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I hope that a a Democratic or a civic or business leader comes up and figures out
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a way without being too preachy and too drunk with power, figures out targeted ways to deploy the economic power. We're
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in America. It's all about money, folks, to deploy that economic power. Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisser. And I'm Scott Galloway.
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And Scott, we are hitting the road together. Bringing Pivot Live to the people. This is so exciting. Are you excited? I am excited. I think it's going to be great. I like I love meeting our I call
00:00:41
our fans. Our family. They're really family for us. Ser. Okay. Well, we're going to seven cities,
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just so you know. Fans. Toronto, Boston, New York, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and LA.
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Some of the most poorly managed cities in the union. We're there. We're coming in with rifles. We're going to clean
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this [ __ ] up, Cara. They're sending us in. Thank god we're here. Thank god we're here. This will be bigger than Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl. Bigger than Taylor Swift and also much, much less
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expensive. Imagine you're on psilocybin and you go see the remake of the Wizard of Oz at the Sphere and you run into
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dead Nana and dead pop. Nothing compared to what's about to happen at Pivot Live
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in Toronto. And I promise you, Scott's going to dress up like a showgirl. Anyway, for
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tickets, head to pivot tour.com. Uh, but we have slightly uh less important stuff to talk about today, too. A lot of news. So, let's dig in. Donald Trump just announced that he's imposing 100% tariff on any and all
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movies that are made outside of the United States. He did not explain uh when this will happen or how it will
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work. remember he made the same threat back in May. I just they make a lot of movies outside. This actually will
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affect Netflix finally. But um what do you think of this situation? Uh I think it's more unnecessary own cell phone stupidity.
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So more than 50% one of the best performing stocks in media and arguably what has kept
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the entire media ETF ecosystem above you know that's kept it from being just abysmal and has fueled Hollywood with record content budgets is Netflix and
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more than 50% the majority of Netflix content budget is now produced overseas. So, does that mean he's going to start tariffing Netflix and dramatically increase the cost of subscriptions,
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dramatically decrease the amount of content people get for their Netflix disc subscription, and gut the stock
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price, which has been one of the best performers over the last 10 years? Yes, that's what is in touch.
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Almost every Marvel movie now has some component of it made overseas. All of them. All of them.
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Yeah. So if you think about with the what's happening I love the term arbitrage and that is there's two ways to add shareholder value. One is to increase the top line the other is to
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decrease costs and if you think about media media has mostly well it's been both. There's been because of streaming, there's been a war and an increase in
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subscriptions and topline revenue because everyone now has three or four subscriptions per household, which has
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inspired an arms race where there's a ton of content spending on the top line. The other way you add shareholder value
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is that $18 billion in content that Netflix produces is $30 billion worth of content from 10 years ago because they say, "Okay, we can make Squid Games in Korea for 70% of the price it would cost
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to make it in Atlanta." and for 30% of what it would cost to produce in Los Angeles. So, there's been a geographic
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arbitrage over the last 10, 20 years. And by the way, Los Angeles has been on the wrong end of that arbitrage.
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It's just too damn expensive. I'm going through this right now. We're producing our our scripted series on big tech.
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Mhm. And we really did try to make it in LA. There's no way. There's just no way.
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Yeah. It adds to cost. Yeah. You absolutely want a certain look, right? That's the in some cases you want it to
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look like what it looks like what you're trying to do. Correct. Is a lot of things can be made to look like
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that. Sure. But what we'll do is we'll film we'll cram a bunch of shots in this case
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in the Bay Area where it's also Yeah. irrational to film and where we're and again probably end up filming is in New
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Jersey because New Jersey New Jersey just superersized their tax credit budget. Yeah. And it's near New York and we'll do a
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lot of filming in New York. Yeah. So, and then the other arbitrage that's about to take place is through
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AI. I think I think AI is going to take out just a lot of unfortunately a lot of Yeah, especially storyboarding. I just,
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as you know, I did the CEO of Runway and we were talking about a bunch of just storyboards, production, how to create,
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you know, try these 10 outfits on someone and this and that. Um, it's a, you know, I know California and other states have been trying to get better and better terms for movie makers to
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bring them back, but they did lose it. They did like act like they had no other choice and then it was obvious they had
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another choice. And so Trump's trying to solve it by this. This is just ridiculous. So what will likely happen is the same
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thing. one, I don't think it's going to go anywhere because I think he's impressed by movie stars and I think a guy like Ted Sarandos
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probably carries a lot of weight or Reed Hastings. And in addition, all that's going to happen is the following. His attempt to
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to punish foreign firms who ship almost no films into the US. I mean, some but not a lot. Uh they're going to impose reciprocal tariff. Canada had this used to have
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this. I don't know if they still had it, but like a quarter or some percentage of content had to be locally produced in Canada.
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Often they do that. A lot of countries do that, right? And then we would say no, let let competition reign because we're just
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better at it. So what nations will do is they love the idea of saying we want to support a nent film industry in Poland.
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So we'll impose reciprocal tariffs which will do nothing but reduce the consumption and the business for US
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media firms. So this is just so stupid. It's just stupid. And I don't I don't know where this is coming from other than his AI came back and said, "What can I announce today?"
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That's crazy. That will keep That is crazy. Will command media attention and keep the word Epstein out of the news.
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Let's say it again. Epstein. Um, let's make a movie Epste. The Epstein the movie. Oh, trust me. Let's do it all in
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the US. Let's make We should make it in the US. There's going to be a lot of nervous people that nervous people about that.
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Yeah. Um, one of the things that's critical to remember here is that um, these movie companies all acquies to Donald Trump and this is what they get. I'm just saying boys, guess what? He'll
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kick you in the [ __ ] nuts just the same as look, take your money. Anyway, um, speaking of taking money, top
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comedians are criticizing their peers for participating in the Riad Comedy Festival, a state sponsored Saudi event.
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The event will feature over 50 comedians including Kevin Hart, Hannibal Baress, and Dave Chappelle. As a reminder, the
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Biden administration held the country responsible for the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist uh Washington Post
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columnist Jamal Kosigible. Uh people different comics have put up the the terms. It's enormous amounts of money these people are getting, but they have to promise not to uh talk about the
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kingdom in negative ways. Uh so these are all the free free speechers being uh completely um paid off not to speak. I I don't know what do you what do you think about this? It was pretty shocking when
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I saw the contract itself. Uh so let me be clear. I' I have gone to Riad and spoken and cashed their checks
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and so and I do so openly and wholeheartedly and without a total absence of guilt. I don't and also I spoke last week in Nashville and I got
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paid a lot of money to speak in front of the leadership of a tech team or of a big tech company and they asked me not
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to bring up the struggles of young men because they're parents in the audience and they said it's kind of a downer. I mean if people are paying you
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yes but these are comics Scott. These are people who who go on and on about free speech and insult everybody about
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it. Let me just say I don't think you do that but go ahead. Yeah, but I think it's I think it's really easy to be a
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purist with other people's money and the kingdom. One of the things I love about living in So, let me be clear. I believe NBS ordered the murder of
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Kosigible uh in our nation. In our nation, we're letting you know we're taking away healthcare from people. We're we're we're removing security details from former
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officials. we're incarcerating and pulling people out of work with people in mass. I I don't I literally think
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we're in no position to wave our finger at anybody right now. I think we should wave our I I completely disagree with you. I think we
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should absolutely wave our finger at these comics cuz these are the comics that literally lectured the left on free
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speech. Then haul them out, say to them, look, yeah, but I I if you want to go to
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they can do it, but they got censored. Like they they talk about censorship and literally make you feel like [ __ ] for
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doing it and they're they they cosplay that they care about free speech and they've agreed. Comics are supposed to
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talk about anything they want. And to agree I'm I'm giving comics a particular thing. You are different. You're doing a
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speech there. They're like, "We don't want to hear about men. We want to hear about marketing, whatever the heck you're doing." But if you're going to
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literally lecture people about free speech and then get paid an enormous amount of not to not to do your act, which would be they it would easily make a joke. And one guy who did, I think it
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was uh was it who was it? Tim Dylan was someone one of them made a talked about it and said, "Yeah, I don't care. I'm getting the money. That's right. I'll do whatever they say." He got dumped from
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the festival because he said what was everybody knew was happening, which was censorship. I I that's the only issue is
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this particular gang of people, especially Dave Chappelle, especially the rest of them went on and on and on
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about free speech. So I just that's all I'm you're you're not that person. If you're if you're a free speech
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warrior and you're accepting money to have what is a highly edited censored version. I was never when I was in Riad,
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I was never I I've spoken in Riad. I've spoken in in Dubai several times. I have
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never been asked to censor my content ever over there. Two, just the rail politic of the following. I'm focused on American interest. Well, first, let's be honest, I'm focused on my own interests and I get paid a lot when I go there.
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But also, I personally believe the new swing votes in terms of geopolitical power are the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
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and India. They're the two largest, fastest growing economies. They're the only kind of two economies that are up for grabs. It could either go towards
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Russia, towards Iran, or it could go towards America. I think that we want to bear hug and really strengthen our
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relationship with the kingdom and with India. And I think it's so ridiculously [ __ ] stupid that we insult India and
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thrust them into the arms of China and Russia. I think our relationship with the Gulf is really important and our
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relationship with the kingdom in terms of peace with Israel, peace in the region and also having secure safe um uh
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pipelines uh uh and sources for fossil fuels and also we have a lot of army bases there. They are a strong ally. And in terms of reforms, they're starting from a bad place. Let's
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be honest. We're starting from a better place. We're headed in the wrong direction. Correct. They're headed in the right direction.
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I don't have a problem with Saudi Arabia. Actually, I do have a problem with these comics. Now, Atsuko uh
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Okatsuka, I think that's her name. She's a comic who was invited. Didn't go. This is the content restrictions. This is
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this is the crowd that you can't that's always goes you can't say anything anymore, right? This is the crowd that
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I think that's a fair point. knocks our [ __ ] block off about how open they are and what they get to. They don't get
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to say what they want. Well, guess what? This is what they agreed to. Artists shall not prepare, perform any material that may be considered to degrade,
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defame, or bring public disre uh disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule the Kingdom
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of Saudi Arabia, including its leadership, public figures, culture, and people, the Saudi royal family, legal
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system, or government, and any religion, religious tradition, religious figure, or religious practice. Sorry, guys. And
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it's mostly guys. You realize most def You realize most companies in the employment agreement have a defamation agreement that looks,
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smells, and feels like that. Great. Except for these guys. I They don't get to because these are the ones
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that literally couldn't shut the [ __ ] up about how they couldn't say things. And here they are agreeing. So I don't I
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don't want to if they say it one more to me, one more time to me. I'm It's just also, by the way, someone who's going
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Pete Davidson is performing. His father died on 911. He's he's he's allowing them to censor him and taking their
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money. That's his choice. Again, you're right. That's his choice if he wants to do that. But yuck all over from Caris. I
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I just want to acknowledge a point and I had not thought of that. And often times you illuminate me to things and create
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nuance around my thinking. If you're one of these comedians that is constantly saying how you're censored and you can't
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say stuff and the and the left has no humor, sense of humor, fine. I see the hypocrisy there. I have spoken there. I It reminds me of the debate when
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everyone was giving Uber a hard time from accepting money from the Middle East. And I'm like, cash their [ __ ] check.
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That's I didn't have I don't have a problem. And I remember you you you were kind of with me, too. Remember how much [ __ ]
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Uber was getting for taking money, dirty money from the Middle East? It's like, okay, you just want them investing in
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Chinese companies. The lower our cost of capital, the more jobs we have. Cash their [ __ ] check. And I'm kind of the
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comedians. If Louis CK wants to go there and make a [ __ ] ton of money, I've never heard him preach about censorship or say
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that he's his speech is being squatchched or whatever, go. Also, I have found when I've gone to the Gulf that America has a tendency to wrap
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every country there in the same blanket. The Qataris have a strained relationship with the UAE, but are close to Iran.
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Meanwhile, they host our largest air force base. Saudi hates Iran yet gets along with us. We as Americans are so
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reductive and feel like we can make these blanket statements. I agree. But would you would you sign that I'll never say a word about this.
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You might. You might, but you never have. Have you signed I won't say bad things. Never. I've probably spoken in the Gulf.
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First off, I've vacationed there. I know a lot of people there. I really enjoy it there. And it is much different
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in Doha than it is in Riad. And it's much different when you're at a bar in Dubai for a lot
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of reasons. So, you have to go country by country. I'm going to go to F1 in Bahrain and I'm really excited about it. Y
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and I have generally found the people in the Gulf to be warm. It's not where I would want to live. I think they have real issues as we do.
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For the most part, that region I'd like to think is headed in the right direction and also we have a very strong
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strategic interest geopolitically just being selfish as American and establishing tighter bonds with some of
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these governments. Having said that, so I'm sort of like make money, take their money. If you are constantly preaching about being censored and you sign up to something like that, you should be
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called out as you are doing. I had not thought of that. But what I find in general is that one of the problems with
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the left often times Oh, no. It's about the left. Come on. Go ahead. Well, who's who's going after them?
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The other comics. No, but I mean, no, of course not. Because they would like comments. They would like literally
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Well, let me finish my statement. I this is one of the problems I have with the left and one of the reasons I think we lose elections is we are more prone to
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virtue signal and whine and [ __ ] rather than focus on the material or economic well-being of people and our country's
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strategic interests and we are often times very moral with other people's money. I
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I don't again I don't care about Saudi Arabia. I care about these comics who exhausted me with their ridiculous
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performative free speech though follow this closely all the tech people all the tech people who do the same thing oh
00:16:12
free speech and then they then they don't do it I don't want to hear word [ __ ] one from them anymore about these issues I just don't a lot of them
00:16:19
did trust me they're all like can't say anything anymore you can say but I am I am consistently asked
00:16:26
by people who I'm they'll say something along the lines of look Amazon's our his
00:16:32
client. We'd appreciate it if you didn't make fun of Jeff Bezos. You got in trouble for that. I got
00:16:37
yelled at at a conference that they were one of our sponsors. Well, and and and I want to be honest, as much as I like to think of I'm a
00:16:43
purist, that's an easy give for me. I'm a You didn't And then I got yelled at and then we lost them as a sponsor just if
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you recall. And I didn't did I once tell you not to say it? Did I once tell you not to say it?
00:16:55
You have You have always been support. You have never said to me, Scott, dial it back. And I have said some stupid
00:17:00
things that have reduced our revenue and you have never once said dial it back or don't say that. You've often times
00:17:06
you've said to me that was stupid or whatever, but you've never once checked me back. But I'm what I'm saying is if I
00:17:12
go to a conference and they're paying me a [ __ ] ton of money and I can always tell they like are really worried about speaking to me and basically what
00:17:19
they're saying is it's the organizers usually who just they're like, "Do me a favor. don't talk about this because
00:17:26
it's a real hot button for and oftentimes it's something weird that I never would have thought of. And I'm
00:17:32
like, yeah, I don't want to make your life any harder. Fine. And I'm not a politician. I'm not a comic. I'm there
00:17:37
talking about AI and I'm there talking about, you know, income in I'm there about or making predictions on tech or
00:17:43
the algebra of happiness. And the reality is when you cash people's check, you have two choices. You either kind of
00:17:49
sign up or you don't cash their check. And as long as they make the the terms as long as they make the terms
00:17:55
transparent upfront and you feel like you're you know I I don't know when people pay a lot of money they're probably some
00:18:01
condition by way a lot of times you know what they tell me they say when I speak at Walmart
00:18:06
Scott lose the fbombs this is a very religious community do not be profane that's that's an honest question because I haven't been following it that closely who among
00:18:17
those comment comics are constantly saying I'm being censored in almost I I get off the top of my head,
00:18:22
all of them. Like all of them, I've heard a version of that. Chappelle certainly has. They all are like, "You
00:18:28
can't say anything. You can't say anything." And of course they can, but I I would love it for one of them to say
00:18:33
something. That's what I would love. I think that I think great. I think our comics are an incredible
00:18:39
export, and I think the more comics in different parts of the world makes us look good and and makes them less likely
00:18:45
to declare war on us and feel affinity for us. Um, I I'm in. go cash their checkpoint time.
00:18:53
[ __ ] hypocrites. If you say free speech to me, I'm going to punch you in the nuts. Anyway, NextStar and Sinclair
00:18:59
have brought back Oh, speaking of people like paper tigers, NextStar and Sinclair have brought back Jimmy Kibble Live to
00:19:05
their local stations after the standoff with ABC and Disney. Sinclair said it received quote thoughtful feedback from
00:19:11
viewers and advertisers during the blackout and proposed some measures for ABC to adopt, none of which ABC adopted.
00:19:18
They remember they were asking him to give money to Turning Point and apologize. [ __ ] you.
00:19:23
Being generous with other being virtue signaling with other people's money. Exactly. Next are also referenced constructive conversations with Disney
00:19:29
in a statement, but Disney and ABC have not made concessions to either company. I mean, seriously, these two. Former
00:19:36
leverage secretary Robert Reich wrote in the Guardian in the Kimmel drama proves consumers have extraordinary power. You seem to be taking a page from Scott
00:19:43
Galloway. Trump is now threatening another company, Microsoft, telling to fire their head of global affairs, Lisa Monaco, who served in the Biden
00:19:49
administration. Again, these are the people who are actual like trying to tell people what to do. I'm just pointing out I mean, these NextStar people, any thoughts on what they what
00:20:01
happened there? I'm just really into this idea of the economic power of American citizens that
00:20:07
they if they if they're coordinated and can rally around. I was film I was doing
00:20:12
a live podcast with these two Canadian kids. I wish it was what's on your mind or something like that. And this guy
00:20:19
came up to me and shook my hand and he's like no by Friday. I have gotten so much
00:20:25
positive feedback from the idea of an economic strike. Mhm. And it's really intoxicating and
00:20:31
inspiring. Lots of people have come up to me and mentioned to me what and said because look what these guys
00:20:36
did. Clearly a bunch of advertisers, a bunch of stars, a bunch of people called Iger, canceled cruise ship reservations,
00:20:42
canceled trips to Disney, people calling saying I want to cancel my contract or I don't want to advertise with Sinclair.
00:20:49
And you know what? They back the [ __ ] down. And so I love this idea of a co-equal branch of government of which
00:20:55
there are none right now. There's no co there's no equal. There's Trump. There's MAGA right now being established via
00:21:01
people's purchasing power. And this is the first time kind of shockingly enough that it has really changed the tide. It
00:21:09
has literally reversed the the flow of the river was reversed in about 72 hours and it's just it speaks to that and it makes sense. America is such a consumer economy. Why would they ask for like that from
00:21:21
Kimmel? Like ask for demands. First of all, by the way, these contracts are somewhat strict. If they dump shows too
00:21:27
much, they're in breach of their contract. That's one thing. All they were doing it for was in order to get the deal from Brendan Carr. That's all
00:21:34
they were. It was They had no values they were trying to protect. They had no public interest they were interested in.
00:21:39
They were interested in this deal to buy Tegna. Both of them I apparently want Tegna. Um and that's all this is about.
00:21:46
Just so you know, it's money. And then they had to go the step further and ask for ridiculous things like that Jimmy
00:21:52
Kimmel give money to Turning Point. He shouldn't have to do anything. Like it's ridiculous. And then you know this new
00:21:58
one about Lisa Monaco who I know who's a tremendous public servant um demanding that Microsoft get rid of her. What? Let me let me just say before you say
00:22:09
anything. If they do that Sachin Adella I'm I'm going to make your life so uncomfortable if you do something like
00:22:16
this. If you give in to someone you hired who's perfectly qualified for the job you hired her for. you fire or or
00:22:23
Lisa Monica leaves, I'm going to just talk about it endlessly for years to come. That's all I have to say. Thank
00:22:29
you. I don't think I don't think he's going to. And I think that I'd like to think this sort of represents a firewall. The
00:22:36
first the the first I've seen so far. I mean, they totally had to backtrack. I again, I hate this not I thought that
00:22:42
was just ridiculous that they he should give money to Turning Point. Well, I'll tell you what, Sinclair and Nexter,
00:22:48
whatever the or next, whoever, or Tangga, TGNA, stupid names. You you guys should really donate money to the ACLU. I mean, and that's an obnoxious
00:23:00
statement. You don't say that. It's But this is they have the right to not carry Kimmel. They were trying to curry favor with the president. People recognize that all the free speechers
00:23:10
are actually more sensorious than anyone. And consumers and actors and and travelers and advertisers push back. And it was what they accomplished
00:23:22
was they accomplished in 72 hours. What no one in the Democratic Party has been able to accomplish in 8 months. And I understand that the Democratic Party is
00:23:32
neutered, but no one in the Democratic Party, Charles Schumer, hasn't been able to rally a bunch of advertisers or cruise ship goers.
00:23:38
I mean, you saw their texts this weekend over the shutdown, honestly. So, I I think this is really exciting. I
00:23:45
think I hope that a a Democratic or a civic or business leader comes up and figures out a way without being too
00:23:52
preachy and too drunk with power figures out targeted ways to deploy the economic. We're in America. It's all about money, folks, to deploy that economic power,
00:24:02
but asking different individuals get fired. They did that to Chris Krabs who had to leave his company um and is now
00:24:09
involved because they threatened all kinds of investigations and so he had to fall on the on his sword because the
00:24:15
rest of the company was under threat, right? This is the kind of thing that autocrats do. If you ask Microsoft to
00:24:21
fire someone they hired in and by name, it is sickening as far as I can I can tell. The left of the the left is guilty on a lower level. And that is the left for a while was really into the idea of,
00:24:34
oh, you said something that hurts our feelings or offends us. We would like you to fire them.
00:24:39
Oh, you're an actress in the Mandalorian and you said conservative things that offend the sensibilities of people in
00:24:45
Hollywood or offends our sensibilities, we want you to fire her. And they removed her from the series. That was
00:24:50
wrong. the Republican party and Trump have taken it to an absolutely new level where they are trying to go after entire
00:24:57
industries and companies and also uh basically weaponize the government to go after people and threaten to put them in jail. So they have taken this is this is generally speaking the pattern of
00:25:09
politics right now. The Democratic party does something really [ __ ] stupid. They say, "Okay, or the Democrats, let's
00:25:17
let a transgender woman swim in a woman's meat. Let's let's have let's have a a DI department of 200 people in Michigan when 55% of the freshman class
00:25:29
are non-white and we take pride in just not letting in people. That's actually not fair for Michigan. Harvard.
00:25:34
Harvard's a better case study." And then the Republicans come in and use all of that that wrong and come in with a with a nuclear response where I know let's
00:25:47
let's kick all transgender people out of the military. I know under a false flag of DEI and DI correction, let's let's
00:25:54
let's take the most well- deployed capital in history and cut it against research
00:26:01
funding. It's like the Democrats do something stupid. Well-intentioned but stupid. Take it too far. And then the
00:26:08
Democrat, Speaker Amerta is allowed to trade stocks. Uh the S&P is up 200% in 10 years. Warren Buffett is up 300%. The Pelosi family is up 697%.
00:26:20
They engage. It's not insider trading, but it's clearly trading based on information the rest of us do not have.
00:26:27
So what does what does Trump do? He comes in and he says, "I know. I'll make 5 billion on a crypto scam." So,
00:26:34
or letting that company that that um the the the the Gulf company into this Tik Tok deal at a ridiculous 14 billion. We're dividing up Tik Tok among your donors
00:26:44
for 14 billion. 14 billion, which is probably about a 60 to 80% discount to what the thing is worth. And
00:26:51
by the way, Democrats not allowed to invest in it. And nor should it should be an auction. It should be capitalism.
00:26:58
So, it's almost like we do something really [ __ ] stupid and we give them cloud cover to come in and be menacious
00:27:05
and scale that ridiculous behavior. But I I I find I find all of this very I'm very excited. The silver lining here is that
00:27:16
and I didn't think it would happen over Jimmy Kimmel. It appears that people have figured out a way to push back and
00:27:22
that's encouraging. Yeah, we'll see. Okay. They'll keep trying though. Um, okay, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back,
00:27:28
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and use the code pivot at checkout for 15% off. Scott, we're back with more news. Threads just hit a major milestone, passing X in daily active users,
00:28:54
according to data from a similar web. The number of threads users is steadily growing while the number of daily active
00:29:00
users on X continues to drop. So, they're sort of crossing streams essentially, though data shows users
00:29:06
spend more time on X than threads. The Wall Street Journal is also predicting the next Elon Zuckerberg battle is going
00:29:11
to be over humanoid robots. They're both into this. Um uh and speaking of that um
00:29:17
President Trump said he would make Tik Tok 100% MAGA if he could. President made the comment while signing an
00:29:22
executive order to pave the way for American investors to own a majority share of the app. But then he added, unfortunately, it won't work out that
00:29:28
way, saying every group philosophy uh policy will be treated fairly. Um I I'm not so um concerned about that. I'm
00:29:35
concerned about the price and the gimme. You know, it's a really good deal for his friends. Um, and in a and and
00:29:41
speaking of his friends, in a recently service surfaced uh resurfaced Q&A, Larry Ellison predicted the rise of
00:29:46
modern surveillance, which would cause citizens to be on their best behavior, and that's a good thing. Um, because
00:29:52
they're being surveiled. Um, I don't know. There's a lot here. Larry Ellison just really has managed to do really well, but Zuckerberg has really done a nice job with Threads. And Blue Sky is
00:30:03
also growing. They're both growing. Um, but X is really, nobody thought that Threads would uh would do this. I did
00:30:10
cuz I I I he's good at this stuff. Um, any thoughts on that? And then their humanoid uh robot battle.
00:30:18
So, a lot there. So, so with respect to threads, I think threads is fantastic. I find myself I was doing So, I invested
00:30:27
in one of these things. I invested in Post and it got a ton of traction out of the gates and then it kind of lost steam
00:30:33
and and now it's closed down. Um, people love Blue Sky. I was using Blue Sky and
00:30:39
Threads. I got off of Twitter uh for my own mental health and because I love your quote. I'm not going to
00:30:44
paint that guy's [ __ ] fence and I found it just so ugly. And I've been on Threads and Blue Sky
00:30:50
and I'm curious what you think, but I find myself increasingly using Threads. I find it so seamlessly integrated into
00:30:58
Instagram, which I love. Yeah. And also, I find the content that they elevate on threads is a little bit more
00:31:06
positive. Yeah. Your feed is probably done that way because of what you pull from. It depends on the feed, right? Because
00:31:12
Amanda tried Threads and she just doesn't have a good feed. And I'm like, it's cuz you're pulling from doom scrolling or something. I have a great
00:31:17
feed on threads. It's all like cooking and like there's a there's a thread of something called fabric something where
00:31:23
they they take old toys and old old things and refurbish them. There's a guy who's a gardener on threads who is like this hunky gay gardener who I like. There's a lot of pleasant stuff. It's a
00:31:35
lot like Instagram as you said but a little easier to consume. I really enjoy Threads and I again, you know, I don't
00:31:43
throw a Mark Zuckerberg a bone if I can avoid it but it's a really good product. Um, I find it really enjoyable. Um, I do
00:31:49
like I think blue sky people are smarter a little bit, although they're much more like um finger waggy, you know?
00:31:55
It's a little bit more artal and a little bit more like Atlantic kind of. Yeah. Yeah. I But I like it. I don't I
00:32:02
find interesting news. I have to say my news consumption uh threads is not as good for news consumption. Uh, blue sky
00:32:09
is better for news consumption. And I I like both of them because you can block people easily and get rid of all the
00:32:15
shitty people who like either lecture at you or say vile things. But not many people say vile things on either of
00:32:21
them. It's rare. It's usually just irritating. Just like leave me the [ __ ] alone if I
00:32:26
like Scott. Like stop bothering me essentially. Um so that's their beef with you.
00:32:32
Whatever. That's their beef. Some of them just like whatever. Like anyway, um they it's usually fine and it's never I'll tell you it's not what happens on X which is just vile and gross and a
00:32:45
little scary right now. And so I'm thrilled that people are seeing all these different competitors. So I'm kind
00:32:51
of hoping for all of them if that makes sense, you know. Yeah. I Well, first off, I mean, and
00:32:59
they it should probably be broken up, but Threads has just an unnatural advantage because three billion people are on Instagram.
00:33:05
Yeah. And so the data they can mine that informs the threads feed when you go onto threads about what you already like
00:33:10
and also just making it really seamless for those three billion people to say, "Hey, you don't need to log off and go
00:33:15
on to Twitter. If you want to share content here, we're just going to make it easier and the content is more likely to be elevated and get more of those
00:33:21
precious likes for whatever it is you're trying to build trying to build, whether it's social capital or drive people to your website. we're just going to make
00:33:27
it very seductive and very seamless to go from the three bill for the three billion people to just ease of slip over
00:33:34
here to threads. They have a huge built-in advantage and I would argue that at some point you're probably going
00:33:40
to have more innovation if these companies were separate companies. Having said that, I just find I really like threads. I I got to admit
00:33:47
it. I'm spending more time on Instagram, less time on Tik Tok, though I love Tik Tok. Agree. I think the nicest vibe of all of them
00:33:54
is LinkedIn. I think it's because everyone's thinking maybe someday this guy will give me a job. So they're just
00:33:59
nicer to people because it's useful, right? It's meant to be. It's more professional and it's just but people are generally speaking are
00:34:04
kinder. I also to be honest I think the environment at least on the stuff I post
00:34:09
on YouTube is quite positive. Yeah. Same thing with Reddit. I I would say there's lots of choices now which is
00:34:15
great actually. Reddit is really enjoyable. I go there all the time to find different and discover things. news
00:34:20
discovery. Again, I would say Reddit and Blue Sky threads is sort of fun and food
00:34:26
and silly and ASMR stuff. You know, there's a guy who just does the lawn and I watch he does the lawn. I forget what is He's from Australia, I think. Um, and I like that. It's It's I have to tell
00:34:37
you, you know what? It's replacing TV. I I find myself not watching as much television. It is. I I was on Smirkish last weekend
00:34:45
with Richard Reeves talking about young men and I said to Drew, my tech guy, I'm
00:34:51
like, "Pull up CNN." I didn't have it on my TV. My live Hulu thing had lapsed or
00:34:56
I had too many locations. I tried to pull it up on live on CNN. We couldn't figure out the credit card situation and
00:35:03
it kept timing out, asking me who I was with, Cox and everything. And finally, I gave up. I haven't watched CNN live in a
00:35:09
year. I do. I don't watch live TV. And I've also noticed like you, I'm launching less streaming. And I hate to
00:35:15
admit this, I used to get my news from the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. Now I'm getting
00:35:21
all of my news from social. Well, it's from those places that way. Yeah. A lot of times it's clipped, but
00:35:27
they do a better job of curating the New York Times than the New York Times does of curating the New York Times. Well, I would agree. I would agree that
00:35:33
was it's just I have become I say the enemy. You and I are the same. I'm not I am the
00:35:39
only time I turn on the bigger screen in my household sports is for Premier League football or my
00:35:45
boys want to watch something and I want to trap them somewhere or you want to watch a movie with your kids, right? That kind of
00:35:50
and even now like my kids are what I advise people who want to be in the media ecosystem is the following. It's
00:35:57
very easy. The bigger the screen, the lower the ROI. If you're doing anything anything that depends upon your ability to monetize content on a 30 m by 10 m
00:36:08
screen called a movie theater, you're [ __ ] Don't go into that business. I I I thought about going to the movies
00:36:13
the other day and I was like, I don't want to go to the movies. I'll just I do I do particularly watch like I watch the Gilded Age. I watch uh I'm very excited
00:36:21
for The Diplomat to start again. I'm very excited. Um but think about how we grew up. I used to get up I used to get home from school
00:36:28
at 3:30. Mhm. wait till my watch cartoons until my mom got home and then we'd watch Happy Days and Night Rider
00:36:35
America. Seven hours I'd watch seven hours of TV. Yeah. Six hour six times a week.
00:36:40
Yeah. I mean, and now I'm down to maybe an hour, an hour and a half. And then again, that screen big business still
00:36:49
money. My phone now everything on my phone. the screen where there's champagne and cocaine is if you can figure out a way
00:36:55
to monetize content on a tiny screen called a phone. So ROI is inversely correlated to the size of the screen. I think that's true. In the last 24 months, and again it's
00:37:06
pulse marketing, I have literally stopped watching TV and I hate to say this going to the original site of the media. I go to Bloomberg's site, but only after an article is recommended to me on
00:37:18
Threads or Blue Sky. Yeah, it's true. And eventually if you're the gatekeeper, you will find the
00:37:23
way to starch the margin from the initial creator. Yeah, it's true. We have we we are a perfect case study. I I watch everything
00:37:30
on my phone now. I watch I wanted to watch the morning show the other day and I was like, "Oh, should I put on the TV?" I'm like, you know, no, I'm going
00:37:35
to sit here and eat dinner and watch it on my phone. Like that kind of thing. So anyway, it was a lot easier and easier
00:37:40
to pull up, by the way. But tell me about TikTok. This I don't care about the 100% MAGA. It'll be what it is,
00:37:46
right? They could maybe manipulate it. Um, I'm sure they have on occasion. I feel like this whole thing, it's going
00:37:52
to lease the algorithm from the Chinese. It the number 14 billion is what Snapchat is worth right now. It was in the 55 to hundred billion range before.
00:38:03
So, they're getting a deal. Um, and and I I have a feeling Tik Tok's going to go
00:38:08
down. I This is my feeling at this moment with this gang of old men running it. But what do you think? Well, first off, do we want the Ellison family or any family controlling CBS,
00:38:21
CBS, CNN, and Tik Tok? We do not. We do not. Keep in mind, Tik Tok, and this is in the Ellison's, Tik Tok has more mind
00:38:28
share of our youth than CBS, NBC, and ABC had of adults in the 60s. We wouldn't have liked the Kremlin controlling. So, I'm I am all about banning Tik Tok, and I have been for a
00:38:40
long time. What is illegal here and wrong is carving it up and giving it to your best Republican donors at a
00:38:46
discount. Huge discount because bite dance trades at a valuation of about 300 or 350 billion in the
00:38:53
private markets. By the way, most undervalued tech company in the world. It's trading at about I think two times
00:39:00
revenues. Open AAI is trading at like like 30 times forward revenues in add and it's still growing. about 20% I believe of the revenues come from the US which means based on the suppressed
00:39:12
valuation of 350 billion it's worth about 70. So these guys are getting an 80% discount. And by the way, there
00:39:18
isn't a single they can't lose. There is there isn't a single Democrat involved in this [ __ ] thing, of
00:39:24
course. So what do you get? You get to I mean this is totally anti- capitalist. You don't force you don't ban a company
00:39:31
and then carve it up and give it to your biggest donors and don't auction price. Don't get the best price.
00:39:38
And also I'm convinced that the only way this goes through and I got this wrong. I said this isn't going to happen. And
00:39:44
by the way, I met the CEO of Tik Tok and he's like the most likable guy in the world. Yeah. If there's if there's anything I if this
00:39:53
does go through, I think the only way it goes through is if she figures out a back door into the algorithm and figure because if they the algorithm is everything. Tik Tok really has I believe
00:40:07
they're using the algorithm. They're using the Chinese algorithm apparently. But that's my point. My point is, as
00:40:12
long as the CCP can dial up or down things that continue to make young Americans feel bad about America or continue to dial Trump wanted to Trump was going to ban it. He didn't
00:40:24
like Tik Tok. How you know what they did? They said, "Take take the dial on proTrump content and dial it up. They
00:40:30
will notice and they will decide they like Tik Tok." Y uh dial down content saying that an
00:40:36
invasion of Taiwan is coming and would be banned. I mean, also the CCP wants Trump to dial it down on Taiwan. There was a big story in I
00:40:43
think the Journal or the one of them that he really she she is hoping to get is Trump to shut up about Taiwan so they
00:40:50
can soften up their approach there. And then secondly, he wants a summit and so this is a nothing burger because he
00:40:56
doesn't I don't think the Chinese think they're giving up anything. I think they're tap dancing in Beijing. This is
00:41:01
a great deal for them. And then these stupid rich guys get get something at a real discount. But this is what we're
00:41:07
missing. Forgive me. It's it's all of the it's all of the bad taste of an oligarchy and not and and
00:41:16
it's like oligarchy meets cronyism meets socialism with all of the calories of the fact
00:41:21
that it'll still probably be a propaganda tool for the CCP. And this is what I am pissed off about Democrats. If I were running for president, I would say Mark Andre, Larry Ellison, Michael
00:41:35
Dell, I am going to hit you so [ __ ] hard when I'm in the White House because of your engaging. You're all free marketers until you get a chance to be total [ __ ] oligarchs
00:41:47
with the co with the comics. They're all anti-censorship until they get censored. Well, this is this is like, okay, fine.
00:41:55
And it's the same message to the folks in El Salvador. you're found incarcerating good Americans. I don't
00:42:01
care if the previous president said it was okay. I'm coming for your ass. And I would I would if I were Rahm Emanuel or Governor Nuome or Governor Moore, I would be saying, look, my reach and my
00:42:15
memory are are long and far. And for those of you who claim to be free marketers engaging in this type of cronyism and this oligarchy, be clear.
00:42:26
I'm coming for your ass. Yeah, you need to break the back of that immediately and start saying for those of you for
00:42:32
those of you engaging in this type of of of ridiculous, you know, ridiculous prosecution of your political enemies,
00:42:39
okay, we can do that, too. No, I'm going to start making a list. That's their nightmare.
00:42:45
But instead, we're like, this is illegal. This is wrong. This is America needs to come together. [ __ ] that. Guess what? Scott and I are coming for you people. We're coming for you.
00:42:58
Speaking of paper tigers, um uh we'll go on a quick break. When we come back, Trump's retribution campaign. Speaking
00:43:03
of retribution, Scott, we're back. Donald Trump is insisting uh the indictment of former FBI director James
00:43:10
Comey isn't about revenge, saying it's really about justice. Comey was Oh, whatever. Comey was indicted on two
00:43:15
felony counts last week, both tied to his 2020 Senate testimony on the Trump Russia investigation. The indictment
00:43:21
came after Trump put his former attorney Lindseay Halligan and former beauty queen in charge of the case despite the
00:43:27
fact that she had never prosecuted a federal case. Um, in a video posted on Instagram, Comey declared his innocence
00:43:34
and said he would welcome a trial. Let's listen. My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to
00:43:41
Donald Trump. But we couldn't imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees. and you shouldn't either. He gets to take the high ground. Not one
00:43:52
of my favorite people, I'll be honest with you. But still, he didn't do anything wrong. And Lindsay Haligan has made like error after error in the
00:43:58
filing of this thing. And the grand jury only indicted on two counts even though there were three. Uh, every lawyer I
00:44:04
know said this is going to be a slam dunk for Comey to get out of. Uh, Trump is also indicating that said, and he, by
00:44:10
the way, people within the White House said don't do it, including Pam Bondi. Uh, Trump is also indicating more
00:44:15
indictments are likely, pointing to New York Attorney General Leticia James, as well as George Soros and Reed Hoffman as
00:44:21
potential targets. Um, I don't know. He's putting up really shitty cases and probably will lose. So, thoughts? This isn't about legal victory. It's
00:44:32
about intimidation. Yeah. And first off, if anyone should have a gripe with Director Comey, it should be
00:44:38
Secretary Clinton. Mhm. Going into like weeks left in the campaign, you're never supposed to discuss an investigation until you have actual indictments in the FBI. That's standard practice.
00:44:50
And James Comey, always posing for the [ __ ] cameras, who likes to think of himself as a bald eagle flying into an
00:44:55
apple pie. He's so [ __ ] sanctimonious, decided to pose more for the cameras and
00:45:00
put out a letter saying that they had found more emails with no specifics, which casts this incredible doubt on
00:45:07
Secretary C. uh uh Clinton's campaign. If anyone has a beef with the director, it's Secretary Clinton. And the fact that he's doing this, again, I think it's another some another data point,
00:45:20
another suggestion from Open AI, it will not from what I understand of the case is it if it's not swatted away right
00:45:27
away, it'll be soon swatted away. Meanwhile, he will have to raise millions of dollars to defend this. But
00:45:35
what he this isn't about this isn't about winning cases. This is about intimidation and convincing people it's
00:45:42
better to just give him what he wants and stay out of his way. Whether it's cut him a check for $14 million or 7
00:45:48
million or just don't say anything. But Director Comey, even a statement there, Director Comey is really poorly advised. We will not live on our knees. Oh Jesus Christ, you're not Amelana Zapata. Just
00:46:01
get over yourself. All right. It's it's like look this is this is this is political
00:46:07
vengeance and it's one thing to say you know he should have read that quote from the the the Presbyterian minister first they
00:46:15
came for the socialists and I did not say he goes just be clear folks at some point they come for you.
00:46:20
Yeah. And and this is this is awful. It will not go anywhere but it's more distraction. It keeps Epstein out and it intimidates people. People stop speaking
00:46:31
their mind. It does. These are all intimidations whether it's to Microsoft or anybody else. That's what it's doing.
00:46:37
It's it's sending a flare saying, "I might be wrong. It may not hold up in court, but I am going to irritate you
00:46:44
distract people. I'm going to come after you." you know, the Comey household right now,
00:46:49
the job of the job of a government, the job of you to a certain extent as a man is the job of a woman and the job of a combination of masculine and
00:47:02
feminine energy is to create leadership, nurturing, care, concern such that you ease people's pain and make them feel comfortable. Make them you ease their
00:47:13
anxiety. You make them you make them have rewarding lives. You let them focus on the tough stuff. Losing people they
00:47:19
love. How do they deal with kids who are struggling? And the people who are supposed to be the best at that and have
00:47:25
the most resources are elected leaders. Our elected leaders are supposed to remove anxiety from our lives. They're
00:47:31
supposed to give us a sense that you're safe and you're secure. We're going to lower the crime. We're going to give your kids more opportunity. And if your
00:47:38
wife gets lung cancer, it means you're not going to go bankrupt. That is what the government is supposed to do. We're going to come up with great research
00:47:44
such that if your wife gets metastatic breast cancer, we've done this incredible research. You don't need to understand it, but there's better
00:47:49
prospects every day that she will live. You don't need to worry about being invaded. You don't need to worry about,
00:47:57
you know, if someone commits a crime against you that they go unpunished. And instead, we have a government that seems
00:48:02
more focused on increasing the anxiety of certain groups of people because this is now
00:48:08
this is now a party of vengeance. It's not a party of preventing a tragedy to the commons. Ridiculous. They're always so angry. How
00:48:14
do you get so angry? Seriously. And while less angry. And while he's spending all his time
00:48:20
trying to figure out how to keep Epstein out of the news and how to harass fellow Americans and weaponize our great
00:48:27
institutions, not against our enemies, but against the enemy within. Putin and she are taking advantage of it,
00:48:33
establishing new alliances and sending attack aircraft into NATO countries. Yeah. And we're sitting out here, you
00:48:39
know, trying to like dodge incoming missiles that are fired domestically from from Pennsylvania Avenue.
00:48:45
Agreed. And by the way, we didn't we're not we didn't have time to talk about this today, but um the Epstein there
00:48:50
were more Epstein file stuff coming out that had come out and including names of people like Peter Teal and Elon Musk.
00:48:58
Elon's denying it. I I I think he probably was invited and didn't go. I believe him on that and I know he did go
00:49:03
to the New York um the New York thing. I was invited to the New York thing and I didn't go like so I I'm not I don't know
00:49:10
necessarily if it means anything but more Epstein files the better. And you saw Marjorie Taylor Green saying she's going to be killed that she's keeping
00:49:17
going on this thing. People should focus on the Epstein files some more. That's what I say. Anyway, uh one more quick
00:49:23
break. We'll be back for wins and fails. Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. Would you like me to go first? Would you? Please do. Um you know, Hakee Jeff is my fail this
00:49:34
week. Um, first of all, his social media is so bad. I just want to cry. He could benefit from a Gavin Newsen social media
00:49:41
intervention. It is so boring. It's so dumb. It's so He should just get off social media if he's not going to do it well. Um, but when Eric Adams dropped out of the New York mayoral race, which
00:49:51
I think people expected, although he did it after his name is now still on the ballot, I believe, um, uh, he's still
00:49:58
not endorsing Amumdani. And then he eusively complimented Eric Adams. It was so strange. And I just, you know, I had a lot of hopes for Hakeem Jeff that he would live up. I know you don't like
00:50:09
Nancy Pelosi, but she was good at her job what she did there. Very strategic. Very strategic. This guy doesn't seem to
00:50:15
have a clue. I just feel like what a I just every everything Hakeem Jefferson is a big L on it as far as I'm
00:50:22
concerned. again, just like it's just so ridiculous, especially with Trump on the
00:50:27
opposite side saying that if you vote for him, I'm going to hurt New York and you what's the point of voting? He's,
00:50:33
you know, putting his finger on the thumb of everything, which is also grotesque, but uh typical from um uh
00:50:40
from him. Um, and then, uh, my win is I'm excited for the slate of movies for I know you say like I'm gonna see them not in the movie theater, but there's all these like great movies coming out
00:50:52
in the fall. I do always like the fall. I just keep seeing all these, you know, ads and stuff for different movies and
00:50:57
things opening and I'm super excited. Obviously, I'm most excited for Wicked as I've noticed, Wicked for Good. And
00:51:03
they're they keep dropping stuff and I'm very um pleased with with that. I really like that. Um, and uh, so I'm excited.
00:51:10
I'll be talking about them as we move forward. But there's a ton of really cool stuff that looks like it's coming out, including this movie that George
00:51:16
Clooney is in. It's called Jay Kelly and it looks it's by Noah um Bombach. I think it it looks really good. He's playing himself really and it looks funny. It's Are you going to see the Leo film?
00:51:27
No, I can't do it. I don't have enough energy. It's supposed to be It's supposed to be outstanding. All is his I I didn't see the one the
00:51:33
Indian one where where he poisons Indian America uh Native Americans. So, peak artistic masturbation. I don't know. I just can't. I just I'm so tired. I want to see fun things. So,
00:51:44
I'm going to go see great. I'm going to see it tonight. I'll record. All right. Well, tell me how it is. Tell me how it is. Yeah. Um, so just a couple things in
00:51:51
with leader Jeff. I've met him, interviewed him on stage. Really like him. In the corporate world, we have
00:51:58
this this pattern or this problem where often times we when people are great at what they do, we keep promoting them until we find a position they're not great at. In
00:52:10
other words, you promote them out of their competency. And so they came up with this idea, I think it's called solar, solo contributor, where they say,
00:52:16
"Look, this guy's a great bond trader. He or she can't manage people out of a [ __ ] paper bag, right? So just keep
00:52:24
them as a bond trader. don't put them in charge of the of the fixed income department. And some people are just
00:52:29
good at what they do and they end up being great managers. I think that applies to Leader Jeff. I think he's an
00:52:35
outstanding elected representative. I think he he's a great representative in the House for his core constituents in
00:52:41
Brooklyn. He lacks the killer instinct and gravitas and what I' I don't want to call leadership ability, but ability to capture narrative and compel people to
00:52:53
be the speaker of the house. I just don't think he has those skills. And especially for this moment and him him
00:53:01
and him him and Chuck Schumer, it's kind of a it's kind of like wet meat blanket. I
00:53:07
mean, it's just it's just I agree. I think it's just these aren't these aren't the guys for the moment. And I think leader Jeff is is should should should go on and be
00:53:20
his representative. And he's outstanding. maybe run for Senate someday, but he's not the person for
00:53:25
this moment. And and Senator Schumer is literally become the invisible man. Like
00:53:31
I I just don't even I don't even see him when he's on screen anymore. Anyway, um so my my fail is
00:53:43
it is so insane that we are now talking about bailing out farmers. Uh, I mean, let me get this. We go, we walk up to someone, the US government,
00:53:54
shoot them in the leg, and then borrow money from future generations to pay for their hospital bills. And essentially,
00:54:01
what do you know? We place all these tariffs on foreign goods. And China, who's much smarter than us, goes, I'm
00:54:07
going to go after the heart and lungs here and put on a huge tariff on soybeans for all those farmers in red
00:54:14
states. And they're basically their entire businesses collapsed. And by the way, without previous government
00:54:20
subsidies, many of these farms are no longer economically viable anyways. So what do
00:54:25
you have? You have circular payments. The government collects tariffs, which is a tax on US consumers, then pays
00:54:31
billions to farmers hurt by those same tariffs. So everyone loses. Consumers pay higher prices. Taxpayers fund the bailouts. And farmers get temporary cash, but permanent loss of China
00:54:43
market. The Chinese have already established new trade relationships with Brazil and Argentina and they're not
00:54:48
coming back to Iowa, folks. They're not doing it. This is done. This is not a shift. This is a structural shift. So
00:54:55
unless the government and taxpayers are going to keep propping up these people to pay for the stupid tariffs,
00:55:01
eventually they're going to go away. The money props up inefficiency instead of investing in infrastructure. What they
00:55:07
need to be doing is crop diversification. And it's just pure political theater. It's bailouts are less about economic
00:55:14
policy and they're just they're doing what Democrats do and that is they're throwing money at people for votes and
00:55:21
we've literally we've lit the house on fire and then sent taxpayers the bill for the fire department. They they don't these payments this circular payments they don't build
00:55:32
competitiveness they build dependency. Yep. And they're doing it just because they're they're MAGA. That's why or they
00:55:38
were they were Trump supporters and they're not helping others who were not. It's the same thing that's going to happen if this government shuts down.
00:55:44
And so while young people So while we cut a check on young people's backs in terms of debt, Brazil builds railroad
00:55:51
Brazil builds railroads and steals China as a customer. It's just this couldn't be more stupid. Anyway, all right. So that's my fail. My win is what we talked about before.
00:56:02
Sinclair and NextStar had blacked out uh Jimmy Kimmel on their affiliates. I And
00:56:07
I think that I think the blackout was pretty significant. It covered about I think about a quarter of US households. It did. Mostly small places except for
00:56:14
Seattle and DC. But go ahead. Yeah. But these late night guys need everything. Yep. And then on the 26th,
00:56:20
both companies announced it would end the boycott and restore the show to their stations. It's not because they saw God or decided that they weren't
00:56:26
sensorious. It was because of the backlash of consumer of the backlash from viewers, media observers, advocacy
00:56:33
groups, um, and all kinds of pressure from different consumers. Sinclair's the bigger one. They own about 15% of US television households via ABC affiliates
00:56:43
and NextStar is 9%. So, it's almost a quarter. And after the reversal, Jimmy Kimmel um, regained its reach in those markets, obviously restoring viewership.
00:56:54
And the bottom line is the distributors blinked. And I love this. You can try to mute descent, but when the market and
00:57:02
money pushed back, they restarted. And I think it's a it's a good moment for us. And this and also this just isn't this
00:57:08
really isn't just about one late night host. It's about broadcasters recognizing that bowing to the president's pressure
00:57:16
is a precedent toward censorship and can cost their shareholders money. And we need to start connecting these really these this overreach and vile activities on the part of the White House with
00:57:27
economic punishment. That's the connection. This socialist government is really getting on my nerves. Um anyway, uh
00:57:34
those are both good ones. I agree with you and you were correct about this um this uh idea of economic pressure that
00:57:41
that consumers can bring to bear. We want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech, or whatever is on your mind. Go to
00:57:47
nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show or call 85551 pivot. And elsewhere in the
00:57:52
Cara and Scott universe on on with Cara Swisser. I recently spoke with Matt and Maria Rain whose 16-year-old son died by
00:57:59
suicide after starting to use chat GPT. Let's listen to a clip. What would you right now say to Sam Alman if you were looking at him? Now that's a loaded question. Do you want to talk?
00:58:12
Uh, why did you put out a product that killed my son? And why haven't you called me and expressed any remorse?
00:58:27
I don't know, among other things. But I just I don't understand how he can just be going through life knowing that my son is gone. like my son
00:58:41
doesn't matter. It's your product that matters. That was a tough tough tough show. I
00:58:48
It's well worth listening to. It's really upsetting, but at the same time really incredibly cogent argument
00:58:53
they're making as parents and as consumers, too. Oddly enough, you did a really nice job. you were able
00:58:58
to thread the needle there and and it was very I had to I listened to it this weekend and I had to turn it off a couple times, but you you were very um
00:59:06
you made it about as just the facts as you could on a very heavy topic and it was very emotional, but you were you
00:59:12
managed to just kind of get through it in a way that felt I don't know very journalistic. I wouldn't I wouldn't have
00:59:17
been able to do that interview. So, um it was hard as a parent. I can tell you that I'm I am incandescent about some of
00:59:23
this and I just think AI should be limited with kids. It's just I now absolutely of that mind. It shouldn't be in toys. It shouldn't be in anything%.
00:59:34
We We have PG-13 content for people under the age of 13. We have R-rated content where an adult has to be present. We It's not to say we can't have AI for kids, but it should be
00:59:46
severely different. Severely different. And character AI should just not exist for people under the age of 18.
00:59:52
Yeah. Synthetic relationships. No. No. There's nobody there. people do not, you know, it's fine if you want to like figure out your business plan, but this is [ __ ] And I have been talking to,
01:00:03
let me just say, a lot of legislators about a lot of this stuff aimed at kids. And every time I get the chance, and I'm
01:00:09
going to continue to do so. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe to our
01:00:14
YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday. Scott, read us out. Today's show is produced by Larara Neon,
01:00:20
Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and Todd engineered this episode. Jim M edited the video. Thanks also J Bros and
01:00:26
Dan Shalon. Mhach Vox Media's executive producer podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform.
01:00:33
Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine nymag.com/pod.
01:00:38
We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
01:00:44
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