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Mark Zuckerberg Is Coming for Prediction Markets. Kara Swisher Calls Him Out | Pivot

June 26, 2026 / 54:56

This episode of Pivot covers the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the creator economy, AI's impact on creativity, and the current state of Hollywood's box office. Hosts Carara Swisser and Scott Galloway discuss trends in advertising, the influence of sports culture, and the implications of the World Cup on betting markets.

Scott shares insights on the shifting dynamics of the advertising industry, emphasizing the rise of individual creators over traditional institutions. He notes that the creator economy is growing, with a significant increase in attendance at Cannes, highlighting the importance of creativity amidst the AI conversation.

The hosts also touch on the resurgence of the movie industry, with Hollywood experiencing a box office boom, driven by a mix of blockbuster and smaller films. They discuss how audiences are returning to theaters and the cultural significance of this trend.

In addition, Scott predicts that the upcoming World Cup will have a substantial impact on betting markets, particularly among young men, and discusses the potential for significant financial implications in the tech and sports sectors.

The episode concludes with a discussion on the future of media and the importance of maintaining journalistic integrity amidst the rise of smaller creators and platforms.

TLDR

Scott Galloway discusses the Cannes Lions Festival, the creator economy, Hollywood's box office recovery, and the World Cup's impact on betting markets.

Episode

54:56
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You love me. >> I do. You love the dog. >> Sadly, sadly, sadly. It's the worst relationship of my life and my finest uh
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>> Oh, come on. >> Hi everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast
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Network. I'm Carara Swisser >> and I'm Scott Galloway >> and Oh, nice. Wow, that was really good. And we're
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recording this episode in front of a live audience here at the AdWeek House at K can't can't sorry can Lions
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International Festival of Creativity. Is that what it's called? All right, fine.
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We're doing that. Welcome everybody. >> So, let's just start. Scott, I we haven't seen each other at all. Correct.
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Not even slightly. >> Yeah. No, it's it's a great camp. I mean, we love >> Great for both of us though. We don't
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have to see each other. Um I brought my children. We've having a lovely time. They were just in the Mediterranean this
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morning. Um, and I've had a lovely time with them except for the heat. But how is your con going can? Sorry. Jesus
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Christ. >> I love it here. Um, but I don't know if you saw that crazy drone show.
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>> Yeah, that was actually the word is, and I can validate this. It's an alien craft. It's an alien
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species of species of women who are no joke are abducting guys with enormous dicks.
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Um, so you're safe. But also, just so you know, the spaceship is incredible. >> Oh, yeah.
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>> Hello, France. That took like five seconds to get to a penis joke and a highly complimentary
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one to yourself which is inaccurate but nonetheless. >> Don't ask me my nickname in a
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fraternity. Just don't just don't. Tripod. >> Yeah. >> Tripod. Anyways, sorry. >> It's tapod.
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>> Tripod is pod. It's like you should you should take intentions or gestures with
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the intentions that they're made or that are intended or you know what I'm saying.
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>> Yeah. Okay. No, I don't. All right. Let me just let How is your can gone? How's
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it gone? >> It's great. It's the first time I've left my hotel. >> Okay. All right. He's You're saying
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>> when I was their age, I used to have to work here and like, you know, meet with
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Martin Selis. I'd have lunch with him and he'd take calls and just go one minute. One minute. And now it's like
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Mr. Beast is the man. Um, >> yeah. >> Yeah. I love I absolutely love it about what's what what do you think are the
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big takeaways so far? >> So, uh, hands down the biggest trend is the creator economy. There's 500 here
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this year. There were 400 last year. It used to be It's sort of ironic that this
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is meant to be a gathering. It's 13,000 people from 90 countries. It's meant to be a gathering to celebrate the
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industry, but the industry hasn't yet recognized they're no longer the protagonist. And that the industry if
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you think of it the means of production talent used to command 10 or 15% of the total revenue because in between there
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were these means of production or moes an ad agency uh distribution a studio makeup unions a cable going into
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people's homes and now people with these few platforms that command a disproportionate margin they do really
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well but you have thousands it's no longer Madison Avenue it's a bunch of studios and the celebrities here are no
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longer When I used to come here, Maurice Levy, Martin Surell, John Ren, they own
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the closet. >> Now it's some creator who's talking about food, you know. So, it's it really
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has there's a distribution from institutions to individuals. Uh AI last year was what do we do with AI? Now,
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it's how do we organize our company around AI? How do we get an ROI there? I think there's been people have come to
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the conclusion that AI is all chip and no salsa and that creativity has never been more important. Where social media
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takes people to the extremes, AI takes everyone to the middle and it's very moderated and so creativity has never
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been more important. Remember AI was going to produce commercials. There's more designers now at IBM as a
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percentage of their employment and creatives than there was last year. So creativity appears.
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>> I have noticed the sort of fall off in the AI dementia that was here last year.
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I mean, it's really I mean, it's that's everywhere actually when every everyone's sort of coming to the
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conclusion that they're not really clear what efficacy this stuff has instead of
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having to I mean, the drone show did do AI and it was it was not AI, it was it wasn't artificial intelligence. It was
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something else. They had another word. Uh, what it was >> art and art and intelligence instead of
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artificial intelligence. >> Yeah. And the other and the other big trend is sports.
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>> Yeah. Yeah, there wasn't a sport beach here. Sport really is the cultural religion now. And it's it's one of the I
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mean the biggest I think the two biggest stories taking place right now, one's positive and one's negative. And the
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things we'll be talking about two weeks, I like to predict what'll be the biggest
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business stories that are happening. The biggest cultural story would be the coming together that basically the World
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Cup is doing what the UN was supposed to do. And these wonderful creators and this content that makes us feel better
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about the world when we really needed it. We needed to feel better about America and Waffle House and how
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wonderful Norwegians and the Scottish are. Go team Scotland against Brazil. It could happen tomorrow night.
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>> Um, that is the best cultural story unfolding right now. The biggest story that will that's taking place right now.
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You're going to see that the predictions markets have a scary [ __ ] amount of betting on the World Cup right now,
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mostly from young men whose prefrontal cortisees is very immature and are prone to addiction. I think that's the biggest
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story playing out right now. You're going to see that one-third twothirds of young men in the United States bet on
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the World Cup and you're going to see Poly Market and Khi basically show the kind of numbers that get Goldman and JP
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Morgan saying we're ready to go public. That's the biggest story. >> We did see of course Zuckerberg waiting
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into it. >> He's going to start a predictions market. >> He is which is called Arena which I mean
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did he ever have an idea he thought of himself that he didn't the thieve? >> Yeah, but that's the key to shareholder
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value. the innovator, the first iPod, the first computer, the first social media network. Who's on MySpace? I mean,
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it's it's the second mouse that gets the cheese. Apple's >> Well, do you do you imagine? Because he
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tried it in a number of ways. They tried to do a dating service. Do you remember
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the Facebook dating service that >> didn't go anywhere or the Facebook this, the Facebook that? Is this a good area?
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you're just it's an important area right now, but they're also under enormous scrutiny by even in the by US standards,
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they're under enormous scrutiny in the US. All these markets, they're getting push back all across the world from a
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regulatory point of view. And then Mark, whose reputation is just even this week
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got even more tarnished. We talked about it on the last episode because Trump essentially called him a sucker. Um he
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did. He did essentially um and was accurate. Um, and do you think it's a great time to wade into this area for a
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company like Facebook or do you think these are inevitable companies that these that are happening?
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>> Yeah, I think so. If I were the head of corporate development at Meta, I would
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take a 2 to 3% dilution and take a 40 to$60 billion flyer on either Ky or Poly Market as opposed to trying to compete
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with them and go from letter A to F. But we use the term innovation really promiscuously in terms of shareholder
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value. It's not the innovator. The innovator and the pioneers get mud on their face and arrows on their back.
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It's the number two. Apple has never invented anything. What they do is they come in and they commercialize it and
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they do a better job of it. Uh if I were Meta and I'm not and I would be rushing
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to get things done before a Democrat takes the White House and actually starts trying to break up companies,
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which is what we need to bring affordability down as the rents being charged on advertisers and consumers and
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parents gets higher and higher as we let these companies consolidate with no regulation.
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But I would I would be looking at everything and if I wanted to get into that market, I would pick up one of
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those two players for 20 to 60 billion, which at this point would be a minor dilution.
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>> Is it a particularly good thing for their corporate image to go into an area that's under it? It's clearly going to
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be under attack in the next two years. >> I don't think they give a [ __ ] I don't
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think they're worried about their image. >> Yeah, I don't. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's, as we sit
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here, there's a bunch of 14-year-old girls self- cutting because of Cheryl Samberg's business model.
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>> And too much. >> Yeah. >> Uh, so I don't I don't I think they're I think they're very willing to endure
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hits to their image. I don't think that's their first priority. >> So, they will go, this is an area they
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should go into. >> Their image, the only thing that [ __ ] matters is Mark Zuckerberg keeps
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delivering unbelievable shareholder returns. That's the only image that matters in a capitalist America with no
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regulation. And we can sit here and talk about purity tests. No one gives a [ __ ]
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>> All right. Well, in Europe, let me just let they're trying to break up uh US big
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tech. Here in France, the budget minister called for a country to break free of American systems. Sort of on
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trend with the Europeans feeling the American century is over, which I think is very clear. They've stepped up in
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Ukraine. They've sort of pulled away from the US. You have Georgia Maloney every day insulting Trump, which is
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really enjoyable. Um uh and the EU just rolled out a new sovereignty package to boost homegrown tech. A very difficult
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thing to do. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon control 70% of Europe's cloud market and 80% of European software
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spend goes to US companies. Um you know, it also has to deal with these climate goals that they have in data center. Uh
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a lobbyist say European's power grid isn't ready to fuel advanced AI infrastructure. We'll need to lean on
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new gas plants to stay competitive, which is a big issue in the United States. and actually gaining enormous
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amount of traction with voters 100%. Um, Europe's biggest techs uh want to say in
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shaping EU policy, a new group called the European Tech Creators is pushing the EU to cut red tape, loosen merger
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rules the way the US and China cut back theirs. Um, is that something you see happening? This is not the direction
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Europe had gone in and has had much less success. Obviously, all these US companies, whether it's Open AI or or or
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Anthropic, are all US all the latest basket of them, whether they're going to make it or not, are US companies.
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>> Yeah. So, America used to be the uncle who showed up who was obnoxious. He showed up to the European, you know,
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picnic. Obnoxious, but nice. Paid for your kids tuition. Generally, heart was in the right place. Now, the uncle's
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showing up. He's on meth and he's doing his karate moves and he's hitting on and he's hitting on underage girls at
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the park. I mean, we are we have become so unreliable and quite frankly just gross that the EU has finally come to
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the realization we can't count on this guy any longer. >> And it can go one of two ways. The good
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way is that they figure out a way. Germany or I think 30 40% debt to GDP. Uh Netherlands, they need to probably go
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into some deficit spending, ramp up their technology investment in their own military, support their own companies.
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Mistral vertical aerospace. Daniel E is in a big investor in a European defense company. I think that would be good. If
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they use this as yet another excuse to slow down their thoroughbreds with overregulation, which is what Europe
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does, you'll great be righteous, worried about the environment and we'll kick your ass from a shareholder standpoint.
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And that's the story of Europe. Thoughtful regulation that gets in the way of every company killing it. And
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America makes the mistake of underregulating. Europe makes the mistake of overregulating and you'd
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rather be the former because then you have the capital and the strength to fund a navy when you do get a good
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leader in place. Economic growth, I mean it's kind of everything. You have to have the UK has its heart in the right
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place, super smart, and they can't do any of the [ __ ] because the economy is not growing. So there's a medium if they
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use it as an excuse to support to force companies to purchase their own models support Europeanborn native internet
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e-commerce AI companies defense companies great if they use it as yet another excuse to increase regulation
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where talented entrepreneurs and capital just shrug their arms in the >> Is it even possible at this point
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because these companies are sort of barreling to IPOs despite the fact that for example SpaceX has really taken yet
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another fall. We talked on Monday about this, but it took a it took a decent fall again.
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>> It's still up from the IPO. It's trading at 120 times revenues. We kill for their
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problems. >> Yeah, I get that. But do you see it um is there a way to catch up in any way
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for other parts of the world to do so? or are these the companies that will >> Well, Europe Europe has some great
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companies and I'm actually in my prediction I'm going to talk about I think the hottest IPO of the digital of
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this month is actually going to be a European company and I'll talk about that on predictions. Look, they have
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some they have some great companies. The I do think there's going to be a lot of
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talent. The team with the best players wins and I think you're going to see a trend
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where the most talented people in Europe used to have one goal. Get out. It's like my homeland or my father's
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homeland, Scotland. My dad used to joke, what are the most talented people in Scotland have in common? They left. And
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I do think that the rivers of flow of human capital benefit Europe right now. I think there's a lot of people are
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thinking, you know what, maybe I'll put off going to the Bay Area. Maybe I'll put off going to the Gulf. Uh moving the
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most the youngest, talented, most aggressive, ambitious people used to get to the biggest city in their nation,
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then to London, then to San Francisco or New York. I think a lot of human capital
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and financial capital is going to come back to Europe because of lifestyle. And two, because Europe has been left for
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dead, the valuations are really low. >> So they're low. So you can take advantage of this, but they've got to
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have a government that gets out of the way in some fashion. Although not to the extent that ours does, presumably
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>> there's got to be a sweet spot. We've gone too far to free markets. The EU is
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way too over. I mean, the European Union, it's not a union. And it's a disunion where nobody has control but
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everyone has veto authority, >> right? >> And it creates just it supposedly takes about there's a
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measure of how long it takes to start a company to get all the filings, the permits, hire people. It takes 6 weeks
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in the US. Supposedly it takes 16 months in France. I mean that's just a problem,
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right? So I I think there's a sweet spot. Although I I I do think in the US there is push back coming whether it's
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you know Elon Musk threatening Roana over normal statements about USAD to what's what happened in New York mani
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there's a real push against a lot of this billionaire power unfettered capitalism that's coming I think hard
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and fast and they're starting to win elections they're starting to have have a say and you know you wouldn't normally
00:14:50
see a politician like Roana push back against Elon Musk at this point given well he's Maybe he's not a trillionaire
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right now. He came down to 996 billion dollars. Um, which I feel bad for the guy. Um, but one of the things
00:15:05
that I do see coming is a massive amount of payback to these guys. I just see it.
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I see it everywhere you go. And I think they're not going to be able to attack Trump in the same way they might like
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to, but this is going to be their vehicle of attack is these guys as as and and these companies are going to be
00:15:21
in a world of hurt. And you'll see you're seeing push back from Disney to the Trump administration. You're seeing
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push back from politicians like Row. You're seeing you're seeing push back all over the place by average citizens
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across and you're seeing winning by Democratic socialists around this billionaire issue. Um that I think is
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really growing in a way that is significant. And when the Democrats come back, if it's if they sort of shove the
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old Democratic establishment to the side, there's, you know, a lot of the Republicans or a lot of the tech people
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don't think there's going to be payback, but I do feel like there probably is. >> I, you know, I hope so. I I think the I
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think since the 80s, America has been obsessed with how to create wealth. >> I think the next 10 years, the dominant
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conversation is going to be what do you do with wealth? Yeah. And what are the expectations of wealth? and tax policy.
00:16:12
I mean, we talk about rich versus poor. I don't think that's right. I've talked a lot about young versus old. I'm not
00:16:18
sure that's right. I think the conversation is going to be around entrance versus incumbents. If you
00:16:22
already own assets, if you already have a company that's weaponized regulation, if you already own a home, if you
00:16:28
already have a college degree, there's been this unhealthy zeitgeist among the incumbents to create scarcity such that
00:16:35
entrance can't get a house, can't get a college degree, can't get out of the crib and get customers because the
00:16:41
incumbents have weaponized government to basically make it impossible for entrance.
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>> And the entrance, who typically are younger, middle class, are just fed up. Although it was interesting, there's an
00:16:51
interesting story in the New York Times this week. It was a column that I thought was great talking about, let me
00:16:55
be more educated than you are, Socrates. Um, and what was happening in >> He's playing tonight at Spotify now.
00:17:06
>> You love me. >> I do. You love the sadly. Sadly, sadly, it's the worst relationship of my life
00:17:11
and my finest. Uh, >> come on. >> No, it's true. It's true. I do. I have weird affection. Someone literally came
00:17:17
up to me. >> I'm so your bottom. This is what's happened to me here. >> Everyone laughs and I go, "Wait, am I
00:17:23
supposed to laugh? >> You need to stop objectifying me, Scott." >> Okay. >> Um, someone came up to me last night and
00:17:29
literally just went like this, >> Scott, how do you do it? And I was like, I I like him.
00:17:40
>> Like, so do I. That woman said, so do I. It was weird, but >> Was it Emily Roakoski? You can be
00:17:45
honest. >> No. Yeah, >> she's been asking about me, right? >> Never in your life will that ever
00:17:52
happen. >> She's playing that game, right? >> You know what? >> I'm going to do something about her.
00:17:55
>> She's playing that game, right? >> No, she's she's probably called security on you at this point. Anyway, in any
00:18:00
case, the point I was making was that the the they had these issues back in ancient times where the where the
00:18:06
oligarchs and the the the the regular people, the the the equality got out of control in a way that was really
00:18:14
significant. And that's exactly when you had push backs and push backs and push from both sides. And I think we are
00:18:20
absolutely at that time. And I don't think it's particularly helpful to say, you know, eat the rich, but there is a
00:18:27
real movement in our country that is significant. You again, New York elections are New York elections, but it
00:18:33
says something um when there's push back. So, we'll see what happens. Um I I'm not worried for them, but they're
00:18:39
going to have to uh armorplate their Teslas at some point if it starts to get ugly. And there is going to be an ugly
00:18:44
moment unfortunately for them. And I think it's just it's inevitable if they continue to sort of take everything and
00:18:52
damage everything in the thing. >> Look, I that's a nice story. I I hope it comes true. I hope we see the
00:18:57
manifestation of that at the ballot box. But the reality is I think Donald Trump
00:19:01
is going to sleep well and die of Mara Lago and and I think Bezos and all these guys are going to have really nice
00:19:07
lives. And I think we've just got to decide what we want moving forward. But the notion that they're going to pay a
00:19:13
price for this, money buys you a lot of protection. >> Well, it does. We'll have to see what
00:19:17
happens. But I'm I'm really interested in US elections coming up. All right, let's take a quick break. We come back,
00:19:21
we'll talk about Hollywood's record-breaking year. Support for this show comes from Coher.
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Coher. To learn more, visit cohhere.com/vox. Scott, we're back. We're live at AdWeek
00:20:43
House at Con Lions. Um, we're officially uh we're officially in the summer movie season and Hollywood is
00:20:54
hitting new heights, which is really interesting. Toy Story 5 just opened to $312 million globally. Total domestic
00:21:01
box office year is estimated 4.46 billion, the highest since 2019. It's recovered. It is not.
00:21:06
>> And you predicted this. >> Yes, I did. Lots of movies brought in the big bucks. Project Hail Mary,
00:21:11
Michael, The Devil Wears Prada, which I am starring in. Plus, lowbudget horror movies, Back Rooms, and Obsession, and
00:21:17
they're becoming blockbusters, but they're it's the first movie since ET where the where the box office is moved
00:21:23
up. And I noted my son went to see both these movies, and he's not gone to the movies since I took him to Toy Story 3,
00:21:30
I think, at that point. um talk about this trend because pe these theaters these movie it's actual
00:21:36
mover movie movie theater experience it it's a range of movies it's not these these big big blockbuster it's not an
00:21:43
Avenger movie it's it's though there's one of those coming it's a lot of um I would say smaller movies in a lot of
00:21:50
ways and they seem to have been really spurring people not just to go to the movies and of course story 5 is five is
00:21:57
the fifth one and it's apparently why it's the fifth >> the fifth Yes. George Story 5. Yes.
00:22:05
Anyway, um what what do you uh what do you make of this and how right was I about this situation?
00:22:13
>> You called this um >> you went like this. That's ridiculous. >> Well, the question is is it a is it a
00:22:18
trend or is it a dead cap bounce? So, look, the movie industry to be fair, some of the best performing stocks in
00:22:23
media are actually theater stocks. Cinemark and IMAX are up. theaters at 40 and 45% respectively in the last 12
00:22:30
months. The theater business is becoming like airlines. There's Southwest and JetBlue which is streaming. That's
00:22:37
Netflix serves you content for 30 cents an hour. That's an incredible deal. And then there's Emirates and Qatar Airlines
00:22:46
in Singapore. That's IMAX. That's an incredible experience. Uh the guys in the middle like AMC or Delta United are
00:22:54
getting crushed. So people are willing to spend 20 or 30 or 40 bucks to go to IMAX or have a really like I love IPIC
00:23:01
although that just went bankrupt but they want an experience or they just want 30 cents an hour and reasonably
00:23:06
good content but it the I mean the other biggest trend culturally right now is IRL coming out of co people probably
00:23:14
lost somebody >> uh people do have disposable income the economy has been fairly strong and
00:23:20
people want to get out and touch grass and and I think they're just having a a really healthy gag reflex over
00:23:26
isolation. >> Yeah, I do think there's a gag reflex over social media and everything else.
00:23:30
all the it's really it's interesting Gary Vaynerchuk here now says analog is in uh versus which I was like no [ __ ]
00:23:37
Sherlock it's really but the idea of of the the idea that this pushing away I have long thought that social media is
00:23:44
going to decline rather precipitously especially among young people and become more of a you know because you're
00:23:50
starting to see tech companies like Google just invested in A24 which I thought was in everyone lost their minds
00:23:56
in Hollywood they thought they were going to pull their data I think they're using it to try to figure about how to
00:24:00
do better storyboarding, how to use AI, and how to figure out how to change the movie making process, which isn't such a
00:24:07
bad idea to use those tools. Although Hollywood does have a gag reflex to all of these things in favor of these in
00:24:15
real life cinema experiences. Yeah, I think both can be true because if you look at I don't understand I
00:24:24
people go on Instagram to find out about a yogurt store they'll spend 40 minutes
00:24:29
in line for. So that's a combination of the two things. The downside to the IRL trend is the following and that is I
00:24:37
mean there's a couple things. You're about to see tables in Mkos and Aitha increase 40 50% of price this summer
00:24:46
because there's about to be 12,000 new millionaires in the Bay Area through Anthropic, SpaceX, and Open AI. And if
00:24:52
you're a 36-year-old who got a CS degree from Carnegie Melon, quite frankly, haven't had, you know, you weren't
00:24:58
didn't have the most social capital in high school, quite frankly. and you wake up and you've been broke and you've been
00:25:04
paying your student loans and you wake up after the IPO and you're worth $11 million. You're not going to Disneyland.
00:25:09
You're going to aa and you're seeing black coffee. The flush of douchebag money about to roll over about to roll
00:25:17
over Europe this summer is going to be just frightening. And the other thing that's really kind of sad about this is
00:25:25
the reason why these concerts and these music festivals can charge 2, three, five grand for VIP tickets is because 20
00:25:32
and 30omes, when I was 20ome and 30ome, you know what I was doing with all my money? I was saving for a house. And I
00:25:38
worry that 20 and 30omes have just stopped saving for a house. They've just given up. They're like, "Okay, we're not
00:25:45
going to save 200 grand for a house. Houses are $2 million homes are $2 million. I'm going to Coachella.
00:25:50
>> Yeah, the smaller houses are a million. >> Yeah. >> I'm sorry. >> Yeah. Your point being
00:25:57
>> Oh, my Well, these were just fascinating trends about in real life, Cara. >> All right. Okay. Um, in any case, what
00:26:04
does that mean? Because one of, >> you know, I exposed myself to you emotionally and you jab.
00:26:08
>> Yes, I do. >> You jab. >> I was still on douchebags with money in a visa because you're the only person I
00:26:14
know that goes to a visa. Um but um he's having a fantasy moment. I pay for everything.
00:26:21
>> What do you say to like a >> I love drugs. I love alcohol. >> We're going to get questions from you
00:26:25
all. >> Who would want to roll with me in a beast? Seriously, >> that's right. Meet you there.
00:26:31
>> Yeah, I absolutely would not. Um so >> she literally texts me like, "Where are
00:26:37
you? >> Where are you? What are you doing? Where are you? What are you doing?" >> No, I said I'm downstairs
00:26:42
and I will not be coming upstairs. my favorite actress. >> He just made a Paris Hilton joke that
00:26:48
was gross. Just try not to ignore it. So, um >> seen that movie 10 12 times. >> Okay. All right. In any case, um is I
00:26:56
think a lot of the tech companies really are moving into media, not necessarily in the nefarious ways that they are also
00:27:02
moving into media. But Instagram wants a spot in your streaming lineup. The app is testing horizontal video, long form
00:27:08
content, episodic series, which I think is really interesting. I just met with some Instagram people recently in
00:27:14
they're also reaching out to creators which they were doing in my case to start making not micro dramas but what
00:27:19
what what is the stuff you want to make short serialized episodes of 1 to 3 minutes each which was a trend many
00:27:26
moons ago and didn't really work out if you recall a bunch of creators were trying to do that and obviously Quibby
00:27:32
was the other one is this sort of back again do you think it'll succeed at this point
00:27:37
>> well the clip economy whatever you want to call it huge trend And I I don't know
00:27:42
about you, I'm absolutely I hate to admit it, I'm absolutely addicted to Instagram reels and it's I think it's
00:27:47
become my primary source of information. >> Me, too. Yeah. >> Uh I think the algorithm is incredible.
00:27:52
>> So, do you think they can take it to the next step to create mini dramas? Because
00:27:56
it didn't work the first several times. This is the third. >> I just don't think you ever I hate to
00:28:00
say that. I just don't think you ever bet against Mark Zuckerberg. I I'm I find I used to think Tik Tok was going
00:28:05
to disrupt meta. Now I find myself spending less time I don't know about you. This is false marketing on Tik Tok
00:28:10
and more time on reals. I think they'd look at it and said I think Mark says he looks at him and says that's amazing.
00:28:17
Steal it. Steal it and then make it better and then point our billion and a half person fire hose at it. And
00:28:24
>> so if you're marketers here, where do you start to point stuff at entertainment? It's there, right? It
00:28:29
continues to be there. That's going to be entertainment. It's a hard one because any business
00:28:36
dependent upon Alphabet, unless you're the creator, if you try and get in the middle, your margin is their
00:28:42
opportunity. 10 years ago, some of the biggest firms here and houses were SEO companies. And then Alphabet said the
00:28:50
whole point of our technology is we eventually make you obsolete. So, I I'm very reticent. uh you know if you're a
00:28:58
creator and you can displace Comcast or ABC or A&E with with one of these platforms that will give you a greater
00:29:06
share revenue. I think YouTube does that pretty well. >> Yep. >> But any business banking on
00:29:12
>> um you're interviewing Meredith uh Levin tonight, the CEO of New York Times. Uh I
00:29:17
don't know if you know this host on the port of the New York Times. >> Um but we owned something called
00:29:22
about.com and it was worth a billion dollars. And then one night our revenues were down 60%. Because Google did some
00:29:28
panda thing and basically just crushed our traffic. So a decent test anyone should ask themselves is what percentage
00:29:35
of our revenue and margin is dependent upon one of these platforms because they'll they'll keep you in business
00:29:41
just long enough until you get real margin and then they'll come for you. So it anyways I'm I'm droning on here. I
00:29:47
think it's situational but I think these guys are basically in the business of just finding except for the creators.
00:29:53
It's they they you know they do some there but I wouldn't want to be in a business focused ever on these platforms
00:29:59
>> on these platforms but that's exactly where it's going. This is the first time
00:30:01
I've thought about creating stuff not you know I just did this television show but now I'm thinking how would I do it
00:30:07
not with any of the regular TV entities like what would be the way to make say if we decide to make a pivot television
00:30:15
show for example what is a television show going forward and that's something I'm thinking about a lot
00:30:20
>> well it would be on yeah you're right it would be on YouTube with clips and but
00:30:25
if you look at why is podcasting drawing so much talent right now and growing so
00:30:29
fast >> it's not your looks So go ahead. >> When we first started our >> an easy one,
00:30:36
>> so I'm very >> That was a layup. So when we um started this podcast almost 8 n years ago, um
00:30:44
and I'm very transparent about economics. I think rich people not talking about their money is nothing but
00:30:48
an effort to suppress the middle and the lower class. Rich people talk about their money all the [ __ ] time. Start
00:30:52
talking about money. Anyway, um when I first started on Pivot, I got 15% of the revenue because the means of production,
00:31:00
a company with capital and a studio, I used to go into that lame studio on Broad Street and they knew how to do
00:31:06
podcasts and it was technology and union people and and so the means of production, whether it's MSNBC or CNN or
00:31:13
podcast back then meant that the talent got 15%. You probably got more. You were
00:31:18
the star. But now talent on podcast gets 70%. Cuz the means of production just doesn't have the power.
00:31:24
>> Yeah. >> That's effectively the arbitrage that's taking place across all media is the
00:31:29
means of production is being arbitrageed and getting out of the getting people out of the middle such that creators
00:31:35
with great content and the end consumer can enjoy. Podcasts are 80% of a television show for 5% of the production
00:31:42
cost. Absolutely. >> So there's opportunity for advertisers and creators. And the example I always
00:31:47
use is Cole Bear. 60 million in revenue, 100 million in costs. A band, a theater,
00:31:52
unions everywhere, makeup artists, five people on the guest booking team. It made60 million was not economic. He's
00:31:59
going to go to a podcast. He'll take he'll six people will make it onto the podcast arc. He'll do 20 million his
00:32:05
first year and it'll cost 4 million to produce. So that's a pretty good deal for Stephen.
00:32:10
>> Yeah, if that Absolutely. All right, we're going to go on a quick break. We have one more thing to talk about um
00:32:15
when we're back. Support for this show comes from Non. Business trips are great. The baggage that comes with them
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But when I do go out and know I'm going to be drinking, I start the night with Zbiotics. And I was doing this before
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and use the code pivot at checkout for 15% off. Okay, Scott, we're back with more news. Um, the World Cup right now,
00:34:10
um, as you said, there's going to be a lot of gambling and markets are worry, but what do you imagine the the effect
00:34:17
of World Cup will be going forward? What do what is your thoughts on where where
00:34:22
what what what are the takeaways from doing that? Because it really is, I think, the most important, as you said,
00:34:27
economic story right now across the globe. >> Yeah, I I I don't have any real insight
00:34:32
other than what I said. I think I think I think the world and the west needed a reason to like each other again and
00:34:39
recognize that Americans distinct of our leadership are an interesting, loving, kind people with really fattening but
00:34:47
wonderful food and that Europeans and the all these nations have incredible cultures and they bring a little taste
00:34:54
of that culture. you're going to see the prices of teams go up and even I go back
00:34:58
to the wealth creation of these these companies that just went public that probably took the price of these
00:35:03
companies going up because sex drives everything and if you're a 45-year-old who quite frankly never got laid in high
00:35:09
school you're trying to figure out a way to become the sexist man in Cleveland and the way you do that is by buying the
00:35:13
Cleveland Browns and so all of a sudden there are a ton of people who want to own sports teams right now that have
00:35:20
capital so you just saw the price of every shitty football, cricket team, whatever, go up 20, 30%. SpaceX up went
00:35:29
up up 20%, the price of most sports teams globally went up 30 or 40 because you're going to have midlife crisis
00:35:36
money, which is irrational, chasing trophy assets. >> Very excellent. All right, last thing
00:35:40
prediction and then we'll get questions from the audience. >> The my prediction is the following. The
00:35:45
biggest IPO of this the biggest tech IPO of this month in terms of first day pop
00:35:51
is not SpaceX. It's actually a European tech media company that's pricing next week. Does any This is a test. Any
00:35:58
guesses? >> Bending Spoons. >> Bending Spoons. Bending Spoons is essentially the Berkshire Hathaway of
00:36:05
beloved but forgotten internet brands. Uh Evernote, Eventbrite, AOL, um >> Vimeo, We Transfer,
00:36:15
>> Meetup, all of these companies that were supposed to be the next Airbnb or >> they were all the unicorns of the year.
00:36:21
all the unicorns, super fat, and then uh this company out of Italy comes and buys
00:36:26
them, consolidates the back end, which is a polite way of saying cuts costs dramatically, increases their prices. A
00:36:33
lot of these companies have very strong margin power and um uh consumer loyalty.
00:36:39
Uh Q1 2025, 20 uh what was it? um 270 million 120 million losses this quarter, 625 million, 28 million in
00:36:54
profits. They're getting a ton of momentum. It's essentially, you know, >> it's orphans brought together in one.
00:37:01
>> It's it's it's orphaned internet companies with a lot of margin power that have been forgotten and they're
00:37:06
rolling it up. And this is a call back to the most profitable disruptive company that used to own can. This is a
00:37:13
call back to WPP that used to buy companies for seven times EBIDA uh cut costs on the back end uh reduce keyman
00:37:21
risk so to speak and then take it to the public markets at 12 times EBIDA. I think this is an incredible company.
00:37:28
It's out of Italy which is interesting. Really good human capital. And there's about a thousand of these companies that
00:37:34
never quite made it across the goal line. And the most fascinating thing about their numbers is 88% of their
00:37:39
revenue is recurring revenue. All of these companies are subscription. So basically, this is SAS meets Berkshire
00:37:47
Hathaway. I like the fact that it's out of Italy. I like the fact that it's not AI. Uh
00:37:53
>> so it's just a simple cleanup. >> Two and a half billion. Two and a half million in revenues. It'll go out at 7
00:37:58
to eight times revenues. I think this company will have the largest pop of any internet tech IPO of of the month.
00:38:05
That's pricing next week. >> It's a classic is what's happening here. Well, it's it's it's essentially there's
00:38:11
a value in these brands. They still have very loyal audiences. Yeah. And they were also they also grew up in a time
00:38:18
where capital is cheap. So, quite frankly, there's a lot of fat to cut. >> And these this these guys are executing
00:38:25
like crazy. And once they have a public stock, think about how big the list is of companies that were once hot and
00:38:31
they're still good companies. Yeah. >> And they spent billions of dollars of venture capital aggregating audiences.
00:38:36
>> Yeah. like Red Envelope for example. >> Oh, sorry. >> Why are you so hostile?
00:38:43
>> Jesus Christ. >> No, that was a good company. I sort of got >> Yeah, thanks for that.
00:38:46
>> It was it was a good idea. >> You can have the kids every other weekend. So, >> no, but there are a lot of value in a
00:38:52
lot of these companies. >> Anyway, my prediction is the biggest IPO in terms of first day pop is going to be
00:38:57
a European the Bergkshire Hathaway forgotten internet brands and that's this company called Bending Spoons that
00:39:03
I had not heard of until two weeks ago. I'm kind of fascinated with it. >> Anyway, all right, questions from the
00:39:08
audience. Hi, Kim McKenzie from Ladies to Strategize. Um, so you guys often talk about Poly Market.
00:39:16
>> Mhm. >> Do you think that it's going to be used as a legitimate polling data and
00:39:20
predictions for the new US election and should it legitimate? How so? I mean, people are on it, so you can't really
00:39:26
stop it. I I think people pay it. It's one of these things during elections. US people go and stare at them for a minute
00:39:33
and then they go away from them. I think it's being used more as opposed to going
00:39:37
to all the there was a bunch of others that people would go to all the different polling accumulation sites. I
00:39:42
think Scott's been very negative on polling. I think a lot of these prediction markets are easily gamed and
00:39:47
so I worry about their their their reality, but they often do reflect sentiment, right? So I think it's just
00:39:54
one of those other signals you have to get, but I definitely pay attention to them more than I should and I know
00:40:00
they're gamed in some fashion. I think they're also easily manipulated by a wealthy person, say named Elon Musk, who
00:40:07
has enormous amounts of funds that he's going to put towards the midterms to create all manner of confusion. And so
00:40:13
that's the real danger in it. I'm not sure voters pay attention to it. Like I just don't I don't know if voters spend
00:40:20
a lot of time. I think a lot of the pundit class certainly does. >> Uh I use Cali all the time for and I
00:40:26
find I think polling firms that are non-qualitative are basically out of business. Uh Khi has never gotten an
00:40:33
interest rate cut wrong. They have predicted every single Fed action 100%. Um I totally rely on the prediction
00:40:42
market, specifically KHI for because there's something about pundits saying what they think is going to happen and
00:40:47
then looking at where people actually put money that if you really want to know how someone feels, see where
00:40:53
they're spending their money. >> Uh so I think they're I think they are in I'm fascinated by the data. I think
00:40:59
they're incredibly accurate in on >> but they have to self-govern themselves more because they're because the
00:41:04
government's coming after you're seeing all these different arrests and so if they don't self-govern sort of the
00:41:09
gaming that goes on I think it's going to be a they're going to sort of shoot themselves in the foot in that regard.
00:41:14
>> Yeah. >> There's case after case of someone doing something funny. >> Yeah. I I hope you're right. That's the
00:41:20
right thing. The internet is littered with companies that were supposedly going to be regulated.
00:41:25
>> Yeah. >> That were doing >> I mean we'll see. I I I I hope >> they tend to want to go after these
00:41:30
companies. You've noticed a lot more action very quickly as opposed to bigger social media companies right away.
00:41:36
>> But the amount of big back end the amount of money we're going to find out in two weeks the amount of money being
00:41:40
wagered on these markets around the World Cup. >> Yeah. Huge. >> Staggering. >> Staggering.
00:41:44
>> It's going to be bigger. It's going to be bigger than what was g what was gamed
00:41:48
in Vegas during the same period. >> Yeah. I think more than five billion dollars already been traded on the World
00:41:53
Cup outcomes across those two platforms. Enormous. Next question. Uh, just right
00:41:59
here. >> Hello. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Great episode. Uh, Ted from the agency advertising agency Park and Battery.
00:42:06
Quick question. I love your unvarnished opinion on this. Do you see a big next act from some of the CEOs that were
00:42:15
pushed out? I'm thinking Adam from Wei Work, Travis from Uber, and they've gone on to do their own thing. But given all
00:42:22
the dynamics and excitement, you know, that we've been seeing and talking about today, you see uh a big next act from
00:42:28
them and similar former CEOs. >> I mean, they've tried like Adam's tried with that rental weird [ __ ] thing. I
00:42:35
don't know what that is. He >> It's actually done okay. Flow. >> Okay. Yeah. I mean, they're fine. And
00:42:39
Travis has done his ghost kitchen thing and now he's doing >> robotics. >> Robotics. Something around robots.
00:42:44
They're going to try. I think most of these people don't have a second act. They just sort of wander around and
00:42:49
pontificate. That's been my experience. Um, they had one great moment. Um, often
00:42:54
fueled by anger and then they don't really There's very few that have double acts that I've I've seen. I can't Can
00:43:01
you think of one? Someone who like got sort of turned around and then came back. I think they get rich, happy,
00:43:08
they've surround themselves by enablers who violently agree with them at all times and saying you got, you know, you
00:43:15
got screwed, you know, or Caris wish it was mean to you like or something. you were right the whole time. And I think
00:43:21
they just don't mo most of them don't learn from their mistakes and they don't and that's the way you develop the next
00:43:29
thing to me. But that's >> the the the good money is on no because a couple things happen. one
00:43:36
one out of seven companies works is so much has to go right for the company just probability that if you nailed it
00:43:44
and so many moons lined up for your success you're kind of due for them not to line up. It is really hard to repeat.
00:43:52
Really hard because so many things have to line up. And the other thing is the majority of great artists stop can't,
00:44:00
you know, they slip in the shower when they're 24 and they have a hit song and then they hit 30 and it just all stops
00:44:06
because you have kids, because your brain changes, because you start evaluating risk. All of a sudden, you
00:44:13
stop thinking crazy and you have the guidelines of societal norms. You're not working 18 hours a day because you're
00:44:21
rich and you don't need this [ __ ] and you want to spend time with your kids. So, the mojo and the creative genius
00:44:27
that's [ __ ] I mean, who told Michael Jackson to grab his crotch with a glitter glove? I'm telling you,
00:44:33
40-year-old fathers don't think that way. It's just so you you lose that creative craziness. You lose some mojo.
00:44:43
And just statistically speaking to repeat, I've started nine businesses. I'm generously three, four, and two. And
00:44:51
all of them seem like great ideas at the time. And more of it than anything was just luck and timing. And it's very hard
00:44:58
to hit the lottery twice. So the good money is usually on no. >> Yeah. I think most of the people that
00:45:03
succeed are the like Zuckerberg continues to excel like or cook whatever you think of the golden statue continued
00:45:10
to excel. the people that stay at the companies tend to like um Sacha Nadella like you've seen like that kind of
00:45:18
thing. I don't see a lot of new rebirth. There's not many Rolling Stones out there. I would say I would say
00:45:25
>> yeah. Uh right here. >> Uh good day. The name's David. Um I've got a question for you US related. Um
00:45:34
there's a lot of news about redistricting, um voting rights, voting machines, yada yada yada.
00:45:39
>> Yeah, we've noticed that. Oh yeah, I've noticed. Yeah. >> So, what's your prediction of how that
00:45:43
will impact the elections? I'm asking on behalf of the world. >> Well, I think a lot,
00:45:49
>> you know, it's I would agree. I I have I I I I read a lot about I'm not an expert
00:45:56
in this area, but I from what I understand, the Republicans have vastly overreached in this area, and it's not
00:46:02
working, and they may live to regret their efforts. I don't think people like it. I don't think voters like it. That
00:46:08
said, it's they've done a lot of like we've created all these partisan like the if there's a chart of partisan, you
00:46:15
know, purple areas and blue and red and it's like there used to be a lot of purple. Now there's not a lot of per
00:46:22
they've managed to do it and I and then of course the Democrats reacted correctly to try to mute it in
00:46:29
California and everything else, but that's not the way you want to go, right? You want these districts. And so
00:46:34
I I think I believe in Scott. I don't know how Scott feels about that. I believe in voters. I think they
00:46:40
ultimately push back and I think the Republicans have started to see some real losses in some of these
00:46:45
redistricted areas and you'll seeing a lot more. There was a story in the Washington Post this week about the
00:46:50
enthusiasm of Democratic voters. Even if they're not enthusiastic about Democrats, they're they're turning out
00:46:56
more. And Republicans are kind of dis they are disgusted with Trump. You know, they really are. He's losing base after
00:47:02
base after base. until it's finally kid rock and that lean Greenwood guy like essentially um he can't get entertainers
00:47:09
to go he he's losing Latinas Latinos he's losing all vast young men for sure um he's losing all the stupid comics so
00:47:18
I I don't I don't know if it's going to work but it's not a good thing redist there's three things I think have hurt
00:47:24
our country more than anything one is gerrymandering two is Fox News and the third is social media if I had to pick
00:47:30
the three things so Yeah, I would I would add I would add Citizens United in there. Look, the
00:47:37
vibes are really good right now for Democrats and for push back on Trump. Uh you know, he's I think the least second
00:47:43
least popular president at this point. >> No, he was the least he was the least effective.
00:47:48
>> Least um the So things look good. Uh gerrymandering and just taking a grid and placing it over America or dejerry
00:47:57
mandering is a great talking point and what happened for this election. The X factor is the following. This is what I
00:48:02
think happened uh in the last couple months. I think Elon Musk called President Trump and said, "If you lean
00:48:08
on the SEC chair and the NASDAQ to include me in the NASDAQ 100 indices, which will create an incremental 10 to30
00:48:14
billion in demand for my float, which will take my net worth up 20 to 40 billion, I'll spend 1 to10 billion on
00:48:24
the midterms." And there's nothing to stop him. So I think the X factor >> is Musk
00:48:29
>> is Musk because the reality is as much as we like voters and Americans are smart and D that the elections are kind
00:48:35
of won and lost in a 10% in the middle and those people are busy and have things to do and they're influenced by
00:48:42
media and the good work you do and if you increase your net worth by 100 or 200 billion dollars because of SEC and
00:48:52
NASDAQ anomalies that have never been granted to any their company and you have a direct line to the president who
00:48:59
can make this [ __ ] happen. Why wouldn't you say, "Hey boss, I'll spend $10 billion."
00:49:04
$10 billion is going to win a lot of He spent he influenced the last presidential election with $250 million.
00:49:11
And this is the power. This this this is the problem. This is why throughout history, a known known is the following.
00:49:18
Power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts. And in a democratic society with network effects, money and
00:49:23
technology create power on a level and a reach we've never seen before. So a combination of Citizens United, a very
00:49:30
smart guy who understands technology and a willingness to spend one, five or 10 billion in the election. Look out below.
00:49:37
I >> the only thing is the quality of their candidates is really quite bad and that's that's a really and the some of
00:49:42
the Democratic candidates are very compelling. I think has a better bench. Um and there is an element to that. they
00:49:48
they've managed to pick really unattractive, horrible people. And in the Musk case, I do agree with him. He's
00:49:53
got enormous amounts of power. The thing is a lot of reporters and others are on
00:49:57
to him and the more you expose him, the more people are repelled by him and so there is an element to take advantage of
00:50:04
there. The more he looks like he's manipulating the elections, the more people push back against it. I he he and
00:50:11
Trump have the the brand has gone down. I think he more than Trump than anything. Okay, last quick question. I
00:50:18
tend to get my news from Blue Sky, but following dispersed creators in media like Heather Cox Richardson,
00:50:25
>> we just had on. >> Yes, she's amazing. Um, and Substacks and things like that. Is there enough
00:50:31
reach there to actually make a dent and and get in front of people or is that just kind of like a losing model
00:50:37
subscription base and and it'll probably go nowhere given it's a lot of collections of little voices?
00:50:44
>> U the answer is yes. I I think I think uh uh what is it? Blue note. Blue sky.
00:50:50
I'm sorry. I think it's a cute and adorable and it's going to die a slow death. Um I just don't think it's got I
00:50:56
think it got some early traction. This is just vibes. I don't look at the I haven't seen the data, but Substack I
00:51:03
think is a winner. Um and I do think that these platforms there's just too much creator content.
00:51:10
The most encouraging thing about creator content right now is 50% of the ad spend
00:51:14
on creators is in nano or micro creators and that is people doing little niche things and so trust from institutions is
00:51:21
leaking to trust to people who go after very the specific crowds out the narrow.
00:51:25
I've been watching this dad who while he cooks talks about universal healthcare and I just find fascinating. Uh so I I
00:51:31
think some of them will win. The one you brought up, Blue Sky, I'm not I'm not um
00:51:36
I think it's a better brand than a business right now. Um, but yeah, I think there's going to be a ton of cool
00:51:41
little uh little niche platforms that will likely be swallowed up by the big players.
00:51:46
>> I I'll make the final comment on that. Um, I think there the the increasing power of all these smaller things are
00:51:52
going to re are really becoming very strong at this point in terms of not just but numbers too and people
00:51:57
listening and everything else. And I do I but I do think we can't abandon certain central uh institutions like the
00:52:04
New York Times or CNN or all these things. They have to be owned and run by people with responsibility towards
00:52:11
actual journalism because you can go on and on about the Lincoln Memorial all you want. I mean, what what's happening
00:52:17
at Reflecting Pool was just a fat flatout lie by President Trump, but it took the New York Times to actually go
00:52:22
and find all the data and do the reporting. And so you that all that depends on a thriving journalistic
00:52:29
community. So, it would be really great if we could have owners of these real journalistic institutions that aren't
00:52:36
incompetent, and you know who I'm talking about in this case, but that we we we support those and at the same time
00:52:43
um push all these creators. I have helped a lot of people leave big journalistic institutions, but they're
00:52:49
doing great work. And the thing is that it's very hard to do investigative work.
00:52:53
It's very hard to do the really hard reporting without the support of institutions. And there are economic
00:52:59
models if we do it right that will continue to protect that. Um, and so I'm hoping there'll be a combination of big
00:53:06
institutions that figure out their economics better, which they can, with owners that aren't incredibly idiotic.
00:53:13
Um, and and then uh and then these smaller ones that are sort of spurring them to do so. And a collection of them,
00:53:20
I think, is incredibly powerful. I think Scott and I have a lot of influence that
00:53:24
we never thought we'd have. But it's beyond influence. It has to be informed influence and reported analysis. And so
00:53:30
it's not just people doing takes, hot takes all over the place because that doesn't that doesn't tell you things.
00:53:35
You need real reporters on the ground understanding what's happening and bringing it back to people in a fair
00:53:41
way. Um and so I think a I do I I'm very pro on media right now. I think it's one
00:53:47
of the most undervalued uh stocks. I think it's undervalued in a lot of ways. So, I'm hoping um that that at at some I
00:53:55
know there's this worries about these billionaires taking over and quashing them. Let them, as Mel Robbins likes to
00:54:00
say, because we have lots of options and we have lots of choices. And I do think
00:54:05
everybody is very open to new ways of getting information. So, they can try their best, but they're not going to be
00:54:12
able to quash uh really great reporting over a long period of time. I don't think that, and I believe in that. Okay.
00:54:19
All right. Thank you guys so much. Okay, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back on Tuesday with more pivot. Uh,
00:54:31
read us out. >> Today's show was produced by Laren Neon, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Todd
00:54:37
Weisman. Ernie Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Dub Bros, Miss Ao, Laura Stark, Will Lee, and Jenna
00:54:42
McIll. Nish Kro music executive producer. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcast.
00:54:47
Thank you for listening.

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Episode Highlights

  • The Creator Economy Takes Center Stage
    The biggest trend at the festival is the rise of the creator economy, with 500 creators present this year.
    “The creator economy is hands down the biggest trend.”
    @ 02m 39s
    June 26, 2026
  • AI's Role in Creativity
    AI's impact has shifted from uncertainty to a focus on organizing companies around it.
    “Creativity has never been more important.”
    @ 04m 00s
    June 26, 2026
  • Europe's Tech Landscape
    Europe is at a crossroads, needing to balance regulation and innovation to compete globally.
    “Europe makes the mistake of overregulating.”
    @ 11m 35s
    June 26, 2026
  • Hollywood's Record-Breaking Year
    Hollywood is hitting new heights with a $4.46 billion box office year, the highest since 2019.
    “Toy Story 5 just opened to $312 million globally.”
    @ 20m 58s
    June 26, 2026
  • The Rise of Smaller Movies
    Smaller films are becoming blockbusters, spurring audiences back to theaters.
    “It's a range of movies, not just big blockbusters.”
    @ 21m 45s
    June 26, 2026
  • The Impact of Social Media
    Social media's influence is declining, especially among younger audiences.
    “I have long thought that social media is going to decline rather precipitously.”
    @ 23m 44s
    June 26, 2026
  • The Changing Landscape of Media
    Tech companies are moving into media, reshaping the industry dynamics.
    “I just don't think you ever bet against Mark Zuckerberg.”
    @ 28m 01s
    June 26, 2026
  • Bending Spoons: The Next Big IPO
    Bending Spoons is set to be the biggest tech IPO this month, consolidating beloved internet brands.
    “It's essentially the Berkshire Hathaway of beloved but forgotten internet brands.”
    @ 36m 05s
    June 26, 2026
  • The Power of Prediction Markets
    Discussion on the legitimacy and influence of prediction markets in elections.
    “I think a lot of these prediction markets are easily gamed.”
    @ 39m 44s
    June 26, 2026
  • The Impact of Gerrymandering
    Exploration of how redistricting and gerrymandering affect elections and voter sentiment.
    “Gerrymandering, Fox News, and social media have hurt our country more than anything.”
    @ 47m 25s
    June 26, 2026
  • The Power of Choices
    In a world of billionaire influence, the speaker emphasizes the abundance of options we have.
    “Let them, because we have lots of options and choices.”
    @ 54m 03s
    June 26, 2026
  • Resilience of Reporting
    The speaker believes that great journalism cannot be suppressed by powerful entities.
    “They're not going to be able to quash really great reporting.”
    @ 54m 12s
    June 26, 2026

Episode Quotes

  • Don't ask me my nickname in a fraternity. Just don't.
    Mark Zuckerberg Is Coming for Prediction Markets. Kara Swisher Calls Him Out | Pivot
  • The entrance, who typically are younger, middle class, are just fed up.
    Mark Zuckerberg Is Coming for Prediction Markets. Kara Swisher Calls Him Out | Pivot
  • People want to get out and touch grass.
    Mark Zuckerberg Is Coming for Prediction Markets. Kara Swisher Calls Him Out | Pivot
  • Rich people talk about their money all the time.
    Mark Zuckerberg Is Coming for Prediction Markets. Kara Swisher Calls Him Out | Pivot
  • I think it's just a simple cleanup.
    Mark Zuckerberg Is Coming for Prediction Markets. Kara Swisher Calls Him Out | Pivot
  • Power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts.
    Mark Zuckerberg Is Coming for Prediction Markets. Kara Swisher Calls Him Out | Pivot

Key Moments

  • Festival Introduction00:12
  • Inequality Movement18:25
  • Hollywood Box Office20:58
  • Social Media Decline23:44
  • Media Evolution28:01
  • Biggest IPO Prediction35:51
  • Gerrymandering Discussion47:25
  • Confidence in Journalism54:12

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown