00:00:00
When they go to meet with the president, the only thing they repeat over in their heads over and over is don't forget to swallow,
00:00:05
right? But they get what they want.
00:00:13
Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Carara Swisser and Scott
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was late for my birthday. Uh so uh look, this is a big one. 73.
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It's not 73. Um that's you my friend. Uh, I'm much younger than you. I'm much younger than you
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by like two months. I'm much younger than you. Uhhuh. And plus, plus for men, 60 is the new
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40. And for women, 30 is the new 80. Why does that make me happy? Let's talk.
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Happy birthday, Cara. I mean, you literally are the longest serving tech
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journalist. I remember the first interview you did about technology was talking to the guy who invented fire. Um
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that was a good technology. That's good. That was a hell of a good technology. Any we've got a lot to get to day or when you in when you interviewed that
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company the hottest startup uh that had started this thing called electricity, right? Um yeah,
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I got that very What else? What else? Dirt. When I invented When I talked to the guy who invented dirt.
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Now you're so old. You interviewed Zuckerberg back when he had human emotions. He never did. He never did.
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That's pretty good. He never did. So, that's not true. Anyway, we've got a lot to get to today. There is a lot to get to, including
00:01:29
Trump calling affordability a hoax, which is not a good idea. Australia's new social media ban. Uh, so much
00:01:35
there's so much going on. Um, uh, but first, Disney just announced a $1 billion equity investment in Open will
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allow users to make videos with its characters on Sora. Characters available through the deal will include Mickey
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Mouse and Cinderella, as well as Frozen. The agreements do not include any talent likeness or voices. I mean the people
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like the John Cena whoever the different people that are in their movies. Uh Scott, I don't want to know what you
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want to make Mickey Mouse do, but what what do you think of this? This is interesting. And I actually texted Ira. I go, "Look at you, Mr. Tech." And um
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but it it was interesting sort of especially since open air really needs a win right now, which we'll go into in a
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minute. But any thoughts on this? I think it's smart both of them. Um the
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I probably would have well Disney gets to do what it wants but I probably would have gone with Google but and Gemini but
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um I I think it's smart Disney needs some AI tech pixie dust over a company
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that is I mean literally Iger is the guy that decided to volunteer to go back to
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Vietnam and he's he's getting you know he's getting as they say shot shot up everywhere.
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Yeah. his ass fragged is the expression you're looking for. Yeah. Uh instead, he could just be sitting on a beach somewhere heckling
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from the cheap seats about the new CEO facing all this [ __ ] But anyways, he's back. But to do to
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announce this is a great press release for Disney. The IP and the characters are really interesting. It'll be interesting to see what they do.
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I don't know if it amounts to anything. Yeah, I think all these people will be doing these deals, right? Like there's not a media company. I I I thought
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Joanna Stern was funny. She goes, "Look at this hype. Isn't it neat? Wouldn't you think my bubble's complete?" Which
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was cute. There's so many good jokes. What's weird is they they did sort of their what I'll call their tired
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characters. I mean Mickey Mouse and Cinderella. I I sort of get Well, maybe it's because I'm just I've aged out of
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that [ __ ] but No, they're old ones. My kids know Mickey Mouse and they do like Cinderella. Clara likes Cinderella. But
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the the the main characters are the new ones like the Frozen characters or um
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Moana. Yeah, Moana's one. They're they're coming out with live versions of I think
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there's a new Frozen coming out in 2026 and I I think the live version of Moana is coming out. There's there's a trailer
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for it. Um but yeah, and I I Yes. Yes. I would agree with you. I don't think they're picking the most recent
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characters um that kids today like, but they're classics. Right.
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Right. This is this is a this is smart for both of them. I don't know if it's going to amount to anything, but it's a good
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press release. No lawsuits. Yeah. Yeah. It's smart and it it the question
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is or what I would want to know is does it end up being some sort of supporting evidence for why
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Open AI should not be using other characters and identities when they're willing to pay for these ones but not
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others. It just depends on what I would use all like what's the difference? You're in for a dime. You're in for a dollar. People are stealing it anyway. Why not
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have it licensed and get money from it? I don't know. It just seems like look this is inevitable that they're they're
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either going to steal it and one thing that happened with YouTube is it is a you know as it took too long right to do
00:04:44
what is now very lucrative for everybody right and the question is who is it more lucrative for but it's inevitable and so
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I think you know YouTube could have done it sooner and the companies instead of remember Philipe Dowman did the lawsuit
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um they were going to steal it anyway guys so figure out a way you can do a deal with them and I think a lot of them
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including Tik Tok is open to to doing deals with is wanting and open to doing
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deals with these companies and they should as long as they're it protects their it puts you in partnership with
00:05:15
them to get rid of cheaters I guess is yeah I don't know the whole Disney
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I'm not sure it's it's just so unrealistic in in bias against men like Snow White lived in the woods with seven
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men and somehow none of them were somehow none of them were emotionally available. And by the way, the big moral
00:05:34
lesson from Aladdin is that theft is wrong unless you're hot and have a pet monkey with main character energy.
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Do you know when you watch that, they still have the this is a really tasteless movie um warning on it when you watch
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it, which is interesting, like you know, depictions of of Arab figures and stuff like that. Same thing on there's a
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couple of movies like that when I I was just watching. I have to say though, one that you put the older ones up. Clara
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loves Mermaid. She loves Cinderella. She loves Snow White. She likes the new Snow White, the old Snow White. Anyway, um uh
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and you know, Winnie Pooh is the original influencer. He's he's naked, addicted to honey, and lives with a bunch of deeply
00:06:11
dysfunctional woodland friends. Okay. All right. Enough fragging of of poor uh Bob Iger. But speaking of AI,
00:06:18
speaking of fragging, President Trump will allow Nvidia to sell H200 ships to China. Reactions and move are muted,
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actually negative, with Nvidia stocks slightly down. Uh critics warning it could advance Chinese AI capabilities.
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Um gosh, the Wall Street Journal really took him to town on this thing. Um essentially, uh you know, and everybody
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did. Ian Bremer did a whole bunch of people. And the idea is like, look, they're getting all the stuff and Nvidia
00:06:44
is getting getting what it wants. That's it. The American American public doesn't
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benefit in any way from this. Um so it seems like Jezen Wong's, you know,
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fullcourt press of wearing his leather jacket and hanging around Donald Trump and praising him has worked here. this is what he wanted.
00:07:01
Yeah, I'm I'm mixed on this because when we didn't sell them the our chips, it
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feels to me like they got to work on workarounds. Um I I think the policy it's like this
00:07:13
is why we need Gio Reundo back in charge of this [ __ ] because this stuff is not black and white. And I like the idea I
00:07:20
like the idea of slowballing it. And that is giving them enough access to our chips such that they didn't make a
00:07:27
statewide massive investment in innovation of their own. In other words,
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like cable companies would pay content companies just enough such that they could it didn't make sense for them to
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go to other means of distribution but not enough but you know not enough such
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they were more powerful than the distribution players. I would have thought I would have just tried to get every economist in the room and say okay
00:07:51
how how can we give the Chinese just enough chip technology that it grows our economy and our champions but we still
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maintain a lead because when we did embark there was a very solid argument that all you do when you embargo uh
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China from doing this is they come up with workarounds that are really innovative. So the problems I have are
00:08:11
autonomous weapons, supercomputing, military simulations
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and and the problem is with high-end GPUs, it can dramatically reduce the
00:08:23
training time for like combat algorithms and missile targeting and cyber warfare
00:08:29
and drone storms. And the reality is I just don't trust Hegathth
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to get in a room with with our commerce secretary and kind of figure this [ __ ]
00:08:40
out on a thoughtful level. I think essentially Jensen Hong has likely said,
00:08:46
"We're very supportive of you. You're handsome and Nvidia should get involved in your next renovation." And
00:08:52
Right. Exactly. So I I don't unfortunately I I I I dislike this almost as much. is probably
00:09:00
more impactful, but no less or more egregious than Wickoff's kids and the
00:09:07
Trump kids getting money for their shitcoin investment in exchange for us
00:09:12
agreeing to sell chips to the UAE who has not proven that they don't have a leaky boat in terms of sending chip
00:09:20
technology to Russia or China itself. Go ahead. We just don't have thoughtful people figuring out.
00:09:25
Well, this is I have to say the journal was very explicit. President Trump said this week he will let Nvidia sell H sell
00:09:30
its H200 chips to China in return for US Treasury, getting 25% cut of the sales. The Indians struck a better deal when
00:09:37
they sold Manhattan to the Dutch. Why would the president give away one of America's chief technological advantage to an adversary and his chief economic
00:09:44
competitor, and they do say they're going to do it anyway, but uh but uh he said yet now Mr. Trump wants to sell the
00:09:51
advanced H200 without strings. The question is why Nvidia CEO Jensen Wong has lobbied for loosening the
00:09:56
restrictions. The company's friends in the White House argued that doing so could [ __ ] uh could [ __ ] China's
00:10:02
drive to develop competing chips and make its AI developers dependent on US chips. That's their best argument. And
00:10:08
and he it went on to say no this is this is this is really bad on every and what we get is bupkus essentially. Um
00:10:16
it's a great point. We should have at a minimum we should have gotten more. If you look at in the last 5 years it's gone from 17%
00:10:22
of exports to the US to 10%. They have vastly reduced their dependence on us. I
00:10:28
get that. What is asymmetric in the trading relationship with everybody is that China since 2019 has increased its
00:10:37
exports 40%. Correct. That's what they were saying. We got we got more. Yeah. Meanwhile, has only increased their
00:10:44
imports, buying other people's products by 1%. Mhm. So, they've decided we'll sell you
00:10:49
everything. We at a minimum should have extracted a pound of flesh here. that said, "Okay, we're you need to open your
00:10:57
markets for the following things for us, but this is it's and not only that, the
00:11:02
the the waterfall effect. Huawei will be a much more competitive product and they make great products." And this
00:11:08
is the last line. We sure hope Mr. Trump isn't doing this for the Nvidia's 25% tax payments to Treasury. The
00:11:14
Constitution vests taxing power in Congress, yet Mr. Trump is essentially trading national security for pennies on
00:11:20
the dollar. So, I would agree. He's gotten nothing for this. Even with the H20 chips, we got some rare earth
00:11:26
minerals. Um, I think at the time, uh, they they he said the administration agreed, but they they put more
00:11:33
restrictions in October. So, just this is stupid. We're He's the worst dealmaker in in America. Anyway,
00:11:41
we gave a strategic competitor AI progress, stronger military capability,
00:11:47
um, likely a more kind of self-sufficient or innovative tech ecosystem while exposing all of our own
00:11:54
firms to regulatory, geopolitical and long-term competitive risk. And in exchange, you know, what we got was
00:12:01
Nvidia stocks going to go up, right? And 25 whatever. you know, it's just it's Jensen Wong is the most, and I
00:12:08
mean this in a as a compliment, manipulative CEO there is. Um, and he gets what he wants and it's all good for
00:12:15
Nvidia, but I hate to say this, but Jensen and Ted Sarandos
00:12:21
and all these guys who uh when they go to meet with the president, the only
00:12:27
thing they repeat over in their heads over and over is don't forget to swallow. Right? These guys are the most obsequous
00:12:34
but they get what they want and but that's their I hate to say that's their job. They were there yesterday and
00:12:39
it's our job to elect people who will yesterday but Fed head dead head Fed
00:12:45
dead whatever he's losing his mind. All right. Um speaking of losing your mind uh Trump says it's imperative that CNN
00:12:52
be sold in Warner Brothers deal. President is not supposed to say things like this but of course what whatever it's this one. Conveniently, David
00:12:58
Ellison has reportedly told Trump officials the Paramount wins out. He'll make sweeping changes at CNN. What a
00:13:04
what a cuck he is. Although Trump got a little testy with the Ellison's this week, lashing out on Truth Social after
00:13:09
60 Minutes ran an interview with Marjorie Taylor Green. Meanwhile, Ellison has been pitching Warner shareholders directly got apparently
00:13:16
Mario Gabelli interested trying to tender their shares. Um I have I feel
00:13:21
like I've talked to a lot of people here all this week and you know money is going to win out here but the kind like
00:13:28
people would have lost their minds if there and this was in the Wall Street Journal also that he has told them he
00:13:33
will you know he will change CNN as part of the deal um when one of Oliver Darcy
00:13:39
told me when he tried and he wrote when he tried to get a comment they didn't they're like what are you talking about
00:13:44
like they didn't even deny it that they were doing that making this paper you know we'll we'll stop seeing and for
00:13:50
being so mean to you, Mr. President, if you give us thing, that would have been a four alarm journalistic fire at any
00:13:56
other time. Um, not with these. Well, imagine if Obama had said that when Fox was trying to merge with Disney
00:14:02
or whatever it was. Exactly. Like just it I'm not even going to imagine it. It's bad. It's bad now.
00:14:07
It's bad then. It's bad all the time. I mean, again, it sort of absolutely puts solidifies I'm walking right out of
00:14:14
there the day they get there. Like, I'm walk there's no way I'm working for these terrible people. But um and I've
00:14:19
said I said that on an interview with Rachel Matto because she was asking me um but but money let's go to the deal
00:14:25
what regardless of what they do with CNN and what they're doing is heinous. What they're considering doing is heinous. Um
00:14:32
the money wins out here. It's the it's if they go up to 34 I understand they will get this. They will get this.
00:14:39
Yeah. We had I thought we had a really productive conversation around this. And the way this is supposed to work is that
00:14:46
the one with the most money wins. At least initially. At least initially. It's meant to be a compet. It doesn't
00:14:52
[ __ ] matter what the president thinks or it shouldn't matter. And quite frankly, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what podcast who
00:14:57
podcasters think would be quote unquote better owners. The person that shows up with the biggest check in capitalism in
00:15:03
a single class shareholder company, which this is, gets the prize. And then
00:15:09
subject to the following. regulators bring in economists and and
00:15:14
econometrics experts and consumer behavior experts and they try and discern whether or not the very valid
00:15:21
argument you made that this is in fact one big market for eyeballs or if it's a
00:15:26
distinct market because it's original content creation and a subscriber model and they make a call around whether or
00:15:33
not this will reduce competition and leak value and leverage from consumers
00:15:38
and labor to the shareholders of the consolid validated ecosystem or not. And
00:15:44
then and then it goes through an additional I think it's called I I I
00:15:49
used to do this for a living and then it goes through something called a I think it's called a CPHAS review that says all right
00:15:54
they're just under they just made it so they're just under just so you know. Go ahead. They're just under
00:16:00
all the Middle East countries in this deal. What they did is they manipulated so that these numbers that it doesn't
00:16:05
have to go through a copious review. The bottom line is there should be a national security review that says
00:16:12
there's not going to be because the way they designed it. Well, I know, but I'm talking about what should happen. Correct. Look, what what what will happen is totally like upper
00:16:18
grabs in a corrupt kleptocracy. That is a mix between is a mix between 60s East Germany, 30s
00:16:26
Germany. A kleptocracy and a cacistocracy pickery that just [ __ ] stupid or evil. But the way it should
00:16:33
work is biggest check wins initially. Then it goes under antitrust review by thoughtful people to figure out if it's
00:16:39
going to reduce competition and harm consumers and labor. And then it should go under national security review. And let me be let me be clear. I actually
00:16:47
don't think raising money out of the Gulf for an acquisition like this I don't perceive that as a threat.
00:16:52
Oh, come on. It's media. They we lost our minds when Okay, go ahead. Go ahead. I I was the largest shareholder on the
00:17:00
board of the New York Times. I got to meet with the editorial board once and couldn't say anything and had absolutely
00:17:06
no influence over the editorial product there and I had two seats on the board. Right. So, and also we have to keep in mind
00:17:14
that the all the money right now is in the Gulf and if we want access to our capital for our companies to create more
00:17:19
competition and more tax revenue at some point we need to access that capital.
00:17:25
Having said that, I would like a review by people much smarter than me to go this is why it's a risk to our free
00:17:31
speech and they will have undue influence or someone go you know if you put these safeguards in place it's just
00:17:36
a cheap source of capital. My point is there are there are people who do this
00:17:41
for a living and are really good at this and should be part of a review. Instead, it's based on the blood sugar level and
00:17:47
the opinion unfortunately of the president who gives him money and what
00:17:52
what TV anchor or podcast he listened to most recently. This is there we have
00:17:58
institutions and and experts and let me use the word which has become a dirty word. We have experts for a reason.
00:18:04
All right, let me let me interject here. First of all, they're do they're designing it. So, they also had 10 cent
00:18:09
in here until they were replaced. But 10 cent was he had to come out. They knew that I'm sorry. Go ahead.
00:18:15
First of all, they hid the idea of the of they didn't hide it, but they put it on the la one of the last pages of the
00:18:20
Saudis and the others were involved. Secondly, they added Jared Kushner just to put an icing on this shitty cake.
00:18:27
Thirdly, they had 10 cent in there and then they didn't. I mean, this is how they're thinking, right? And honestly, I
00:18:33
want to know, Larry, if you're so [ __ ] rich, why don't you just pay for it? If you believe in this so much, you're an American. It's it's an
00:18:39
American media company. Why do you need their money? I get why you would get it. I'm not I'm not unsophisticated. But
00:18:45
here's what it does. There's a woman Gail Slater at antitrust. She's well regarded. He he has now put her in such
00:18:51
a [ __ ] jam like she can't do her job. Um because now she's sucked up into
00:18:56
politics versus doing a real antirust look at this, right? As we talked about, which is streaming prices, where's the
00:19:02
market, etc. That's an issue. It has also put the CPHAS people in in a jam
00:19:08
because they can't look at this, which is their job. And by the way, I don't even trust them anymore given all the the yutzes and yahoos. They put a person
00:19:15
in charge of FEMA that was an election denialist, like a really severe one as opposed to just a sort of casual garden
00:19:22
variety um election denier. Um it's just they're putting incompetence and loyalists in place and nobody's going to
00:19:29
be able to do their job here because of what Trump is doing and how he has been staffing his administration and how he's
00:19:37
what the only thing that I find amusing is that he's not sort of just giving into the Ellison's. He's making them beg
00:19:42
for it essentially by kissing up to Ted Sarandos. Now the question is will Netflix raise its price? Will it say do
00:19:50
an allcash deal, go to 30 and then have that stub of a company which is the CNN
00:19:55
and the cables. The question is whether Netflix will will what but what but Bill Cohen had talked to me about and he's
00:20:02
written about is they go to 30 and then the question is what's the value of that stub? Ellison's are valuing it at a
00:20:08
dollar or a little more than a dollar and others like pretty well-known analysts are valuing it at anywhere from
00:20:15
three to $5. And so that makes their deal higher than the Ellison's. But what
00:20:21
if the Ellison's just go to 34 cash? There's, you know, that's the whole situation. I think most of the ARBs just
00:20:27
want the money and move along, right? Presumably. They're This is like the venture capital
00:20:33
community. Whoever comes up with two cents more, I'll make out with my cousin. You didn't make out with your cousin, did you?
00:20:38
I did. And you know what? He's a very good kisser. Snow White asked for an AI for relationship advice.
00:20:44
Yeah. and it responded, "Maybe don't move in with seven dudes from Craigslist next time." Um, very like that one.
00:20:50
Yeah. Okay. I don't This is why this is why two-thirds of
00:20:56
murders don't work and it's playing out here, right? will ring our hands, but about
00:21:01
about antitrust, about someone in the Gulf having undue influence over CNN,
00:21:06
around the Ellison's getting their nose so far up Trump's ass that they'll they'll guarantee that they'll just
00:21:13
start filling CNN with Tucker Carlson on on 24-hour loop or something.
00:21:19
But this is why this acquisition will most likely fail from a shareholder perspective. And that is one you have a
00:21:25
tend we have a tendency as an acquirer to overestimate synergies underestimate
00:21:30
cultural impact and three more than anything testosterone gets involved and that is I
00:21:36
can guarantee you that when all of these companies were looking at this this is a company that was trading at nine bucks a
00:21:42
share recently seven I thought was it down at seven or that all of these guys said okay scarce
00:21:48
assets one of a kind properties we don't want this in the hands of competitors
00:21:53
Wow, this is an opportunity to consolidate the streaming market in Netflix. Wow, we really need this to
00:21:58
bulk up Paramount. We could do great things with the cable and the streaming Comcast and we need something to
00:22:04
reignite grow. They all came up with really strong strategic reasons to stretch to all right if we could get
00:22:11
this for 19 maybe 20, we can't go any higher than the initial offer from David
00:22:17
Ellison, right? We can't go any higher than 24. And this is what happens, right? testosterone takes over.
00:22:23
It is. It's psych like we're only a couple bucks away from being king and taking the ultimate
00:22:29
victory lap and pulling if Ellison mass if he massively overpays for this thing.
00:22:35
Yeah. Every business cover will be the winner. The winner. Yeah. Yeah. K time Warner
00:22:41
with Ted Turner and Steve Case. Yeah. BK. Yeah. The winner. What a deal of the century. And Steve Caseas is
00:22:47
they're like, "Oh my god, I just sold this guy a bag of shit." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what David Zazzle was
00:22:52
thinking. But these guys have already I can promise you they have already blown way
00:22:57
beyond a price. They never ever they can't make it work. They cannot it's just a rich it's a yacht. Like it's
00:23:03
a yacht that's leaking and that's what he's bought. I mean the problem is but but if you just on on the face of it in
00:23:10
terms of synergies Comcast or Netflix are the better buyers. They have all like Netflix could blow out Game of
00:23:15
Thrones. They could blow out. They have the world, you know, the worldwide distribution network. They they they
00:23:20
could do a lot with this and they don't Well, and they're shopping with with with with expensive stock. Their credit card is fully loaded.
00:23:26
Exactly. Right. Well, not as expensive it was, but um they were the best owner between these two by every single
00:23:33
metric. They're the better owner. And I know better. Do you mean in terms of synergy? What do you mean? Synergy, how it works, what they're
00:23:38
they're not going to do as many layoffs. They ab and the only thing CBS this whole gang can do is is put together
00:23:45
like uh problematic assets and they don't have a plan for doing anything
00:23:51
else. I mean the only thing that's happening is I mean as I've said before
00:23:56
David Ellison is is a very nice guy but he's monumentally unqualified to do this. That hasn't stopped him but he is
00:24:03
the oldest boy with daddy's backing and and and that's a prescription for a bad
00:24:08
murder. Okay. Also, I don't think his movies made so much money. Okay. And and and Sazlov's going to walk
00:24:14
away with a billion dollars for destroying value. I mean, we can make a big and speaking of winner
00:24:20
and Netflix is in my view, who I love is is going to basically endgame
00:24:28
streaming and prices are going to go up. I think you can make an But here's the thing. It it we don't get to decide who
00:24:35
would be qualitatively the best owner or the worst, right? Uh, the guy who runs AT&T is a
00:24:40
really smart, nice man. I like him a lot. He was probably the wrong owner for CNN.
00:24:46
Yep, I agree. But he showed up with the biggest check. So Jeff Buucas said, "Congrats. It's yours."
00:24:51
That guy smart. Another smart guy. He got out when the getting's good. Okay, hold on. Just to pause there,
00:24:56
but he did call Netflix the Albanians. Let's not let him forget that one. He made He made a one-s sentence stupid
00:25:02
remark that's haunted him the rest of his life. It's a really bad one. But let me but okay. But that is dwarfed by
00:25:08
guess who decided to sell magazines at their peak. He did. Guess who decided to sell the cable part
00:25:14
of his company at the peak. And by the way, guess who decided to sell the assets of of Time of Time Warner at
00:25:21
their peak. Jeff [ __ ] Bucasian CEOs. This is where CEOs
00:25:28
where they're and I'm going to differentiate between men and women. I don't think Ruth Pat I I think women are different than men and it's okay as long
00:25:33
as you sanctify women and call all men predators and idiots. But I think on a certain level you would have to
00:25:39
acknowledge if Ruth Pat was running these companies. There's no [ __ ] way she'd be at $34 a share.
00:25:45
She'd be she'd be like, "Okay, I don't need to have the biggest dick and win this thing. I'm here for shareholders."
00:25:50
Yeah. And the thing that CEOs are really not good at, but they get all jonesed up
00:25:56
about getting bigger and bigger and bigger. the guy who ran BFA just kept acquiring everything and destroyed a ton of
00:26:02
shareholder value. What CEOs are not good at, going back to my I'm going to pat myself on the back. I
00:26:08
remember saying to Arthur Soulsburg and the New York, I'm like, "Why the [ __ ] aren't we selling about.com? This is [ __ ] This is a [ __ ] business. We could
00:26:13
sell it for a billion dollars right now, but they wanted to accessorize an analog outfit with digital earrings, right?
00:26:20
CEOs are terrible at selling assets." Why don't you give then David Zassop the
00:26:25
same hand job you're giving Jeff Pucas here? Just curious. Uh, oh, David David's doing his job, but
00:26:33
but but Jeff Buucis Mhm. you know, who probably made a hundred or $200 million, made billions for
00:26:40
shareholders. Zazz has has basically said, "You [ __ ] up
00:26:45
investing in my company. You should invest in the S&P. I'm barely going to get you your money back, but by the way, I'm going to walk off with a billion
00:26:51
dollars." Yeah, you're right. That's he's barely getting if M if Musk creates $7 trillion in
00:26:57
incremental shareholder value at Tesla. I've said this on the record. I'm okay with him getting a trillion dollars. If
00:27:03
BUA Mickey Drex I remember when Mickey Drexler made a billion dollars at the gap and there was all this is in the
00:27:09
'90s and there was all this like halaloo and I'm like he's added 14 billion in shareholder value. I agree. The problem
00:27:15
with Zazlock or Marissa or Marissa Mayor or Adam Newman is they walk off with
00:27:21
hundreds of millions or billions for destroying shareholder value. 10x it. Yeah, you're right. No, I go.
00:27:26
Okay, we'll see where this goes. But I'll tell you what goes out the door. Thank you. That is my speech. Um, by the
00:27:32
way, somehow I don't think that's entered the discussion. You know what? I'm going to I'm just going to loudly insult them the whole
00:27:38
time until they fire me. Um, but I don't think they're going to fire you. I think I know I'm actually the person they want to keep, which is the worst part, but
00:27:44
I'm not going to. Okay, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, the Trump administration's plan to use social media to gatekeep foreign
00:27:50
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00:29:00
Scott, we're back with more news. This one, I just can't believe this. The Trump administration wants to review foreign visitors social media history.
00:29:06
This is ahead of the the World Cup coming here. The plan would apply to citizens of 42 countries that are allowed visa-free travel to the US. The
00:29:13
list of countries includes the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and Germany. The proposal is not yet final, and the US Customs and Border Protection says it
00:29:19
will accept 60 days of comments. I mean, are you [ __ ] kidding me? in the free
00:29:25
speech nation. Um, and and as you said, our the numbers on visitors have
00:29:31
declined so precipitously and has sort of hollowed out. I I can't believe they're even considering looking at
00:29:37
people's social media. Like, what do you [ __ ] care if you think Marco Rubio is [ __ ] which I do and I will say on
00:29:44
social media. Um, this is insane from a business point of view. Correct.
00:29:50
like this obsession with manufacturing where 80% of Americans think we need
00:29:56
more manufacturing but only 20% of Americans have any interest in being in manufacturing. You can't take your dog
00:30:02
to the factory floor. People don't want the for the most part people don't want to be in manufacturing. this obsession
00:30:08
with manufacturing and we do need a certain level of a manufacturing base but it needs to be advanced manufacturing high margin
00:30:15
but the obsession is coming at the cost of an even better higher margin industry
00:30:21
and that is the tourism business it's insane and so and I just so people can fill up
00:30:26
our comments with calling me a fascist or a weirdo or whatever well that's every Tuesday but go ahead
00:30:32
there you go I do believe if you are applying to come here and be a citizen or get a a visa or green card. I think
00:30:39
everything is open game because what and and young people, let's be clear, when
00:30:45
you get a job at Goldman Sachs, before you get the offer or you apply for a job, you know what they do? They look at your social media and if they think
00:30:52
you're an idiot that is going to embarrass them and you're you're saying misogynistic things or you're out just
00:31:00
rubbing your wealth in people's face or doing shots or acting like a total [ __ ] guess what? they will not give
00:31:06
you a job. They also run credit checks on you. So I I there's a difference
00:31:12
between on cut a call tourism where we benefit Vegas is dying and amongst there
00:31:17
are two reasons Vegas is dying or a lot of reasons but one of them is we've now moved we put Vegas in everyone's pocket
00:31:23
but also online betting Canadians were a huge source of of revenue for for Vegas. They're
00:31:30
out. They're like [ __ ] you. Mhm. You're going to treat us like [ __ ] and take 70% of our exports, which go to
00:31:36
you, and start playing being reckless with our economic wellbeing. Yeah, we're done. Yeah.
00:31:41
So, this is yet another reason. But what what who would even think of this? This is like where's, by the way,
00:31:47
we the first which is what we're becoming. Literally, the first [ __ ] amendment,
00:31:52
it says you can say whatever you think. Like, you know, he also tweeted that if you he's apparently incandescent over
00:32:00
time. The first amendment I'm sorry. Go ahead. They should be able to say anything they want about the United States of America
00:32:06
on social media. Period. Period. Full stop. Okay. But but do we have an obligation to let them in? I
00:32:12
Yes. Yes, we do. It's just words. That's just words. They're not like I'm asking this to learn, not to make a
00:32:19
comment. Does the First Amendment apply to people coming in temporarily for I don't care. It applies to our whole
00:32:24
ethos. Like if you want to to to keep people out there. I'm I'm I'm coming to New York and then
00:32:29
I'm going to commit a terrorist attack against I'm not committing a terrorist attack saying Donald Trump is an orange Nazi.
00:32:36
Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Okay. I'm I'm Hi. I'm coming into the US. Why
00:32:41
are you here? Well, it says on social media that you are about to activate a terrorist cell and commit acts of terror
00:32:49
while you were here on US soil. You think that's first amendment free speech? It No, because that's not what it's about. It's they're going to review their
00:32:55
foreign visitors. So, so the only reason I'm pairing this together is because he was incandescent over a New York Times
00:33:01
piece. He is according to White House people that I talked to, he's like lost his mind where the New York Times basically said he's old and probably,
00:33:07
you know, essentially has frontal lobe dementia, which I think we all can all after the performance of the last two days.
00:33:13
You're going a bit off script here, but this is what he said. Anyone who says I'm sick is a traitor and could be tried
00:33:20
for sedition essentially is what he said. Agree. Words words don't count. And I I just I
00:33:27
look if it's different, Cara. No. No. If they come in and they have threatened us on social media, then we
00:33:32
stop them. We look through their bags. We say we're going to follow them all. We still let them in. I'm sorry. It's
00:33:38
just words. It's like, what if it's a teenager doing it? What if it's some grandma, German grandma? We can make
00:33:44
those judgment calls, but I don't think I don't think everyone I don't I don't think everyone anyone I don't think
00:33:50
Americans have a birthight to live in New York. If it's too expensive, you leave. I don't think people have a
00:33:55
birthight to just throw up their arm, unfortunately, and say asylum and gain entry into the US. And I don't think
00:34:00
it's people's birthight to come in for whatever reason if they have a history and statements that's appear to be a
00:34:06
threat and are going to cost us more energy and money to track these people because we perceive they're a real threat. Having said that, I I I think
00:34:13
the bar has to be pretty [ __ ] low to gain entry to come in and spend money. And if you've said some anti-American
00:34:20
things on your social media, okay, we should be able to assess how serious a threat it is. And the bar needs to be, I
00:34:27
don't know, really high or really low. But if you've said some anti-American things, that's probably 70% of anyone who has a social media account. And the
00:34:34
economic benefit and the brand America, when people come to America, guess what? They have a really good time and they
00:34:40
like us and they find out on the whole people who are Republicans and Democrats are pretty decent people and then they
00:34:46
go back and say, "Hey, maybe someday let's go back to Disney or if our kid wants to go to college in the US or if a
00:34:53
US company comes here, maybe I'll do business with them." We have a vested economic and strategic and military
00:34:58
interest vested interest in letting people come and see how wonderful America is. But I think what you were doing was a
00:35:03
very edge case of a thing. They already were were aware of those people. someone who calls Morren Schler, come on in.
00:35:10
Like, who cares? Like, who the [ __ ] cares? And they don't need to investigate that person. If they don't have a history or record of crime, which
00:35:18
they already know before, by the way, they know the the bad people that come in for the most part. It's not a secret.
00:35:24
It's not some grandma from Germany. Like, give me a break. I mean, it's it's only one step to what he was saying very
00:35:31
explicitly. If you say I'm old and sick, you're a traitor. You're a trader. Guess what? You're old and you're sick. and I think you have
00:35:37
pre, you know, frontal dement lobe dementia. I come and get me. I don't
00:35:42
know what else to say. Anyway, speaking of which, President Trump kicked off a series of really unusual speeches for
00:35:49
him even because he seemed rather low energy and meandering intended to ease
00:35:54
the cost of living concerns by mocking affordability. Let's listen to a clip of the speech in Pennsylvania this week.
00:36:00
But they have a new word. You know, they always have a hoax. The new word is affordability.
00:36:06
So they look at the camera and they say, "This election is all about affordability."
00:36:13
Now they never talk about it. Yeah, they're talking about it now, sir. Um he got distracted by some of the
00:36:18
crowd telling him to run for four more years. During the speech also suggested marriage should buy less pencils and dolls from overseas. That's an old trope
00:36:25
he was doing. Um he was quite I mean I don't think he has Alzheimer's. I think
00:36:31
he has this frontal look cuz you get more aggressive and more fanciful with that one. Alzheimer's is a forgetting
00:36:38
disease really. Um but this idea of you can get your dolls elsewhere, buy less
00:36:44
pencils. Um nobody cares about affordability. They must be they must be
00:36:49
beside themselves in the White House that he's doing this. He ran on affordability. Um and 57% of
00:36:56
voters ability sorry 57% of voters in uh agree that Trump was
00:37:02
losing the battle against inflation. 68% believe that the economy is poor very poor. And according to a recent
00:37:07
political poll um get this 27 percent of respondents
00:37:14
have skipped a medical checkup because of the costs because of costs of uh accelerating in the last two years. A
00:37:20
quarter have skipped a prescription. A third said they could not afford to attend a professional sports event with
00:37:26
their family or friends. And almost half said they can't pay for a vacation that involves air travel. I mean, this is the
00:37:33
problem. Neither Democrats or Republicans want to have a serious [ __ ] conversation around affordability. Republicans want a
00:37:38
tariff. Democrats want to throw money at people and just say, "We'll we'll shortterm solve your problem." The
00:37:44
structural the structural answers to inflation and affordability are really boring. and the American public doesn't
00:37:50
seem to want to elect people who are willing to have these conversations. The things that drive inflation, you you
00:37:55
start with the [ __ ] that drives the CPI. 40% unfortunately of middle- inome homes
00:38:00
now is going towards housing. We need and you've said this, we need a massive increase in housing. The next biggest cost in terms of
00:38:07
conseleration, the two and three are education and health care. We need national medicine or socialized medicine and we
00:38:13
need tuition caps based on income of the household. But no one wants to talk about and we
00:38:18
need massive antitrust. Well, it's also it's also food though, Scott. I mean, I was noticing and I have
00:38:24
I I I have plenty of money to buy food, but I was in a store the other day and the the the
00:38:31
the the chicken sandwich was $8 and Amanda saw one too. $8 like for just a
00:38:37
basic chicken and I was like that's like less more than minimum wage. Like everything like even the most basic
00:38:43
stuff is more than minimum wage. And I I I don't know. I don't pay attention to prices as much as I should. Sometimes I
00:38:50
do, sometimes I don't. But boy, do you notice them now because you're like, okay, but the question is I
00:38:56
you're saying what everyone will agree with, right? And that is the rent is too damn high. You know, remember that mayoral
00:39:02
candidate? We all agree. The question is what do we do about it? And the answer is, in my view, if you're
00:39:08
talking about a chicken sandwich, there are three companies controlling the majority of the poultry market. There are too few uh grocerers and too much
00:39:16
regulation and too and too much red tape that increases the cost of of grocery
00:39:23
prices. You need more competition. There are literally seven food companies responsible for the vast majority of our
00:39:29
food products right now. We need we need dramatically more. But but from a marketing point of view,
00:39:35
him making fun of it, I don't even understand what the theory is here except that he has frontal lobe
00:39:41
dementia. I don't know what else he could say. See, I don't I don't I I don't think it's fair to say he has dementia or Alzheimer. What I think it's fair to say
00:39:47
is he suffers from an ailment that is very obvious and is true. He suffers from 79.
00:39:53
And we just should not have a person with their finger on the button trying to figure out tariff policy, trying to
00:39:58
figure out, you know, our relationship with the CCP and what chips should go and the threat they present long term.
00:40:05
What do you think of him doing this trying to make it not a thing? It's it's
00:40:10
pillared for much less by totally totally ineffective and I'm glad he's doing it because I think it plays
00:40:15
into our hands. But at some point the counter to that can't be just what a [ __ ] idiot is. Okay, agreed. It's all
00:40:23
right. Affordability requires an adult conversation and long-term structural solutions. Are we ready for an adult
00:40:28
conversation around housing, medical care, tuition costs, and antitrust? and although I don't think mocking is about
00:40:34
where the Democrats having this conversation outside of Senator Clolobashar who's actually having this conversation for Democrats who I have on
00:40:41
raging moderates I'll say the same thing this is an important conversation that we need to have at the right moment but
00:40:46
right now let's make sure we get the you know ACA subsidies all right I get it well that's a cost like you're like I
00:40:54
you don't buy insurance but mine is going to go up quite a bit like and it was it was remar it was like what could
00:41:00
it go up to and it wasn't agree it's insane it 40% of American households have medical or dental debt
00:41:06
but okay so we we have a series of band-aid ideas but no one wants to talk
00:41:13
about a structural reform in healthcare because the healthcare industrial complex is the biggest donor to PAX I
00:41:20
just gave a bunch of money to a young woman who just announced her campaign for Senate and her well pretty easy to
00:41:28
figure out Jasmine Crockett okay yeah I saw you online you were like call me Jasmine Yeah, I am literally like watching my
00:41:34
parents argue. I love Taller Rico and I love Jasmine Crockett. Anyways,
00:41:39
should we invite both of them to South by Southwest to be on stage with us for our Oh, I would love that. Let's try that.
00:41:45
Jasmine, I think they're James, we'd like to have you both on stage. I think I think they're both outstanding. Breaks my heart. They're
00:41:51
running against each other. Anyways, but I heard from someone on our staff saying, "We'll try and find time
00:41:56
for you to meet with the representative." I'm like, "No, people people with my demographic have way too
00:42:02
much [ __ ] influence already. I am sending this money with one directive. Keep keep it on, girl.
00:42:09
Just keep doing what you're doing." I would like to see her slap you back to last Sunday as my own entertainment.
00:42:14
Anyway, that's what you're here for at 73. She would totally take her. Her announcement video was great. I like
00:42:20
him, too. I love her announcement video, too. She's getting worried. People are worried about fighting each other. I
00:42:25
don't I think that's fine. Everyone's like, "Oh, we've blown this out." I'm like, "No, we have more hot young people like Terico, who
00:42:30
by the way follows Instagram models, which I love." Which I love. I love a guy who talks about Jesus and then is
00:42:36
following. You know, Emily Ratakowski did ask about him. Anyway, let's go on a quick break.
00:42:42
You know, I expose myself and you jab. You play with my emotions. I got so much dopa when you said you
00:42:48
know Emily Ratakowski and I was waiting for the end to say that she DMs about you. So, when we come back, we'll talk
00:42:54
about Australia's new social media ban for teens. Scott, we're back. It might be time for us to move down under.
00:42:59
Australia's become the first country in the world to ban kids under 16 from using social media. Instagram, Tik Tok,
00:43:05
Snapchat, Reddit, and several other platforms face fines of up to $33 million if they don't take reasonable
00:43:10
steps to remove underage users. Of course, Aussie teens are already finding workarounds. Of course, they are creating accounts with fake ages, using
00:43:16
less popular apps, and even taking the government to court. Fine, well, and good. That's what that's what teens are there for. And here in the US, a Florida
00:43:23
law banning social media accounts for kids under 14 is uh going into effect after surviving a court challenge. I got
00:43:29
to say I agree with that idiot. Remember him down in Florida the Santaas on this. This works. Will the rest of the world
00:43:35
follow? Now just for let me just say we give Facebook and Meta a hard time. And by the way, they are not keeping young
00:43:41
people safe. No matter what they say. Um Tim Cook was on Capitol Hill this week lobbying against legislation that
00:43:47
requires platforms to authenticate um users age pushing instead to uh put the
00:43:52
burden on parents. You know that both Meta and they are arguing of who's responsible. I think they're both
00:43:58
responsible the whether the phones are or the uh social media sites but putting
00:44:03
it on parents when they make these products is just not is just I I find
00:44:09
really shameful for Tim Cook to do. But I know why he's doing it. I just find it shameful. Go ahead.
00:44:16
We just gave back in one move or I should say the Australian government and their leadership just gave back. This
00:44:22
was the most generous accreative gift to kids likely in Australian history.
00:44:29
uh their time with their friends, their self-esteem, their time outside, their time playing
00:44:36
sports, their time with their parents, their ability to navigate relationship and parent in person, their ability to
00:44:42
focus on their schoolwork, their test scores. The the Australian government just gave back more childhood to
00:44:50
children than any single legislation I think passed in the West in the last decade. And and I I just want to call
00:44:58
out I think the most influential scholar in the world right now is my colleague Jonathan height. I just don't think this would have happened without his book the
00:45:04
ancient generation. It might have might have happened but it wouldn't h have happened as soon and I hope that it
00:45:10
ignites an absolute firestorm of and they say well it's about parenting. Oh
00:45:15
[ __ ] you Tim Cook. Do you think it's parenting that that bars should be able to serve my kid alcohol
00:45:23
and that it's up to me to make sure that he never gets access to some of your respons by the way Tim Cook
00:45:28
doesn't have children so they don't have the difficulty of okay and here's the problem parenting
00:45:33
okay you don't have children when you say that yeah you don't unless it's a collective
00:45:38
action unless every 15year-old is off snap you move in with parenting and you
00:45:44
manage to figure out a way to use custodia or custodial and get them off SNAP. And guess what? They're more
00:45:49
depressed as my other colleague Adam Malta did research around this because they're ostracized because they're the
00:45:55
only ones not on SNAP. So unless this is collective action through legislation, and this is my favorite argument from
00:46:02
Meta that they're violating their First Amendment rights, you know what a 14-year-old doesn't need to know? We don't need to know what a 14-year-old
00:46:08
thinks about mRNA vaccines. I'm sorry. Uh this is such an insane argument that
00:46:13
it's that they're worried about the free speech. And they say this is nothing but the following. This is Joe Camel. It was
00:46:21
shown that the tobacco industry had a series of cartoon-like characters to try and incorporate new people into their addiction which would continue to kill
00:46:28
our sisters and our brothers and our our mothers. And they said, "Sorry, you
00:46:34
don't get to feed the pipeline with cartoon-like characters. Nor should social media at a minimum be allowed to
00:46:40
spread this depression, this disassociation and this sequestration from life and family. My fear I would
00:46:48
love to think this ignites similar bands around the world. I I'm hopeful it does but the problem is in America we are
00:46:55
fall under this delusion that we are democracy. We're not. We have a passive majority that is weaponized and
00:47:01
influenced by a very activated, sophisticated, well-funded special interest groups. Yes.
00:47:06
And the special interest group around tech, take it, sister. Well, the special interest group around tech is only second to the health
00:47:13
industrial complex in terms of money and maybe number one right now because the entire economy and the Trump
00:47:18
administration is making a big bet on AI. So these people have so much [ __ ] I
00:47:24
we have minority rules. areas that are the worst for Americans, healthcare and social media among the worst
00:47:31
biggest biggest lobbyists that it's in their let me just say I agree parents
00:47:37
should get off their phones when they're in front of their kids they should do more be more present with kids
00:47:42
absolutely they should be more interested in what they're doing online but it is incred
00:47:48
it's too hard to use and it's not your fault parents this is made I have a hard time monitoring the I had a hard time
00:47:55
monitoring these things, but I did it. But it was very it was very difficult and the tools suck. So, this is their
00:48:04
responsibility to to make it so. Put warning labels on these things. Explain
00:48:09
this to kids. And and again, I agree parents should not be on their phone. Like you have to sort of, you know, uh
00:48:16
pattern map for kids on stuff like that. Ignoring them and looking at your phones is one of those things. Um and so there
00:48:23
is a parental obligation here but for the most part that this is the is on
00:48:28
them all of them and it's really repulsive that all these companies have constantly abregated their
00:48:35
responsibilities of their shoddy products no matter how you do it and they are able to do it and I know they
00:48:40
put in all this what if finding people privacy I don't care figure it out you're smart people so and you're making
00:48:46
a ton of money so I'm sure you could spend well just let's talk about to finish but go ahead go ahead All right. So, Instagram earned $4
00:48:53
billion this year from teens aed 13 to 17. They make
00:48:58
platforms are going to earn about 13 billion from kids under 18 in 2022, which translates to about, I don't know,
00:49:05
somewhere between a hundred billion and a quart of a trillion dollars. So, what do you know? They're worried about their First Amendment rights. Uh 53% of
00:49:11
children now own a smartphone by age 11. That has doubled since 2015. Threearters
00:49:17
of children aged 2 to five engage with YouTube regularly and teens spend 5 hours a day on social media.
00:49:25
Where do you think that 5 hours has come from? About 35% of their waking hours outside of school and agegating. Guess
00:49:32
what folks? We agegate bars and restaurants serving alcohol, convenience stores, gas stations, smoke shops,
00:49:38
tobacco, cannabis dispens. Casinos, sports books, the DMV, online
00:49:45
gambling sites, pornography, firearm retailers. Can Australia run the US? Yes. I would like firearms. They have a
00:49:52
super return fund for for invest. They go out into the they go out to
00:49:58
By the way, I'm going there. I tell I'm going there. I'm going there for the holidays. Oh, nice. So you'll love it. Lizard
00:50:03
Island, Great Bar this year. Super excited. I'm going for my nephews. My nephew lives there. I'm going for his wedding next year.
00:50:09
All right. We love to up me. You always have I'm just going to Sydney for a great New Year's party.
00:50:14
You're going to have a great time. It's a wonderful place. I love Australia. They've got myriad of problems, but lot
00:50:20
of other problems. But I got to say this was a winner for these people. All right, Scott. One more quick break.
00:50:25
We'll be right back. Okay, Scott. We're going to do something a little different today. Time just announced its person of
00:50:30
the year, which everyone thought it would be the architects of AI for 2025. The cover shows Mark Zuckerberg, Elon
00:50:35
Musk, Sam Alman, Jensen Wong, uh, Faith Fagley, and a few others. Um, let me ask
00:50:41
you, who would you have picked as the time person thing of the year?
00:50:49
And I will tell you, I really haven't thought about I mean, I can tell you who I'd like. My I would have loved if they picked Mackenzie
00:50:55
Bezos for a new type of giving. Um, excellent choice. There you go. Uh, I like
00:51:01
seven billion dollars she's given away this year. Yeah. Yeah. There's definitely a different approach to what I'll call
00:51:07
feminine giving versus masculine giving. The the I think the woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize is going to play a seinal
00:51:13
role. I think Maduro is going to be I think we're going to have regime change in Venezuela. I don't know.
00:51:18
Let them do it themselves. That's my feeling. But go ahead. 100%. 100%. But he Anyway, well, I won't
00:51:23
go there. Um, give me a 30 seconds. Who would you pick? I like Mackenzie. I think Mackenzie
00:51:30
Scott. Miss Kenzie Scott is her full name. She doesn't use basos anymore. Um, I would pick I'm going to go pop culture
00:51:37
actually. Um, I would pick uh K-pop demon hunters because
00:51:42
No, I would I would. Here's why. Because I think, you know, I know you didn't you don't pay attention to cultural things
00:51:48
as much as I do, but um my culture, Cara, I love it. And so occasionally by branded edibles, that's
00:51:54
about it. What happened at the Macy's parade, which everybody loved and made everybody feel good, was a moment. And in the
00:51:59
center of that was a moment of let's all like stop this hatefulness. Let's be interesting. Let's have all different
00:52:06
kind. There was country people. There was all kinds of people there. Like it wasn't like it wasn't woke. It was just
00:52:11
America. I felt really good about it. Right. Um uh I think they represent a
00:52:18
lot of things that I think we have to get back to which is um which is the idea that different the difference is
00:52:24
okay you shouldn't hide yourself um the the good feeling about this country and
00:52:31
this world like feeling good about that we are are um we can be and I'm not a
00:52:36
religious person that we can be saved there there's a grace there's amazing grace and that's what that the music
00:52:42
there and I it's played on any parent on their Spotify playlist or whatever the
00:52:48
year, whatever musically, it's K-pop demon hunters, which is amazing because kids are really responding to it. And so
00:52:55
it's not just it's not just the song Golden. It's not just, you know, take down and everything else. It's a complex
00:53:01
look at how difficult it is to deal with differences. And I just I find it to be
00:53:07
one of the most moving cultural moments this year is and you know I I want to pick Taylor Swift and Fade of Bilia
00:53:13
which I loved but uh uh I think it I think it's a really you can see people
00:53:18
as they listen to it um and I know it sounds dumb but do you remember Ted and Bill and Ted's excellent adventure when
00:53:24
they become the band that brings the the their whole thing is in the future they become this band what was it called?
00:53:31
Horse or whatever. um which was funny, but that's what I felt like with this movie. It's like this could this unites
00:53:38
people in a way I find very lovely and so I would pick K-pop demon auditions. Thank you.
00:53:43
Did you know my big uh in yo I want to bring this back to me. Uh I know I don't
00:53:49
like to talk about you know I don't like to talk about my selfcare but there was something called Yo and I joined when I was like 30 years old in
00:53:54
San Francisco which is supposed to be a feeder into YPO and you get a mentor the best part of it is you get a mentor who's a YPOer and my mentor was the
00:54:02
runnerup for or one of the runnerups for person of the year at times person of
00:54:08
the year and it was Bob Swanson. Do you remember him? No. No. He was the founder of Janentech.
00:54:14
Oh okay. All right. And he met me Craig whatever you call it. we met and
00:54:20
um the the loveliest guy I mean this is a guy very busy right and he said uh we
00:54:26
met we had lunch and he said and I said I had just started profit this brand this strategy firm and he said would you
00:54:33
he goes how can I be the most helpful I'm like you know I sort of know what I'm doing but I really don't he said well I have an idea I'll just I'll just
00:54:39
shadow you for a day yeah he met me in my office actually met me at the gym I I
00:54:46
worked out every day from 7 to 8. He met me at the gym, picked me up, took me to him, and he just shadowed me for a full
00:54:51
day. Meetings, client meetings, and he's a fairly like kind of quiet, like not he
00:54:57
was sort of like like, you know, shorter guy, carried a few extra pounds, just sort of kind of I don't want to say
00:55:03
blended in, obviously a genius. And he he just shouted me the whole day. And at
00:55:08
the end of the day, he sat me down and he' taken a bunch of notes and he said, "Okay, great leaders listen more than
00:55:16
they talk. you are not a great leader yet. You you want to impress everybody. You're talking too much. He he said he
00:55:23
had all these things that have stuck with me my whole life. He said he said, "You don't understand the difference between being right and being
00:55:29
effective." He's like, "You're right a lot, which you have." Yeah. But you're too aggressive and you're turning off people. You got to think
00:55:36
about how am I effective here. And he just gave me a series of things. Anyways, that was my my my my mentor
00:55:43
story. Oh my god, that's a wonderful story. Oh, you know who I would pick just to to stick my finger in Putin's eyes. I'd
00:55:50
pick Navali. Ah, that's a great idea. Yeah, there's all kinds of people. I, you know, this
00:55:55
is sort of an antiquated thing, the person of the year, but it still kinds of kind of works because it makes you think about things.
00:56:01
Um, so anyway, we do not think the architects of AI deserve it. Um, I don't
00:56:06
at least I think there's a much more uplifting story about to happen over the next such a snooze.
00:56:12
I'm telling you it is. I know architects of AI. though realistically who it should be what
00:56:17
it should probably be Jensen Hong. I hate it when they have multiple people or they don't pick a person.
00:56:22
He's just able to wear his coat and act like a lesbian and kiss up to Trump. No, he's built a pretty important company.
00:56:27
I understand, but I'm not I'm like time will tell as they say. Anyway, you've got to get going because you arrive late
00:56:34
and you've got to leave early. But um uh I we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or
00:56:40
whatever's on your mind. and go to nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show or call 85551
00:56:45
pivot. Uh elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe this week on Pro Profy Conversations, Scott spoke with Tristan
00:56:51
Harris, former Google design ethicist and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology. I know him well. He's
00:56:56
fantastic. Let's listen to a clip. The US beat China to the technology of social media. Did that make us stronger
00:57:05
or did that make us weaker? If you beat an adversary to a technology that that you then don't govern in a in a wise way
00:57:12
and you instead like you built this gun, you flip it around, you blow your own brain off, which is what we did with social media. We have the worst critical
00:57:18
thinking, test scores, you know, mental health, anxious, depressed generation in history. And it's a confusing picture
00:57:25
because GDP is going up, but sort of cancer is going up too. So, it's like we have the Magnificent 7. We're profiting
00:57:31
from, you know, all the wealth of these companies, but it's actually not being distributed to everybody except those who are invested in the stock market.
00:57:37
And that profit is based on the degradation of our social fabric. I love that guy. He's been going at it
00:57:43
this for a long time. Yeah, he's been doing it. He's been a He's kind of the original gangster of all things are not right in Mudville.
00:57:50
They are. You are absolutely right. And they they can't stand it. But he's been right then and he's right now. And that
00:57:55
was great. That's a terrific uh thing. The nicest part of the interview was I asked him who's been most influential in
00:58:01
his life and he said that his mother and that she was nothing but pure love which I really like. Oh, lovely. You would a nice man.
00:58:07
Yeah, that would appeal to you, I'm sure. Um, and before we go, I'm interviewing Darra Kosahi, the CEO of
00:58:14
Uber, and Chris Mson, the CEO of Aurora, live on stage at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington DC on Monday,
00:58:20
December 15th. These are going to be two really sharp conversations about applied AI and autonomous vehicles. I'm very
00:58:25
excited. They're both Chris was the original Google uh car of um autonomous car projects at Google. I think he's
00:58:32
great, too. And both of them, I've known Dar for a long time. Really smart thinkers. To register for free tickets,
00:58:37
Google Hopkins and Cara Swisser. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe
00:58:43
to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Scott, read us out.
00:58:48
Today's show is produced by Lara Name and Zoe Marcus and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and Todd engineered this episode. Rich
00:58:54
Shibi edited the video. So thanks also to Drew Bros, Mr. Vero and Dan Shalon Shock Kuras, Box Media's executive
00:58:59
producer podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Box Media. You can
00:59:05
subscribe to the magazine nymag.com/pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.