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Resist and Unsubscribe: Scott Galloway’s Plan to Hit Big Tech Where It Hurts | Pivot

January 30, 2026 / 59:06

This episode of Pivot covers economic strategies for activism, the upcoming release of Epstein files, and personal finance tips from Vivian Tu. Scott Galloway and Cara Swisher discuss the implications of a national economic strike and the role of big tech companies in social issues.

Scott and Cara address the recent updates on the Epstein files, noting that the DOJ expects to release them soon. They emphasize the importance of public pressure on government actions and the potential impact of economic boycotts.

Financial educator Vivian Tu shares practical tips for listeners, including adjusting tax withholdings and the benefits of shopping local. She stresses that sustained economic boycotts require a collective effort to be effective.

The hosts also discuss the significance of consumer choices in influencing corporate behavior, particularly regarding companies that support ICE. They outline a strategy called "Resist and Unsubscribe" to encourage listeners to reconsider their subscriptions to major tech companies.

Finally, Scott announces his new website aimed at promoting economic activism, while Cara reveals her upcoming CNN show, "Cara Swisher Wants to Live Forever," focusing on longevity and health.

TLDR

Scott Galloway and Cara Swisher discuss economic activism, the Epstein files, and personal finance tips for impactful consumer choices.

Episode

59:06
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The way you want is the most impact with the least amount of sacrifice. Make it easy and also maximum impact.
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>> Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast
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Network. I'm Cara Swisser >> and I'm Scott Galloway. >> Before we do anything, I'd like to point
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out that as of this episode drops, it's been 42 days since the deadline passed
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for the DOJ to release all the Epstein files. Though, we do have an update. DOJ officials said in a court filing this
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week that they expect to release the files quote in the near term, but they did not provide a specific date. Pam
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Bondi, get on it. Scott, after Sunday's bonus episode about the violence in Minnesota, we've gotten a mountain of
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responses to our discussion of the economic strike that you suggested. I know you're working on something and
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we'll talk about that in a minute. But first, here's what some of our listeners
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had to say. I'm seeing online some suggestions of people stop paying their income tax by updating their W2.
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>> I and many of my colleagues are watching with sadness a lot of anxiety and anger
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at the escalating violence and I keep wondering what if anything people outside the US like me can do that's
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actually useful. Reportedly, Vanguard, Black Rockck, and Fidelity hold half of the shares in two companies, GEO Group
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and Core Civic, which run nearly 90% of ICE detention facilities. If investors divested from these collaborators and
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others, could that put a stop to ISIS's worst abuses? And given a lot of you
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have been writing in wondering what you can do personally, we asked financial educator Vivian Tu, host of Net Worth
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and Chill, uh, to give some tips on how to make an impact. Let's hear what she
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had to say. Hey Scott and Cara, heard you guys were talking about an economic blackout. I've got a couple personal
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finance tips. For our friends with a lot of financial discipline, you could consider changing your W4 withholding
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for your taxes. You'll pay fewer taxes throughout the year and then pay them
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all in one lump sum come tax time. You're not going to get to pay fewer taxes overall, but why let the
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government hold your money and do stuff with it for longer than they need to? Make sure you are taking advantage of
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time value of money. Up next, everybody talks about shopping local versus corporate, but another thing you can do
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is pay in cash. These local businesses often times might even give you a small discount for doing so because then they
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have to give less up as well. Wink wink. And last but not least, for the economic
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blackout, money that you aren't spending on buying stuff, make sure you're
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putting towards a really smart strategic cause. Things like paying down your debt
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so you aren't so heavily tied to financial institutions, but also causes that you care about that might support
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things like immigration or human rights. The main takeaway is this. Economic boycotts do not work if a small
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population stops spending cold turkey for one to two days. What we're actually
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going to need is a critical mass of people to scale back their consumerism over weeks and months. And even if they
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can only do it to 70 or 80% of their ability, that is going to have a bigger impact.
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>> Scott, you should know Vivian's upcoming book is called Wellend Endowed. I
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thought you'd like that. Um, but you what? This has taken over. >> She did not interview me. She did not
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interview me. >> So, tell me you tell me what what we talked about this a lot of people were
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talking about it. Go for it. Well, last night I was about to make love to my sweet, sweet lady and uh she put my
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penis in her hand and then it was dark out and she said, "I'm sorry, don't
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smoke." >> Um, national economic strike. >> Okay, great. You stepping on your penis
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there, Scott. Go ahead. uh my bluff has been called here and that is uh I think that America feels a lot of anxiety
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around its government not providing security and prosperity but terror and anxiety and I've thought a lot about
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this and if you look at where Trump and the administration respond they don't
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respond from citizenry co-equal branches of government or even the Supreme Court
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where they do respond really crisply is uh from markets and within 24 hours he backed off tariffs annex in Greenland,
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um pressure on interest rates, tariffs, when one thing has happened, the S&P has
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gone down or the bond market has started to get wobbly. So then the question becomes if that's the fastest blue line
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path to getting ice out of cities or to putting in more protocols or or just flexing that we're watching.
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The fastest way to do that, what you want is the most impact with the least amount of sacrifice from the cit
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citizenry >> to make it easy. make it easy and also maximum impact. I think not buying
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groceries is not a lot of impact because these companies are very low margin. Uh
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they're not companies CEOs that he listens to or cares about. So I bifurcated into two types of companies.
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What I call ground zero. Big tech controls 40% of the S&P. They are growth companies that are very very highly
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valued right now. So any any slowdown in growth could potentially have a disastrous effect on them. So that's
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kind of the soft tissue of the economy right now and where our consumer economy, which is 70% consumer spending,
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could have the greatest impact with the least amount of effort. So I've listed a
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series of big tech companies and um launching the site uh probably on Sunday. >> What's it called?
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>> Uh it's called uh Thank you for asking. in doubt. >> It's called It's called Resist and
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Unsubscribe. So, if you like what we're saying, don't like and subscribe. Resist
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and unsubscribe. I've also got the URL >> um uh unsubscribe February because to
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Vivian's point, it can't be one day or a week. It has to be sustained and there
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has to be a viral component to it. So, the companies in what I call ground zero are Amazon and I have instructions on
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how to subscribe from Amazon Prime, Audible, Amazon Music, Prime Video, Anthropic. You could pick what you want,
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right? You could >> Well, hopefully all and not only that, I don't want to tell people what to do and
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what not to do. People have different means point. Yeah. >> People have different means and ideas on
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how they can participate. And I'm not going to tell anyone to not buy groceries or not show up for work, but
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if you want to have the biggest impact possible, I've tried to identify those
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companies. Disney, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Open AI, Uber, and Meta. And >> and then you've given the argument why
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why what they've done. So you can decide what you think is acceptable or not.
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>> The reason why I I really do think this idea is so powerful is you get a couple
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free gifts with purchase. Not only do you achieve the quoteunquote economic slowdown, but you have an outsized
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impact unsubscribing specifically from these companies that are driving the market right now.
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>> Two, it just so happens that the majority of the CEOs this of these companies have been especially
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sickopantic and >> played a really large role in enabling all this [ __ ] Whether it's Tim Cook
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showing up and prostrating himself with a Melania documentary, whether it's Amazon greenlighting a $30 million um uh
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documentary that made no [ __ ] sense that was just pure grift or bribery, >> whether it's uh uh obviously meta,
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whether it's Satcha Nadella sitting there and trying to communicate to people, I don't like it, but I'm going
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to continue to do it. Just want to remind everybody that back in the early 30s, Hitler's rise was largely enabled
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by corporate CEOs who basically said, "If you destroy our trade unions, we won't speak up against this democratic
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slide into fascism." And once it got out of hand, it was too late for them to do
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anything. So, we have been to this place before where people used the excuse of shareholder value to enable and and
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basically not provide any friction to what is the type of terror. question because I think a lot of people want to
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decide like one of the things that's good is we're Scott's I've seen some of
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it is going to give you information to make your own decisions. For example, with me I got rid of arcade. I got rid
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of the one thing I got rid of >> not buying an iPhone >> not buying an iPhone. So
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>> canceling Apple Music, whatever it might be. >> Yeah, whatever. But if you want to do
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that and keep Apple Music, like we don't we don't judge you. It's just here's
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your the tools, right? Here's the tools. Stop doing Prime. If maybe if you don't
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want to cancel Prime completely, you can stop buying on it for like people should
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decide. >> People should decide what to do. And it's not forever, by the way. It's not I
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shall never use it again, right? Like orange juice people still drink after the boycott of Anita Bryant. That's 100
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years ago, kids. Um, but that's what you're trying to get at is giving people
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tools on does it have links to where you where you can do these things or just >> name of the company, all the different
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services you can unsubscribe to, a link to where you unsubscribe, the unsubscribe page, and a brief
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description of why we're doing this. So, the the ground zero is big tech companies. And also,
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>> the truth has a nice ring to it. I'm going from two LLMs to one. I don't need
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Anthropic and Open AI. I'm going and this is the one that hurts. I'm going
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from six streaming platforms to one. I'm not giving up on all streaming platforms, but I'm going to pair it way
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back. And the free gift with purchase here, when you start looking at this stuff,
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>> I found out, for example, I have three HBO Max accounts. I didn't realize I had
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three. >> It's not a bad idea to take some time to think where am I just spending money
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every month, >> unbeknownst to me, where quite frankly, I probably could pair back a little bit.
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So there's the ground zero. That's the big tech companies who will have an
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outsiz impact on your your absenteeism. By the way, the most radical act in a capitalist society, hands down, is
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nonparticipation. Yeah. >> And then the second group of companies I list is called the blast zone. And these
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are companies that are directly working with uh ICE. AT&T awarded 90 million to
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provide ICE with IT and network projects. Comcast, Charter Communications, Dell Technologies,
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Deote, FedEx, Palanteer, UPS. I list how you can how you can leverage your economic muscle against them and what
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how they are participating. You may decide that this is you know not for you or it's too big to give up. But I'm
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giving you a ton of options. There's ground zero outsiz impact and then there's the blast zone that is companies
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directly working with them. And I want to be realistic. >> I am not going to give up telco but I've
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switched to mobile from AT&T. I'm going to go from five streaming media platforms
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>> to one. And I think you can have a lot of impact here. I'm trying to make it as
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social as possible >> and hope that people join in. But I think if we're looking the for the
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lowest tax way on citizenry >> to get the administration >> to um to pay attention. It's about
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markets. It's not about ideology. It's about math. >> And it's about not participating. And
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it's the easiest thing I could come up with to have an outsized impact. We had
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a lot of stuff about people not knowing what to do and maybe they don't want to
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go to protest or fly to Minneapolis if you don't want to do that or you don't
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want to just sit around and doom scroll and activism. This is this is an one of the many many many ways. And I think
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it's great that you're doing this, Scott. Good for you. What streaming service did you keep?
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>> Oh, I can't say. >> But I I was I was talking I had we had a you know one of those family meetings.
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Yeah. >> I don't want to play favorites. Um >> um uh because I've already heard from
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some of the CEOs of these companies. is already out. And they're, by the way,
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they're not thrilled about this. >> No, they're not. I've gotten some
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>> I've got some that was the only that was really aha moment. We had a family
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meeting and I said to my kids, we're going to cancel it all streaming streaming media platforms. And I
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literally got that look like memo to self, smother, dad, and sleep. >> So I said I said we can keep one and
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it's only for February. >> Yeah. >> And there's a huge argument because one
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kid's into Premier League football and that's Paramount Plus and the other's
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like, Paramount Plus, are you [ __ ] high? I mean, and it just caused a near riot.
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>> See, that's the I had a discussion with one of my children about Apple Music.
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I'm still in the middle of the discussion about it. I was like, >> "Oh, yeah." So, they're like, "Okay, I'm
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off Apple Music, Amazon Music, but they're keeping Spotify." It was interesting consumer preference. It came
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down to Netflix or HBO Max was the two we distilled down to, and I won't tell
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you which one we picked. >> All right. Okay. >> But it's interesting to think about how
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you prioritize. >> It is. I was surprised by the push back from one of my children. They're like,
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"Wait a minute. All my list." I was like, "Oh, you know, but anyway, you
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have those discussions. It's actually then it ended up being a really interesting discussion about economic
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boycotts and what you can do." So, it's a great opportunity to talk to your kids
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and your and your spouse or whoever about the economic choices you make in life in general. Anyway, to be clear,
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the site isn't up today, but uh but Scott will let us know over the next couple of days. Um, and we will know
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activists around the country are calling for no work, no school, and no shopping
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today on Friday, uh, January 30th, urging people to stop funding ICE. There'll be lots of activities like
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that. But not just Scott Galloway, the great economist Scott Galloway, but Robert Rice is talking about this idea.
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It's really catching on the idea of it. Um, and it's well beyond just a temporary thing. It's like show you take
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a minute and look at your life and what where you're putting your money and your
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money is important. Anyway, I have an announcement now onto me. Yes. >> Guess what? We've named my show on CNN
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that is coming in the spring. I can't say the exact day. Well, it's called
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Cara Swisser Wants to Live Forever. >> What do you think? >> Uh, I think the tagline should be, "Oh,
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fuck." >> Is it really Cara Swisser Wants to Live Forever? >> It is. It is. It's called Cara Swisser
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Wants to Live. >> What if you have a stroke in the middle of the night? >> It's brilliant. Don't you think? That's
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what Amanda said. Amanda said that, too. like she's like, "Oh, well then it would
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more people would watch it, right?" >> I I would I think it should be what if
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we live what if we live forever question mark with Cara Swisser. I would I wouldn't make it.
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>> Oh, well, it's already done. Done. Done done. >> Oh, well then I love it. I love it.
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>> I love it. Anyway, well, let me just say, let me just very briefly say for
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far too long the longevity space has been captive. This is the idea behind it of rich tech bros, jack dude
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influencers, nonsense sellers of useless supplements, and some lady who sells candles that are named after her private
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parts. Uh, sorry, Gren, but you started it. Uh, well, after >> she's lovely, by the way.
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>> I know. I know you talked to her, but I'm taking I'm there's a new sheriff in
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town. After enduring endless conversations over the years, how to live forever. I can't tell you how many
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dinner parties I've been in with tech bros telling me all manner of things, none of whom are doctors. I I want in
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except I'm going to show you the way for the rest of us. It will be grounded in
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science and facts about the best and most affordable ways to stay healthy, happy, and smart. Also, I took ketamine
00:14:19
so you don't have to. And Scott takes a nap in it, just so you know. That's
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that's what's coming for you. So, >> um, so a couple things. One, I think the
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market was screaming for another person without medical training to tell us how to live our lives.
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>> Excellent. Uh, >> I think that's what the market was telling us.
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But I talk to experts unlike some of these people. >> I talk to experts. >> I talk to But this the second thing is
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an honest question. Say you're not >> I I'm all over this [ __ ] cuz I have I
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now have too much money and too little time. >> Never noticed that you like to focus on
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your health. And >> I'm way too into this. And uh so the question I would have is assume you're
00:15:01
an average income household. You know, 80 90 grand. >> Yeah. maybe living in a city, maybe
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doing a little bit better than that, and you have insurance, but you don't have a
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ton of money to spend on the stuff. What are the two or three biggest learnings around changes in lifestyle that you
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would recommend to just >> the average American? >> I'd be happy to. It's just, you know,
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it's only six episodes. Maybe we'll have another season because there's so much
00:15:25
stuff out there and there's so much bad stuff, by the way. >> I was hoping it was five. I'm sorry.
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>> Car Switcher wants to live. Yeah, >> Fisher wants Everyone else wants this
00:15:36
series to end. >> Anyway, um that's okay. You can make fun of it. I love I love it. Um uh I say I
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would say well obviously the main thing about longevity is don't be poor. Like I
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hate to say that, but that's it. It it matters a lot. >> Well, that's good advice. That's not
00:15:52
going to make anyone feel bad. >> But I'm just longevity is now going >> make more money. That's the same advice
00:15:57
I've gotten from every girl I met at the Four Seasons Bar. Make more money. So,
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one of the main things, oddly enough, you know, sleep is important, obviously, diet and and exercise are important. And
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there's lots of things, you know, that everybody understands, fermented foods,
00:16:12
um, uh, stuff like that and eating. Um, you know, the protein debate has gotten out of hand. There's too much advice to
00:16:18
eat too much protein, but those are like around the edges of saving you minutes of your life. I think one of the things
00:16:23
I took away was one there's amazing stuff going on around cancer research using AI cancer and also mobility like
00:16:31
robotic stuff where people are going to be outfitted and the the addition of AI is going to change drug discovery cancer
00:16:37
research every it's like astonishing that is really gene editing all that stuff is really moving fast and that
00:16:43
will make a big difference in longevity or at least health span right that you'll live longer and not die of these
00:16:47
terrible diseases the second one is G this is the science part GLP-1s Scott I I think you had one of the early people
00:16:53
to this, but the benefits around uh just obesity is what >> I think it's a miracle drug.
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>> It's a miracle drug and every doctor we talked to talked about this and it now
00:17:03
has followon advantages and so you know in very small amounts too and and that's
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>> talk about micro doing people I know I know a bunch of people do micro doing
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GLP-1. >> Yeah, I'm gonna I'm going to start doing that related to my stroke actually which
00:17:18
is interesting. So um so anyway, so there's there's there's a lot of around
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GLP1's really important and everyone vaccines and mRNA vaccines. I I know they're controversial, but they're not.
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They're they're they're going to have a vaccine for cancer. There's that kind of
00:17:34
stuff is really amazing. But I have to tell you the abs and there's all you know all that other nonsense, the red
00:17:38
lights, none of that works really. Like some of the stuff you do doesn't work,
00:17:41
but fine, whatever. >> Can I go through the stuff I do and you tell me what you think?
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>> Okay. I didn't do everything so I may not have an answer, but go ahead.
00:17:48
Testosterone therapy >> probably good for you. >> This is that thing they did with Peter
00:17:53
Atia. Um, red light. You don't No, you No, >> there's no scientific
00:17:57
>> vitamins. A vitamin supplements. >> Some of them. Some of them and some not.
00:18:02
Like a vitamin D, a vitamin K. Uh, some of the E super EPA stuff. Yes. Creatine.
00:18:08
Yes. Some of them ridiculous. >> I do creatine every day. >> Yeah, creatine is very good. What else?
00:18:13
>> What about um NAD? Either infusions or the pills? Most people just think
00:18:18
there's no scientific yet yet not not to push them out. Not to push them out, but
00:18:23
you know, peptides is a big moment here, but unfortunately a lot of people are using them uh ineffectively or
00:18:28
dangerously. >> But is there evidence that peptides might have? >> We don't know yet. We don't know. Not
00:18:33
yet. Not yet. That's a like there's a lot of stuff like we'll see. It's just
00:18:37
how you use it and how it's deployed. Like in the beginning of GLP1s, a lot of
00:18:41
people were getting shitty compounds and getting really sick, right? So don't do
00:18:45
compounded these things. compounded. So it's it's a matter of the one that is
00:18:50
keep going. Go ahead. What else? >> Masturbation. Great. >> Uh cold sauna or cold plunges or sauna?
00:18:57
>> Sauna. Hot sauna. Yes. Cold plunges. There's a lot new science show may be
00:19:01
really problematic on people. Although I know all the bros love it. Um but there's all these these issues around uh
00:19:08
the shock and and different things. Hot sauna is absolutely one of the things. Let me tell you the number one thing
00:19:13
both scientifically and and both causally and uh correlation is friends and family
00:19:20
>> 100. >> I want to I want to come back to that. So next one getting plowed by six hockey
00:19:24
players and rethinking everything. Just rethinking everything. Cara is that good
00:19:28
for my health. >> It is good for your health. Just be careful. >> Just rethinking.
00:19:32
>> But you you mentioned the one thing the only thing I would add the the the
00:19:36
absolute key to longevity. You just you just referenced it. Mhm. >> key to good health and longevity,
00:19:42
relationships. >> Relationships 100 a million%. And related to that is the use of social
00:19:49
media and synthetic relationships. Lack of friction wrongly. Lack of friction for your brain. Brain
00:19:56
plasticity. Play games with people. Do different things. Talk to people you don't know. It has real health effects.
00:20:03
Argue. You and I are going to live forever because of our relationship. You know, I'm just saying that's it was
00:20:08
really surprising. The number one thing and I'm not trying to be like all be
00:20:11
have be friends. Talk to people you don't know. Do things that challenge you. Um be involved in the community.
00:20:17
The more you are in the uh online space with synthetic relationships, the quicker you're going to die.
00:20:23
>> Anyway, I interviewed Timothy Snyder yesterday, the guy who's the protest
00:20:27
expert, >> and we were talking about and I challenged him. I said, "Are protests
00:20:31
the new door knockocking?" And that is they're losing effectiveness. And he
00:20:34
pushed back really solidly. He had a couple really strong points. He said, "One, when people organize, it creates
00:20:40
an infrastructure for other activities." He said, "What's happened in
00:20:42
Minneapolis, people organize and then they get a database of people, they figure out how to communicate with each
00:20:48
other, and they've been turning out on a dime to observe ICE raids. And a lot of
00:20:54
that is because the infrastructure that's been built through protest." And
00:20:58
he also said something very powerful, very simple. He said, "You feel better
00:21:02
when you do something with other people." And it was so simple but so puncturing. You feel better when you do
00:21:08
something with other people. >> Yep. And it's good for your health as it
00:21:12
turns out. It's very good for your health and it's great to bring back community. And again, neuroplasticity.
00:21:17
Anyway, uh moving on. We've got a lot to any We're very excited. Scott's site.
00:21:21
What's the name of it again? >> Resist and unsubscribe or unsubscribe February. If you like this idea, don't
00:21:28
like and subscribe. Resist and unsubscribe. And also, please post. I'll be posting my receipts
00:21:34
>> ideas. >> Please post your own ideas, your own receipts. If you've unsubscribed from
00:21:39
Amazon Prime for the month or whatever it might be, please post it to your social and try and drive people to the
00:21:45
notion of >> resist and unsubscribe. >> Yes, you can do something. And mine is
00:21:50
Cariser wants to live forever. >> There you go. >> Only Megan Kelly thinks that's not a
00:21:54
good thing. Anyway, moving on. We've got a lot to get to today, including big
00:21:57
tech earnings and major social media trials going on. So, let's dig in. White
00:22:01
House borders are Tom Hman. He of the Baggo Money just gave a presser in Minneapolis a little while ago, noting
00:22:07
he's on the ground to quote regain law and order. It's Tom Tom says he's made a
00:22:12
lot of progress since he got there like 3 days ago. This follows Trump saying he
00:22:16
would deescalate a little bit earlier in the week, but the violence hasn't stopped. Uh Representative Ilan Omar was
00:22:22
attacked with an unknown substance at a town hall on Tuesday. It's the latest
00:22:26
instance against a member of Congress, Representative Max, while Frost was physically assaulted at Sundance last
00:22:31
week, and both are Democrats, just so you know, and quite uh more on the liberal end of everything. Meanwhile,
00:22:36
the two federal agents who shot at Alex Freddy have been put on administrative leave. Border Patrol Commander Greg
00:22:42
Bovino has left Minnesota, but Homeland Security uh Secretary Christy Gnome is hanging on to her job for now. She's now
00:22:48
there's a lot of pictures of her her and a head of lettuce going on three quart
00:22:53
and that there's a lot of infighting in them in the between and among all those
00:22:56
people. Threearters of House Democrats are backing her impeachment and a couple of Republicans in the Senate are calling
00:23:01
for ouster Tom Telis who's leaving doesn't give a [ __ ] anymore has finally
00:23:05
found his balls. Uh what do you make of the changing of tact and also note Amy Clolobashar has just officially
00:23:11
announced her bid for uh Minnesota uh governor. Your thoughts? >> Oh, it's interesting. I didn't know that
00:23:16
that Senator Clolobish is running for governor. I think that's a great idea.
00:23:20
Um I think you know I've called this before and I've been wrong. I do think
00:23:23
this is a turning point and the >> when I was in high school, my mom gave me a bunch of John Irving books, you
00:23:30
know, the world according to Gar. They made me just feel a lot better about myself when I realized everyone else is
00:23:35
[ __ ] up and neurotic and having weird thoughts >> and it had a big impact on me. One of
00:23:40
the books that also had a big impact on me was George Orwell's 1984. I think in
00:23:44
some ways it kind of might be the reason I kind of went down the progressive path, but there's a line in there and
00:23:51
I'll get it wrong, but it's basically and the last act of the government was
00:23:56
to ask us to ignore or deny our our what we saw and what we heard that basically
00:24:04
all of a sudden the government had gone to no longer trust your faculties of observation. Just
00:24:10
>> it was the last and most important. >> There you go. Thank you. And you always
00:24:14
have to one up me. >> I'm just saying I >> Why does Cash want to live forever?
00:24:18
Anyways, so >> so I can be with you. >> But down. Yeah, there you go. Now we're
00:24:23
like that stuff your corpse and have it next to me like I'll just like a like a
00:24:28
>> I'm doing taxiderermy. >> Yeah, I'm doing taxiderermy. Go ahead.
00:24:31
Go ahead. >> That moment that literally that quote just popped into my mind when Christy
00:24:36
Gnome or Secretary Gnome got up. Right. We generally have these Judeo-Christian values and I imagine there are also
00:24:44
other other religions. I don't mean to limit it, but that says when someone dies, you don't desecrate them.
00:24:50
>> And when she got up and was so disrespectful of Alex Pratty and then also claimed he was a domestic
00:24:57
terrorist. >> Yeah. >> And that he was there >> and that he was there to massacre he was
00:25:02
brandishing a weapon and was there to massacre federal agents. >> I think that was Steven Miller. That was
00:25:07
a moment where I thought, "Oh my gosh." I've never seen I've seen people spin
00:25:11
[ __ ] I've seen people exaggerate. I've seen them lie. But I've never seen the
00:25:15
administration feel confident that it could just look people in the eyes and say, you know, ignore your faculties of
00:25:21
observation and trust, just believe what we say cuz we're saying it. That for me
00:25:27
was that felt very weird and chilling and like a turning point. And I think if you look to Americans's credit, the
00:25:34
majority of people and a lot more Republicans have said, "Okay, this has just gone too far." And you know how far
00:25:39
it's gone when all of a sudden when all of a sudden a guy who took $50,000 in a
00:25:43
brown lunch bag feels like the adult in the room that people are relieved that he's there.
00:25:48
>> I know because when he said regain law and order, I actually think he's
00:25:50
probably talking about the cops themselves or these these border patrol people with the masks. Um, I had a, let
00:25:56
me just say, I had a very interesting discussion with my mom, who of course I've turned her to CNN because she
00:26:00
decided Caitlyn Collins dresses well and she likes it and thinks she's adorable.
00:26:04
>> I think that's a good reason to watch these people. >> So, uh, one of the things that was
00:26:08
interesting is she she did not like those things, you know, that and one of the things that bothered her was the
00:26:13
meanness. It was, even though my mother can be very mean, um, she didn't love
00:26:18
it. Um, and she one of the things I'll tell you, she zeroed on the masks. Why
00:26:22
are they why are they wearing masks? And I said, "No, police don't wear masks."
00:26:25
>> That was the first time judges that put away cartel. >> Yeah. She was asking a question, you
00:26:31
know, and I was like, "Well, because they're private police and they want to
00:26:34
hide." And she's like, "Well, they're worried about people knowing who they
00:26:38
are." I said, "Yes, because of the things they're doing." And so, uh, it
00:26:42
was an interesting conversation. >> Think about how ironic it is. We're now
00:26:45
deploying and coordinating unbelievable firepower and assets in Iran or in the Gulf claiming that okay, we need to do
00:26:53
something because the government is executing people in the street. >> Yeah.
00:26:57
>> Well, our government is executing people in the street. >> That's correct.
00:27:01
>> So that irony granted, it's not on the same scale, but that irony is not lost
00:27:06
on >> No. No. Let me point something out. They're headed to Ohio to do this with
00:27:10
Haitians. Let me They're not stopping. They raided a an election site, try to
00:27:15
pretend that the election was stolen in Georgia. Very dangerous. Um they're they're they're going to do this thing
00:27:21
in Ohio. These people aren't going to stop. I just don't I know we're like ah
00:27:25
finally we've got him. This guy finally we never get him. Whoever's controlling
00:27:29
him and I think he's not from what I understand he's doesn't work very much
00:27:33
during the day. Uh someone high up in the Trump administration told me he works 5 hours a day. Um, so they're
00:27:40
another 19 hours is someone else. Um, and so I think that that they're going
00:27:45
to keep going. They're going to go they have Steven Miller has no shame and they
00:27:49
will go to Ohio. Um, and and JD Vance has talked about this. When I think about this on a metal level, I think
00:27:55
about the Trump administration and MAGA, a key philosophy or cornerstone is that
00:28:00
they believe if we could just turn back the clock and go back to ' 50s America
00:28:04
where white people and males were largely in charge of everything that this would be a better place. And
00:28:10
they're just uncomfortable with the browning of America. They're uncomfortable with more progressive
00:28:14
values. They're uncomfortable with women's rights. And they just want to
00:28:18
take us back. And it's almost sort of poetic is the wrong word, but ironic. Renee Good and Alex Pretty. So, okay,
00:28:25
what do we have here? I mean, it's just so I don't know if you've noticed this.
00:28:29
We have, and I don't want to be reductive, but I'm going to be really lovely
00:28:35
gay parents and a male ICU nurse. It's almost as if they said, "How do we find
00:28:42
what represents the future and push back on it in the most heinous way possible?" I mean, these two people in a
00:28:52
lot of ways and I's ability to sniff out really good people. There was a story
00:28:56
about Renee Good and her partner >> the day before circling the school block
00:29:01
two or three times cuz their kid struggles with social anxiety and waving at the kid to make the kid feel more
00:29:06
comfortable. >> The sendoff, the the video you found of >> of Alex Prey. I mean, this these were
00:29:13
these are really good. They're not only really good people, but in a weird way,
00:29:18
I look at them and I think that's the future of America, and that's what MAGA
00:29:22
hates. >> Well, they will keep going. And let me just say, they they do in particular,
00:29:26
let's not take the focus, they are they have been targeting people of color,
00:29:29
like the immigrants who are hardworking. Uh they're going for the Haitians now.
00:29:34
Um the people they're trying to weed out are are very hardworking. >> Well, I think this was accidental or not
00:29:41
strategic. They didn't say go find a white ICU nurse. Yeah. But doesn't it
00:29:45
find you as is doesn't it strike you as just very ironic and almost like out of
00:29:49
a play kind of? It >> it does. The picture that got me the most was that that kid I think he his
00:29:55
his parents were 5-year-old was just like his parents are immigrants and >> uh that got me the most. I have the hat
00:30:03
and then them sitting they're just they're so um inhuman uh that it's
00:30:08
really the visuals are quite something. Now, there have been visuals before, whether it was the attacks during the
00:30:13
civil rights era, if you remember the dogs and the and the hoses on on people of color um down in the south or and
00:30:21
then there was, you know, the the Vietnam photo of the girl running. >> I was just thinking of that corpse
00:30:28
moment, the one the one the the child dead on the beach. There's a lot of very
00:30:34
strong. Yeah, there's a lot the this is coming at you so hard. That's what I was
00:30:39
talking about this week is that um but speaking of photos and impact, Tim Cook is finally speaking out in Minnesota
00:30:46
calling for deescalation. Thanks, Tim. Um it's like as as bland as the quinoa
00:30:50
you enjoy. Um after facing a backlash for attending the White House, Melania premiere uh the same day as Alex Prey
00:30:57
the shooting. Um Cook noted in an internal memo that he had a good conversation with the president where he
00:31:01
shared his views. Sam Alman also weighed in telling Open AI that ICE had go was going too far. I think though he said
00:31:07
President Trump is a very strong leader and I hope he'll rise to the moment and
00:31:10
unite the country. Both of them had to compliment Trump and spent very little time talking about the victims. In fact,
00:31:16
not at all. Um so very uh very I think weak sauce responses uh from uh and then and Almanaged to get a slap in at
00:31:26
Zuckerberg at some point in one of his statements. um talk a little bit about this because it's I'll tell you
00:31:34
internally at Apple it's crazy. People are really furious. I can tell you that.
00:31:38
Um from talking to lots of Apple employees and all levels of this company and you know I think of all the
00:31:45
companies it's really interesting. Apple feels the most betrayal if you if you
00:31:49
look online at least and I know that doesn't represent everything but it certainly is not a good look for him to
00:31:54
be standing next to Brett Ratner who has his own issues. Um, and uh, and in a tuxedo with the white it just the whole
00:32:03
thing. By the way, no one's ever going to see this. Melania, one of the more
00:32:06
enjoyable things is people showing pictures of theaters that sold zero tickets. Um, because Amazon, why aren't
00:32:12
they more mad at Amazon who paid $40 million, spent $35 million marketing this, and there were two there was
00:32:18
several Amazon executives at the event. But what do you think about this? I think we love Apple. That's why, right?
00:32:24
I guess. I don't know. >> I think Tim Cook is the new Bob Iger. and that is he's going to take an
00:32:29
incredible career and put a giant, you know, [ __ ] stick at the end of it. I there is an unfortunate but necessary
00:32:40
lesson in life around the intersection between your participation in time and other people. And that is the last five
00:32:46
minutes are the most important five minutes. When you're at a party and you're leaving, do your best to be as
00:32:52
[ __ ] charming as possible and go around and say hi. And there's that famous study where they're giving dudes
00:32:58
colonoscopies and one is just 45 minutes and the other's 50 minutes but the last
00:33:02
five minutes they don't move it around so it's not as uncomfortable and the men
00:33:06
who had the device inside of them for 50 minutes it was much more pleasant because all they remember is the last 5
00:33:11
minutes which was not that unpleasant. When you leave an organization when you quit or you've been fired you swallow
00:33:18
everything and you could not be more [ __ ] charming because that is how they will remember you. Shockingly,
00:33:23
that's how I lead places. But go ahead. You think I How dare you? >> Or just on a more serious level, if
00:33:31
you're getting divorced >> Mhm. >> do everything you can to be as gracious
00:33:35
and generous as possible on the way out. Even if it means taking some lumps, being treated unfairly.
00:33:42
This this is if you've been married 5, 10, 40 years, everyone, your partner,
00:33:49
their parents, your friends, your kids will remember who was the bigger person. And Tim Cook, unfortunately, he's been
00:33:58
an amazing CEO. And I also agree >> from everyone I know that from everyone
00:34:03
I know that knows him, including you, I don't know them, they say he's a good
00:34:06
man. But here's the thing. This will be this this small period towards the end
00:34:11
of his tenure where he shows up to the White House for a ridiculous premiere where he says he can't wait to spend
00:34:17
time with Melania when he shows up with a with a a handwritten disc drive and literally just is a sickopant to the
00:34:25
president and >> in the statement adding adding the the president. >> That's how he's going to be.
00:34:30
Unfortunately, >> you didn't put that in. Not this time. That to me I was like, "Oh, come on.
00:34:35
Leave that out that one sentence. I just talk what was what did you call our relationship with Apple in that book
00:34:41
when I met you? >> Uh Google is God. You know you pray to it ask it for an answer comes back with
00:34:46
something. Amazon is your gut. Never consumption you know more for less. Uh Apple is your genitals. When you the
00:34:55
billion people have iOS are the most attractive potential mates in the world. It's the most subtle way of saying you
00:35:01
should have sex with me. >> Well, I would I would argue more so. You love I love people love Apple like
00:35:06
>> incredible product. >> No, but they have a relationship with it. The whole think different they have
00:35:11
marketed to you in a values way, right? Privacy. >> He's added more shareholder value than
00:35:16
any individual in history with the exception of Jensen Hong. And unfortunately, >> but I'm just saying people have that's
00:35:22
what people are like why why do you attack Apple when Meta is I was like because we don't like him. We like
00:35:27
Apple. >> Well, this feels like more of a betrayal. We thought if there was one
00:35:31
person who was going to stand up and say uh I have been a huge beneficiary of rule of law and the progress of rights
00:35:38
in America and Apple's been an enormous beneficiary of competition and rule of
00:35:43
law and what's going on here is directly contrary to everything that's given me
00:35:46
incredible opportunities and created $4 trillion in shareholder value. We are not down with this. But instead, he's
00:35:52
like, well, I'd love to hang out with Melania. Just make sure that we're
00:35:54
exempt from those those China those pesky China tariffs >> and deescalate the word. This this
00:35:59
statement was such weak sauce. It was deescalate. Like I also thought and as Stephanie Rule actually correctly
00:36:05
pointed out, it was bland. And the one from the Minneapolis Commerce was like, let's de let's all get along. I'm like
00:36:12
there's there is a side here and it's not with the police at this moment or
00:36:16
not the police. The police are doing great in Minneapolis. It's the um it's
00:36:20
these thugs from from and they have given Tim Cook and the rest of tech a very easy way to say how dare you talk
00:36:30
about people like that which you were just talking about Christine Gnome. They have gone to a ghoulish place and one
00:36:36
person who did speak out let me just say Venode Kosla went distel Keith Ra boy was saying about the shooting who
00:36:45
because Keith was wrong as always. Um, and he also got into a beef with Elon Musk, very public about racism, which
00:36:52
was I I'm not surprised Venode is like that. But like it didn't cost Venode
00:36:57
anything to do that. And Venote and I don't agree on lots of stuff, right? Sometimes he says, I'm like, are you
00:37:02
kidding me? But like he was a person, right? He and this these statements by Cook and uh and Sam Alman and the rest
00:37:10
of them, they're not you're not people. Stop acting like you're not people. And
00:37:14
that's like having to throw in President Trump as a very strong leader or I had a
00:37:18
discussion with President Trump. How rich do you have to be that you point of having all this money?
00:37:24
>> What is the point of being this powerful and having to to be such a just a weak
00:37:31
person and a weak moral person that to me I just don't understand. People keep
00:37:36
people ask me like what job is safe from AI and I say I personally think if I were to bet on one job that's only going
00:37:42
to increase in importance. It's things around communication, strategic communications, investor relations, PR.
00:37:48
And the two biggest communications mistakes of the last probably quarter happened in the last week. On a
00:37:54
corporate level, whoever the [ __ ] didn't literally bodyb block Tim Cook from not
00:37:59
only going to that dinner, but but getting a picture with Brett Ratner. And I'm not I'm not going to make a judgment
00:38:06
on Brett Ratner's past, >> but please don't read about it. >> But that's just not a that's just not a
00:38:12
good look to be at the Melania premiere taking I mean it's like the any PR person who has any intelligence in Apple
00:38:19
thought, okay, I'm about to get fired and I deserve to be fired. And then the
00:38:23
second biggest communications mistake, a rookie move was for the administration to create a talking point that, oh, you
00:38:30
show up with a gun, you're looking for trouble at a protest. And also the NRA
00:38:34
came out and said, "Look," and there's some data here. >> If you have the training that uh Alex
00:38:40
Prey had and you have a license to carry and conceal and you've never committed
00:38:45
so much as a misdemeanor, you're seven to 10 times less likely to commit a crime. There is something to the notion
00:38:52
of safe, well-trained, registered, you know, carry laws. And the protest is looking to get denying
00:39:04
people's right to oh >> he first amendment and now you decide in one fell swoop to talk about violating
00:39:12
the second amendment claiming that people that have guns are looking for trouble and more deserving. The entire
00:39:18
second amendment is meant to prevent this. we need to arm as a citizenry in case tyranny takes over from the
00:39:26
government. >> But that's not what he was even doing. He wasn't even brandishing the word
00:39:30
brandish. He was brand that I think gnome said that he was brandishing a gun. He didn't brandish anything. He
00:39:35
never touched his gun. Brandish Christie. >> But that was just such a huge error on
00:39:42
their part cuz quite frankly when the NRA weighs in and says this is [ __ ] it becomes a very bipartisan issue.
00:39:48
>> Well, in any case, Tim Cook, bad show. Bad show all around. I think you should
00:39:53
do an interview with Cara Swisser and then see if you can make it through that. Anyway, uh let's go on a quick
00:39:58
break. When we come back, Big Tech goes to court over addictive products. >> Support for the show comes from Wix.
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00:41:03
Scott, we're back with more news. This is a really interesting big tech trial
00:41:07
taking place that we haven't really paid attention to. kicked off in LA this week
00:41:10
where a plaintiff is suing Meta, Tik Tok, Snap, and YouTube claiming personal injury through addictive products. This
00:41:16
claims uh features like infinite scrolling and algorithm recommendations lead to compulsive use resulting in
00:41:21
problems like depression and anxiety. Um executives including Mark Zuckerberg are
00:41:26
expected to testify with nine cases likely to be heard. Tik Tok and Snap settled with the with the first plaint.
00:41:33
It's kind of a little bit of a big tobacco moment. I and I know these trials you never know where they're
00:41:37
going to go, but really people are have not been paying attention to this trial and it's in an area you and I talk about
00:41:44
a lot and there's plenty of plenty of texts back and forth about obsession and
00:41:49
addiction and and there's a lot of discovery here um that should be really interest of these executives talking
00:41:56
about what they're doing very similar to big tobacco. Yeah, we know when they
00:42:00
smoke it they love it. Like we know they're addicted, that kind of stuff. And so I think it should be a really re
00:42:05
I mean we know they know this and someone like Tristan Harris has been talking about it for years. I've been
00:42:11
talking about it. You've been talking about it. Um you know and now it's got
00:42:15
to the dangers of suicide with young people too. So any thoughts? >> We're going to look back on this era and
00:42:21
decide that letting a 16-year-old on Snap or on Instagram or on TikTok is probably more harmful than if we'd let
00:42:27
16-year-olds smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol. 6% of teens um qualify as being addicted to drugs or alcohol. 24%
00:42:36
qualify as addicts to social media. And the heaviest users are twice as likely to have suicidal intent. They're also
00:42:44
the group in the highest usage are more likely to express poor body image more than the lowest use group. The bottom
00:42:51
line this is to say this is like kids smoking is unfair to tobacco when I I I mean this
00:43:00
is going to sound I said this and I got a ton of [ __ ] for it a few years ago and
00:43:03
it was the first time I was featured on late night TV. Not in a good way. Let's
00:43:07
do it again. Let's say it again. >> Well, I said I'd rather give my
00:43:10
16-year-old a bottle of Jack and some weed than a Tik Tok. >> Oh, no. I agree with you, but go ahead.
00:43:17
and and they played that and said that was so ridiculous when I I didn't I hung
00:43:21
out with a Mormon kid all through in a in a and a a great athlete in high school and neither of them drank. I
00:43:27
actually think I could have benefited from easing into alcohol anyways. this social media that I've said this that
00:43:35
the the thing we're going to regret most we're going to look back and think how
00:43:37
did we let this happen to our kids and and even outside of hardcore addiction I'm not exaggerating 60%
00:43:46
maybe 70% of the family anxiety my family registers arguments between me and the kids
00:43:54
arguments between the kids and their mother arguments between me and their mother revolve around the [ __ ] ing phone
00:44:02
and social media. >> I feel you. I feel you, Scott. >> And when we leave our kid alone and we
00:44:07
go on vacation and we're checking custodio and he calls us and he's not at
00:44:12
school and we find out he was on social media all night and and people say, "Well, that's bad parenting. You're in
00:44:19
control." Yeah. That means you don't have kids. >> Exactly. >> It's not a collective movement. If you
00:44:25
take your kid off a snap, he is then further depressed because he's ostracized because this is how these
00:44:31
kids communicate with each other. >> It needs to be a collective action. There should be no synthetic
00:44:37
relationship. >> Collective actions. Can Can I add I have to say one of the greatest moments my
00:44:42
parenting is when my son without unbeknownst to me used Amazon to order a box to put his phone in. Alex did it um
00:44:49
and lock it away to do his homework cuz it was distracting him. You know what I mean? like he this when he was in high
00:44:55
school I was really proud of him like he understood the issue easily and one of the things that's really hard um is
00:45:03
including for adults I was at one work meeting and I made everyone put the phone in the middle of the table it was
00:45:09
very uncomfortable >> I'm addicted let me be clear I was like put them in the middle don't touch them
00:45:13
don't touch them like oh I have to my kid I'm like it'll be fine nobody's
00:45:17
nobody's going to get in an emergency and if it is I'm sorry in advance but it
00:45:22
probably isn't Um, it's really hard. And I think what's going to be interesting here, we have to
00:45:26
move on from this, but let's pay we're going to pay attention to this trial
00:45:28
because it's really important. But we're going to read out some of the texts and
00:45:32
emails that these people know exactly what they're doing and they they they relish it. They relish the hold they
00:45:40
have on people. They relish the hold they have on teens and they are very aware just like big tobacco of what
00:45:47
they're up to here and no matter what they say in public. And so that will be
00:45:52
stuff. We'll be doing dramatic readings of that. All right, Scott, let's go to
00:45:56
on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk big tech earnings. >> Support for the show comes from tsiatry.
00:46:02
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00:47:11
Scott, we're back with more news. The S&P 500 crossed the 7,000 mark for the
00:47:15
first time ever on Wednesday ahead of major tech earnings. Tech, of course, fueled it. Let's walk quickly through
00:47:20
the results. Meta posted a strong quarter uh with fourth quarter sales up 24% year-over-year. That's really
00:47:25
impressive. His AI spending spree continues with a projected capex of up to 135 billion in 2026. Probably a lot
00:47:32
of that will be dedicated hopefully to advertising for them because that's where they'll get the most bang for
00:47:37
their buck. Uh Microsoft also shows no sign of pulling back on AI, spending $ 37.5 billion on capex in the latest
00:47:44
quarter. Uh 66% increase from last year. The picture was less rosy for Tesla, which reported uh a 61% drop in net
00:47:52
income for the quarter, down 46% for the year. The stock is still soaring inexplicably. Tesla is also scrapping
00:47:57
the Model S and X cars using the factory space to build robots. He's going all in
00:48:01
on robots. I one thing I say about him, he's when he goes for it, he goes for
00:48:05
it. and I've heard is some of his robotic stuff is very impressive, but nonetheless, he's betting the farm on
00:48:10
it. Again, it's investing about $2 billion in XAI. The combination of robotics and XI and X, excuse me, um AI
00:48:17
to me is really important. I've talked about this before. Um also, there's
00:48:21
layoffs at Amazon and related to AI and Pinterest, very large layoffs. Uh they're all sort of using AI to to to
00:48:30
cut labor costs. Um what jumps out at you the most? Well, I think AI is going to add a lot of shareholder value, but
00:48:36
not where we think it's going to add the most value. I think the AI native companies are overvalued right now. I
00:48:41
think the invi Nvidia, the open AI, the anthropics of the world are probably overvalued. Where I do think you'll see
00:48:49
an increase in shareholder value is the application of it, specifically autonomous. I think Whimo is going to be
00:48:54
a trillion dollar company on its own. um targeting of ads and and making the consumer experience better and creating
00:49:03
a better advertising stack. I gotta be honest, I think I think um I think Instagram and threads get better every
00:49:10
day. I think they're fantastic. I think the consumer experience and also >> so does Gemini on Google, by the way.
00:49:16
I've done a little poking around around how an advert I just don't see why I I I
00:49:21
can't imagine what it's like to be selling ads for MSNBC right now when the
00:49:25
person the person from Meta or Google show up and show and show you what they can do. Oh, you're targeting kids who
00:49:32
just got their driver's licenses in Montlair, New Jersey. No problem. We can
00:49:36
reach them one at a time at scale >> with perfect ads that are help >> at the right moment. it ends up people
00:49:42
want to buy life insurance uh and you know at 700 p.m. right after I mean they just anyways um uh so Meta's earnings
00:49:52
incredible revenue up 24% yearonear >> it's a big company >> and not only that their employee base
00:49:58
wasn't up 24% I don't have the number but I think it was barely up >> and then
00:50:04
>> Microsoft >> um the one that was down six or 7% they were up 7% the one that was down was
00:50:11
Microsoft because uh Azure didn't let up its cloud company didn't um uh it had
00:50:17
growth of 39% which still topped analyst expectations but unfortunately the new expectations is that you blow away
00:50:24
expectations um u but still Azure cloud computing the demand is so great that Microsoft's
00:50:32
backlog of commercial bookings were up 110% to 625 billion there's some concerns about over reliance on open AI
00:50:40
where as a whopping 45% of this backlog is attributed to their core of a trillion dollar agreement they made in
00:50:46
October. And also its gross margins because of the increase in capex is the lowest it's been in 3 years coming in
00:50:53
around 68% which spooks some people. Tesla I can't even I can't even begin to
00:50:59
understand what the [ __ ] is going on there. I think this this stock should be down 90%. It's become a meme stock. It's
00:51:05
that's all I have heard I I suspect he's just decided cars aren't the way to do
00:51:10
it and that he has some advantages in robotics and several people have who have called me recently and said
00:51:16
actually he's doing a lot of really innovative stuff around robotics. It's
00:51:19
just he's bedding the farm on that everyone wants to have an Optimus robot in their house, I guess. But who knows?
00:51:26
>> But it's a I'm sorry. Go ahead, T. >> He's done it before. Like that's the
00:51:29
only thing I would say, but he hasn't shown. The other thing he's done before
00:51:32
is say we're going to land on Mars. We're going to He makes promises he never his mouth makes promises he can't
00:51:38
keep in in reality. So the question is like getting rid the Model S and X cars were made by Rivian and Lucid and and
00:51:47
and the Chinese, right? He's gotten out of this business. He's not in the car
00:51:51
business anymore, it seems like. And so the question is, can this robotics business meet the challenge? We'll see.
00:51:58
>> Well, to be fair, they did beat expectations, but let's talk about what
00:52:02
those expectations were. >> The revenues are down of all the companies we talk about. No one no one
00:52:08
is down. my you know what Met is up 23%. Um and then overall a horrific quarter their operating margins and that is the
00:52:18
amount of money you get to hold on to was 7.2% in last year in the same quarter this
00:52:24
year was down to 46%. That's like a that's a meltdown. Their free cash flow
00:52:28
decreased 30%. Their gap net income decreased 61%. They realized >> they got a half a billion dollars in
00:52:36
automotive regulatory credits that are going to be running out thanks to the big beautiful bill.
00:52:41
>> People still believe in him. They're giving him money for X. I think he's
00:52:43
going to merge it into XA. Like I keep saying, >> he's now using Tesla as kind of
00:52:47
nutrition for XAI. They disclosed that Tesla invested 2 billion in Musk's company XAI.
00:52:54
So this is, you know, and he's needs a new vision, a new distraction, and as
00:52:58
you said, he's gone all in on Optimus, which I think is going to compete with
00:53:03
the Cybert truck and the Segway and the Palm is the biggest flops in history. Or
00:53:07
maybe the mixed reality headset. >> Yeah. >> The other thing that struck me was the
00:53:11
layoffs in Amazon. >> Yeah. >> And that is they by the way >> 16. Yeah. But it's for different
00:53:16
reasons. Pinterest is doing it because Pinterest is [ __ ] in subscale. I like Pinterest. I like the people there. It's
00:53:21
subscale. it's going to have a very difficult time. Um, Amazon laid off 16,000 people in their corporate
00:53:27
workforce, which doesn't sound like a lot because they employ 1.6 million people, but the majority of those people
00:53:31
are in their factories. This is probably close to 10% of their corporate staff. And this really is I've said for a long
00:53:38
time that AI is corporate ompic. All these guys are going, you know, I mean, Amazon has said they're going to double
00:53:47
their topline retail revenue in the next five to seven years without a single increase in the number of headcount.
00:53:56
That's AI. And then also I think the place and Amazon's my big tech stock
00:54:00
pick for 26 the the collision and you've referenced this of AI industrialized robots of
00:54:06
which Amazon has a million industrialized robots and the total number of industrial robots in America
00:54:12
outside of Amazon is 400,000. So they have gone just as Musk is going allin on robots no [ __ ] sense.
00:54:22
Amazon, Jaffy and Bezos are going all in on AI driven industrialized robots. >> They were there before. They bought a
00:54:29
company called KA many years ago. But just so you know, recent Amazon layoffs plus October layoffs is 10% of the
00:54:35
company. It's it's a pre they had one. >> Oh, is it? Thank you. Yeah.
00:54:38
>> But UPS cut 30,000 jobs. I mean, these guys >> are >> industrial robotics. That's AI. I
00:54:46
interviewed David Solomon from Goldman Sachs on Prog and he said uh I mean I they're planning to grow their revenue
00:54:53
substantially in the next two or three years. Goldman's in a great spot right
00:54:55
now. Great leadership. They're doing well. Uh but he admitted employment will
00:55:00
begin to flatten. You know, no CEO is going to come out and say I'm going to
00:55:05
reduce 10 or 20% of my workforce, right? No, they can't say that because then
00:55:09
everyone the best people start leaving. But what he did say is it's going to
00:55:12
flatten. So what we're looking at here, >> black is the new up, >> right? But what this takes their
00:55:19
earnings and absolutely makes them go crazy. And then when these companies do well, everyone, you know, the S&P does
00:55:26
well because the S&P is now kind of the SM, you know, the it's not the S&P 500,
00:55:30
it's the S&P 10. Anyways, these companies on the whole continue to just be extraordinary. And that is until this
00:55:38
movement called resist and unsubscribe came along. Testicles meet Foot. One more quick break. This is absolutely
00:55:44
true. O corporate ompic, take it away. All right, Scott. One more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.
00:55:51
>> Support for the show comes from Frontier CMO, a new podcast from Think with
00:55:55
Google. In an AI era, the future of marketing is being written in real time. Frontier CMO talks to its leaders
00:56:01
shaping it. On Frontier, CMO from Think with Google host Joshua Spanier, Google's VP of AI Marketing Strategy
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This inaugural season includes conversations with Shelley Palmer, CEO of the Palmer Group, Carla Hassan, CMO
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00:56:31
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00:56:40
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00:56:47
podcasts. Okay, Scott. Uh, you want to go first or shall I? No, you're gonna go. You're
00:56:56
gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm going to make one quick prediction, okay? If you
00:56:59
don't mind. The Super Bowl is just a few weeks away. Um, and go uh Seahawks. Um,
00:57:04
but I've already uh have a prediction for the best ad. Lady Gaga, did you see
00:57:08
that? Singing Mr. Rogers Beautiful Day in Your Neighborhood in an ad for Red Fin and Rocket Mortgage. I don't really
00:57:14
care about the ad, but they they released a teaser clip and she sounds amazing. >> She's got an incredible voice.
00:57:20
>> Oh, it's going to be the best ad. I'm going to We'll talk about the ads later
00:57:23
cuz that's >> That was not the prediction I was expecting. >> Okay.
00:57:26
>> It's very similar to mine in that is we're about to uh engage in military
00:57:29
strikes against Iran. So, very similar predictions. >> Yeah. Okay. Lady Gaga. Okay.
00:57:35
>> It's just so strange that the Epstein files are now a distraction for me. It's
00:57:38
like the behavior keeps getting more and more depraved that we have to >> say they're the safest thing in America
00:57:42
is are the Epstein files, but go ahead. >> No, I I I've made this prediction before
00:57:46
and I'm just making it again. It feels like I follow this I love this guy the
00:57:50
Gioar on Tik Tok and there's I mean I'm f I'm sold I'm just fascinated with
00:57:56
military equipment and it just it appears that all our assets are being coordinated in the Gulf for a pretty
00:58:02
obvious reason and I don't know if Trump is doing it for the right or the wrong
00:58:05
reasons maybe as a distraction but I think he absolutely loves the Tarzan flex of of leveraging the best
00:58:12
organization in history and that's the military and it appears to me that they
00:58:15
are absolutely even the planes that deploying to the area are like giant gas stations in the sky.
00:58:21
>> Um I think Israel's on board because I think they think it would be good for
00:58:24
their brand. So I think you're going to see a coordinated some sort of coordinated strike in Iran in the next 7
00:58:29
to 14 days. And that's >> I think you're going to see a coordinated strike against Ohio or
00:58:33
wherever they're going to attack the Haitians who are not eating the cats and
00:58:37
dogs. That's where I think you're going to see the next strike. >> Do you think so? You you don't think
00:58:41
they're going to pull back at all? >> No. >> Yeah, you're probably right.
00:58:45
>> Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech,
00:58:48
or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show or call 85551 pivot. Okay,
00:58:54
that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to
00:58:57
our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Cara, >> have a great weekend.

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 60
    Most shocking
  • 60
    Best concept / idea

Episode Highlights

  • Economic Boycotts Explained
    Economic boycotts require a critical mass to be effective, not just a few days of abstaining.
    “Economic boycotts do not work if a small population stops spending cold turkey.”
    @ 02m 38s
    January 30, 2026
  • Cara Swisser's New Show
    Cara Swisser announces her upcoming show, 'Cara Swisser Wants to Live Forever.'
    “It's called Cara Swisser Wants to Live Forever.”
    @ 12m 58s
    January 30, 2026
  • The Miracle Drug
    GLP-1s are being hailed as a miracle drug for obesity and health benefits.
    “It's a miracle drug.”
    @ 16m 58s
    January 30, 2026
  • Importance of Relationships
    Relationships are key to good health and longevity, according to experts.
    “You just referenced it. Mhm. key to good health and longevity, relationships.”
    @ 19m 38s
    January 30, 2026
  • Community Action Matters
    Timothy Snyder emphasizes the power of community and collective action.
    “You feel better when you do something with other people.”
    @ 21m 02s
    January 30, 2026
  • Targeting Immigrants
    The administration's focus on immigrants raises concerns about their intentions.
    “I think this was accidental or not strategic.”
    @ 29m 41s
    January 30, 2026
  • The Importance of Last Minutes
    The last five minutes of an experience can shape lasting memories, as shown in a study.
    “"All they remember is the last 5 minutes which was not that unpleasant."”
    @ 33m 10s
    January 30, 2026
  • Big Tech Trial Over Addiction
    A lawsuit against Meta, TikTok, Snap, and YouTube claims their products cause addiction and mental health issues.
    “"This is kind of a little bit of a big tobacco moment."”
    @ 41m 34s
    January 30, 2026
  • AI's Impact on Shareholder Value
    AI is expected to add significant shareholder value, but not in the ways we think.
    “"I think the AI native companies are overvalued right now."”
    @ 48m 36s
    January 30, 2026
  • Microsoft's Azure Growth
    Despite some setbacks, Microsoft's Azure cloud computing shows impressive growth of 39%.
    “The demand is so great that Microsoft's backlog of commercial bookings were up 110%.”
    @ 50m 32s
    January 30, 2026
  • Tesla's Stock Concerns
    Tesla's stock is compared to a meme stock, raising questions about its future.
    “I think this stock should be down 90%.”
    @ 51m 02s
    January 30, 2026
  • Predictions of Military Action
    Speculation about potential military strikes against Iran in the near future.
    “I think you're going to see a coordinated strike in Iran in the next 7 to 14 days.”
    @ 58m 26s
    January 30, 2026

Episode Quotes

  • Economic boycotts do not work if a small population stops spending cold turkey.
    Resist and Unsubscribe: Scott Galloway’s Plan to Hit Big Tech Where It Hurts | Pivot
  • It's a miracle drug.
    Resist and Unsubscribe: Scott Galloway’s Plan to Hit Big Tech Where It Hurts | Pivot
  • You feel better when you do something with other people.
    Resist and Unsubscribe: Scott Galloway’s Plan to Hit Big Tech Where It Hurts | Pivot
  • "You think I How dare you?".
    Resist and Unsubscribe: Scott Galloway’s Plan to Hit Big Tech Where It Hurts | Pivot
  • "I’d rather give my 16-year-old a bottle of Jack and some weed than a TikTok.".
    Resist and Unsubscribe: Scott Galloway’s Plan to Hit Big Tech Where It Hurts | Pivot
  • He makes promises he can't keep in reality.
    Resist and Unsubscribe: Scott Galloway’s Plan to Hit Big Tech Where It Hurts | Pivot

Key Moments

  • Economic Impact02:38
  • AI in Cancer Research16:35
  • Importance of Relationships19:38
  • Targeting Immigrants29:41
  • Charming Departures33:13
  • Gracious Exits33:32
  • Tech Addiction Lawsuit41:10
  • AI Investment Insights47:22

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown