00:00:00
There needs to be more prison and more judgment around who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
00:00:05
>> Yes, I agree. But there's a lot of people who knew exactly what they were
00:00:08
doing. >> Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast
00:00:17
Network. I'm Carara Swisser >> and I'm Scott Galloway. >> Resist and unsubscribe. February has
00:00:22
begun. How's it going? You You've been putting up a lot. You've been really
00:00:25
getting rid of [ __ ] I've been getting rid of a lot, but not like you. I still
00:00:29
have Uber. I was just gonna pause it and use Lift instead. >> Yeah, it sucks when you got to walk the
00:00:33
walk. Um >> I know. I know. >> So, I mean, I'm insight. You'd be a
00:00:38
better judge of how it's going than me. I mean, I've I've literally I've gotten
00:00:41
hundreds and I'm about to cross a thousand emails of people with screenshots of them unsubscribing.
00:00:46
Obviously, you need hundreds of thousands, maybe millions. I'm going on CNN, MSNBC, PBS. I'm doing all I'm doing
00:00:53
the rounds there. I've heard from >> about taking off, I have to tell you.
00:00:57
I'm hearing it from lots of people. >> Oh, thanks. I think Well, I hope you're
00:01:01
right. You're probably being generous because you like me, but I've heard from
00:01:04
about a third of the companies, either their CEOs, and they've been very polite, but they're like, "You realize
00:01:09
that I supported this and I'm against ICE." And I'm like, "Yeah, to me you
00:01:12
are, but I haven't heard you say dick publicly, >> not dick." >> Um, and what's interesting is through
00:01:18
the process, for example, I unsubscribed from Uber or I cancelled my Uber account.
00:01:24
>> That was a big one. I thought that was a big deal. >> Oh my god. Before you go, it tells you,
00:01:27
all right, I've ordered 37 times from Uber Eats. How many Ubers have I taken
00:01:31
in the last 10 years? Guess >> I don't know, thousands. >> 3747.
00:01:37
>> And I did some I did some math here. >> Everyone thought you had a private
00:01:40
driver. I'm like, he doesn't have a [ __ ] private driver. >> It's called Uber. It's called Daros.
00:01:45
That's right. >> Anyways, I absolutely love Uber Lux. And this is a story of privilege. Let me do
00:01:49
my land acknowledgements. Most people don't have the money I have. Anyways, but I've taken 350 Ubers a year for the
00:01:56
last 10 years on average. The average price of Uber Lux has gone from 40 to $60 to 80 to120. And this is what these
00:02:03
companies do. They do predatory pricing. They price it below market. Incredible value proposition. They wait till they
00:02:09
consolidate the market. Then they start raising prices, which Uber has done 7 to
00:02:13
10% a year for the last decade. So this year in 2025, do you know how much I'm
00:02:18
spending a year on Uber? >> No. What? I'm spending $34,000 a year on Uber.
00:02:22
>> What? >> So, I figured it out. >> I figured it out. >> Okay.
00:02:28
>> Everywhere. I go everywhere. >> You could have hired a driver. Yeah.
00:02:31
>> Okay. No, better yet, I figured it out. I'm now taking the tube here. I'm taking
00:02:35
the subway. By the way, the subway in New York is amazing. >> And I'm I'm I'm filling in the gaps with
00:02:41
Uber X, whatever it's called, the cheap one where you get an air freshener and
00:02:45
you know, a guy who can't figure out ways. That was probably a hate crime. Anyways, and then but I figured out the
00:02:52
money I'm going to save, I could buy, including insurance and parking. I could
00:02:57
lease a Mercedes G Wagon, a Range Rover, or the new BMW i Series 7. People do not
00:03:04
realize how much money they are spending >> on these platforms because they get you
00:03:09
in, they automatically renew. Time goes faster than you think, >> right? >> I found out I have three Chachi BT
00:03:16
subscriptions. I'm not sure why, but I have three >> drunken night. >> I have four Apple TV Plus subscriptions.
00:03:25
I'm like, how do I log on here? And I just log on again or I just create a new
00:03:28
account. >> I have been I switched from AT&T, which has been a supporter of ICE. I'm saving
00:03:34
>> approximately $70 a month on AT&T, switching over to Noble, which I did
00:03:39
before. Mhm. >> Anyways, I'm I'm doing I'm trying to unsubscribe from some from something
00:03:45
every day and do some analysis around >> what I've spent and what it's cost. But
00:03:50
>> may I ask a question because someone did bring this up. Would you get rid of your
00:03:53
stocks in these companies? >> Oh, that's a tough one. >> I know. That's what I thought. I thought
00:03:58
it was a good question. >> Okay, this is the bottom line. I think I'm going to have to. Yeah.
00:04:06
>> Um I'm also thinking about transferring all of my stocks and bonds and assets
00:04:12
from from Goldman and uh going either to a regional bank or even a Canadian bank. I
00:04:21
feel >> RBC, whatever. >> I just don't want to hate I don't want
00:04:24
to hurt Americans, but I think I might go to a regional bank. >> Yeah. Uh, but I am I am going to I am
00:04:30
going to try and walk the walk here. And every day I'm I'm unsubscribing or
00:04:34
cancelling from >> Yeah. >> from something. But yeah, >> it gets easy to harder. That's It was a
00:04:39
good question from a listener. I thought Let's listen to some of what our listeners have called in to tell us
00:04:43
they've done. >> I unsubscribed from Apple TV. >> I have personally unsubscribed from
00:04:48
every streaming service that is currently out there. Personally, I had given up Amazon three
00:04:56
egregious Jeff Bezos acts ago. I had been guilty keeping the Kindle Unlimited. That is gone as of today, as
00:05:05
is Apple Fitness. >> This is Michael in Cameroon and I have cancelled my Chat GPT Pro and
00:05:14
Amazon Prime. >> Amazon acquired IMDb 25 years ago. I've been paying for the pro membership
00:05:21
subscription for the last 20 years. It's a pain, but I can find this information
00:05:26
elsewhere. So, click >> good. This is all different. You don't realize how how we how much stuff we pay
00:05:33
these people everywhere. And also, what's really helpful is you gave examples of what you can go to helping
00:05:39
people go to other things. Now, can I just make one point? Not everything is perfect. No company, all companies have
00:05:45
been involved in all kinds of nefarious activities that you don't like, but you
00:05:49
got to meet the moment for now. And you could always go back to them, right, at at some point. That's the thing. It's
00:05:54
you're sending a message right now like uh I have to give up the Amazon stuff. I
00:05:59
got to work on that today. Like I I use Amazon a lot. My wife's shift shifted to
00:06:04
local retailers, which one of the problems is you can't find products because of the tariffs. Like, and that's
00:06:09
diff stuff you use every day. Uh, but I'm really um I think this is a great effort, Scott Galloway. I just
00:06:16
>> Thanks. And the I mean a few things. One, I'm not telling people not to go to
00:06:20
work or not to buy groceries. I don't think someone who has the blessings I have is in a position to tell people to
00:06:27
take risks with their employment or really sacrifice around things like food. What I'm suggesting is this is a
00:06:33
signal and a framework for how you inflict the maximum damage with a minimum amount of sacrifice. And that is
00:06:39
if you were to say stop shopping at Kroger's and reduce your grocery spend, I think you have X impact. When you go
00:06:45
after big tech who has the presidents and the markets a year in subscription revenue where these companies are
00:06:51
trading at 30, 50, 100 times revenues, you have 40x the impact on the administration with what is in my view a
00:06:59
fairly minimal sacrifice. When you look at how many substitutes there are and when you actually uncover how much money
00:07:05
you're spending and what is really required to not participate, it's not as
00:07:10
much as you think. There is there's the tube, there's Uber X, there are a ton of
00:07:15
streaming media platforms, there are free 30-day Spotify accounts if you cancel and then resubscribe. It's
00:07:22
there's a lot of ways here to have a big impact without a huge you don't have to
00:07:27
take your entire Saturday and go to a protest. And I'm not discouraging pe people from doing that, but if you want
00:07:32
to look at maximum impact relative to the investment or the sacrifice, uh I think this is it.
00:07:39
>> Yep. I like the three three egregious Jeff Bezos acts ago. We're in like 10 at
00:07:44
this point. Anyway, keep going. Keep going. Keep putting those things up. I'll keep Well, people you can find hund
00:07:50
hundreds of dollars that you can take away from them and and they will know. It does add up. a a little tiny drop
00:07:56
becomes a great stream and then an ocean. So anyway, we've got a lot to get to today, so let's dig in. The Justice
00:08:03
Department released this was something over the weekend. 3.5 million new pages of Epstein related files late last week.
00:08:09
They're not even the worst ones. There's 3 million more. That must be the worst,
00:08:13
including 2,000 videos and 180,000 images a mere 42 days after the fedally mandated deadline. By the way, they are
00:08:20
not following the law. There are millions more they need to release. They said they weren't going to, but they are
00:08:26
going to have to, I think. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch said the release brings the DOJ into compliance
00:08:32
with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. It doesn't. The lawmakers and survivors
00:08:36
are calling the document inadequate and filled with redaction errors. At least 5,300 documents mention Donald Trump. A
00:08:43
lot of these are unverified tips, but Trump said he's been told the latest release absolves him. It does not. The
00:08:49
files show how Epstein's network stretched across Hollywood, Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley. That's
00:08:54
what's really quite fascinating here with people like Brett Ratner who was just at the White House with he did the
00:08:59
Melonia document, Howard Lutnik, who lied about being in touch with Epstein who made a big show of not thinking he
00:09:06
was awful and then was hanging out with him in his place in in the Caribbean. Bill Gates, Elon Musk, all appearing in
00:09:12
the documents. Elon Mus look like he's losing a having a a stroke in real time
00:09:18
um uh over these things and trying to pretend he doesn't mean anything. So talk about this and obviously another
00:09:26
person has kind of caught up some we've talked about Peter Atia a number of really distasteful texts thousands of
00:09:32
them um actually uh so lots of people involved they really stretch the gamut and they're all very social with each
00:09:39
other Casey Wasserman who's running the Olympic uh uh effort for example apologized um I'll take note just so you
00:09:47
know a lot of fake Elon emails floating out there but it's clear his relationship with Elon is not how he's
00:09:52
framed it in the asked, which is he wasn't interested. He's been posting on
00:09:56
X all weekend saying is where his emails to Epstein could be misinterpreted. He's
00:10:00
also back and forth with Reed Hoffman, who Reed really got him, saying if you really cared about the victims, you
00:10:06
wouldn't have spent $210 million on Donald Trump and also have all that uh non-consensual uh uh stuff on on on
00:10:15
Grock, which I think is absolutely right. So, thoughts, Scott? I mean, it's been pretty riveting in a lot of ways.
00:10:22
Yeah, it's it I mean there's just so much here. One, I think you have to put
00:10:27
on your critical thinking cap and discern between different acts, criminal acts, poor judgment, and people who are
00:10:36
just unlucky. Um, any other administration would be taking advantage of the moment to say we have appointed a
00:10:42
special counsel here and we are going to prosecute people based on this information.
00:10:47
and >> the criminal >> if if if you had sex with an underage girl, you should be subject to criminal
00:10:56
prosecution. And these files seem to seem to indicate that that absolutely happened here. And if all this [ __ ]
00:11:04
about concern over the victims, well, okay, the way you bring closure and create incentives such that other people
00:11:09
don't do this is you criminally prosecute. There's another group of people that I think is even bigger and
00:11:14
that is the people who have demonstrated really poor judgment by cohorting, collaborating, commiserating with a
00:11:21
convicted pedophile. >> Let me add Steve Bannon was right up in his group. He was they were like
00:11:27
freaking >> right. And those people should be shamed. Maybe those people maybe we
00:11:30
should not be comfortable with those people in leadership positions. I'd like
00:11:33
to think the bar for you know president is that that would not clear that bar. So, but people get to decide if they're
00:11:42
comfortable with that those errors and judgment. And then I think an even bigger concentric circle is a lot of
00:11:48
people who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And I don't I I you
00:11:52
know I don't want to I'm not saying absolve them of all or I I don't think
00:11:56
they're guiltless, but I do think a lot of people got invited to some conference
00:12:00
about philanthropy or whatever and ended up in the Epstein files. >> Yeah. No, I know. I listen, oddly
00:12:06
enough, I I I will say full disclosure, I we sent Epstein a note to go to dive into media because we bought a TED list
00:12:15
and he was a big a lot of those people in these files are all ex TED people. They were and so we bought mailing list
00:12:21
and there's an email uh that which is a mailing list email. It wasn't from me.
00:12:26
um he was on it and then for some reason some of the people around him sent him articles I wrote and that's you know so
00:12:32
I searched myself immediately and that's the pretty that's the extent what I can
00:12:37
find I have been at parties as I said where big huge dinner events at like TED Ted was where he showed up a lot um
00:12:46
where he apparently was I never met him but I mean you that's what you're
00:12:50
talking about correct but or I think mine's even less than that >> Elon Musk who appears who have been, you
00:12:57
know, had a lot decent amount of interaction with Jeffrey Epstein immediately goes on the offensive and
00:13:02
tries to start pulling Reed Hoffman into it and Reed looks like he was squarely on the outer circle here.
00:13:08
>> Yeah, I would agree. I know a lot about his >> That's how gross this is getting. The
00:13:12
other observation is that there's pedophilia and what's going on here in some ways is
00:13:20
worse. What do I mean by that? I do think there are pedophiles who have a psych a psych psychiatric ailment
00:13:30
where they are unnaturally attracted sexually to children and I think a lot of them not a lot of them
00:13:38
some of them recognize this ailment and seek treatment some do not and some end up becoming pedophiles and should end up
00:13:44
in prison. I think in some ways this is worse in the sense that I think the people guilty of having sex with
00:13:51
underage girls here while the term is pedophilia what it is is a group of people who feel they are not subject to
00:14:00
laws and the standards that everyone else is subject to. I think they think, "Oh, this is fun. It's a party and if I
00:14:08
have sex with an underage girl, I can that's fun and it's a thrill and I can
00:14:12
do it because I am not subject to the same standards and laws as everyone else." Mhm.
00:14:18
>> So, while I think a lot of these people, if in fact there was, and it appears
00:14:22
there was, criminal uh rape, I I'm not sure they're pedophiles, what they are is people
00:14:29
who've decided that because of their money, power, and proximity to power that they're not subject to any
00:14:34
standards whatsoever. >> Party. Go ahead. Go ahead. >> In my opinion, in some ways,
00:14:40
that's that's the sickness that infects our powerful. Well, what's interesting
00:14:45
is how it cuts across party lines, right? You have all these Democratleaning people.
00:14:50
>> Yeah. >> Kibbitzing with like a Steve Bannon, kibbitzing with a this and that.
00:14:56
>> All unified around partying and having sex with >> St. Barts. Yeah.
00:15:00
>> Yeah. >> Girls and stuff like that. That's what was gross. I do think I I want to zero
00:15:05
in on the judgment thing here because there is judgment of what you what you should and shouldn't do. like, you know,
00:15:12
everyone knew what this guy was back then. Trust me, they did and they went anyway. And so, bad judgment on Bill
00:15:20
Gates's part, and I think Melinda Gates has talked about this. Howard Lutnik
00:15:24
like literally went out of his way to say what a good judgment he had by never he had a massage day in his living room
00:15:30
and went bragged on how he rejected him and then was at his place, stayed at his
00:15:35
house, was like super friendly. [ __ ] that guy. like the judgment. I'm sorry.
00:15:40
There's there's more there than that. The same thing with Peter Aia. I I feel
00:15:44
like everyone knew what was happening here. And so there should be a you can decide what you want to do with these
00:15:52
people, but there should be a price for this level of it's in the same genre of
00:15:56
we can do whatever we want. Who cares? You know, haha, you know, [ __ ] is low carb. Like are you kidding me? Like I
00:16:05
mean it would be it's stupid joke if the guy you were talking to was a sexual
00:16:10
predator, right? And so that's why I find it a little more >> I see I'm I'm less and it's safer just
00:16:18
to say this is awful and these people should be cancelled. I do think that people when they send private emails
00:16:24
should be granted a lot of license and if they aren't guilty of a crime, you
00:16:29
can decide not to listen to their podcast. >> Yep. That's what I mean.
00:16:33
>> But I I think we have a tendency to mix criminal activity with poor judgment.
00:16:39
And I think you have to draw bright lines between them. And >> I don't to me it it just is like someone
00:16:46
is accidentally mentioned in the Epstein files because they flew on a plane with
00:16:51
other people to some nonprofit event talking about technology >> and people who might have been in the
00:16:58
files there is report of an individual Mhm. >> who impregnated an 11year-old.
00:17:03
>> Yeah. Y >> I mean, one is spend the rest of your life in prison. The other was, okay,
00:17:08
maybe you should do more diligence on the planes you're on. >> Mhm. >> And it feels like it's all been wrapped
00:17:13
up into one amorphous blob. >> I agree. I agree. But there are some very clear lines when I'm talking about
00:17:18
Lutnik. He went out of his way to say how much he hated the guy and then right in the emails he did just we trying to
00:17:23
rewrite history. >> Yes. He's a liar. Listen, that that we know. Same thing with Musk. He was just
00:17:29
fine. just made. Can't you just say I'm made? You know who did that? Katie Kirk
00:17:33
went to a dinner at this at Epstein's house. One of these dinners. He used to
00:17:36
have these like influencer dinners. She went she said, "I should have done more
00:17:40
research. I apologize. I appre like she just took she just took responsibility for her stupid judgment there, right?
00:17:48
And I think that's fine. I don't think we should like she >> but it brings up a point. Should Katie
00:17:53
Kirk do research on every dinner invitation?" >> No, not necessarily. But when it when it
00:17:57
was came to pass, what it was very clear, she apologized. She apologized and said, "Oh, so dumb." You're not
00:18:02
hearing from Howard Let You're not hearing from Peter Atia. Like, I'm sure
00:18:05
he's engaged a very expensive crisis manager uh here. But and then Elon SP, he is spinning so hard.
00:18:12
>> He's gone on the attack. He's trying to pretend that he somehow was protected or
00:18:16
like was a just just so offended by Jeffrey Epson. And can you believe what Reed Hoffman did mean?
00:18:22
>> Yes. Over. Look over here. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad Reed slapped him back to last
00:18:27
Sunday because he's right, Elon. If you actually cared about women, you you'd
00:18:31
have helped the victims financially instead of giving money to Donald Trump. You'd have gotten your non-consensual
00:18:36
sex off of Grock. But you don't care. You don't care. You don't care. Like,
00:18:39
you don't have an interest in >> But again, the really shocking thing to
00:18:43
me is, and I know very powerful and wealthy people, just the belief that they can just do
00:18:51
anything, >> right? and they're going to be immune. >> They do. They're like that.
00:18:57
>> I have friends who are who are um fairly famous actors and if they walk into a
00:19:02
scenario with a lot of women or a party scene, they're like, "I can't be here. I
00:19:07
I I can't be here. I'm I'm not going to do anything. I'm not even going to flirt
00:19:11
with anybody, but I can't be here because if it hits the press, it'll upset my wife. It will create um talking
00:19:19
points that aren't good. They will insinuate. I mean, I know people who are so careful and shape their lives
00:19:26
realizing that unfair unfair or not >> picture a photo of you with >> and then these guys Jeffrey Epstein.
00:19:33
>> These guys go to an island and start having sex with underage women and
00:19:37
aren't worried like believe that this isn't going to come back to haunt them.
00:19:41
>> There's also a lot of people that enable them. And one person that by the way I
00:19:45
searched you immediately. Um you weren't >> in what in the Epste. >> Yeah. No, that's one party I wasn't
00:19:53
invited to. >> You weren't. Um but uh >> did you really search for me?
00:19:58
>> I searched everybody. >> Did you really search for me? >> I did. I had to. I work with you. I have
00:20:03
to make certain. >> Okay. All right. >> Thank God. >> Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:08
>> Come on. I search I search like 20 names of people I know. >> Season two. Gay hockey with the dog.
00:20:14
Frosty, that's what you got to worry about. I'm going to be an extra. My next
00:20:18
career fluffer for gay for gay badmitten the new original series on HBO. >> I welcome any joyful sense of consensual
00:20:26
sexual expression you want to have with Scott Galloway's god. At this point, at
00:20:30
this point when I orgasm, it's just miss coming out. There's just literally it's
00:20:35
got to be a Pam Greer film. a cattle fraud up my ass and literally >> the cattle fraud in the
00:20:40
>> like a seial shake and I got to snort Viagra >> I'm gonna mention one
00:20:44
>> and watch Jackie Brown and then it's go time. say the people that are worse are
00:20:49
not even worse, they're just as bad or some of these enablers and I will name
00:20:53
them. John Brockman is throughout it and I urge you to look up. He was a guy who
00:20:57
was involved with all these intellectuals who were who Epstein was funding. He ran a billionaire's dinner
00:21:03
at TED I have attended that uh he obviously the facilitators these kind of people uh have to be looked at too. the
00:21:11
way they they sort of facilitated what you're talking about, which is this very
00:21:14
easy peasy let's get together and talk intellectual stuff which they loved. Let
00:21:19
me tell you, the reason you're seeing a lot of tech people in this group and you
00:21:22
are is because they desperately sought out um validation through intellectual discourse. They used to love having
00:21:30
these events whether whatever they happen to be. And thank God, you know, one thing I did have our our staff for
00:21:37
our code conference look every him up. He was on the wait list of D5, the one with Gates and Jobs, and we didn't let
00:21:44
him in. I I remember not particularly not letting him in, but he did somehow show up and talk to Tim Cook on the
00:21:51
sidelines of one of my conference, which I wasn't aware of. It was in the files,
00:21:54
too. But he was >> My view is you go my view is you go much harder on the people who are criminals.
00:22:01
>> Yes. And quite frankly, you go much lighter on the people who look you get invited by a billionaire to
00:22:08
go party on an island. If you see crime, you'll leave. But I don't I think a lot
00:22:13
of people for a lot of different re this guy had a big sphere around technology.
00:22:17
>> He was he was like an octopus in terms of trying to meet people and a lot of
00:22:21
people facilitated that for him. Um >> so but there needs to be more prison and
00:22:26
more judgment around who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. >> Yes, I agree. But there's a lot of
00:22:31
people who knew exactly what they were doing. So I think there there's a there's there's it's a stack ranking of
00:22:36
what people were doing in some cases >> and people like Peter AI and others
00:22:40
really deserve some you can censure him or not, but I think he's grotesque. Anyway, uh let's go on a quick break.
00:22:46
When we come back, Trump's new fed chair. Support for this show comes from Better Help. Sometimes February can make
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That's betterhp.com/pivot. Scott, we're back. President Trump has made his pick for Fed chair. I predicted
00:23:55
it would mean most handsome of the white guys, and I was right. The best chair. Trump nominated uh former governor Kevin
00:24:02
Walsh on Friday calling him central casting and says he'll go down as one of
00:24:06
the great Fed chairman may be the best. Of course, he did say that about Jerome Powell, although when he picked him,
00:24:12
Trump also joked during his speech this weekend that he would sue War if interest rates didn't get lower. Morris
00:24:17
is set to take the reigns from Jerome Powell in May, but he needs to get through the Senate confirmation process
00:24:22
first, which might be hard because uh uh Republican Senator Tom Tillis, who's
00:24:27
suddenly found his balls, is already saying he's a no until the DOJ probe into Powell is resolved. Good for him.
00:24:33
Tillis is really on fire. He's going to use up all his troublemak before he leaves. He was sort of shoved to the
00:24:40
side by Trump uh by threats from Trump, but now he's but he's still in power, so
00:24:44
he can do something about it. So, talk about this pick. Um, Worsh very briefly popped up in the Epstein file that we
00:24:50
were missing on saying he was on a guest list. St. Bart's Christmas 2010. Again,
00:24:54
what you were talking about, I get it. I get it. In that case, that's it. So, uh,
00:24:59
I don't think that should necessarily be it shouldn't be a factor unless more
00:25:02
stuff is found out. But, >> uh, talk about this this pick. What do you think about Warf?
00:25:09
I think it's I to be blind I think it's a great pick given the context of who he
00:25:14
could have selected. >> Right. That's true. Could have been Don Jr. >> Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if he
00:25:20
picked uh um you know Lara Trump. I I >> he does my to give credit where it's
00:25:28
due. I think around these these big financial appointments I think he shows greater judgment around these
00:25:34
appointments than he does around others. But essentially this guy, he's he's very
00:25:39
qualified. Uh he's been described as a hawk. The fear around this appointment
00:25:44
was that it was someone who would be subject to the political pressures of the presidency would immediately start
00:25:49
cutting interest rates and begin an upward spiral of inflation. And that fear was sending metals to record highs.
00:25:57
Silver and gold have exploded. And the best indication that the market likes this pick is that when the pick was
00:26:04
announced, metals crashed or they pulled back. This guy's known as a hawk. He
00:26:09
served as liaison between uh Bernani and the Wall Street community during the '08
00:26:15
crisis which most people think was handled really well. I like the fact he has a reputation as a hawk. I love the
00:26:20
fact that these appointments I believe >> Explain what a hawk is. He's got he's he
00:26:24
>> well someone who's more worried about inflation than lower growth. someone who
00:26:29
will keep interest rates high longer than maybe they should. They air on the side of lower growth but less risk of
00:26:36
inflation. And everyone is really worried that Trump is putting pressure and would rather
00:26:42
>> think resist the pressure. He's he saw what's happened with Powell.
00:26:46
>> That's what's great about these appointments is that they're they're
00:26:50
14year tenures. >> I I get that. But like he could be undergo what Powell's been undergone,
00:26:55
fake criminal probes, etc. As far as I know, pal serving out his term and hasn't bent an inch,
00:27:01
>> right? >> I mean, and that's why it speaks to the importance of the independence of the
00:27:04
Fed, but >> well, you wonder what this guy said to Trump, right? And why did he say he's
00:27:08
going to sue him? You know, that's all weird. I find it weird. >> There's something about the power and
00:27:13
we've seen this on the Supreme Court. A lot of people show up with a history or
00:27:18
say one thing to the Senate and then they get on the Supreme Court and they take advantage of their lifetime
00:27:22
appointment and they behave differently. >> Yeah. Uh, so >> not in a good way.
00:27:27
>> Well, actually some of the older appointees >> became in from our viewpoint much more
00:27:34
progressive. >> Well, look at Earl Warren. Remember I mean >> I mean they really did over time.
00:27:40
Think about what an incredible luxury it is to just focus on to be granted the tenure and this is this is
00:27:50
the basis of tenure in colleges >> to just try and pursue the truth and and
00:27:55
to screen out as many external forces as possible. >> That is a luxury and it's reserved for
00:28:00
what people think is the most important >> positions in the world including what
00:28:04
may be the most important position in the world and that is the chairman of the Federal Reserve. So I was actually
00:28:09
quite relieved when I saw this. I have a bias. I like Morgan Stanley. Anyone who
00:28:12
ran M&A Morgan Stanley has a pretty serious >> Well, he's a serious candidate, right?
00:28:18
Cassid had been like genulecting. He had knee pads on at one point, although he was very considered a very prominent.
00:28:24
>> I was worried it was going to be the My Pillow guy. I just wouldn't put anything
00:28:28
past this president right now. This is, I think, a good pick. The markets like it. He's an adult. He has a command of
00:28:36
the the markets. He has a really good relationship with Wall Street and I just hope that he shows
00:28:41
>> I suspect they'll drop the Powell the Pow Powell pro to get him through.
00:28:46
>> Well, here's the thing. Pal's going to still be on the board of governors.
00:28:49
>> Yeah. Well, that's what they're trying to do. >> I don't I don't care who the chairman
00:28:52
is. >> I don't care who the chairman is. The biggest voice in the room is still going
00:28:55
to be Pal's. >> Yep. Yep. Yep. We'll see. Anyway, good hair, Kevin. And I picked I knew the
00:28:59
handsome man would win. Also, besides the handsome man, I was right about Elon planning to merge SpaceX and X AI.
00:29:09
That's is precisely what happened. The acquisition will give the combined company a valuation of 1.25 trillion.
00:29:16
Flimflamory works for Elon Musk. Investors have also been pushing the idea of bringing Tesla into this. Um,
00:29:23
obviously he had already merged Twitter or X the service into XAI sort of to hide it away in there. all their losses.
00:29:31
So now it's Twitter, SpaceX, and XAI. And you can just imagine Tesla being next. In in the scenario, XAI shares
00:29:38
would be swapped for SpaceX shares. Um, just for people who don't know, SpaceX
00:29:42
is weighing a June IPO listing, could seek to raise as much as $50 billion, making it the biggest IPO of all time.
00:29:49
Um, and again, if that sounds a little familiar, guess what? Cara Swisser predicted it last April, cuz I know how
00:29:56
this guy thinks. >> I've been doing research. She blew my mind with the notion of a combined Tesla
00:30:02
XAI >> and SpaceX, you know, and I'm I'm just like that is totally blown my mind about
00:30:09
>> good. As long as you attribute it to me, just attribute it. >> I I I do. But that the idea of him
00:30:15
merging all of those companies, like I can't wrap my head around what that would mean.
00:30:19
>> He's got to he's got it's the only move. So, let's talk about that. I the reason
00:30:23
I thought about that was because he's an internal flimflam man and he needed a
00:30:27
new narrative and this works out for behind when he did the first Twitter XAI merger. He just got rid of the problem
00:30:33
of everyone talking about what a shitty business it was. Tesla's obviously troubled. XAI is being upheld by the
00:30:40
valuations of of AI companies and SpaceX is a is a real winner. So what do you and and and you could make an argument
00:30:48
that they all fit together, right? Sure, why not? like data things moving blah um
00:30:55
and he'll do it. So what do you what do you think >> after the disaster at Chernobyl uh where
00:31:00
radiation leaked for I guess hundreds or thousands of square miles there's a lot
00:31:04
of farmland and a lot of a lot of livestock and what they found was okay a lot of the the beef and lamb and chicken
00:31:14
had traces of radiation from the radiation leak at Chernobyl and the Russian officials decided okay we're not
00:31:21
going to throw away this meat we're just going to parse it out and send small
00:31:25
amounts ounce mixed in with non-radiated meat to different to different grocery stores because a little bit of radiation
00:31:31
as long as we mix it with non-raactive meat is okay. >> This is Musk basically taking his
00:31:36
radioactive meat and that is Tesla which isn't 10x the value of what it should be
00:31:42
trading at. X AI which is sort of working isn't and then wrapping it in the non-raactive meat which is SpaceX
00:31:50
which in my opinion is one of the most impressive companies with the greatest differentiation in history right now 90%
00:31:56
of launch capability 2/3 of low earth satellites and he's basically going to
00:32:02
take all of it and say okay autonomous AI space launch capability >> yeah moving
00:32:08
>> and take it all into one giant one giant Musk AI I innovation robots >> that will get robots that will say this
00:32:19
is you have to own this company because when you look at the >> boop that's right when you look at Tesla
00:32:25
it's like okay it's an automobile company that should be trading at 30 bucks a share not 400 or whatever it's
00:32:31
at when you look at XAI all right it's a distance 7th LLM when you look at robots
00:32:38
those make no [ __ ] sense but if you wrap all of that AI autonomous stew. Oh, and Twitter, you know, a platform that's
00:32:45
probably worth 10 billion, not what he paid. >> Wrap it all into a communications
00:32:50
satellite, space launch, AI, automated driving, and it's the kind of stock that
00:32:55
everyone has to own. So, this is an attempt to create, you know, individual ingredients, which some of which are
00:33:02
amazing and some of which have real problems, and put it all into one stew. I think it's a smart move, quite
00:33:08
frankly. >> Sure. Duck. That's why I thought I think like a a really a [ __ ] up flame plan
00:33:12
man. That's how I think, right? That's I was like, "What?" I sit there and I go,
00:33:16
"What will he do?" Oh, that's how I thought of That's exactly >> Let's go brainstorm about it on an
00:33:21
island. >> On an island. >> I got this guy's really smart. >> I was not on the island. I did not.
00:33:27
>> And he puts together these amazing parties with like thought leaders. And
00:33:32
and by the way, I am so shocked I am not on that list because the only reason I get invited to Davos, I get invited to a
00:33:38
place like that. We're called I refer to us. I say to I saw Jonathan height and I
00:33:41
saw Adam Grant at Davos. I'm like, "Do you realize what we are?" And they're
00:33:43
like, "What?" I'm like, "We're intellectual support animals. We're here
00:33:46
to make people feel >> dancing [ __ ] dogs." >> Yeah. We're [ __ ] poodles. We're Fifi
00:33:51
the We're like dance for dinner. We have Seo Black Rockck and Chairman of Finland. Now, now tell us something
00:33:57
about young men. Can I tell you so many powerful people texted me like Scott's
00:34:01
so amusing? >> Amusing. That's the word I guess. >> You know what I mean? Like he's so
00:34:06
interesting. I was like, "Oh my god, he's totally your dancing monkey."
00:34:09
>> Yeah. That was my moment at Davos. I sit next to a woman I have never met before.
00:34:13
>> Yeah. >> And all of a sudden she starts going, "Caris texting me and says, "I'm next to
00:34:17
you." And I'm like, "How the [ __ ] does she know I'm here?"
00:34:22
>> Rich people. >> You're like the East Germany. You know every move.
00:34:26
Well, because they call, they text. >> Who what's her name? She was lovely.
00:34:29
>> Dina Powell. >> That's probably sexist. I wouldn't say that about a man.
00:34:33
>> She's lovely. She is lovely. >> She's new president of Meta, just so you
00:34:36
know. >> No. So, she started telling me what she was doing and she was very measured. I'm
00:34:39
like, why are you choosing your words so carefully? And then about five minutes later, I'm like, "Oh, you're a shill for
00:34:43
Meta." >> Oh, she's not a shill. We'll see. >> She's trying to organize the bailout.
00:34:48
She's going to organize the bailout. >> Like anybody anybody who can get him
00:34:52
away from like >> She's married to a senator. Talk about a power couple.
00:34:56
>> David. Yeah, David. Yeah. >> Thank God. >> Yeah. He's McCormack. He was with Ray
00:35:00
Dallio, right? He was with Ray Dallio. That's his Yeah. >> Yeah. I think that's who he was with.
00:35:05
>> I can't believe you searched for me in the files. >> Why wouldn't I? Are you kidding? That
00:35:10
was numero in the files. >> Uno. You Oh, come on. Whatever. In any case, >> I pay for my stuff.
00:35:16
>> We know why he's doing it. All right, we're going to take I had to, you know,
00:35:21
>> trust but verify. Uh, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, tons
00:35:25
of AI news. >> Support for the show comes from Framer. You know that moment when your marketing
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00:36:31
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00:36:39
Scott, we're back now onto some rapid fire news, AI news, because there's so
00:36:43
much. Let me go through them. Amazon is reportedly discussing investment up to $50 billion in open AI. Meanwhile,
00:36:49
Nvidia CEO Jensen Hong is pushing back on reports that his company is looking to scale back on its investment in Open
00:36:55
AI. And that was in the Wall Street Journal. I thought it was an excellent article. This all comes as Open AI is
00:37:00
seeking to raise over a hundred billion dollars. It prepares for a public listing in the fourth quarter. It's
00:37:03
trying to beat Anthropic to that punch. Anthropic is clashing with the Pentagon over whether its AI would be used for
00:37:10
surveillance and autonomous lethal operations putting $200 million contract at risk. Um, your choice Scott any of
00:37:17
the above. >> I think the most fragile company with respect to its valuation right now maybe
00:37:23
with the exception of Palunteer is probably open AI. I think OpenAI is racing to establish a leadership
00:37:30
position. Uh but if you look at the fact it doesn't have the fire hose of billions
00:37:36
of people built in that that Alphabet has uh I don't think and you look at they're
00:37:42
getting I think they're getting attacked from the top and that is Alphabet and
00:37:46
Gemini which has doubled its share I think in the last 18 months >> which was inevitable right inevitable
00:37:52
>> but if you have a billion people or two billion people a day coming to your
00:37:56
interface and you start introducing AI >> that's just very powerful and then you
00:38:00
have micros it has a Netscape feel to it. >> And then you have um Microsoft which has
00:38:06
a recurring revenue relationship with 99.9% of the corporations above a million dollars in revenue. They can
00:38:13
introduce really seamlessly different things and then you have uh an adjacent competitor and that is anthropic which
00:38:21
has gone after the enterprise market. So to I think I've told you this and it's
00:38:26
the weakest flex in the world. I was on the board of Gateway Computer and about 25 years ago if you asked analysts who
00:38:33
had better prospects, Gateway or Dell, it was split and Gateway was at 70 bucks a share anyways 15 years later was at.7
00:38:41
cents a share because they went consumer and Dell went small and medium-sized business and we know how the story ends.
00:38:46
The story may be unfolding the same way and that is OpenAI has a consumer offering but less than 5% of the people
00:38:53
actually go to the paid offering and Anthropic has gone after the enterprise market and quite frankly looks to be
00:38:59
beating Anthropic in the enterprise market >> but but it is fighting with the
00:39:01
Pentagon. It's interesting because he's becoming the most interesting character
00:39:04
Daario Amodi in terms of talking about safety. He's sort of everyone sort of
00:39:09
attacked him for that, especially that dope David Sachs. But I think actually he's he's opening a lane as the safe AI
00:39:16
company, right? >> Well, that used to be Alman's lane, >> right? Exactly. But now he's got it
00:39:20
right. He's opening a lane where everyone's like, "All right, >> agreed. They're the they're the clean,
00:39:25
well-lit corner of the AI bookstore right now is >> anthropic." And also going after
00:39:30
enterprise looks to be the smartest thing. Enterprise wants that enterprise, you know, why be in the surveillance and
00:39:36
autonomous lethal operations business if you can do just as fine selling. >> Yeah. Just get your media buyers at
00:39:42
L'Oreal to be more productive. So my friend Greg Schau is the CEO of section
00:39:47
which helps enterprises upscale for AI had he said something that just struck me. He said open AI has basically 12
00:39:53
months to get massive consumer adoption because or enter or or start which he doesn't think it's going to do because
00:40:01
people like there's too many free LLMs >> or they're going to have to come up with
00:40:05
incredible enterprise adoption or there's absolutely no way they can justify this this consensual
00:40:11
hallucination that they're going to go public at one or one half trillion dollars.
00:40:15
>> Isn't there a desperation for such stocks? Do you think you'll have a situ,
00:40:18
you know, with Elon merges all these things, everyone's going to buy it. Will
00:40:22
everyone not buy this? >> The only thing is >> would you Scott Galloway want, of
00:40:30
course, you just got rid of GPT, so you're not allowed to cuz they want you to virtue signal the right way.
00:40:35
>> Yeah, but you forget I'm a [ __ ] Once March 1 comes along, it's back to big
00:40:38
daddy warbuck [ __ ] >> No, >> but this is what this is the existential
00:40:44
risk to open AI right now. They want to be the leader. I think Sam Alman maybe correctly has said there's there can
00:40:50
only be one in the world of AI, but he's getting attacked from above and that is
00:40:54
big big industrial strength conglomerates in tech that have a built-in multi-billion dollar consumer
00:41:00
base that they can they can point that fire hose of people at their AI offering. They're getting attack from
00:41:06
below and that is Chinese openweight models which are free which by the way are technically pretty close.
00:41:13
>> Yeah. So the fear is the following or the bullc case is that this company is
00:41:17
an incredible product. It's growing like crazy. It's doing all these big
00:41:22
visionary deals. It is an amazing product. I was using it every day and everybody feels like they've got to go
00:41:29
in on the market leader in AI which Alman has done a good job of associating brand leadership with OpenAI and Chat
00:41:36
GPT. The risk is that before they go public in the disclosure documents that the SEC mandates, it's going to be clear
00:41:45
that everybody else is starting to eat their lunch, >> right? That Gemini continues Gemini
00:41:52
>> Gemini continues to gain market share that there's an entire market of people
00:41:56
that go for the open weight free models, right? >> And people say, "Okay, this is a great
00:42:00
little company, but it should be acquired by somebody not worth a trillion half dollars as a standalone
00:42:05
company." from your perspective. >> Yeah. Right. Unfortunately that the
00:42:10
other day >> unfortunately it'd have to be written down >> a lot and then there'd be all sorts of
00:42:15
antitrust arguments. Yeah. >> But he has and he knows it too. He's doing big deals. He's spending a ton of
00:42:22
money. He's trying to get the best talent because there's a general belief
00:42:25
here that there's the gold medal that this literally is when we call this Hunger Games economy. The Hunger Games
00:42:32
is the right analogy and that is whoever wins here gets all sorts of parades and
00:42:36
gets to live a wonderful life and whoever doesn't win is going to die a slow death and that's the approach he's
00:42:42
taking. >> You're right. I think you're right here. Absolutely. We'll see what happens. Um
00:42:46
he they are headed for the IPO though. Um Trump and his family this story we have we cannot stress this story of
00:42:53
corruption and the Trump family enough. He has now pulled in $4 billion linked to his presidency. Much of that comes
00:42:59
from crypto and foreign deals that leverage his presidential status. Last year, an investment firm with ties to
00:43:04
the UAE bought nearly half of the Trump family's crypto company, making the two
00:43:10
business partners. Eric Trump signed the agreement with the firm for $500 million
00:43:14
investment days before uh Trump's January 2025 inauguration. We did a chip deal with them. He he recently said he
00:43:22
he found out nobody cared about his international business activity while in office. You know what? We do care. you
00:43:28
you know this is a guy as I say accusation is a confession who went on and on about Hunter Hunter Biden didn't
00:43:34
have enough imagination as doing corrupt things and didn't have much pull. This
00:43:39
is a a fullscale corrupt regime that is using their status to to to feather their nest. It's
00:43:48
also bad for national security. All all manner of things is hurtful to the United States. uh you know he does it
00:43:55
all the time whether he's suing the IRS for 10 billion or closing the Kennedy
00:43:59
Center because he ran that into the ground but this is really you know he does that's all h you know jazz hands
00:44:06
compared to what's happening here thoughts >> yeah the Republicans thought it was an
00:44:11
impeachable offense or required a special counsel because uh President Biden implicitly or explicitly used his
00:44:19
influence such that his son Hunter Biden could get on the board of a Ukrainian an
00:44:23
energy company and made about 400 or 600 grand. There is no reason why Hunter Biden should be on the board of any
00:44:28
company other than his proximity to the president, even if he >> leveraged that contact or didn't. And
00:44:34
there's no evidence he did. But everyone's hair was on fire. And now we have an individual who is raking in
00:44:40
billions. And it's not only him, Witoff's kids. and Wickoff was investing
00:44:48
getting people the UAE to invest in a a a crypto company that is kids control. And then what do you know a few weeks
00:44:56
later the sale of our most sensitive chips that are security concern for fear that the UAE who has a strong
00:45:02
relationship with China begins to leak that sensitive information that powers nuclear guidance systems, powers
00:45:08
submarines. I mean the level I got to give it to them. No, here's the problem. In
00:45:15
America, if you run a stop sign, you get shamed. If you if you start killing hundreds of
00:45:21
people, there's some sort of weird leadership quality around it. It's it's
00:45:26
like don't commit a for God's sakes, don't commit a misdemeanor, >> commit, you know, commit mass murder and
00:45:34
be unashamed about it and then the next day commit another crime where it all gets lost in the noise.
00:45:39
>> Well, that's what he said. found out nobody cared, especially internationally. But, you know, and then
00:45:43
killing all those people through USAD, the millions of people who will die. I mean, the kind of damage and and and
00:45:50
feathering, nest feathering is really quite astonishing. And that leaves out all the pardons he gives to people who
00:45:56
are who who knows. I mean, >> I sat next to one of those guys >> gives him three million bucks. I've said
00:46:01
this before, car if if Louis or Alex or Alec or Nolan are four sons, I'll I'll
00:46:07
do I'll go with the older ones. If one of them [ __ ] up and ended up in prison, I'm a 100% confident that with a
00:46:16
million to three million bucks, we could get him out of prison. >> Yeah. >> Find find an indirect route into a
00:46:22
meeting with one of Trump and his acolytes and say, "I'm about to buy 1
00:46:25
to3 million in Trumpcoin or I'm about to give you a $2 million gift for the new
00:46:31
east swing." And I think within 3 to six months they're out. >> Yeah.
00:46:34
>> That's where we are. >> And here's the thing. It creates you're
00:46:38
going to have more Epstein islands. Yeah. >> You're going to have fewer small
00:46:41
businesses that feel start because they're worried about the rule of law. You know, the rich are protected by the
00:46:47
law but not bound by it. All the rest of us are bound by the law but not protected by it.
00:46:51
>> And in addition, foreign companies aren't going to want to invest in
00:46:54
American companies for fear that the rule of law >> is not going to apply to American
00:46:58
investment. >> He is it's all going to be for the Trump's benefit but not for the United
00:47:02
States of America. That's really you have to understand this everybody. This
00:47:06
is this is the actual game besides all the everything else. This is the actual game. Anyway, one more quick break.
00:47:13
We'll be back for wins and fails. Support for today's show comes from Upwork. One of the biggest growth hacks
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upw.com. upwork.com. >> Okay, Scott. Wins and fails. You want me to go first?
00:48:24
>> You go first. Well, I was going to do the Kennedy Center, but I don't really
00:48:27
like the Kennedy Center. I never did. But he's he's going to close it and fix
00:48:30
it after he ran it into the ground with his stupid minion, Rick Canrell. Nobody wanted to go there. Um, you know,
00:48:38
whatever. He just he's failed the business and so he's closing it down. It's like Trump's stake or something. I
00:48:43
don't know if he can close it down. We'll see. But, um, just gross. That's
00:48:47
it's a gross sidlight. The many things he's done. Um, and uh, we'll see. We'll
00:48:52
see what happens there. But actually, you know, I would get more serious. Congresswoman uh Kelly Morrison of
00:48:58
Minnesota posted the following uh on Blue Sky. My office has been flooded with reports of cruel, unsafe, unlawful
00:49:04
conditions inside the Whipple detention facility in Minneapolis. This weekend, I
00:49:08
was finally granted access to perform oversight. And when she went in, it's grotesque. I mean, it's absolutely
00:49:14
grotesque of how they're they're not just abusing these populations and they're about to go do that in Ohio, but
00:49:19
they are um they're they're abusing them once they get in there to in order to
00:49:24
get them to self-epport. Um the cruelty these, let me just tell you, all you people, people will you will you will be
00:49:33
judged someday. Maybe not today, but someday you will this will all come out. And what you've done here is so heinous.
00:49:41
uh to young people. The young the young kid with that adorable hat did get out uh finally, but it was only under
00:49:48
pressure to get him out um who was taken in Minnesota and brought I think to Texas. Um but there's he's just one kid
00:49:55
and the only reason he got out is so much of the attention because of that photograph. But there's other kids
00:49:59
sitting there, thousands and thousands of children. And uh what you have done is so shameful um and so horrible. And I
00:50:08
just hope there's more photographs and more for people to understand the level
00:50:11
of depravity um and what they're doing to those people um who are here, most of
00:50:17
whom are here, worked hard, have contributed to our country um and uh it's just it makes me sick to my
00:50:24
stomach. Um for a positive thing, uh I really enjoyed the Grammys. I did. I watched them last night. I thought they
00:50:29
were >> Oh, did you enjoy it? >> Yeah, I did. It was fun. Although President Trump was threatening to sue
00:50:33
Trevor Noah over his Epstein joke uh at the Grammys, I thought he was great. Trevor Noah was great. I found it very
00:50:40
entertaining. I thought the performances were terrific. I thought Justin Bieber was did a great I mean he was sort of
00:50:45
naked. He was he looks good. Um he was wearing silk boxers only and I thought that was quite beautiful. I thought Lady
00:50:51
Gaga was amazing. Reba McIntyre performed and I love Reeba McIntyre. So I liked it. It felt really good and it
00:50:58
wasn't virtue signaly the way the Oscars can be. I found the speeches very heartfelt and um simple. They kept it
00:51:05
simple. They a lot of god loving too by the way. U but I liked it. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was great.
00:51:11
>> I stopped caring about the Grammys when Michael Sty stopped singing and opened a
00:51:15
health food store in Athens, Georgia. Rick Oasich died and George Michael died. I have no interest in and Tom
00:51:22
Petty died from an opioid overdose. Music is dead to me. >> Sabrina Carpenter didn't get anything
00:51:26
but and I thought she was delightful also by the way. Anyway, go ahead. >> Well, uh, I'll start with my loss or
00:51:34
fail. I interviewed Neil Ferguson, who I really like and is a friend, but he has
00:51:40
a narrative which I disagree with, and it's a narrative that's been adopted by
00:51:42
the Trump administration. And also, and I would argue it's just paring a Russian talking point, and that
00:51:48
is this this notion that this war is unsustainable for Ukraine. It's unwininnable, and they should strike the
00:51:54
best deal they can right now. And that is the same narrative that was expectated and vomited all over the
00:52:01
media three years ago. And guess what? Since then, in the last two years, Russia has only increased their
00:52:07
occupancy or their acquisition of land by 1%. A snail could literally, and this is true, move faster than the Russian
00:52:15
army. And if you want to talk about unsustainable for somebody, this is unsustainable for Russia. And there are
00:52:20
days where they are losing a thousand men a day. their wartime economy is running out of money. So, this war is
00:52:28
unsustainable, but it's unsustainable for Russia. And this narrative that somehow that Ukraine has been backed
00:52:33
into a corner and needs to come up or swallow hard and accept a peace deal that is just scheduling the next war,
00:52:39
not preventing it, is [ __ ] This war is unsustainable, but it's unsustainable
00:52:44
for Russia as long as the West continues to support push back on a murderous autocrat. And it really bothers me this
00:52:51
narrative of well Ukraine should just take the deal they can right now because this war is unsustainable. [ __ ]
00:52:57
They have been kicking Russia in the nuts literally and figuratively and they are in my view they are winning this
00:53:05
war. And so this narrative from straight out of Sergey Lavough that it's unsustainable.
00:53:11
It's unsustainable for Ukraine. They can't manage this. Well, guess what
00:53:15
folks? They seem to have put all that to rest. all those doubts for the last three and a half years. This is
00:53:19
unsustainable for Russia and we should start speaking as if the Ukrainian army is speaking from a position of strength,
00:53:26
which they are. >> I like Scott. I know you like Neil Fergus and I find him to be a contrarian
00:53:30
for contrarian sake and I like your contrarianness better. Yeah, but Neil Neil brings history and it's important
00:53:36
to have this type of dialogue and he and I again agree on almost nothing geopolitically, but I learn from him and
00:53:43
quite frankly it it it strengthens and creates texture around my beliefs and I think that's important and plus he's a
00:53:49
huge he's a huge we both are really upset about the the the World Cup um draw for Scotland. We're in the same
00:53:56
group as Morocco and Brazil. Anyways, both he and I love team Scotland. Anyway, my win
00:54:03
>> because I'm cancelling Paramount Plus today. I watched all episodes of
00:54:08
Landmen. >> Uhhuh. >> Oh my god. I think I'm Republican now. It's it's it's literally whoever that
00:54:16
guy is, he's Rupert Murdoch of entertainment. He's like all this [ __ ] liberal crazy [ __ ]
00:54:22
>> with all this redistribution of virtue >> on on prime time streaming programs. I
00:54:28
am the Fox News of Scripted Entertainment. >> You know what? He's much more complex
00:54:32
than that. But go ahead. He's not actually. >> I don't think so. I think basically
00:54:37
>> he's not actually. >> Oh, come on. This is I'm telling you
00:54:40
this is basically many a person. >> I'm sure you've interviewed him. I have
00:54:43
this is basically succession if nobody went to college or HR was a rumor. >> It's a great show.
00:54:49
And I love the fact that all the the fe every female character >> crazy >> exists solely to roll their eyes, sleep
00:54:56
with the wrong man or remind us that feelings are inconvenient. >> He's really bad on women.
00:55:00
>> And that every woman is in a state of perry menopause. I mean >> watch Yellowstone with the daughter.
00:55:06
She's a hot mess. >> I can't I can't do Kevin Cosner. I've
00:55:09
just never loved >> I'm telling you he loves hot mess ladies. I like I do like I love I like
00:55:14
his stuff but he's a little more complex than that. I'm glad it makes me feel
00:55:18
better about myself because it's like every crisis can be solved by a phone call, a threat,
00:55:22
>> or Billy Bob leaning back and explaining why >> to me more. I like her character.
00:55:27
>> I don't buy that John Ham would be in a relationship with her. >> I don't buy it.
00:55:32
>> He's so good-looking. >> Well, >> he's so God, he's
00:55:36
>> one with Jennifer Anderson on the morning show. He played an Elon Musk character, as you know. I like
00:55:40
>> his career really t >> I love I met him at the morning show party. He's a lovely guy, I have to say.
00:55:45
We had a lovely >> Mad Man is still for me my second probably my second second favorite
00:55:49
scripted drama after >> he's a handsome [ __ ] man >> after Breaking Bad. He's a He's a God,
00:55:54
he's so good looking. >> He's a he's hugely tall, too, just so
00:55:57
you know. Very tall. >> Yeah, he was also great in the most recent uh series of uh or season of
00:56:02
Fargo. That was really good. >> Yeah, he's a he's a very he's he's he
00:56:06
does a lot better work than he should because he's so good-looking. He could
00:56:09
do a lot less good work because he's so good. >> Yeah. No, I learned that an oil patch is
00:56:14
everything about an oil patch. It's brutally honest. There also oil is unfairly maligned and it's
00:56:20
>> also run by a bunch of people who've been divorced exactly once. >> Okay.
00:56:24
>> It's Anyways, it I love it because it gives me hope because it's a story it's a story about
00:56:32
men who are never wrong but always get laid. >> Yeah. >> It's just the perfect It's the perfect
00:56:38
series for a man. Oh, and I I This guy is the Rupert Murdoch of scripted television. He came in. He recognized
00:56:46
the biggest opportunity was just to go Paramount. He's at Universal now with
00:56:50
all the virtual signalers. He likes them better. >> He's left. He's gone. That was one [ __ ]
00:56:56
up by David Ellison. I have to say he's left to go over to dot the into the into
00:57:01
the more elegant uh relationship with Donald Langley over there. She >> It's Billy Bob Thornton telling us why
00:57:08
the oil business is the last honest thing in the world. >> I know. I know. But I It's just a story.
00:57:13
Anyway, >> anyway, I my win. >> I did I did basically 18 hours of landmen this weekend.
00:57:19
>> Heated rivalry. >> I am Republican now. Now, now we need you back. Watch Heated Rivalry
00:57:24
>> and I immediately made a campaign donation to Senator Ted Cruz as soon as
00:57:28
I was done. No, >> you didn't. >> But it's entertaining. I mean, it's
00:57:32
Billy Bob Zordon's fantastic. Anyway, uh that was good. That was really good. We
00:57:37
want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever is on your mind. Go to
00:57:40
nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show or call 85551 pivot. Elsewhere in the Cara
00:57:46
and Scott universe this week and on with Cara Swisser, I spoke with Ben Collins,
00:57:49
the CEO of The Onion, we talked about the importance of not being afraid to stand up against the Trump
00:57:54
administration right now. Let's listen to a clip. the people who have caved since the start of this universities,
00:58:00
news organizations, everybody who who is like, "Okay, sir, what do you need?"
00:58:05
They just kept stepping on them afterwards. They just kept going. >> They did. They did.
00:58:09
>> I'm not going to I'm not going to tell this staff to change what they're doing
00:58:13
>> at all. Like, they are doing uh they're going as hard as they want. Um and if
00:58:17
they come to me with a 50-50 ball, I say go for it. Like, >> and if they come to me with a big idea,
00:58:22
I'm like, "Let's find funding. Let's find a sponsor. Let's find a thing to
00:58:25
that to make sure that this thing can happen. >> And Scott, before we go, we want to hear
00:58:29
one more thing. Let's listen to a voicemail we got. >> Hey there, Carara. I heard the I heard
00:58:38
you talk about the uh message the woman left on your voicemail. Uh what a [ __ ] Really, I mean, you are
00:58:48
fantastic. I'm in love. And if you weren't already married, I would be courting you. So
00:58:55
smart, so ruthless, so truthful, so refreshing. Love you. Love you. Love you, Scott. You are a smartass.
00:59:09
Uh, I can listen to some of the stuff you say and I agree with some of the stuff you say, but honestly, dude,
00:59:16
some of it is just like, o. Anyway, Cara, love you. Scott, you're lucky you're working with this woman.
00:59:25
That's just for me. >> Yeah. So, let me guess who picked that clip. >> No, I love that. That was
00:59:32
>> Look, look at how happy you are. >> Well, because the other woman said,
00:59:36
>> it's like when I It's like when my ex-wife and I decided to get therapy and
00:59:41
my therapist within 10 seconds is like, "You're selfish and have unreasonable
00:59:44
expectations of what marriage is about." And I'm like, "Well, I'm enjoying this.
00:59:47
I'm enjoying this." Oh, that's because Michelle Obama liked you. I just said,
00:59:51
it was very funny. It was a reaction that anyway, thank you for that. >> So, what if I want to have sex with
00:59:55
other women? >> My god. >> I love our listeners. Anyway, we love that.
01:00:02
>> People hate you and love me and some people love you and hate me. It's
01:00:05
perfect. It's great. Some people love us both. >> Something for everybody.
01:00:08
>> Yeah, something for everybody. >> Sweet or savory. >> I enjoy our listeners. Anyway, that's
01:00:13
the show. Thanks for listening to >> how happy you are. Look at you. Look.
01:00:18
Look, look. I've never seen You're giddy. >> You're giddy. You're giddy.
01:00:24
>> Okay. You know what? I was so happy. >> I can't believe you're actually worried
01:00:28
about that. >> Why not? It's like that interesting. >> So many people are in those [ __ ]
01:00:32
files. You had to look. >> I stay home and I watch Euphoria. That's the most sexual experience I have.
01:00:38
>> That's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe
01:00:42
to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday. Scott Reed is out. Today's show is produced by Larara Name
01:00:48
and Zoe Marcus and Taylor Griffin. Ernie or Todd engineered this episode. Rich Shibi edited the video. Thanks also to J
01:00:54
Bros. Miss Vo and Dan Shalon. Nishak Corz Vox Media's executive producer of podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on
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your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the
01:01:04
magazine NYAG.com/pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of
01:01:08
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