are empty. And the notion somehow that American consumers won't respond, i.e. freak out about
00:40:38
shortages or prices going up. This is a nation that was essentially formed off of a rebellion when the price the tax on
00:40:44
tea was increased. Yeah, it's a whiskey rebellion. And we've had a lot of them on on products. It's always on products.
00:40:50
It's interesting. And and just Tim Teimu and Shien are responsible. I mean, in the holidays, 20% of all purchases
00:40:59
through the holidays were through either Teimu or Shien. Yeah. It's crazy. And all of a sudden, and Teimu based
00:41:04
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 that we know how to plan our business. Yeah. Scott,
00:41:11
you're only getting two dolls this Christmas, just so you know. Well, and just to bring this home, to bring this
00:41:16
home, I have my roommate my sophomore year in the fraternity. This lovely guy has that specialty products business. Um, everything you get at a conference.
00:41:28
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
00:41:34
have lying around. Nice little business, 180 employees, a family business. Built
00:41:40
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 He
00:41:48
doesn't have time to rroot his supply chain. About 80% of it comes out of China. He doesn't have time to reroute a supply chain through all of these other
00:41:54
Southeast Asian nations. And people 98% 98% of the businesses that uh are run or dependent upon import export are small
00:42:05
and medium-sized business. And here's the problem. They don't have any [ __ ] lobbyists. So let's go back to the media ter. checks, like you said, to pay it.
00:42:13
Say, yeah, they don't have the capital. Say, in fact, he does manage to implement some sort of tariff around
00:42:20
around our content. You know who will get an exemption? Netflix. Netflix. But the little
00:42:26
independent producer of a film or someone who makes little documentaries, they're [ __ ] out of luck. So this is yet
00:42:32
again this transnational oligarchy with a top 1% who have access, have lobbyists
00:42:39
and can get on his lunch calendar get quite frankly probably end up stronger in the small and mediumsized business which by the way folks create twothirds of all new jobs in America. They're [ __ ]
00:42:49
out of luck. I mean they're just and he I I could just hear in his voice. She's like he doesn't even know how to respond. He he doesn't know. Nope. Nope. This is the stupid This was like deeply
00:43:02
stupid. I was like, "Oh my god, this guy's an idiot." We have We have to move along. But um but it's it's really going
00:43:08
to it's not going to be good. And this one, it just shows the He's just moving from industry to industry. That's
00:43:13
correct. You're saying that. All right, let's go on a quick break. We come back, Elon gets his own town in Texas. Let's
00:43:19
make quick work of this. Scott, we're back. Elon Musk now is his own official company town after voters um in a small
00:43:25
patch of South Texas overwhelmingly most of them his employees approved a ballot measure to establish the city of
00:43:31
Starbase uh Mr. Potter. Oh, I mean Elon Musk. The new city covers about one and a half square miles, is home to SpaceX headquarters. Nearly all the residents are Elon Musk employees or family
00:43:42
members, and the first city officials are current or former SpaceX staff. Starbase has been described as looking
00:43:48
like the set of a science fiction movie with rows of near identical houses and a massive bronze bust of Elon Musk. I I
00:43:57
don't know what to say, but I'm going to add that he's been on a bit of a media tour this week trying to take victory laps of zero victories. He appeared on
00:44:04
Fox News with Doge worker Edward uh Cor I think it's Corestine aka Big Balls. I can't believe we live in this timeline. He spoke to journalists about the White House and talked about sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom, eating hogenas, and
00:44:17
also compared himself to Buddha. Um, in another Fox News interview, this one with Larara Trump. Oh god, the Oh god,
00:44:23
the the insider insiderness here is so grotesque. Elon responded to the Nazi accusations and comparisons he's faced in recent months. Let's listen. I've not harmed anyone in my life. They've also
00:44:35
called President Trump a Nazi, but he also is uh not a violent person. Um, and in fact has done a lot to prevent wars and stop wars. Uh, which is the very opposite of being a Nazi actually.
00:44:47
Right. He doesn't know history. Oh my god. How can we miss you if you won't go away,
00:44:53
Elon? That's my feeling. It's this is ridiculous. This is every bit of this. It's like he's he he made a disaster of
00:44:59
Doge. They are probably going to cost us more money. He's hurt people's lives. You don't have to you've harmed people
00:45:05
in your life. That's ridiculous. You don't have to kill people to harm them. Um this these the way he's setting up
00:45:11
these things show me he's not much of an intellectual in any way. And not that he cares, but um just the um I don't know
00:45:19
what to say. This is just so ridiculous. We're in the most ridiculous timeline and he needs to pipe down and and and
00:45:26
stop sucking up all the uh attention oxygen. I'd like to stop talking about him. Yeah. So, we're not we don't shy
00:45:34
away from highlighting that he doesn't acquit himself well, but I actually I actually like the idea of new
00:45:41
incorporated cities. Oh, do you? Well, just because I I I if you look at a basic the basic American dream, right, it's to meet somebody, get a good job
00:45:52
and someday afford a house. And one of the things I like about these initiatives, including the one that
00:45:58
those VCs were proposing in, you know, the inland interesting, too. I know it got a lot of push back. I like the idea
00:46:04
of kind of a free zone or a city where they could take manufactured homes and just build a [ __ ] ton of them without it being weaponized. I mean, essentially, one of the one of the problems uh for
00:46:16
this kind of nimism is that housing permits have been taken out of the hands of bureaucrats and put into the hands of
00:46:23
homeowners who once they own a home decide there should be no more homes. So, I actually like the idea. There's
00:46:29
some flo there's some developers in Florida. is a company town. That that's different. What you're talking about is very different than a company town,
00:46:36
which is what this is. This I mean the the whole notion of company towns has such a whether it's here or Ireland or
00:46:41
wherever the ma minds is has a very negative connotations of like one single person um controlling a town. I I have no problem with town creation and I
00:46:52
think that's a great or housing creation. This is a little different, but go ahead. Well, you know, there's
00:46:58
there's, like you said, there's company towns. I don't look, I I don't like the I don't like the man the town is focused
00:47:04
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
00:47:11
have capital. Hopefully, he'll build housing for his employees. I don't I don't This is This is like the least
00:47:16
offensive thing he's talking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay. Not a Nazi, Scott. He's not a Nazi. All right. One more quick break. will be back for wins and fails. Okay, Scott, uh some wins and
00:47:29
fails. Would you please go first? So, my win is uh Representative uh Tarico. I don't know if he's in the Texas House, but I saw his uh he did a speech. He's been fantastic on Texas schools. He he's
00:47:43
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
00:47:49
competition. 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 uh the
00:47:58
school my kids went to in Florida, which was a private school, a lovely school. And I don't doubt that some people would
00:48:03
be able to afford to go there if we gave them vouchers. But essentially what happens is you lose um wealthy
00:48:11
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
00:48:18
up being essentially just a tax rate giveaway for the wealthy who are already in private schools. And now you're going
00:48:24
to subsidize subsidize their tuition by $10,000 and take yet even more money out
00:48:29
of the public school system. And not only that, skim off the most wealthiest parents who it's not even just their
00:48:35
money, it's their ability because of their wealth to be engaged in the quality of that school. And he also
00:48:41
started talking about he had this great um uh session where he started questioning this law and how this law had um mistakenly referenced litter
00:48:53
boxes in schools. Let's play the clip. Are you aware that Governor Abbott said quote, "Kids go to school dressed up as
00:49:00
cats with litter boxes in their classrooms?" Sure. Are you also aware that when the governor was asked by the Dallas Morning News to name a single school where this
00:49:11
happened, he couldn't and Politifact called this a pants on fire false claim started by online rumors. Okay. I mean, this guy, he really brings um he's very
00:49:24
forceful yet dignified. He's a Texas state representative. I really think this kid is a comer. is
00:49:30
35 and he also um I mean this is just so it's so weird to to go out there and seb have the governor adopt this talking point that kids are dressing up as cats
00:49:42
and this is not only an attack on public schools but it's an attack quite frankly on the whole notion of transgender
00:49:48
because they they couch it in the notion that kids are are presenting themselves as all sorts of different things and
00:49:54
that public schools have gotten so woke and so weird that they're that if you say you present presenting as a cat.
00:50:00
They give you a litter box, which by the way, it's all a [ __ ] lie. It's not. It's such a lie. It's such a lie. What
00:50:07
most happens is like my son growled to someone and they're like, "Oh, a lion. I'm scared." That's how it works. Kids
00:50:12
in school, weird adults who think of it. But this kid, this kid's a comer. So, State Representative James Telerico, I
00:50:19
just thought he was so uh I don't know, dignified. I thought, God, can that guy run for president? The
00:50:25
other guy. Sure. Okay. Yeah. I'm I'm 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 through2 that doesn't critically think
00:50:36
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 just
00:50:43
again distraction distraction distraction constant and persistent distraction so you're looking at all the
00:50:48
stupid stuff um it's like network has come to life anyway there you go all right my fail is this whole maja
00:50:55
movement make America healthy again and this notion that it has something to do with vaccines or dies, all of that, you
00:51:02
know, well, not all of that, but just as the pill had massive amounts of estrogen in the 60s and 70s, and they've been
00:51:09
able to achieve the job of um birth control with lower and lower do doses of hormones. Vaccines have actually been able to do the same thing. They're just as effective with less of
00:51:20
quote unquote the with fewer antigens. the whole outrage around dyes. I understand our food supply and that it should be looked at um uh you know
00:51:33
meticulously but this again is nothing but a weapon of mass distraction from what is the real problem in health in
00:51:39
America and that is and that is you and I Cara will because we're in the top 1% of income earners we on average live 8 to 10 years longer than someone in the
00:51:50
lowest quintile because we don't have to work two jobs we have access we have access to working out we have access to
00:51:56
good food, we have access to good doctors, we have access to mental health. The the reality is life
00:52:03
expectancy is directly correlated to your income level. And unless we do something about income inequality, we're just shuffling chairs around on the Titanic. And if you look
00:52:16
at what's happened in our health care system, despite the fact our household income has gone up, our costs per
00:52:21
consumer have gone way up. Our life expectancy on average has gone down because people live in food deserts.
00:52:27
They can't get access to good food. They can't get access to exercise. They're sleepd deprived because they're so [ __ ] poor and working so much. All of
00:52:34
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
00:52:41
tax increase for the other 95%. So no matter what dyes or vaccines you try and demonize, until people in the middle
00:52:49
class and lower-inccome homes have the actual money to pursue health, these outcomes are going to get worse and worse. Very, very good way of putting it, Scott. That's excellent. All right,
00:53:01
I'll go. My win. Ryan Cougler with this movie center shows once again that original programming really does um the
00:53:08
original. Yeah. Can you can you tell what what is it or give it? It's it's a movie called Sinners. It's about vampires. It's and there's it's music and all kinds of things. But what I'm
00:53:20
more interested in is the deal he did with Warner Brothers where he got he got 25 he after 25 years he gets ownership
00:53:27
of the film's IP intellectual property. It's a huge achievement to do this. uh studios usually retain full ownership of
00:53:34
things and it he also has first something called first dollar growth where he growths um where he'll receive
00:53:41
a share of the film's gross ticket sales before any deductions a deal uh that let
00:53:46
me read this it was more common in the DVD boomer than it is and it's very rare to do this the the movie is about
00:53:52
ownership and autonomy in a racist society and so I just this guy is just um just such an interesting he made obviously Black Panther He made Fruit Veil Station where I first
00:54:03
noticed him. Obviously, that was um uh a really big a big note. People got noticed of him, but uh he's just an astonishing filmmaker. And I just think these deals he's making as a as a
00:54:16
creator of really new uh fresh um content in ways that are that are creative and interesting. I just think I just love this idea of him. Um I'm
00:54:26
looking at the box office right now of of Sinners. Um, so far this film, which didn't cost that much to make, has grossed $236 million worldwide. Uh,
00:54:37
fifth highest grossing film of 2025. So, it's just it's it's just doing it's impressing for its quality and everything else. Um, anyway, um, the other one that's doing well is
00:54:48
Thunderbolts. It's supposed to be lovely. A Marvel movie finally is delightful. Everyone tells me I should go see it. I haven't seen it. Um, so I I
00:54:55
feel really I just I don't know. I just feel like this guy's creatively incredible and he owns his IP and he's
00:55:01
going to own his IP and he's getting this like creators like him who are creative can outrun AI or anybody else
00:55:07
and I just feel I I just have a lot of regard for that. Um in the fail I a very good friend of mine died this week um in a very tragic fire. Um Jill Sole um
00:55:18
she's a singer. She performed at at at All Things D and Code many years. Uh just I've known her forever. She was
00:55:25
best known for the song I Kissed a Girl, which was was sort of a a song that got
00:55:31
a lot of attention way back when. Um, but she was an artist, an enduring artist, and one of these artists that
00:55:36
traveled a lot, did a lot, made a lot of money traveling, which is a lot of musicians make now. She did a show just
00:55:42
recently called um, [ __ ] Seventh Grade, which was funny about being a seventh grader. Wonderful. Such a creative and
00:55:49
entrepreneurial spirit, but also one of the kindest people I knew. Um, and just uh I I couldn't say enough good things about Joel Soil. She was kind and good and just always trying to be different
00:56:01
and interesting and trying new things. She did a lot of stuff where she would um do house concerts for people and all
00:56:09
kinds of things just to make it as an artist. She had an enduring career doing that and she she was just recently doing
00:56:15
incredibly well. And she was again in in Minnesota staying with friends and the house was on fire and she did not make
00:56:21
it out. um just a shocked 66 years old. Uh I just I took Louis to see and George
00:56:27
Han actually to see [ __ ] seventh grade. Um and we had a lovely dinner with her after at Vulca and just laughed the
00:56:34
entire time. She was a just a she was just a a ray of sunshine. I'm going to play a clip from a song that she wrote
00:56:41
called A Good Life from her cal her album. I recommend a lot of her songs. I've been pummeling people including
00:56:47
Scott with her songs uh from her album California Years. Let's listen. [Music] Bomb and the waves come roaring from the sea. 100 foot swells over Venice Beach.
00:57:09
Well, don't be scared and take my hand. We'll swim into the promised land. It was a good life. It was a good good life.
00:57:26
It was a good life. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for your loss. Thank you, Scott. You know, we got to live every day like
00:57:32
we're meeting with JD Vance. Anyway, uh good life. Let's have a good life, Scott. Uh we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech, or whatever's on your mind. Go to
00:57:46
nymag.com/pivot. submit a question for the show or call 85551 pivot. Elsewhere in the Cara and Scott universe, as I
00:57:53
noted, uh this week I talked to Maryland's Democratic Governor Wesmore, who's on the short list for presidential
00:57:58
candidates in 2028. Um on with on on with Cara Swisser. Let's listen to a clip where he talked about how Trump's cuts are impacting his state. We have over 260,000 federal employees in the
00:58:11
state of Maryland. We have over 160,000 federal jobs that are housed within the state of Maryland. So the what they are
00:58:18
doing, these are not glancing blows at Maryland. These are direct hits at us. These are direct shots that they are
00:58:24
taking at at my state and they're taking at my people. And so there is nobody who is experiencing this more than Maryland.
00:58:32
No one is no chief executive is experiencing more than me. And the thing I was very clear on uh from Jump Street
00:58:39
is that I will I I get the relationship between state government and federal government and I will work with anyone
00:58:46
but I will bow down to no one ever. Impressive impressive politician. Um we'll see where he goes. Um but it was a great interview. We talked about a lot of things including the the the Francis
00:58:58
Scott Keybridge and a bunch of other stuff. Uh so really interesting man and someone to watch. um and someone the
00:59:05
right-wing is very focused in on right now because he's he's a very appealing politician and young and vibrant. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe
00:59:17
to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday. Scott, read us out. Today's show
00:59:23
was produced by Larara Neon, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie Todd engineered this episode. Thanks
00:59:28
also to Drew Bros. Misso and Dan Shalon. Nishak Kura is Vox Media's executive producer of podcast. Make sure you
00:59:35
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
00:59:42
at nymag.com/pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things
00:59:47
tech and business.