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Kara Swisher on Trump's UFC Distraction: "This Was Grotesque" | Pivot

June 16, 2026 / 01:00:00

This episode covers President Trump's 80th birthday celebration at the USC Freedom 250, UFC CEO Dana White's comments on free speech, and the implications of recent media mergers. Guests include Cara Swisher and Scott Galloway.

Scott Galloway and Cara Swisher discuss the marketing strategy behind Trump's birthday event, which featured a UFC fight with a backdrop of the White House. They highlight the presence of notable figures like Mark Zuckerberg and Joe Rogan, and critique the misogynistic comments made by a fighter during the event.

The conversation shifts to the political implications of masculinity in America, with Swisher arguing that Democrats need to present a stronger image of masculinity to counteract the narrative pushed by Republicans. Galloway counters that Trump's popularity among young men is declining.

They also discuss the recent merger of Fox and Roku, emphasizing its potential impact on the television landscape and advertising. The episode concludes with a discussion on the IPO of SpaceX and the government's regulatory approach to AI companies like Anthropic.

Overall, the episode critiques the intersection of politics, media, and societal values, while addressing the challenges posed by recent corporate mergers and the evolving landscape of technology.

TLDR

Trump's birthday event sparks controversy; media mergers and AI regulations discussed.

Episode

1:00:00
00:00:00
This guy said something so terrible and grotesque at the White House. This is where this woman used to live. You
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[ __ ] Like, back off. >> Hi everyone, this is Pivot from the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisser
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>> and I'm Scott Galloway. >> Oh, do we have a lot to talk about. Wow. President Trump celebrated his 80th
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birthday ringside with this USC Freedom 250 where fighters compete in front of a
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crowd of 4,300 with the actual White House as a backdrop as a marketing thing. There's a lot of marketing going
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on whether it was Bud Light or or whatever. FA Meta had did something very laudable. They were giving these glasses
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to blind service members. I think their their brand took a hit for being associated with it. Anyway, the guest
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list reads like a who's hoops of power, tech, and money. Zuckerberg was there who was a big who is a big fan and I
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this is the only thing I genuinely like about him. I'm glad he's committed to that. Whatever. Um Joe Rogan was there
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as you said cabinet secretary centers. Lindsey Graham looked very happy surrounded by muscled men. Of course
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Paramount CEO David Ellison was in the audience as the event streamed exclusive behind a Paramount plus payw wall.
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Nothing says the people like a payw wall. We'll talk about that more in a minute because, you know, again, this
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one fighter grabbed and took this cheap shot at Michelle Obama, which is part of
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a conspiracy theory among the right and they think they seem to be obsessed with
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her and and the Obamas. Um, now UFC CEO Dana White later told Time magazine, "Everyone knows my position on free
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speech, but I hate that kind of nonsense." I don't think you need to defend free speech, Dana. It's just
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Can't you just say this is like horrible? Like they they always have to like find some dumb excuse. That's a
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that's a I think that's a good I think that was a a good comment from him. Like >> I guess it's the least he could do.
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>> But we we disagree on this because I actually think well we're going to I think the event was a win for the White
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House. Um >> I know >> to sink to that dumb moment which will get a lot of play. But um I look I think
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that essentially just the way Tucker Carlson is trying to shore up the Nick Fuentes manosphere part of the party.
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There's still a large segment of America that wants to embrace some form of masculinity and feels like it's been
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shoved aside. And I feel the same way about masculinity that David feels about the border. And that is if progressives
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don't enforce the border, fascists will. And if Democrats can can't come up with
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some sort of symbolism or role models that demonstrate strength and service as masculinity, then the Republicans sort
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of fill that hole with violence and misogyny, which is exactly what they're doing. And uh unfortunately it not only
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highlights this performative weird dominant misogynistic form of masculinity that is just
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in my opinion the absolutely the terrible role model for young men. It highlights to me that Democrats haven't
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been able to identify anything around an aspirational viewpoint around masculinity.
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>> Uh I'm going to push back. Trump is down 10% among young men over the past few
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months. It's way they're way down on >> not because of this event. No, I'm just saying it's just I think this version
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masculinity, you know what a better version were the Knicks. The way they were and I'm not I'm taking away the
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owner who I don't particularly like, but I thought they display, you know, a lot
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of like a support of women. If you notice, there was a lot of mothers, there was a lot of sisters, there was a
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lot of >> they they always talk about, you know, the the guy um the main guy Brunson was,
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you know, he gave up a big pile of money to have other people on the team, including Cat Farl Anthony.
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>> He wants a ring. He wants a ring. >> He wants a ring. Of course. But it's like it just shows like
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>> that >> the difference of the watch parties was really rather significant. And so if you
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want a version of masculinity, that's a version of masculinity that is very sporty, very masculine. It it did a lot
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to heal the male loneliness epidemic. Have you seen people out in the street like that? Men out in the street like
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that? >> Absolutely love it. >> Yeah. >> I don't think there's any there's any way to to not highlight the Knicks,
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their players. New York, what have you. Um, again, I look, I I think that event and the
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pageantry and the fly over, I think there's a large segment of America that likes that stuff. I I I like a flyover,
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by the way. I didn't I'm not saying I don't like a flyover. I think the I think there are ways into this that are
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very very clear that you can support things. I think it's um here this is Monica Hess in the Washington Post. I
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think she did a great job and she also is a big supporter of MMA, by the way. She likes it. The problem isn't the
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fighting on the lawn. People who love the UFC have had to sit through decades of presidents inviting poets and chists
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and opera singers to the White House. And the turnabout is fair play. The problem with Sunday's broadcast wasn't
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the fighting. The problem was the tonally incoherent emulsion of patriotism and blood lust. History and
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by this crap an event happening for the people but tucked behind a paramount play payw wall. I think that exactly
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that's what it felt like. It felt like, and by the way, all the all the cheap seats, they were they were stuck in that
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one area of of um they weren't at the White House, which was um uh this is what she also wrote. What do we make of
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this other than this is America? Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses advertising Bud Light and trucks
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in loud we trust. Bring me your ring girls dressed skimpily in sequin stars and stripes and your men with
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cauliflower ears and a bunch of sailors dancing to YMCA. I just it it there was such an I don't know. I I I I do
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contrast these things. I also contrast the World Cup, too, which looks wonderful and diverse and interesting
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and the the crowds are I don't know. It's just there is a way to appeal and I think Democrats should embrace it. But
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this was grotesque and and it was it and it and it was it got the center of attention will be this idiot. This idiot
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who's had his head hit too many times calling making an incredibly misogynistic. It's
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racist. It's anti. It's just like gross. And nobody no man doing anything. That's
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what it is. That's what it is. Agreed. Anyway, we can >> Yeah, look, her her comments, her
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assessment is really really impressive. And I do agree the World Cup and the Knicks are better. Look, at the end of
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the day, just politically, Cara, it was a total distraction and occupied uh the news cycle from the fact that we
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have a shitty memo of understanding on something actually a lot more important. >> We won't get to that. Yes. So just from
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just from a distraction standpoint, it was I think it was a whim. I if they hadn't had that event, the media would
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have been much more focused on something that has much larger implications from the world and that is Donald Trump were
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walked into a you know a car dealership demanding a Ferrari and is leaving with a Camry because he's figured out he has
00:06:42
bad credit >> that he's overpaying for. Yeah. That we're just giving them everything
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>> at a minimum. And they probably wasn't strategic planning the timing, but I think that I I think anything that
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distracts from this memo even if it's a terrible statement. I get it. I get it. Well, we've got a lot to talk. We're
00:07:00
going to talk about that. The Trump administration, by the way, is fighting with Anthropic again. And SpaceX, of
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course, went public. That seems like a 100 years ago. But, you know, speaking of Paramount with it got Justice
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Department approval, the word the merger has just cleared a key hurdle. The DH says its review found the roughly $ 110
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billion deal is unlikely to harm competition for consumer or consumers removing a major federal obstacle. The
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deal isn't done yet, though. The state attorney general, including Californians, are still reviewing the
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transaction and could challenge it. Uh David Ellison said the merger remains on track to close by September. He's got to
00:07:32
because after that a so-called ticking fee would kick in, making the acquisition more expensive. European
00:07:37
regulators are still weighing approval. What's interesting to me is the Justice Department apparently shut down its
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investigation into Paramount's bid to buy Warner Brothers before career staffers even had a chance to weigh in.
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And those lawyers weren't just skeptical of the deal. They were actually leaning
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towards recommending the DOJ sue to block it, arguing that combining two of Hollywood's biggest studios would be bad
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for competition. But with the Ellison's and Trump, the fix apparently was in. We
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we'll get to the Roku deal which actually Fox just bought Roku but these mergers are just coming fast and furious
00:08:12
and I think no one was surprised by this. It's a question of if the states or European Union can slow this thing
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down but are you you were concerned with Netscape with higher prices? Um how do you feel at this
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>> Netflix with higher prices? >> Yeah. The the reality is if the economists I talked to say that it's
00:08:29
hard to say these guys have a monopoly. When you look at the fact that the combined viewership still won't rival
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um uh YouTube's when you look at the revenue, it's nowhere near what the revenue is for, you know, the media
00:08:42
companies, the tech media companies we talk about. So, you can accuse them of overpaying. I had chilling down my spine
00:08:47
over the weekend when I read that Mark Thompson is being considered as kind of the manager they need to come in for CBS
00:08:56
News. >> The only one actually the others who they mentioned said no, but go ahead.
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>> It just all of a sudden it sent a chill down my spine. I'm like, what? The Ellison's own CNN? I It's like it hadn't
00:09:06
fully down hadn't fully dawned on me. But from a straight >> from a straight regulatory standpoint,
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>> Yeah. there was really no, in my opinion, valid reason uh to block it. Um and and by the way,
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I've switched on that. I was worried about the consolidation of media, but when you include competitors around
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watch time, revenues, there wasn't there really wasn't an economic argument. Now,
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the in terms of mergers, you're going to see a flurry of them because anyone who's thinking maybe we'd like to buy
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companies, they're like, "Let's do it while the doing is good >> because If you get a Democratic
00:09:43
administration in there, you're going to have much more scrutiny around these mergers.
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>> Yeah. >> And I mean, you already see it. You already see you already see attorney
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generals, AGs in blue states getting much more excised about this merger than the federal guys, but it's it's going
00:09:59
through and it'll be really interesting to see what kind of the the first moves are or ramifications of a of this
00:10:06
consolidated company. Well, >> they've got that debt to deal with. Because you know I I've just recently
00:10:11
interviewed a whole bunch of big media company just media people and they're all like this debt is [ __ ] ridicul.
00:10:16
They most of them are very much focused on the debt and the math of the situation. I think they'll have to make
00:10:22
enormous cuts and you know a lot of the rest speaking of distraction a lot of the rest is a distraction with the CNN
00:10:28
thing. I well you know my feelings on that anyway. Um let's go on. I mean I'm leaving um as soon as I can. Um okay.
00:10:35
>> So you're out you're out of CNN. >> Yes. Yes. Yeah. >> You've been trying to talk me into doing
00:10:39
[ __ ] at CNN for 24 months. >> That was before. You're not listening to me. Do you ever do you invest in a
00:10:44
relationship? I've been saying it publicly for >> Well, that's why that's why lesbians
00:10:48
have the highest rates of divorce because both of them are listening. >> Yes. >> It's important that in a relationship
00:10:53
that the man not listen a lot. That is key to the survival. >> That is key to the survival of our
00:10:59
relationship is a lot of [ __ ] I just runs right right over my head. >> Let me try to outline it. I don't want
00:11:04
to work for the Ellis and I don't want to work for their handpicked minions because I think they're incompetent.
00:11:09
That is what I've said over and over again. And I I like I love working with the people at Cena and I very much like
00:11:15
Mark Thompson. >> Yeah, I like him too. Smart guy >> and I hope they put him in charge cuz I
00:11:20
think he would do a great job. I just don't see any way that these people make good decisions and I don't trust them.
00:11:25
That's it. They just I just don't I don't want to I don't want to work for tech people. Um, you know, they're more
00:11:30
than they can, you know, I don't know. There's there's just I don't I'm I'm just not staying. I'm just There's lots
00:11:36
of places to go. I don't like you. I think TV's great, but it's not that great like to put up with this [ __ ]
00:11:41
Like, I don't That's one thing. Um I like, you know, I like making that series. Um I just, you know, I don't
00:11:49
except if I owned it. If they want to buy it, they can buy [ __ ] off me if they
00:11:52
feel like it. Um but other but I don't want to be I don't want them to own something. I don't think see I would
00:11:58
argue for Cara Swisser if they gave you an agreement to work at CNN and said yeah look we're just these this this is
00:12:05
the editor this is who's in charge of your stories why wouldn't you you you don't think
00:12:11
you'd be able to fashion an agreement >> I don't think they would do that I don't
00:12:14
think they would do that like they would pay me every time a person I don't like
00:12:18
talks to me I guess but no at this moment no way they're behaving right now and this by the way this whole like
00:12:24
>> pull a Leslie stall demand a day because he'll protect CNN from these evil. >> I am not I don't think I have that power
00:12:31
to do it. Anyway, I uh there's lots of other options and I I'm on under contract with them until um the end of
00:12:37
the year and I'm hoping they'll let me out early cuz I don't want to affiliate with them. That's all. I left I left
00:12:42
Murdoch, too. It's not This is not a new fresh thing for Cara Swisser to flounce
00:12:46
out and do better. No one cares, but it says something. >> I just want everyone to know I'm I'm I'm
00:12:53
absolutely a [ __ ] An expensive [ __ ] So, Ellison's, you have my number. >> Oh. Oh, I heard about that. Let's not
00:12:59
get into that issue. >> You've had You have my number. >> Yeah, they called you. I know that. I
00:13:03
was defending you on that, by the way. I appreciate that. >> I had your number. You don't We don't
00:13:07
need TV at this point, honestly. Anyway, um let's go on a >> We are TV with much better economics.
00:13:14
>> It's just It's like a headache and then I have to see them. >> Makeup's not as good and was not as
00:13:17
attractive as Stephanie Rule or Arya Milbur, but we are TV. >> Anyway, let's go on a quick break. When
00:13:23
we come back, Fox is buying Roku. Support for this show comes from Netswuite. When the competition is
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00:15:02
That's atio.com/pivot. Fox Corporation is buying Roku in a $22 billion deal that could reshape how
00:15:11
Americans watch TV. It's a big play for advertising based television. Just so you know, Fox gets access to over 100
00:15:17
million households worldwide. Lots of people use this, combining its live news, sports, and Tuby streaming service
00:15:22
with Roku's massive platform. The combined company would become the third largest player in US television by share
00:15:28
of viewing, putting real pressure on the likes of YouTube and Netflix. It's I I've always liked Roku. Roku will
00:15:34
operate under the Fox umbrella with Roku founder Anthony Wood, who's a really interesting person, joining Fox's board
00:15:39
in a subordinate role. That's interesting. Fox's shareholder own about 73% of the combined companies with Roku
00:15:46
shareholders holding the remaining 27. And the deal still needs a sign off from both shareholder groups and regulators.
00:15:52
Um, uh, it's interesting because they deliver all the networks into living rooms, you know, they're like it's
00:15:58
almost like a cable company in a weird way. Um, I use I think I'm using my Roku in Brooklyn like because I didn't want
00:16:04
to get the cable bundle or something like that. I haven't hooked it up yet, but I I've always liked Roku. I don't
00:16:10
use it that much, but I thought I thought Anthony did a nice job. And I'm just curious, you know, he can't get any
00:16:16
bigger presumably is why he's selling. >> I think it's a great move. I I I something I didn't see happening coming.
00:16:22
And the moment I looked at it, I'm like, this makes all sorts of industrial logic.
00:16:26
>> Who else could have bought Roku just before you move on from that? Who else? Well, there's the there's the obvious
00:16:32
like there's the obvious Warner Brothers, Paramount, um Disney. Um I mean th this is an they
00:16:40
have assets that are that are incredibly important. They have I mean they have a
00:16:48
ton of firstparty data. They they have firstparty data across 100 million households which is a really strategic
00:16:55
asset. It gives Fox a direct viewer relationship. The cable and broadcast never offered advertisers, right? So,
00:17:02
cuz you had the cable company in the way. Um, Fox is projects 400 million in run rate cost synergies.
00:17:08
>> They needed this. They needed this. >> It's a really savvy. I thought, oh my god, the sun is down.
00:17:15
>> Makes a lot of sense. What's interesting is they actually sold their shares at in
00:17:19
Roku at 58 bucks a share to fund their acquisition of Tuby and now they're buying back in at 160.
00:17:24
Fox owned roughly 73% of the combined company. Um, >> yeah. No, no, no. But wait, uh, yeah, I
00:17:31
just said, but they had had shares before. >> Yeah. So, my understanding is that, um,
00:17:36
Fox actually they they had Roku shares in March of 2020 >> and they sold them at 58 bucks a share
00:17:44
>> to fund their half a billion dollar TBI acquisition. >> Yeah. Which has been very helpful to
00:17:48
them. So look, this is a company that's making a big bold bet recognizing their core business is in structural decline.
00:17:56
I think it's really like I I think the folks at Fox are really smart. >> Yeah, this is a smart move. I thought
00:18:01
that that's ex I'm like, huh, but it is a big bet on advertising based versions of this, right? Because Roku is
00:18:07
advertising based and it's not subscriptionbased. So, >> but but here's the thing. If you look at
00:18:12
the trends, subscription has been eating into subscription streaming has been eating into linear advertising supported
00:18:19
TV for the last 20 years. In 2024, it's stopped gaining share. >> It's like 50/50 right now. So,
00:18:28
>> I mean, for example, I don't know if our listeners know this, they can watch Pivot or ProfG Markets on Roku. It's
00:18:36
available. We have a channel on Roku. Um uh and it it gets huge huge viewership. I mean the company Roku is
00:18:46
probably the most >> a significant revenue generator. >> Oh no, it's it's I we launched
00:18:53
two months ago but my attitude is if you you look at enterprise value just and I'll try to be transparent about where
00:18:59
we're trying to build the propy markets and where we're trying to build a pivot.
00:19:03
If you're the way you increase enterprise value and increase the multiple on your IBIDA is one by right
00:19:09
now adding subscription revenue which we're doing on Substack and two having alternative distribution and
00:19:15
differentiating your media mix or your revenue mix. So what starts small I think we'll do you
00:19:22
know 100 or 300 grand in revenue from Roku or advertising on Roku by serving all of our pods on Roku. But what you
00:19:31
want is when you if you ultimately are thinking about enterprise value, it's a multiple of your profits and your
00:19:38
growth. But what increases the multiple is how enduring that revenue is, i.e. as
00:19:43
much subscription revenue as possible and also a diversified set of revenue streams.
00:19:48
>> Right. Yeah. I see. So my attitude is while it's been an effort to reformat our content and put it on Roku, it's
00:19:55
absolutely worth it because what you want to say to a potential investor or acquirer is look at all these different
00:20:00
points of distribution and types of revenue mix that create a more, you know, a more enduring a more enduring
00:20:08
company. But just to get back to Roku, 4.7 billion in total net revenue, up 15% year-over-year.
00:20:15
uh platform revenue of 4.1 billion that's up 18% gross profit of two billion up 15%.
00:20:22
Uh last year was their first gap profitable year. The company reported net income of 80 million in Q4 alone. So
00:20:30
it's kind of hit that >> tipping point. >> Yeah. >> And again >> sustainable profit.
00:20:35
>> Over a 100 million households have Roku by at the end of 2025. and device hardware still runs at negative gross
00:20:44
margin, but they sell hardware at a loss to capture platform users. I would argue
00:20:47
that Roku is arguably the most important media company that people have never heard of.
00:20:53
>> Now, let me just point to one other person, Analie Sud, a young woman, uh, chief executive officer of Tubi. She she
00:21:00
this is a free ad supported streaming service they have, and she was the previous CEO of Vimeo, but she's
00:21:07
expanded the user base. I think it's 100 million users and it's the most watchfree TV streaming service. It's
00:21:13
very quirky and you can find all manner of stuff on there. Um, but I think the two of them are very savvy. They're both
00:21:20
incredibly smart. Like that's the thing. And I think one of the things, you know,
00:21:25
Lachlan Murdoch I just think was born into his job. But one of the things I just interviewed uh Peter Turnin for my
00:21:31
podcast today, another smart former Fox executives. One thing that Rupert's been
00:21:35
good at is executives. like they're very sharp um and uh and you should listen to
00:21:41
churnin one because I think it was a great interview but you know just really smart executives and this is the case
00:21:47
anyway very smart you can also by the way watch us on YouTube by the way we're very promiscuous the entire Scott and
00:21:55
Cara are very promiscuous um anyway uh let's move on to the other one we like this deal um SpaceX uh of course this
00:22:03
seems like a hundred years ago officially public and is uh One, Scott Galloway predicted it did indeed close
00:22:09
up on its first day of trading. And you had said it was going to be about 20% and not more, which is interesting. It
00:22:13
was 19 something%. Shares are at a high of 177 at the time of this taping after the company's public debut on Friday,
00:22:21
making the current market cap, 2.32 trillion. You thought it might be a scooch under under two. Um, his first
00:22:28
day on the market, over 500 million shares traded hands. A lot of movement here. Um Elon himself of course crossed
00:22:34
the milestone thanks to the pot becoming the world's first trillionaire. There were some notable buyers. Gina
00:22:39
Reinhardt, Australia's richest person bought over a billion dollar stake in the company and Kathy Woods Arc
00:22:44
Investment bought more than $500 million worth of stock. So go through if there's
00:22:48
anything surprising there because uh venture and also venture funding for US space technology firms excluding SpaceX
00:22:53
jumped $7.5 billion in 2025 from 2.5 billion the previous years. probably we'll see if that goes anywhere because
00:23:01
it's a that's also a money can be a money furnace u as you the word you use but any thoughts on where it is right
00:23:07
now >> I thought that the bankers and and Musk and look I I think the most significant
00:23:15
thing here is that this we've never seen such engineered manufactured scarcity there was tens of billions of dollars of
00:23:24
demand for this IPO that has never existed for an IPO for. And then you combine it with the fact that unlike
00:23:31
other IPOs that went public on the NASDAQ, it didn't have to float more than 10%, it only floated 5%.
00:23:38
>> Yeah. Very scarcity as you said. >> So you've just created manufacturer scarcity. Now to be fair, it's up again
00:23:44
today. So this has created a level of excitement in the market. I do think you you have to highlight the positives here
00:23:53
and that is I never want to be someone that demonizes success. There are 14 new billionaires in Texas that you've never
00:24:00
heard of. Those people will give money away. They will start new businesses. Something that's uniquely American is
00:24:06
that we continue to produce companies like this and entrepreneurs like Elon Musk. It's going to create a lot of
00:24:13
economic growth. You're going to see a surge in philanthropy from Berkeley to the University of Texas. It inspires a
00:24:20
lot of people. I it is there's a lot of positives here and we're seeing venture funding increasing in you know space
00:24:29
related um projects. So there there's there's a a lot to like here. You know I don't like the manufactured scarcity and
00:24:39
the what I'll call the overlying narrative of sort of like the hero's journey here
00:24:44
>> and the numbers at certain businesses are not great. >> Yeah. look this from a valuation
00:24:48
standpoint and this is this is what Musk has always been able to do is to create
00:24:54
this this uh narrative over numbers that's like no one else in history. Um so but right now the stock is trading
00:25:03
30% above the IPO price. Um, and then he has also again, and I'm I go back to governance, there's all these different
00:25:11
lockups. Like if you trade on a certain platform and you bought shares through direct share purchase on a certain
00:25:16
platform, they technically don't have a lockup, but but they if they sell their shares, they can't trade on the platform
00:25:24
before, which is like a soft lock up. >> There's certain uh criteria around when
00:25:29
you can sell if the stock is up a certain amount, etc. To be fair, Elon's locked himself up. I doubt he's planning
00:25:36
to sell. He'll just borrow against his stock. But what they've effectively done, which you're not supposed to do,
00:25:40
is they've created different class of classes of shares, which you're not supposed to do. So again, I find that
00:25:48
this is this is really inspiring and important and going to be great for economic growth on certain levels. I
00:25:56
also believe that this entire sector is going to have not a collapse but a pretty serious draw down when people
00:26:03
after two or three earnings calls are forced to justify anything resembling a future that involves the kind of
00:26:08
earnings built into this thing >> right and then the rush to space technology firm same thing they're going
00:26:13
to overinvest which is normal like I would assume presumably >> and that and quite frankly that's one of
00:26:18
the great things about America because we overinvested in the internet and the technology survived and a lot of those
00:26:22
companies came back and that investment was good but you didn't want to one of the one of the investors
00:26:27
overinvesting initially.com. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, but I said somebody called me and I said this on pivot. Someone called
00:26:34
me and said I I have allocation. Should I take it? And I said take it and trade out on the first trade.
00:26:38
>> If you buy it and trade out, you don't do as most people don't do as well except in certain cases, right? This
00:26:45
there were all these like really interesting statistics of buying and selling um that were not good in the
00:26:51
long run over over time. It's just you got to hit the exact right one or you lose mo money most of the time.
00:26:58
>> This was different because so first off uh trading out trading out you you get
00:27:04
short-term capital gains at a higher rate. So there's a lot of evidence that shows that just generally with investing
00:27:12
you're better off just buying and trying to never sell. It's just trading trading
00:27:16
is a difficult is a difficult game. I thought and I said this I said they are going to manufacture a 20% pop. The
00:27:24
bankers >> exactly >> and everyone are figuring out a way to create a supply demand imbalance that
00:27:30
will exactly peg this at a 20% pop. What's impressive and punctures that theory is that it's up another 11%
00:27:37
today. And the thing that also just the thing that deserves a nod is the best VC
00:27:42
in the world is not Andre Horowitz or whoever initially funded SpaceX. How >> do I respond? Well, it's in my opinion,
00:27:49
it's Uncle Sam. And that SpaceX investors and the banks taking SpaceX public should remember
00:27:55
>> that we would not be here today without grants from the federal government. In
00:27:59
2008, SpaceX was on the verge of bankruptcy >> and would likely have run out of money
00:28:03
if not for a grant from NASA. >> Yep. >> And the golden law, >> same thing with Tesla.
00:28:08
>> And the golden law of stupidity here, Trump is trying to cut NASA's funding by
00:28:12
more than 20% this year. >> Same with mRNA technology. Same with the government is one of the greatest
00:28:18
investors of all time if you could think about it that way. best VC in history whether it's medical research for our
00:28:23
universities or electric charging stations would what you know and they would argue back well they're going to
00:28:30
get their bite they're going to get enormous return through tax revenues >> possibly
00:28:34
>> the the big debate this will will stir is in America we've been talking about
00:28:41
for decades now what's dominated the conversation is how you create wealth the conversation that is superseding
00:28:49
that is what you should do with wealth once you have it. And so right now Elon Musk could buy all of Manhattan, every
00:28:58
building, every condo, every park with his that's how much money he has right now. And whether or not this level of
00:29:06
concentration of power which comes in a capitalist society for money presents a risk. And I'm of the mind
00:29:13
that I think it's important that eventually and I I'm in favor of of eventually having trillionaires, but we
00:29:20
should have guardrails over the power and progressive taxation, which we don't have right now.
00:29:24
>> Can I just say one thing I'm going to push back on and that you you've created
00:29:27
all these rich people are going to give to charity. If you look at the statistics, I don't think they're going
00:29:31
to be charitable. I don't think they're going to do good things. I just don't I don't think this class I don't think
00:29:35
Elon Musk has had a very good record. So, I just I I'm not expecting these people to be I think they're going to be
00:29:41
on an ongoing quest for more money and more power and more consolidation. So, I'm not impressed with their charitable
00:29:48
uh thoughts. And I'm I'm glad they're creating jobs, but they would immediately cut you if they had to.
00:29:53
That's I just don't think they have that in them. >> You're talking about Okay. But I I think
00:29:58
we need to parse that. And that is if you look at billionaires and their wives, the wives have hands
00:30:06
down been more philanthropic. And it doesn't and and the the quote unquote billionaire masters of the
00:30:12
universe have not acquitted themselves well on a lot of levels. But there's just no doubt this type of
00:30:18
wealth creation event is going to result in a surge in philanthropy. It just does. That would be great
00:30:24
>> because you're going to have a lot of people who wake up and have $20 million
00:30:30
and think, I'm going to give 2 million bucks to the local food bank or I'm going to give 50,000. I I talked to, you
00:30:36
know, I'm I'm involved with the University of California. They're all revising their
00:30:41
>> giving goals up for next year because of the IPOs coming down the and they have
00:30:45
so many alumni. I'm not talking about Elon Musk. I think it would be you could you could make a
00:30:52
credible argument that he's not the most philanthropic person. I get that and you
00:30:55
can definitely make an argument that McKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates are more philanthropic than their
00:31:01
husbands. But when you see these types of liquidity events, local philanthropies surge in terms of in
00:31:08
terms of uh uh money. There's look there's for all of SpaceX's problems and income inequality, there isn't a nation
00:31:16
on Earth that wouldn't kill to have those problems. I I would agree. I just think it's going to go into political
00:31:21
activism in a way that could be deletarious to most of us. That's where it's going. It's not going to helping a
00:31:28
kid. >> Let's be clear. Elon Musk, in my view, can probably decide who the next president is.
00:31:34
>> Yeah, that's correct. >> He spent $250 million and had influence on the election. Maybe
00:31:42
he didn't decide it, but he had influence on it. You think what happens if he decides to put 2.5% of his net
00:31:49
worth or 25 billion or 100 times what he spent >> last time and he's a freight train
00:31:57
>> and also to be to be fair are we comfortable and I he deserves credit. One of the one of the things that
00:32:04
doesn't get he doesn't get enough credit for is he has turned off Starlink for Russia and it is it has put Russia at a
00:32:12
severe disadvantage to Ukraine and I think that is a wonderful thing and he deserves credit for it. Having said that
00:32:18
he changes his mind. >> Well that's exactly right. Having said that is should that power reside in a
00:32:24
private citizen that has no government or electoral oversight? >> No it should not.
00:32:29
>> Look it's a ton of economic growth. The banks made a [ __ ] ton of money. You have
00:32:33
a lot of people. 4,000 people became millionaires on Friday. >> I get it. I hope they're better better
00:32:39
at it. I just think I'm not even Musk is one thing, but I'm worried about others
00:32:44
that aren't quite so broad. I just like I always whenever I see a box, I think the Ulings the Eul.
00:32:51
I don't know how to pronounce it, but they're like huge givers to crazy right-wing causes. And so I just am
00:32:56
like, "Oh god, the boxes, the this, the that." Anyway, I I just hope that they um that they
00:33:02
>> the Citizens United problem. I hope that they're charitable. That's that's what I
00:33:06
hope. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about the
00:33:10
Trump administration coming for Anthropic. Yet again, >> support for this show comes from Delete
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00:35:05
Scott, we're back with more news. Anthropic has had 90 minutes to take down its most powerful models. Methos
00:35:10
and Fable, which is mythos, but the public version of it. On Friday, at the request of the government, who cited a
00:35:16
national security threat, the Trump administration issued an order barring all foreign nationals from having
00:35:20
access, including Anthropic's own non US employees, including there, a lot of them at the top, essentially forcing the
00:35:26
company to take it offline. The decision was really made after a conversation with Amazon's an uh Andy Jasse, who told
00:35:32
officials, researchers, and his company got fable to provide information to be used in cyber attacks. Enthropic went uh
00:35:37
sent staff to Washington, meet with the White House official to try to fix the dispute. I am sorry. I just think
00:35:42
they're waiting for an excuse here um to get Anthropic. Um I think maybe Jasse might have said this, but the minute
00:35:49
they could, they jumped on Anthropic. And uh and of course, Anthropic's making the argument that every other model can
00:35:56
do this, too. Um and they're just cherry-picking. Um, by the way, um, uh, the company is also being sued for its
00:36:04
$200 a month AI plans with consumers alleging it oversold the usage allowances it offered. Um, so, uh, so
00:36:12
that's that. And then, by the way, a coalition of states attorney generals have opened an investigation into Open
00:36:17
AI. The company was served with a subpoena seeking, uh, documents related to its activities and impact on users,
00:36:23
including activity related to minors and seniors handling of health data and company policies. Early this month,
00:36:29
Florida became the first state to file a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Alman alleging uh the two uh knowing uh
00:36:36
released an unsafe product. Um that's an interesting that's a separate thing, but
00:36:41
this anthropic attack by the White House is really interesting. Uh of course they
00:36:45
were just waiting for something to come at them as usual. David Saxs just lies and wait.
00:36:51
>> I had mixed emotions here because I I think it's a good thing. I'd like to think that the government's involvement
00:36:59
in acting crisply around the threats of AI is overdue. So I applaud the government moving in crisply and saying
00:37:07
we need to shut this down until we understand it better. I I applaud that. The problem is I don't trust these
00:37:13
people. I don't know what their motivations are. I don't know if they're generally concerned about the
00:37:18
well-being. the answer is >> of society or if this is just politically motivated trying to shut
00:37:23
down one company because you have political donors at the other. >> Yeah. >> And supposedly I just got off
00:37:31
>> I just had Ian Bremer on the pod talking about Iran. He said at the G7 meeting
00:37:36
the shutdown of anthropic was a bigger topic than the memo of understanding in Iran because if you're a foreign company
00:37:43
and you've deeply integrated anthropic into your your your workflow and all of a sudden it's turned off. Uh you know it
00:37:53
it's like okay does this mean the government has a kill switch for AI that when whoever it is is angry at them just
00:38:02
turns it off. >> That's right. So this is again this all comes down to the same [ __ ] thing.
00:38:08
You don't trust these people, you know. >> And why isn't there a congressional like
00:38:12
that everybody has to live by? Why what does Andy make to have a conversation? I'd like to hear from Andy [ __ ] Jasse
00:38:18
right now. What did he say? Why does he like why did he's they're an investor in
00:38:22
Anthropic, by the way, so I'm not sure I even trust that story. >> I don't even know if I trust the Jasse
00:38:27
part of the story. I'd like him to speak out um publicly about it. But yeah, I agree. I don't trust these [ __ ] And
00:38:33
I think they're doing it to kneecap Daario cuz he's been a nuisance for them. >> Yeah. He's not their chosen. He's the
00:38:40
one that said no on self-healing or you know on on weapons or privacy violations. So he's on their [ __ ] list.
00:38:47
>> And you know I love the idea, but Daario and Anthropic would say perhaps correctly that these same jailbreaks or
00:38:54
things that the reason why they shut down are available on other models. >> Right.
00:38:58
>> So again, they're not a perfect company. I get that they've been sued for overall
00:39:02
allowances. I just think there's going to be they are in the front and they are not going along with this
00:39:07
administration. So, you're going to see all manner of nonsense attacking them and some of it, you know, it, you know,
00:39:13
I don't think they're perfect. I don't think, you know, I think he can be a little bit, you know, righteous, but at
00:39:18
least it's righteous for the right things on some level. And I just think this is, as I said, this is not about
00:39:25
national security. This is about a beef and a rumble between different Silicon Valley interests. That's it seems to be
00:39:32
>> we we need we need a panel or a regulatory body that's bipartisan with experts, economists, philosophers who
00:39:40
say, "Okay, maybe it shouldn't take 10 years to release an AI model for the public similar to the way it does for
00:39:46
drugs." But we need 30 days in an institution or an agency represented by that briefs Congress that says, "Okay,
00:39:55
before you release anything, it's got to go through this 30, 60, 90day screening
00:39:59
where we bang the [ __ ] out of it." And everyone is subject to the same regulatory approval. And that kind of
00:40:05
regulatory certainty is good for the economy. It's good for companies. They want to know what rules they're playing
00:40:11
by. They don't want to have to think, Jesus Christ, I got to go to a [ __ ] UFC fight or fear that they're going to
00:40:16
turn off my, you know, my next version of this product. But supposedly, it's created chaos abroad because a lot of
00:40:24
companies >> Sure is. Yeah. >> And even defense departments and NATO members decide to use anthropic into
00:40:31
their scenario planning or or to figure out when to turn off and on power that runs into hospitals. And all of a sudden
00:40:38
they've got to go, okay, you mean one one guy based on criteria we can't figure out has has again a kill switch
00:40:46
on an important technology. >> But to me, if you read David Sax's stupid excuses, he's such a pompous ass.
00:40:51
And I just trust none of this. They do not care about all of us. They care about this Silicon Valley beep. And you
00:40:58
can feel like the hand of others here. It just it's just you don't trust them. Like you said, I think you put your nose
00:41:04
on it. Now, what's more serious are these lawsuits, you know, in terms of how good their product is and whether
00:41:10
it's accurate or not. I just you that's to me where some of the real issues are going to come with all these companies,
00:41:17
all the social media companies, everybody else. It's impact whether it's data centers or miners or bad health
00:41:22
stuff or bad data, but unsafe products is actually where I think the action is. This is also I think this is headed one
00:41:29
way and that is it'll it'll probably result in the administration putting all sorts of restrictions on like Chinese
00:41:38
openweight models trying to come into the US and disrupt what is becoming an increasingly difficult case to justify
00:41:44
the ROI on these these token expenditures. And so this is this is this is again going to take on its own
00:41:53
sort of tariff feel and geopolit it helps a company like Mistl out of France um who is not subject to the same things
00:42:00
although supposedly that's inferior technology. I'll be very cur I wouldn't be surprised at all if all of a sudden
00:42:06
Trump decides these Chinese that American firms can't use these openweight models coming out of China.
00:42:11
But this is the next big political football I think is who and how gets to use American AI firms and what AI what
00:42:19
AI models are allowed into the US. >> Yeah. Yeah. Perhaps I do think these safety things are are building with
00:42:26
parents and everyone else. I just do I think that as you said the brand AI has gotten so many hits. It's almost like
00:42:31
this idiot who got hit in the head and said racist and misogynistic things at the UFC fight. It just is getting it is
00:42:38
getting a bad rep and it there's going to be legal implications I think cuz I think people are upset and angry and
00:42:44
it's not as Mr. Wonderful uh says about his data centers the Chinese fault. It's
00:42:49
your own. All right. Uh Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails.
00:42:56
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All investing is subject to risk. Vanguard Marketing Corporation distributor. >> Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and
00:45:01
fails. Would you like me to go first? >> You go first, Cara. >> This is I'm going to do a win and a fail
00:45:06
together because one of the things around this UFC thing is Meta's used opportunity to do PR for itself, which
00:45:14
fine, I don't really care. Around this giving blind veterans these glasses, right? These glasses that help them
00:45:20
navigate. I think this is a great thing. I don't care if it's a PR thing. I don't
00:45:24
care any manner of it. I do think I I I know and Amanda was actually telling me this is really helpful for people who
00:45:31
have disabilities like blindness, these glasses. I think all of them, not just metas, but everybody's not these Ray-B
00:45:38
band ones, but I suspect Apple will have a lot of utility for people who are blind. I think it's very exciting and I
00:45:43
think it's a good thing. Look, I don't mind if you use PR for doing that. I I get it and it's fine and it helps people
00:45:51
and I and I law I give it law. This was an effort pushed by Dina Powell who they
00:45:55
just hired and good effort and they should do a lot of these things. Nonpartisan would be great. They don't
00:46:00
have to just mob up with Trump all the time. They should go with everybody to do these things to help people. And
00:46:06
again, I don't care if they get a PR win off of it. That's fine by me. What I think is that them being do doing it
00:46:13
during this UFC fight took the focus off the veterans in that way. You know what
00:46:18
I mean? Because it just is like god didn't you expect that something terrible would happen here? And so I as
00:46:25
I said I really do admire Marks like of MMA. It's kind of like the one of the most human things about him. But um but
00:46:33
it just was like here's something that's for good and then you get this this idiot say something and create all
00:46:40
manner of problems for them. Um so it was it was a good attempt and then it got drowned out. Something good got
00:46:46
drowned out. And again I don't even mind if you tried Ivanka Trump out. I just I
00:46:51
don't love it but whatever for these kind of things but if it helps these veterans a good thing. I just think it
00:46:57
got in the way of what the veterans they were trying to do for veterans which I think is a real thing. Um, but they
00:47:02
should do a lot more nonpartisan things that helps the rest of us. Um, but any, you know, as they say, anything Trump
00:47:08
touches turns to [ __ ] And that's I felt that my dad's a was a veteran. I have a
00:47:14
lot of family members who are veterans. I wanted to be a veteran. As I always say, I would have been being I would
00:47:18
have been an admiral about to be fired by Trump right now if that if I had had my career choice. Um, but it was I I I
00:47:26
really felt bad that this was got sucked up into this ridiculous nonsense at the
00:47:31
White House with UFC. Thank you. >> I just the vision of you being an admiral. I don't
00:47:35
>> It would be an excellent admiral. >> Yeah. >> I would. By the way, Dana White's on the
00:47:39
board of Meta, too, just so you're aware. >> Yeah. Okay. Do you have Was that a win
00:47:44
and a fail? >> That's win and fail because I was like, "Gh, here's something good." And here it
00:47:49
got sullied and the story as usual went off onto another way. And I don't blame the media for it. I don't blame this guy
00:47:56
said something so terrible and grotesque at the White House. This is where this woman used to live. You [ __ ] Like,
00:48:02
back off. Like, and say you're sorry. Say you're [ __ ] sorry for that piece of [ __ ] Anyway, go ahead.
00:48:08
>> My win here is um uh the social media ban in the UK. >> Oh, yes. Britain just announced the
00:48:16
world's strictest teen social media law going further than Australia, the country that uh inspired all of this. Uh
00:48:23
Prime Minister Kier Starmer announced Monday that Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, and X will be banned
00:48:29
from offering services to under 16s. As someone who has a 15-year-old in the house, I can tell you that I think the
00:48:36
most negative anxietyinducing thing in our household is our uh uh 15year-old's usage of social
00:48:51
media. And people say, "Well, that's a parenting thing." No, they they pay for the tube with their
00:48:58
phone. If you tell them not to use social media, they're isolated from their friends and become more depressed.
00:49:04
This needs to be a collective ban. And that's what the prime minister here did. There is no reason, no justification for
00:49:13
anyone under the age of 16 being on any social media platform. Some people will say, "What about YouTube?" Fine. Put out
00:49:19
a kids, put out a kids version of YouTube. I'm down with that. But this goes into effect in spring of 2027.
00:49:27
um overnight it curfews and infinite scroll limits under consideration uh or excuse me overnight curfews and
00:49:36
infinite scroll limits are under consideration. Liability falls on platforms not on children or parents. Uh
00:49:43
it's consistent with Australia's approach which finds companies up to 50 million for non-compliance. It needs to
00:49:50
be a percentage of revenues I would argue. And then uh Britain's existing online safety act has already cut visits
00:49:57
to porn sites by a third and raised the share of children encountering age checks online from 30% to 47%.
00:50:05
Spain Spain, Greece, Si Slovenia, and France are already pursuing similar bounds. And Australia's 2020 December
00:50:13
2025 laws officially triggered a global cascade. And in a study of 18 to 24 year
00:50:17
olds found out that not using social media for one week significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety by 16%, depression
00:50:27
by 25% and insomnia by 15%. This isn't just a win for uh teen mental health. This is
00:50:36
this is a win for democracy. The more time you spend on social media, the less you believe in democracy. You know, can
00:50:43
I one thing you point if they had gone and tried to make a safe product like that's you know what they're going to
00:50:48
do? They're going to say it's not going to work in Australia. It's not going to work. That's their argument. It's never
00:50:52
about the thing. It's never about that. This is delotterious. And by the way, speaking of which, that movie is coming
00:50:58
out, The Social Reckoning, which is the part two of the social network. Jeremy um what's his name? Guy Strong from
00:51:06
Succession is playing Mark Zuckerberg. As I noted last week, why do they never talk about the thing? They just say how
00:51:13
it doesn't work and how it does this and this and that, but they never want to talk about the thing, which is, are you
00:51:19
hurting people with your unsafe products? But go ahead. >> Yeah, but again, I I I don't think we
00:51:24
should fall into the trap of believing that the owners of McDonald's or Ford are going to figure out are going to
00:51:32
focus on anything other than what car do Americans want to drive? What's the design?
00:51:37
>> Fair. and we don't give a [ __ ] that it gives you diabetes. We just want basically a food orgasm in your mouth.
00:51:43
It's up to us as voters, and we have done this to implement to appoint really smart people who decide to devote their
00:51:51
lives to government and regulatory concerns to protect the well-being of the of of the Commonwealth. If we're
00:51:59
waiting on these companies to start thinking about the safety and harms of their product, good [ __ ] luck. True,
00:52:06
but look at the cost we've paid for obesity and fat like this. Like why do we keep doing this to ourselves? That's
00:52:12
the thing. >> I I I agree. But when you say we doing it to ourselves, the voters, I guess
00:52:17
>> the capitalist system is companies are rapacious, engage in full body contact,
00:52:23
violence, not worried about other people, worried about >> getting a product that commands margin.
00:52:29
And quite frankly, that works as long as you have regulatory bodies ensuring that
00:52:35
opiates don't gut, you know, small towns in Appalachia. We can ask the question,
00:52:41
we can all hope for a guy who's in charge of AI with hush tones who just adopted a baby boy and he's concerned
00:52:49
about AI and this really attractive woman who says we need to do better and we we are open to regulation. They're
00:52:56
all [ __ ] [ __ ] And we have built a wh house and the wh house works. But you have to have a cop.
00:53:05
>> Can I quote you on that? We have built a wh house and the wh house works. Go ahead.
00:53:09
>> The wh house works. >> That's your next book. The wh house works. But go ahead.
00:53:13
>> Well, it's funny. I was just in a wedding in Amsterdam and the rosewood there used to be an orphanage and then a
00:53:18
and then a wh house and I thought, well, that's a pipeline. Um, >> oh my god, I can't believe you just said
00:53:24
>> I think I know that hotel. My point is I I get mad at us. They're doing their job
00:53:29
>> and we keep we keep trying to shame them into thinking about the safety of their
00:53:34
product. >> You're right. >> You don't think you think McDonald's is just going to decide we need to have
00:53:39
salads? It's just the right thing to do. >> Didn't work. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, anyways, we need we
00:53:46
need economic incentives and regulations that punish these people and create disincentives. But my win,
00:53:52
>> Prime Minister Kier Starmer, >> I like it. >> My fail. I just spent the most wonderful
00:53:56
week in um uh Northern Europe. I was in um Stockholm and then I was in Amsterdam.
00:54:04
And Sweden is growing. It's kind of the non-European eur European country. It's growing 2 and a half%. It is actually
00:54:12
produced despite having the population of North Carolina, it's produced companies including King, CLA, Spotify,
00:54:19
Ericson. Um it they they produce a ton of unicorns. >> Very clever. >> And they have the industrial might or
00:54:29
productivity of Germany with the some of the innovation of Silicon Valley and and
00:54:35
the social policies of Bernie Sanders. >> Yeah. >> And then you go to Amsterdam where they
00:54:40
have become kind of the ground zero for data centers in Europe. They have ASML. If Nvidia is the picks and shovels, ASML
00:54:49
makes the picks and shovels. Productivity is up 2 and a half%. The economy is strong there. These are some
00:54:54
of the wealthiest countries in the nation. And they settle an argument, and this is my fail. America has tried to
00:55:02
convince its population that you can't have billionaires and universal healthcare. [ __ ]
00:55:08
>> Yes. Thank you. These companies prove you can have really wealthy people >> and you can have universal prek and you
00:55:17
can have child services. And I spent some time with the the founder and then the people running Spotify this weekend
00:55:23
and they all they were all in the valley. They all moved back to Sweden where they are paying much higher taxes
00:55:29
and they're fine to do it because they trust that the government is going to spend their money well. They trust that
00:55:34
being able to ride a bike to work and have a kid with special needs is going to be taken care of. And they have an I
00:55:42
did not see a single homeless person, by the way, in Stockholm. Granted, that's probably not indicative of all of
00:55:48
Sweden. And granted, do they have problems with immigration and and uh housing prices that bring, you know,
00:55:54
that follow prosperity? 100%. But we need to stop in America believing that there's a myth that inequality
00:56:03
that inequality and billionaires and unicorns demand a rapacious lack of a safety.
00:56:10
>> Yeah, I said the same thing about Korea when I was there. They're healthier. Oh
00:56:13
my god, it's so universal healthcare for one, but the other stuff I agree with you. Great one.
00:56:18
>> Anyways, I love I had such a nice time. I was so blown away. I'm glad >> by Sweden and um my my I was actually at
00:56:27
my best friend's son's wedding, Jack Markman. This incredibly impressive young man that reminds me of my he's
00:56:33
like the mini me of my friend. And I had time I spent I did myself a favor. I spent I went early and I left late and I
00:56:40
spent time in both of those places. They are such incredibly >> they are fun >> lovely places and
00:56:46
>> I'm glad you went. >> Anyways, they trust that their governments are going to spend their
00:56:50
money correctly. They trust each other. They trust uh there's also really strong
00:56:55
governance such that they attract foreign investment because they know they're not going to get [ __ ] by a
00:57:00
corrupt government or a corrupt policy. >> Just convicted in Norway the princes I
00:57:04
think steps up. I saw that. I mean they just look when you do bad things you get
00:57:09
no matter where you are you get not all the time. >> Okay. Prince Andrew >> I know I agree with you on that one. I
00:57:15
don't even >> I mean >> I agree but heading that direction is heading >> but he was removed and they kicked him
00:57:20
out of >> they they defrocked him or whatever the [ __ ] they did he's being investigated
00:57:25
finally but you're right 100% fair point. >> He'll pay a bigger price than any of
00:57:29
those billionaires on that island. >> That's true. That is true. >> Anyways, my fail is this false
00:57:34
dichotomy. We've talked Americans into believing that you can't have billionaires and really robust
00:57:39
capitalism and growth and not have universal health care and childare. You absolutely can. And the Netherlands and
00:57:46
Sweden produce that or prove that in spades. >> Yep. And in America, you don't have to
00:57:50
insult a very impressive black woman in order to feel like more like a man. You in fact act like an
00:57:56
>> idiot. What a [ __ ] idiot. >> And by the way, Michelle Obama does demonstrate more masculinity, service,
00:58:01
strength >> than that dude. You know, anyway, I I can't even I saw that and I thought,
00:58:08
Jesus Christ, thank you. What? What the? Like what? What? Does that guy have daughters?
00:58:16
>> I don't like Okay. >> Any of them. >> Are you going to wait for some [ __ ] idiot to start saying stupid [ __ ] about
00:58:21
your daughter? >> Yeah. I just Anyways, >> we don't like them. >> Swisser over. >> Thank you. By the way, I like MMA, but
00:58:30
[ __ ] that guy. Anyway, and by the way, Dina White, say something stronger. Like
00:58:34
even stronger. Like kick that [ __ ] out. Okay, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business,
00:58:40
tech, or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot. Send a question for the show or call
00:58:45
85551 pivot. Elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe. This week on On, I spoke to Peter Chernan, one of the producers
00:58:52
of the hit film Back Rooms. He talked this legendary uh media executive, entertainment media executive. He talked
00:58:59
about how studios are rushing to sign YouTubers and why that's a mistake. Let's listen to a clip. Every single
00:59:05
meeting in Hollywood over the last 10 days has been find me my YouTuber. That's not the smartest thing on earth.
00:59:12
You know, it's no different than saying find me a sequel to something else. You know, it's worth noting we spent three
00:59:18
years on this project. You know, we spent period of time chasing it. We spent a long time working on the script.
00:59:24
We spent another year on production. Um, and you know, it's not just saying bet on a YouTuber. It's not just saying bet
00:59:31
on some. It's betting on a very specific piece of content and betting on a very specific piece of talent.
00:59:37
>> He is a class act and so smart. Anyway, that's the show. Thanks for listening to
00:59:42
Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on
00:59:46
Friday.

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This episode stands out for the following:

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  • 60
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  • 60
    Most controversial

Episode Highlights

  • Trump's 80th Birthday Bash
    President Trump celebrated his birthday with a controversial UFC event at the White House.
    “This is like horrible?”
    @ 01m 33s
    June 16, 2026
  • Fox Acquires Roku
    Fox Corporation is buying Roku in a $22 billion deal that could reshape TV.
    “It's a big play for advertising based television.”
    @ 15m 10s
    June 16, 2026
  • Roku's Revenue Surge
    Roku reported a 15% increase in total net revenue, reaching $4.7 billion.
    “4.7 billion in total net revenue, up 15% year-over-year.”
    @ 20m 10s
    June 16, 2026
  • SpaceX's Historic IPO
    SpaceX's IPO saw shares rise 19% on the first day, marking a significant market debut.
    “Shares are at a high of 177 at the time of this taping.”
    @ 22m 17s
    June 16, 2026
  • The Power of Wealth
    Elon Musk's wealth raises questions about the concentration of power in a capitalist society.
    “Elon Musk could buy all of Manhattan with his money right now.”
    @ 28m 55s
    June 16, 2026
  • Anthropic's AI Controversy
    The Trump administration ordered Anthropic to take down its powerful AI models due to security concerns.
    “I think maybe Jasse might have said this, but the minute they could, they jumped on Anthropic.”
    @ 35m 44s
    June 16, 2026
  • OpenAI Faces Legal Challenges
    OpenAI is being sued for overselling its AI plans and facing investigations into its practices.
    “The company is also being sued for its $200 a month AI plans.”
    @ 36m 02s
    June 16, 2026
  • UK's Strict Teen Social Media Law
    Britain announces a ban on social media services for under 16s, aiming to protect teen mental health.
    “Britain just announced the world's strictest teen social media law.”
    @ 48m 14s
    June 16, 2026
  • Wealth and Welfare in Sweden
    Exploring how Sweden balances billionaires with universal healthcare and social trust.
    “These companies prove you can have really wealthy people and universal prek.”
    @ 55m 11s
    June 16, 2026
  • The Myth of Inequality
    Challenging the belief that billionaires and social safety nets can't coexist.
    “We've talked Americans into believing that you can't have billionaires and robust capitalism.”
    @ 57m 34s
    June 16, 2026

Episode Quotes

  • This was grotesque and it got the center of attention.
    Kara Swisher on Trump's UFC Distraction: "This Was Grotesque" | Pivot
  • I just want everyone to know I'm absolutely an expensive [ __ ].
    Kara Swisher on Trump's UFC Distraction: "This Was Grotesque" | Pivot
  • We've never seen such engineered manufactured scarcity.
    Kara Swisher on Trump's UFC Distraction: "This Was Grotesque" | Pivot
  • I just hope that they’re charitable.
    Kara Swisher on Trump's UFC Distraction: "This Was Grotesque" | Pivot
  • We need a panel or a regulatory body that's bipartisan.
    Kara Swisher on Trump's UFC Distraction: "This Was Grotesque" | Pivot
  • You can have billionaires and universal healthcare.
    Kara Swisher on Trump's UFC Distraction: "This Was Grotesque" | Pivot

Key Moments

  • Fox and Roku Merger15:07
  • SpaceX IPO22:17
  • Anthropic's Shutdown35:44
  • Legal Troubles36:02
  • Government Investigation36:14
  • AI Regulation Debate36:53
  • Social Media Ban48:14
  • Amsterdam's Data Centers54:38

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown