00:00:00
I'm worried that if I created an ability to have a dialogue with me that it might
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someday reduce a young man's motivation and mojo to establish mentorships in the
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real world. Could they make Scott AI be more of an [ __ ] like so that it's more like regular life?
00:00:25
Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Carara Swisser.
00:00:31
Can you get over how excited people are about our tour? I know they are. Let's discuss it. Let's
00:00:37
discuss it. We're selling very brisk ticket sales, it looks like. Yeah. We're already I think like half sold out in San Francisco. I think
00:00:43
that's mostly because of you. Yeah. Yeah. People are showing upon Toronto. Toronto. We're almost We're like half
00:00:51
sold out there. More than half sold out there. So, just to remind people, DC, New York, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, LA.
00:00:58
Wait, did I miss anything? No, I don't think so. I Wait, seven. The best comment though when we
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announced it was, "Just say it. You hate Arizona." Yeah, I know. People got mad. Other
00:01:09
cities got mad at us. We'll come to those cities. We will come to those cities. Which I think we probably should have included
00:01:16
another Midwestern city besides Chicago. No, no, no, no. The biggest mid is The biggest miss is Miami. Loves the
00:01:22
hotties. You're right. Miami would be good. Yeah, Miami would bring We should go to Well, except if we go to some city, they're like, "Who the [ __ ]
00:01:28
are you?" Like, that would There are so many cities that would be like that. Like Altuna, Pennsylvania, for example.
00:01:34
Yeah. I think that's mostly cities that aren't on the coast with like a ton of liberal universities. I love Car Swisser. She's my hero.
00:01:41
She's here quote unquote teaching and that is telling war stories about how awesome she is for 20 minutes.
00:01:47
No. No, that's not how I'm teaching. No. In fact, the school set complimented me because she said all these people who do
00:01:53
these kind of things come in and tell war stories and I don't. I talk to the students and engage them on the topics
00:01:59
of the day. It's like a mini pivot. Like we talked about the comedy thing, talked
00:02:04
about except they're paying $7,000. No. No. It's good. It's a good course. I'm doing I love famous teachers. They
00:02:11
also get to hang out with Alex. I had a fast they tell people to follow their passion after they're already rich
00:02:16
having some iron ore smelting. Let me just say you have the professor. You have prof and you haven't been inside a
00:02:22
classroom in what 69 years or something like I taught a class the other day. Stop it. Where where
00:02:27
for a section my AI? Yes, but not at a university. Correct. No, I've been at I've been at Oxford
00:02:34
recently. I'm I'm going to King's College soon. I'm I'm still I still show
00:02:39
up in classrooms. But the the university you're assigned to, you were you've not Oh, them New York University. It's
00:02:45
amazing they still keep me on faculty. I think it's because you know why they do? I'm mentioned more in applications than any other prof at this point.
00:02:51
Of course you are. You're very popular. You're very you're a popular and then they show up and get pissed off I'm not there and write letters to the
00:02:56
administration. Have you thought about doing a course there or not? You just Yeah. When I move back, I'll start teaching. Oh, good. Oh, that'll be nice. You know,
00:03:03
they tried to give me the professor designation on the syllabus and I took it off. I didn't feel like I deserved it.
00:03:08
Cuz you're so humble. That's what people know you for is your humility. A little hostile day. You know why I think you're hostile? Because most people
00:03:14
agreed with me on the comic thing. Did you notice in the comments uh on Cara? No. On the on the on the comics
00:03:21
that went uh uh you know the place where you're going to laugh your head off. Saudi Arabia.
00:03:26
Oh, Riad. Oh, what a shocker. The the wokesters weighed in. I love I love how
00:03:32
people are virtuous with other people's money. Whenever you lose an argument, you always are like, "It's the wokesters."
00:03:38
The bots. No, I I blame it on Russian bots. That's my go-to. No, they were like Scott. Well, should we pull out our military
00:03:44
bases or the universities there? You know what? Should we do we do I think com I told you comics.
00:03:50
No, don't let Bill Bur go. No, actually, you know what? He had the lamest excuse. I have to say I was sort
00:03:56
of like just say I want the money. He didn't. He was like He was like, I really think they're, you know, they're
00:04:02
regular people. They have McDonald's there. Literally. I was like, you're stupid now. You're an idiot. Like he's
00:04:08
like, "Oh my goodness, they're not on camels." I'm like, "No, they're the richest people on the [ __ ] planet, my
00:04:14
friends. I'm going to Alua, one of the coolest tourist places or or sites in the world.
00:04:20
I love the people there." Yeah. I'm I want Americans to move there and make a [ __ ] ton of money. I want to
00:04:25
secure our fossil fuel energy pipeline. If If Israel and the kingdom normalize
00:04:31
relations, it'll be like the Iron Dome for Israel. NBS is keeping the [ __ ] crazies online in line unlike some of
00:04:38
the others. They're reforming like um the game. I'm going to bear hug the kingdom.
00:04:44
Invite me. I'm in. Oh god, I'm not going. You know, when I wrote that piece about them in the New York Times many years ago,
00:04:52
are you teaching a class at Michigan right now? Well, I'm glad you asked that. When I wrote a piece in the Atlantic,
00:04:57
let me just say as I was touching myself to Rachel Madd. You're so wildly insecure. Anyway, I
00:05:04
wrote a piece about why are there seen me naked? It's common sense. I'm insecure, right? I haven't seen you naked. And
00:05:10
this is something This is going to be part of our tour is me seeing you naked. Um I actually have seen you partially
00:05:16
naked many times, unfortunately. So is everyone else. I know that's true. So, but not the full
00:05:21
Monty. I have not seen the full Monty. Daddy brings the egg salad with the good egg salad with the little bits of bacon
00:05:26
and the mayonnaise. Let me finish my point. I wrote a piece about why tech went to uh get money from
00:05:33
uh the Gulf right after Kosogible, right? It was immediately after Kosogi and I was like, can't they go to
00:05:39
Singapore? Can't they go to like there's so many other choices and stuff and it was a really interesting debate because a lot of people in Silicon Valley also
00:05:46
very similar to this were like we shouldn't be get taking money from them. We should be taking money from Singapore. No, I I agree. When they murder a
00:05:52
journalist, we should make our companies less competitive and reduce the prosperity of people working for those companies. You know, they dismembered
00:05:58
him and like took video of him. He murdered him. I I I acknowledge that. I think they paid I think it was a
00:06:03
stupid vile thing to do. Yes. Okay. They've done a lot of stupid vile things. So, um so my point is I was
00:06:10
I I was someone contacted me from uh Saudi people who knew the Saudis were
00:06:16
like, "Don't go to Saudi Arabia, Caris Wisher." I was like, "Okay." Cuz I called him a thug.
00:06:21
But just a quick question. How many kids will be shot in Saudi schools today? Oh my god. Stop it. Don't do the that
00:06:27
thing. Don't do it. How many people in the kingdom are not the same? We are not the same. How many people in the kingdom
00:06:33
are going to go bankrupt? How many women are allowed to do everything that they're supposed to? How many gay people get to survive? Scott,
00:06:40
we're not doing this. Shame. They have absolute agenda apartheid and it's terrible. And the only good
00:06:47
thing you can say about it, but you need to acknowledge it, is it's headed in the right direction. And our gender apartheid is headed in the wrong
00:06:53
direction. That is correct. But we're still far apart. I'm sorry. You're not going to I'm sorry. The United States is even in
00:06:59
the state it's in is is I'm not even getting paid to be a mouthpiece for the You really are. Somebody send me a check. Send him a
00:07:05
check. You're going to get into the comments everyone. All the woke commenters. We're going to move on. But
00:07:10
nonetheless, I am correct and I won the fight. And I am right. And I think in your tagline should be my tagline should
00:07:17
be I don't read the comments. I don't read the You do read the comments though. Um, I think that it was
00:07:23
a good debate and I think you know in your heart of hearts that it was kind of sky me for those for the comics to do
00:07:30
it. I'm not I'm not thrilled with a military base. I'm not thrilled but I get it. But comic to sign like a
00:07:36
censorship thing. I'm going to just stick with my guns on this. Anyway, we have a lot to get to today. I'm going to have the last word there. Including
00:07:42
OpenAI launching a new video app. That's actually fascinating what's been going on. Pete Hegsathth of course ranting at
00:07:48
top military officials about beards and outfits. Uh but first, the US government officially shut down this week. Kind of
00:07:54
a big deal after Congress failed to reach a deal on funding. As of this recording, it doesn't look like this is
00:08:00
getting settled anytime soon. The White House is now withholding billions of dollars in funding for Democratic states
00:08:07
and preparing to carry out massive layoffs. Democrats are calling Trump erratic and unhinged. she does seem a
00:08:13
little bit more so and say he's more focused on posting deep fake videos of Hakee Jeff and sombrero than
00:08:19
negotiating. Meanwhile, about 750,000 federal workers are expected to be furled and services across the
00:08:25
government are being disrupted. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is suspending operations, so no jobs reports and other
00:08:31
key economic data for the time being. They're also targeting blue states. Russ is saying it explicitly. Um,
00:08:39
I I I'm going to ask your overall thoughts and the best messaging for both parties right now and uh and the polit
00:08:45
and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the political economic consequences. But I did talk to some Trump people yesterday, some of the more reasonable
00:08:52
Trump people and um which there are there are indeed. I hate to tell you, but there are um and they were slightly
00:09:00
worried because the crazies have taken over in the Trump White House. And they were talking about things like this was
00:09:06
crazy that it should last 47 days because that's the number that's the number of his presidency. They're like
00:09:12
they're like Taylor Swift. They're like Swifties, these people. They're like they're interested in numbers. um and
00:09:18
that they're very uh interested in a full um they're talking about a full
00:09:23
like sort of prostration of Democrats. Some of the reasonable Trumpies are worried
00:09:29
that nothing's going to happen. And of course, everyone alludes to his mental issues like that he's really losing a
00:09:36
step or two. It's been noticeable in several of his appearances. Um, so anyway, so that was kind of frightening
00:09:41
to think about like sort of the the crazier people in charge of the situation with no interest in
00:09:47
negotiating. Go ahead, Scott. Well, generally speaking, the American
00:09:52
people do not like shutdowns as a means of negotiation over public policy and
00:09:58
spending. Their attitude is, and I think this is the right or an understandable
00:10:05
viewpoint, is that you're supposed to figure this out at the ballot box and negotiations on legislative process.
00:10:10
You're not supposed to be taking the budget and the operations of the country and the livelihood of government workers
00:10:17
hostage. And it has not worked in the past. The the last couple shutdowns were threats
00:10:23
from the Republicans who wanted funding for a wall or wanted cuts to Obamacare. and they blinked because the nation said
00:10:29
squarely don't use this as a tool for uh negotiating public policy. Having said
00:10:35
that, can I make a note? The last three have been under Trump, but go ahead. The last three the last three shutdowns have been under
00:10:42
Trump, but go ahead. So anyways, my point is these things don't usually work and Americans aren't
00:10:48
fond of using this as a political cudel or or or wrench. Having said that, and
00:10:54
there might be some bias here, I think if you look at the if you look at the surveys, the majority of the
00:11:00
blame so far is being levied at Republicans, or more blame, I should say. It's like 34 to 24. And the
00:11:08
Democrats here and the leadership are being shockingly strategic. They're not saying, "Oh, no. We we want
00:11:15
to renegotiate the tariff nonsense or we want you to stop these rounding up people with ICE." They have been very
00:11:22
pointed. We want you to extend subsidies so people can have health
00:11:27
care. Potentially millions of Americans are going to see their health care become unaffordable and it's going to
00:11:32
primarily target the most needy. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Democrats
00:11:38
demand around that would have more impact positively if they get what they want on Republicans.
00:11:44
So I think they are strategically going after an issue that is both the moral high ground and a function of
00:11:50
affordability and likely to divide the Republican base.
00:11:56
Yeah. And in addition, the Democrats were just screaming out with two words, three
00:12:01
words, do [ __ ] something. This is something. Yeah. This is saying, okay, sorry, you've got
00:12:08
to come to the table. Right. So, I I actually think this is strategically, and again, there's a lot
00:12:14
of a lot of bad things about this, but keep in mind, folks, when the
00:12:20
Republicans say if they continue to do this, if they continue this battle,
00:12:25
we're going to fire people, not because those people don't add value, not because those people aren't important to landing planes safely on runways, not
00:12:32
because those people aren't important to defend our shores, not because those people don't ensure that lower and
00:12:38
middle inome people can can enjoy one of the great assets of the earth and that is our national parks. We're taking the
00:12:45
kamas approach and we're just going to embed them in this fight even if they
00:12:51
get killed or put out a word put out of work. That is just a pure collateral
00:12:57
damage hostage strategy. They have said to Democrats, if you do this, we're going to start firing innocents
00:13:03
and also we're going to target your stuff. It's explicitly political. It's explicitly
00:13:08
they're embedding government workers in the midst of the of the firefight for no other reason than they say they'll be
00:13:15
martyrs on behalf of our great Republican battle which some of them want. Let's be clear.
00:13:20
Let me just say some of them I mean you can see Russell vote getting a hard on about firing people and getting rid of government. It's very clear. Uh same
00:13:27
thing with Steven Miller who's demented. He gave a demented speech about immigrants the other day. Another more
00:13:32
demented and let me just caveat that. Um when think about the messaging so far
00:13:38
now I sent you the Bernie Sanders and AOC one which I thought was adorable messaging great messaging um they looked terrific
00:13:46
together they were very articulate about what they want this is all we want was people shouldn't have their healthcare
00:13:51
doubled in price right it was pretty clear and um uh pretty clear essentially
00:13:57
what is the next step to do because I think that you know John Thun is sort of puffing out his ch who seems to be a
00:14:03
reasonable person away from Trump, right? He seems to be one of your typical decent legis decent legislators
00:14:10
who has been pretzled in the Trump administration. Um, but he's sort of going, "Yeah, we're not doing anything."
00:14:17
Like there I mean, I know that's a posture and I'm not a particularly good negotiator because I'm like, "This is what I want. This is what I want. I just
00:14:23
want this. Thank you." Um, I'm not strategic that way or tact tactical, I guess. But he's he's sort of doing the
00:14:29
posturing. And I I think from talking to some Trump people, there's a group in the White House which is like let's let
00:14:35
it last forever. Like this is great. Like they're very they're they're giddy about anti-government techniquarians. Just let
00:14:41
it all burn down. Let's start over. Yes. Exactly. And so how do you how do they thread that needle? What what he's
00:14:48
saying we're not going to negotiate until we're the government is open again
00:14:53
and then we'll do we'll cover this. And the Democrats should be saying we don't trust you essentially. Correct. I mean,
00:14:59
I I don't know what what what would be the posture for each of them going forward.
00:15:05
Well, so I'm a big fan of Senator Thuns, mostly because he's just very handsome and in great shape, but also he does he
00:15:13
does strike me. I've actually met the senator. I think he's a reasonable guy. He obviously has conservative values,
00:15:18
represents, you know, conservative state, South Dakota, but he is a reason he's in the seat he should be and I
00:15:24
think he will be a productive member uh productive majority leader and a productive hopefully someday minority
00:15:30
leader. The what I would do and I had a phone call on this last night is I would
00:15:36
take uh US senators and so so Senator Warner did a great job. someone and it
00:15:42
might have even been a planet question saying why are you why why do you
00:15:47
continue to advocate for giving health care to illegal aliens and he
00:15:52
immediately said and this is what is so just mendacious about the Republican talking points right now folks we are
00:15:59
not going to have a country we're not going to have a democracy we're going to turn to Ouija boards and horoscopes if
00:16:04
there is not an objective truth and the objective truth is there is no law or
00:16:10
legislation in effect or being proposed that would give health insurance to
00:16:15
illegal aliens. And yet Speaker Johnson continues to go on these shows and say
00:16:21
this lie and then they fact check him and he just starts talking about well no
00:16:27
that's not true. It's like well okay Speaker um Speaker Johnson you didn't answer the
00:16:33
question because you know you're lying and also what do we want? We want people dying in
00:16:39
the streets. Oh, I'm sorry. I you don't have an effective visa. We're going to let you bleed out here in the parking
00:16:44
lot. So, uh, Senator Warner immediately said, "The premise of your question is
00:16:50
factually incorrect. No one is proposing or asking for
00:16:56
coverage for illegal uh, immigrants. what they should be doing and my advice to the person I was speaking to in comms
00:17:03
yesterday, I would take your I would literally send
00:17:09
500, you know, what is it? 535 Congress people out to out to districts,
00:17:14
specifically Republican districts, and I would interview people on their porches
00:17:19
who clearly look, smell, and feel Republican and talk to them about what it would
00:17:27
mean if their premiums for Obamacare double, right? I go right into enemy territory, quote
00:17:34
unquote, you know, that's what Bernie and AOC are about to do. And go right in and say, "Hi, who are you? I'm so and so. I'm a single mother.
00:17:41
I struggle with diabetes. My kid has cerebal palsy. I don't know what I'm going to do.
00:17:47
I don't know what I'm going to do. I would go right into the deepest reddest states, which by the way tend to be the
00:17:53
ones that need the most federal funding. That's right. And make it very human.
00:17:59
Who did you vote for last time? All of them are going to say Trump. Okay, fine. Let's get that out of the way. Tell us about your health care.
00:18:07
Tell us about what would happen to you if this resolution goes through and
00:18:13
there's not an agreement to keep the tax credits or funding for Obamacare
00:18:19
premiums. What would happen to you and your children like stop eating essentially
00:18:24
and then and then show their show their Trump flags. We are in Trump country
00:18:30
because the the smartest thing about I think what what uh leader Jeff and and
00:18:37
uh Senate Minority Leader Schumer are doing is they're fighting over a topic that's going to divide Republicans.
00:18:43
So, let me ask you another question because one of the other talking points is that Schumer is doing this at the
00:18:49
behest of the left. He's being he's worried about being primared by AOC. Um, and so they're they're pulling they're
00:18:56
they're being pushed into the shutdown by the left. That's I've just noticed that one uh as as a big talking point.
00:19:03
I don't I it's hard for me to relate to quote unquote the other side. I don't think that's a very effective talking
00:19:08
point. What is their most effective talking point then? What would you do if you're the Republicans?
00:19:14
The most effective talking point is is the following. That shutdowns are not meant to be taken the government is not
00:19:20
meant to be taken hostage. We negotiate policy policy in the chambers of Congress and at the voting at the ballot
00:19:27
box, which soon was saying that's that's our most effective message. I hate to say it. If it were
00:19:34
true, providing healthcare to illegal immigrants would be an effective talking point. I think the Democrats and the
00:19:39
media has done their job here. I thought George Stephanopoulos was actually quite strong on this. He just pushed back and
00:19:45
said that is not true. That is just not true. I think that's gotten out there that it's not true.
00:19:50
Yeah. But I think I think a guy like Thun standing up there just saying look we can't continue
00:19:57
to have these shut down and then of course once the Democrats in charge they'll threaten they'll take the shutdowns hostage
00:20:03
right it only goes to November 19th I think it doesn't even solve the problem
00:20:08
right that's the thing it's just kicks the [ __ ] down the road until until we actually get reasonable people to say
00:20:14
all right at some point we got to stop behaving irresponsibly and stop spending
00:20:20
$7 trillion on five trillion in receipts. This is just going to keep happening. They do think they're going to peel off
00:20:25
Democrats. They peeled off obviously Fedterman who he's essentially Republican. And then the independent guy, what's his name? Senator, but I
00:20:33
can't remember. Um and then they peeled off the Nevada senator, uh who just didn't believe in shutdowns. Um but I
00:20:40
don't think they're going to peel anybody else off. I don't think they're peel I I was talking to Tina Smith last week in Minnesota, very centrist, very
00:20:46
reasonable. She's like, "No way." She She didn't seem lefty to me. She's just like, "This is ridiculous. We're going
00:20:51
to, you know, this is we're not." She was adamant about the situation. So, I
00:20:56
don't think they're going to peel anyone. And she would be someone you could peel off presumably. Um, I don't think they'll peel anyone else off. Do
00:21:03
you? I don't think so. I don't know. These things have a habit of I wouldn't be surprised if they come to some sort of accommodation where the
00:21:09
Republicans say, "Okay, we'll give you something around we'll give you the something that results in funding for
00:21:16
these healthcare premiums and we'll pretend that it was already in the bill or something." Yeah. Oh, the Republicans will do that.
00:21:21
Yeah. Yeah. I think they'll figure out a way because he will own the There's so much
00:21:27
chaos surrounding the president right now. This has been a bad week for him. I've always I've always pushed back when
00:21:34
people say, "Oh, he's scenile." I've always said, "I think President Trump comes across as remarkably robust." I
00:21:40
think he's dumb. I think he's strategically totally inept. I think he goes on rambles on weird [ __ ] But I've
00:21:46
always thought he presents as robust for the first time. I'm just telling you, go watch some I'll send you some videos because I I'm like,
00:21:53
it's it's really it reminds me of his father, Fred Fred Trump, who they pretended he was just fine. But we'll
00:21:59
see. We're not doctors, but Well, hold on. For the first time. Yeah, but we have we have eyes and ears. Yeah.
00:22:04
Um, you know, if you met my dad in the last year, you would say, "Okay, he should probably not be president." So,
00:22:10
look, the president last week has had a couple instances. Specifically, the one that sent the shivers down my spine when
00:22:15
he said, "Oh, so we're sending two submarines. I'm not going to tell you we're off the coast of Russia, and
00:22:20
there's two nwords, and you can't see either of them." And it's like, Jesus Christ, is this guy lost his [ __ ]
00:22:26
What am I seeing on TV? Is that real? Anyway, uh we're going to move on. Uh video game maker Electronic Arts is
00:22:32
being taken private in a deal valued at $55 billion, the largest leverage buyout
00:22:38
of all time. The investor group includes Saudis, uh the Saudis, uh sovereign wealth fund, private equity firm, Silver
00:22:43
Lake, Egan Durban, and Jared Kushner's firm Affinity Partners. Obviously, Jared is right in the freaking center of this.
00:22:49
And also, for people who don't know, NBS loves stays up all night and plays video games apparently. That's what I was told
00:22:54
by several people who hang with him. Um, the deal requires approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the
00:23:00
US, but it's please, it's going through. It's because it's Jared Kushner. Uh, Scott, you and I predicted in March that
00:23:06
we would uh would see a deal like this. Let's listen. I bet a lot of these companies may go private. Do you ever see one of the very
00:23:13
big companies going private? That that is an excellent point. If you look at some of the fallen angels and
00:23:18
you look at the amount of money capital sitting on the sidelines in private equity, it's over $4 trillion of capital waiting to be deployed. I think we're
00:23:25
going to see I did my predictions deck yesterday. I think we're going to see the biggest take private in history this year.
00:23:30
There we have it. We were so smart we called it. What do you think of this deal and others will follow suit? Obviously the players I know Egan pretty
00:23:38
well. Um obviously Kushner was right in the middle of it because of his his close ties to the Saudis and is getting
00:23:43
the money from them. Um you know it's a big deal to go private. The guy the company has sort of struggled over the
00:23:49
years although they have some hits. Um it's run by this Australian guy who's a surfer. He got all tight with um Egan
00:23:57
and then they have houses next to each other in Hawaii apparently. Um and then they pulled in Kushner obviously who was
00:24:03
the who was the uh the unent unjuitent here whatever the Greece in this
00:24:09
particular uh deal. So putting Kushner aside and again the
00:24:14
Trump and the Democrats are corrupt. They just do it for small ball, right?
00:24:20
Hunter Biden shouldn't have been on the board of any company. He just shouldn't have been. And but he gets hundreds of
00:24:25
thousands of dollars and Jared says, "Oh, I know how to be nepo corrupt, but I'm going to do it for billions."
00:24:31
Yeah. And and not only that, he hasn't done anything illegal. He's raised money on the back of his father's influence, and
00:24:38
he's doing it he's doing a big deal. These deals are not easy to get done. So, congratulations to him. This is a
00:24:44
smart deal. Um, first off, essentially the Gulf is desperately trying to
00:24:49
diversify away from a fossil fuel economy and they know that the oil runs out. They're not sure if it's 30 years
00:24:55
or 80 years, but they basically got the bad news is they have to diversify away from this fossil fuel economy. The good
00:25:02
news is they have almost limitless capital to do it. So gaming, which is bigger than the TV and motion picture
00:25:08
industries combined, uh doesn't nearly get the amount of attention it deserves, is a huge
00:25:14
industry. It's intellectual property. It would invite a new generation of young people. The other companies they have
00:25:19
investments in are better in mobile. And also since 2020, the gaming industry
00:25:25
stocks have underperformed the market. They have. That is and so this thing was I don't want to say was on sale but what you have with
00:25:31
Electronic Arts is they're kind of dominant in the old world and that is consoles and handsets and you go buy a
00:25:38
game. The future is around mobile and free games. And when you look at the
00:25:43
amount of time that young people who are very attractive consumers, especially
00:25:48
young men, spend on video games relative to the advertising they capture. There's
00:25:53
an enormous remember those graphs, those charts we used to see that would show uh
00:25:58
people spend 7% of their time reading newspapers and it newspapers get 19% of
00:26:05
ad dollars and people spend 30% of their time on the internet but it's only getting 4% of ad dollars. This is like
00:26:11
20 years ago. You knew that eventually they would uh calibrate to the time
00:26:17
spent. Essentially, ad dollars effectively lag but eventually catch up to where attention is. The big
00:26:24
opportunity and and uh uh the kingdom has some investments in companies that
00:26:30
are really good with mobile and free. The company had underperformed. It diversifies the un the the economy in
00:26:38
the Gulf. I like it because I think it brings us closer together. I really, you know, my bet and hope is that the
00:26:44
kingdom goes capitalist and continues to party in Mkos as opposed to goes going
00:26:50
Islamist and fundamentalist, which the older folks leadership want. So, I like this deal. I think it I think it kind of
00:26:56
works for everybody. EA has always we've had the heads of EA at my various conferences years ago and years ago and
00:27:02
they were always sort of struggling in the digital age like you know I mean obviously video games are digital on on
00:27:09
some level but it was always like they moved from executive to executive they
00:27:15
had a lot of executive you know sturd over at that company and
00:27:20
the question is where is are they going to be able to compete with the ones from China the ones from um from all over the
00:27:27
world, Japan and everywhere else. And I think they've always had an issue with that. And so they definitely need the
00:27:33
money, right, in order to try to reassert themselves. But they kind of remind me, I know it sounds crazy, but
00:27:39
like of a broadcast like CBS, like what are you going to do with this piece of [ __ ] Like Ellison,
00:27:45
oh no, no, because they were older. I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm just saying EA always had always seemed
00:27:51
behind the eightball constantly compared to especially China or any of the other
00:27:57
many video uh Korea all the all the different places where really
00:28:02
interesting innovations were happening. No. Okay. So, I would just say that kind
00:28:07
of try and personalize this or humanize it. I would say EA is Tom Brady and that okay, maybe it's not winning Super
00:28:13
Bowls, but it's young and it's strong and it's vibrant. M um CBS is Tom Jones. I mean, awesome in
00:28:20
the 70s, sexy in the 70s, but you know,
00:28:25
on his final, you know, on the back nine. By the way, I love Tom Jones. Yeah, I'm just looking at their games.
00:28:31
What's up, pussycat? Whoa. They have the They have all the sports stuff, which does that guy's a genius.
00:28:37
Yeah, they have fif whatever. They had Madden. Sexiest Welshman alive. Madden was their big but their sports were are the
00:28:44
biggest most important games and that does dovetail into the Saudis with their investments in sports and like live golf
00:28:50
and it's a great it's a great take private and there it hits strategic priorities.
00:28:56
What's the next thing for the next one? Well, that's my big prediction at the end of the show. I'm excited about it. Oh, wait. Okay. All right. Um Okay,
00:29:03
let's go on a quick break. When we come back, OpenAI's new video app is stirring up copyright concerns. What a surprise.
00:29:08
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That's zetaglobal.com/pivot. One last time, that's zagglobal.com/pivot.
00:30:08
[Music] Scott, we're back with more news. OpenAI
00:30:14
is taking uh on Tik Tok, Reals, and YouTube with a new AI video generator app, Sora 2. The app will feature user
00:30:21
generated clips and feeds uh with algorithmdriven recommendations. Notably, Sword 2 will not will include
00:30:26
copyrighted content unless copyright holders opt out. What a what a [ __ ]
00:30:31
set of what? Anyway, OpenAI has been notifying studios and talent agencies about that over the last week. They're
00:30:38
losing their minds, obviously. Meta also just introduced Vibes, a feed of AI generated videos that will live in the
00:30:44
Meta AI app. You know, a lot of it is AI slap slop. Some of it is funny. Gavin
00:30:49
Newsome has been making fantastic Sora um or different AI generated videos
00:30:55
making fun of Trump and Vance and everything else which are quite good. But talk about the the copyright opt out
00:31:01
and and Disney just for separately sent character a cease and desist letter to
00:31:06
stop using its copyrighted characters without authorization. Talk a little bit about this. What what what will happen
00:31:12
here? Well, I I just want to send a message to
00:31:18
um you know, Sundur and Satcha and Sam.
00:31:25
I opt out. Take this as notice. I'm opting out. Do not crawl my [ __ ] Of
00:31:31
course. Of course. If I want to play, if I want to use someone else's likeness or
00:31:37
if I want to I if I want to start playing I I don't know, you know, if I
00:31:43
want to start reproducing I'm in my gym right now and I'm looking at my weights and they say Rogue. If I wanted to start
00:31:48
in China producing plates that said Rogue on them, does Rogue have to call me before and say they're opting out of
00:31:55
IP protection? No. There's no such thing. The whole point of IP is people don't have the time to do a letter to
00:32:02
everybody and say we opt out. Why do you This reminds me of remember YouTube kind of played this game and
00:32:08
then later did the deals. They just went ahead and did it and then remember they said you have to find your stolen
00:32:13
content and tell us remember that one many years ago. Well, this is this is the dynamic at play and that is these
00:32:20
companies with a leadership position that is helped by ignoring laws by
00:32:26
starting your ride hailing hap in Argentina without going through the the the bureaucratic process of getting
00:32:32
business licenses. By showing that kind of growth in this market, you make so much [ __ ] money that it's worth it to
00:32:40
face the legal ramifications. So, they've done the math and they've said, "If we can maintain the kind of
00:32:47
growth we're going to have by molesting other people's IP, even if it eventually
00:32:52
gets swatted down in court, we'll have more than enough money. We're better off economically." It's the It's the analogy
00:32:58
I've been using for 10 years. When there's a parking meter in front of your house and it costs $100 an hour, but the
00:33:05
ticket is 50, you break the law. And that's what they're doing here. They're
00:33:10
saying they know this will eventually work its way through courts. The biggest
00:33:15
IP owners in the world will hit them hard and they will start paying. Similar to what YouTube has mostly done. YouTube
00:33:22
used to be able to put anything on your videos, a Beyonce song to start it, whatever. They did. Yeah. And now they have said, "Okay." And
00:33:30
they've done these deals just about the moment it became after they spent hundreds of millions of dollars pushing
00:33:36
back open. Sam has already said, "Oh my gosh, take a billion dollars and give it to the meanest, baddest lawyers and
00:33:42
delay an obuscate which will a decision which will clearly come down against us because between now and then and any fee
00:33:50
they come up with, we're going to get another quarter of a trillion dollars in market cap by offering funny funny memes of the Family
00:33:57
Guy starring in a Star Wars film with Darth Vader. And everyone will have their hair on fire, but by the time they
00:34:03
actually get a judge to say, "No, you can't do this," they'll have accreated another$1 or $150 million.
00:34:10
Exactly. This is such This was the sort of the YouTube playbook. And I remember when YouTube said, "You need to find your stuff and tell us." I was like,
00:34:16
"Why don't you not create a thieving service?" Like, "You have to tell us who's shoplifting." You know, we've
00:34:22
given them shoplifting tools, but it was really astonishing. and and the the idea
00:34:27
that they all of them the character AI there's Disney stuff on there's
00:34:32
so many so much copyright thievery happening again and they just they do it over and over again and it's sort of
00:34:38
like Lucy and the football with Charlie Brown with the media companies I mean ultimately again this has to be stronger
00:34:45
copyright protections in Congress presumably um but it's really quite astonishing that they continue to have
00:34:51
this much cheek you know they're thieves they're they're years ago Walt Mos called Facebook and Google and all of
00:34:59
them rapacious information thieves and they and we let's add open AI to that
00:35:04
list. Um, one good thing they did after being after people died, um, they rolled
00:35:10
out some parental controls this week allowing parents to adjust settings on their teens account and they'll also be
00:35:15
notified if an account shows signs of potential self harm. Let's see how well they do that. Uh, I can't believe they
00:35:22
didn't do that in the first [ __ ] place, but there they are. There they are. Now, in this genre, a lot of people
00:35:28
in Hollywood are also up in arms over AI generated quote unquote actress that some talent agencies reportedly looking
00:35:34
to sign. Anyway, she's she's a very attractive actress and looks very real and they sort of must have crafted her
00:35:40
out of a bunch of appealing actresses. Um, her name's Tilly Norwood and she's
00:35:46
she's she's really quite appealing. I I have to agree. And so they're going crazy cuz they they they didn't make it
00:35:52
out of anybody, but it looks like they made it out of all of them. But you're in the AI mix right now. I the I'm I'm
00:35:58
disturbed by AI Scott Galloway picture that you sent me. You partnered with Google Labs for a new project called
00:36:04
Portraits. They created an AI version of you to answer your questions and provide life and career advice. Let's listen to
00:36:10
this AI Scott answer a question. Hey, it's Pop G. Ready to get started?
00:36:16
I got a good job offer, but it's in a random town. What should I do?
00:36:22
A job offer in a random town. That's a classic fork in the road. What kind of job is it? And what are your career
00:36:28
goals long term? Oh, wow. You sound so not you, but you
00:36:33
kind of you adjacent. So, talk about this. How are you feeling about it? Uh, well, I'm I'm genuine. I I I want
00:36:40
your view on this because quite frankly how I feel about it has changed dramatically about I get between 10 and
00:36:46
30 emails a day from usually thoughtful young men sometimes mothers asking for
00:36:51
mostly professional and career advice or sometimes investment advice. You know I'm 30. Am I too old to go back to
00:36:58
business school? I have gotten into this school with a full ride but the better school is not giving me money. What
00:37:03
should I do? How do I ask for a raise? Those kinds of questions. And they're usually really thoughtful young men who
00:37:08
take a lot of time to write to me and uh I can't get back to all of them. I can't get back to 1% of them.
00:37:13
And you feel bad. You feel bad. Yeah. You don't know. You don't want to do an automatic response. You feel like you're ignoring them. I'm constantly
00:37:20
virtue signaling about trying to help young men and then some young man takes a ton of time. Yeah. I don't respond to people under
00:37:26
the age of 18 because I think men should not have a not for, you know, not for
00:37:32
anything terrible, but parents should decide what the influences are uh uh in
00:37:37
terms of their kids' life. Anyways, so about 18 months ago, we built a thin
00:37:43
layer of innovation on top of an LLM and created Profai and it answered about two or 30 hunds a day. We thought it was
00:37:50
really cool. And then about nine months ago, a woman who is my one of my
00:37:55
graduate student instructors at uh Stern, who is just so impressive, I'd
00:38:01
use her name, but I don't want to get her in trouble. She's just an incredibly impressive, competent person, came to me
00:38:06
and said, "We can do this, but much better. We at Google Labs, we're going to launch a series of thought leaders to
00:38:14
answer questions." Uh there's no money involved. So, it's an AI master class essentially,
00:38:19
right? So it's the idea is that people who want to answer questions and that you might get some benefit from understanding how they feel about things
00:38:25
but you don't have access to them and it's with from Google labs. Uh I felt
00:38:31
sort of funny in the beginning about working with Alphabet but I really trust this person and think a lot of her they they ingested all your things. So
00:38:38
they they crawled every podcast, every newsletter, every public appearance and
00:38:44
created a visual of me and I actually think the voice is is okay such that you can ask this thing almost anything and
00:38:50
we spent a lot of time on safeguards. No one under 18, no advice around mental health. The truth is uh since we started
00:38:57
working on this I've become increasingly concerned even freaked out about AI
00:39:02
companions and synthetic relationships. one, uh, I have a nightmare that I wake
00:39:08
up and find out that some kid hurt himself and he had a series of AI companions, including one with me. I
00:39:14
just don't I would never want to read that. two, on a more or on a less
00:39:19
macatious level, I'm worried that if I created an ability to have a dialogue
00:39:25
with me that it might someday reduce a young man's motivation and mojo to
00:39:31
establish mentorships in the real world, with real men, with real a teacher, uh their dad's
00:39:38
friend, their scout leader, whatever it is. And so the thing launched. I said to
00:39:44
him, "Look, I'm increasingly uncomfortable with this. I don't know how to reconcile it. I I worry that
00:39:51
synthetic relationships are attacking what's mimalia about us, especially among young men."
00:39:57
And I just I I I So what happens to it? They So they ingested it. Do you still have the rights to your things? Like they just
00:40:03
you're lending it to them? What What is the situation? So, one thing I built in
00:40:09
was that I can take it down at any time. And what I said to them is I said, "Let's launch it for 12 hours and look
00:40:15
at the data because I don't want this out there. I'm just" And quite frankly, Cara, the interview you did with the
00:40:21
parents who lost their son really rattled me and I am increasingly
00:40:27
uncomfortable with synthetic relationships doing anything that replace a young man's mojo to find
00:40:33
relationships in the real world. So, let me ask you a sort of a bigger question. Some of the stuff they're making with AI
00:40:39
to me is solving problems that aren't that big, right? I know you can't get to
00:40:44
everybody, right? And I get that. I get that you want to reach out to more people and you want people to have avail
00:40:49
themselves to your wisdom, etc. But it seems like a lot of this stuff they're making is not problems we have like, you
00:40:57
know, and I and I and I think it's hurting problems that we have with what you're just talking about is men. men
00:41:04
especially making mentorship relationships kind of thing. And so what
00:41:09
are we solving here by doing this except for you feel guilty about not being able to get back to all the young men? Is it
00:41:15
a real is that the real biggest problem to use all this technology, all this effort? I mean, do you see it as ever
00:41:22
being a good thing except maybe working out? I guess I guess a better Google,
00:41:27
right? I think there's more upside. I think if you're 85 and in a state or county
00:41:33
senior's home and you've lost the capability to communicate and all your friends are dead and you've lost for
00:41:39
whatever reason you're estranged from your family and you want to talk to someone about the Packers. It's almost an age thing for me. I think
00:41:45
over 80 let character AI let them have at it cuz quite frankly the downside's not that great. Anyone under the age of
00:41:51
18 shouldn't be on a character AI. And I have slowly but surely come to believe that these synthetic relationships have
00:41:58
more downside than upside. I would agree. I would agree. Let me just interject. I just did an interview
00:42:03
with Sher Turkl, very famous MIT um um psych psych I think she's a psychiatrist
00:42:10
and she's done a lot on this has been talking about artificial relationships for a long time and sort of everything
00:42:15
is now which she had predicted has come home to roost. And one of the things she was noting is it used to be sort of an
00:42:20
outlier people did these relationships. She goes now it's at the dead center. She has friends who are having trouble
00:42:26
with their husbands or wives that are having you know relationship problems etc.
00:42:31
And they spin up their best gay friend to give them advice. Right. Except that what what it does is say women have issues with men not
00:42:38
listening to them or not being sensitive enough. So now you got a sensitive man talking to you and men have issues.
00:42:44
We aren't folks. We have we all have to learn how to deal with it. That's right. So she was talking about
00:42:49
so and men like a very acquiescent female that which is why getting back to Tilly Norwood she is she is exactly what
00:42:56
Hollywood studios want an actress who doesn't get old and doesn't act up right or doesn't start to demand things. And
00:43:03
so what Cherry was saying the one thing that I thought was interesting and I love your observations there's no there there. It's not there's nothing behind
00:43:10
it except for stuff you inputed. Right. So you're not there Scott as Scott AI.
00:43:17
It's not you really. You know, I think you would react if someone asked you a general question is one thing, but a
00:43:24
more complex question. It just doesn't you you shift and move as a person and
00:43:30
this doesn't and there's no there there. I don't Well, okay. So, I don't think I don't
00:43:36
think it's that there isn't a there there. A repository of all of Peter Ati
00:43:41
or Andrew Huberman's advice on creatine for women versus men. There's access.
00:43:47
There's there's and these are neuroscientists who are thoughtful and I think fairly measured. There's value in
00:43:54
having access to that put in sort of a narrative format. I do think there's an upside. However, however, I see the
00:44:00
downside is that, and I'll be snarky here, women
00:44:06
are constantly saying they want a more sensitive man. Well, that just leaves two people in the car crying in a
00:44:11
parallel parking spot that is still empty. And that's snarky. But here's the
00:44:16
bottom line. It's true. I've been in that car. The most rewarding things in life,
00:44:22
hands down, come from navigating friction,
00:44:27
figuring out [ __ ] and then the victory of doing really hard things. And there's
00:44:35
nothing harder than having relationships. And that's what's so wonderful about them, right?
00:44:41
Interesting. When you figure out a way to come together with someone and decide you want to have kids with them, when
00:44:46
you figure out a way to get your kid off screens and come to some sort of agreement, when you figure out the
00:44:52
pecking order of high school and establish your your your crew and your friends,
00:44:58
when you figure out how to how to navigate all the [ __ ] and frustration and bureaucracy of work, the
00:45:05
end is we're mamalia. And that's what real [ __ ] victory is. So, what are you going to do with this thing? Are you going to kill it?
00:45:11
This is where I am today. I had them pull it down after 12 hours. And by the way, Google Ads could not have been more
00:45:20
cooperative. Well, empathetic. You're you have a loud platform, but go ahead. Yeah, but they're they've been they
00:45:27
spent a lot of time on this and it launched yesterday and I'm just and we were gonna let it go for a little bit to
00:45:33
look at the data and I looked at it and I thought I'm just not down with this. I
00:45:38
just I've got a bad feeling about this and I emailed I text messaged my friend there last
00:45:46
night and she said I'll pull it down right now. All right. Okay. Well, that that's what we're going to do. Can you send it to me
00:45:51
so I can hang out with you all the time? Can I have it? So, you can yell at it. Yell at it. Ah, you know, here's the
00:45:56
thing. I don't like Scott AI. I like Scott. That's how I feel about it. And I I think it's a really I you know, the
00:46:03
only thing I would think about years ago, Martha Stewart said she was going to start Marth AI. Get it? put an I at the end of her name. And I thought,
00:46:09
okay, for stuff like that, like how to boil an egg, how to make mashed potatoes, that makes perfect sense.
00:46:15
Robo advisers are basically synthetic. Right. Exactly. Stock brokers. Right. Exactly. And those make those
00:46:21
kind of things, cooking tips, things like that make sense. Although I do like a good chef talking about cooking. I
00:46:28
just I think you're you made the right decision. I think you made the right decision. Well, I I find most life lessons come
00:46:34
from Twilight Zone, the old series. Yeah, which by the way is the first time I ever saw Robert Redford that great
00:46:40
episode. But remember that episode where this guy, this criminal is shot and he goes
00:46:46
to heaven and he's in heaven and every woman he approaches says yes and wants
00:46:52
to date him. And when he goes up to the blackjack table, it's blackjack every time and he there's huge lines to get
00:46:58
into the hottest restaurants and they're like right in this way, sir. And he starts getting sick of winning all the
00:47:04
time. And he says, he says, "Come on, guys. This is supposed to be heaven." And the guy turns and goes, "My brother,
00:47:10
this is not heaven." That's the point. Oh, mind blown. Oh, I love Twilight
00:47:16
Zone. That's the point. Yeah, that's the point. The greatest yeses in your life involve
00:47:22
one thing, a [ __ ] ton of nos. Yeah, that's the whole shoot. Could they make Scott AI be more of an
00:47:28
[ __ ] like so that it's more like regular life. I'm getting there organically. I'm getting there.
00:47:34
That's what they have to do like h what and tell a dick joke suddenly. Anyway, Scott, let's go on a quick break now and
00:47:39
when we get back we'll talk about uh Heg Seth uh declaring the military free from wokeness and body shaming generals.
00:47:47
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00:47:52
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00:48:41
Scott, we're back with more news. Defense Secretary Pete Heg held nothing back while addressing senior military I
00:48:47
don't even want to talk officials in Virginia this week. Let's listen to some of his. And I have to say it was a crazy
00:48:53
rant by someone who has moved on to other substances. It felt like Go ahead. If the Secretary of War can do regular
00:49:00
hard PT, so can every member of our joint force.
00:49:05
Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops.
00:49:13
Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading
00:49:18
commands around the country and the world. It's a bad look. It is bad and it's not who we are.
00:49:23
Trump followed the sentiment. Let's listen to a clip. Someone who happens to be actually fat. Go ahead.
00:49:29
You can do anything you want and if you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room because there goes your rank, there goes your future.
00:49:37
That was one of the few laughs the generals were looked horrified by the entire thing. Uh the president also suggested military use quote dangerous
00:49:44
US cities as quote training grounds and told reporters of the White House that he would fire generals on the spot if he
00:49:51
didn't like them. Um wow that was a real disaster I have to say. Um they did the
00:49:56
the the visuals from the from the from the top uh military leadership were sort
00:50:01
of set it all and of course they leaked the hell out of the thing. Also he says focus on looks and outfits. They were
00:50:08
expecting a strategic discussion about US military forces around the world. Instead, they got a rant by someone who
00:50:15
was a lower ranking person and someone who was a fivetime draft dodger about
00:50:21
how to run the military but focused only on on looks. Uh essentially, let me tell
00:50:26
you one other thing someone else told me was that um the reason he did this and he it was all from Hegsth because he is
00:50:33
considering a presidential run which I thought was insane when I heard it. Um
00:50:39
and that that people other forces who are not so keen on Pete Hex running for
00:50:44
president and think it's ridiculous got Trump to go to try to ruin his mojo there. Um, I thought it was hugely
00:50:51
embarrassing um for for everybody, especially the military which had to sit there and and put up with it. Any quick
00:50:58
thoughts? There has never been possibly in history a room with more competence, bravery,
00:51:07
uh, honor, humility in one room than there was in that room.
00:51:13
It was a security risk to have them in one place. You don't think there was GRU
00:51:19
and CCP taking photographs and saying these are the most let's find their
00:51:24
let let's find what devices are on their kids their movements that that was
00:51:30
just a stupid security risk and for a guy who was I mean first off I'm very
00:51:37
into fitness I get it there is no to to hold a general who served
00:51:44
honorably probably in Vietnam as an 18-year-old who has who has overseen
00:51:51
combat. Okay, Pete, I want to see what you look like at 65.
00:51:57
I mean, the notion that he has any license
00:52:02
being demeaning to that room is literally
00:52:07
is laughable. And all of this [ __ ] around, you know, I I get it, beards, whatever.
00:52:16
this that's supposed to attack uh uh people of men of especially men of color. Some men have issues with with um shaving,
00:52:23
but go ahead. It's so performative. It's so It's so stupid. It It doesn't result. It It
00:52:30
makes us weaker. And you have it. You're You're talking
00:52:36
to the He's a [ __ ] He was a major. I know. Which means if he had been much better and spent another 20 years
00:52:43
in the armed services, he might have been able to pack the bags for the people who ended up in that room.
00:52:48
Yeah. To to lecture these people on leadership and what they need to be do.
00:52:54
Meaningless things. It wasn't even on strategy. It wasn't on our position in the world. It isn't, you
00:53:00
know, if he had said, "Now we're going to be this." Instead, it's all performative. The other part is him
00:53:05
talking them about being individualistic. This guy, there's not more of a fop in that cabinet than this
00:53:11
guy. He's got funny socks. He's got weird things on the inside of his jackets. He's got tattoos. He's wears
00:53:17
the stupid glasses. This guy is one speaking of individualistic, this guy just relishes in it. And to act like
00:53:24
he's some like paradigm is kind of [ __ ] rid. He's such a ridiculous
00:53:29
performative clown. And the fact that he's thinking of running for president, I mean, oh my. And this was what he was
00:53:36
using this. He was wasting taxpayer money to give himself a shine up and he ended up looking like a a clown.
00:53:42
The the two the two features that just were are always president present in a
00:53:49
room of leadership from our armed services are one competence. These
00:53:54
people are literally charged with deploying lethal force in a thoughtful way. And they're responsible for a ton
00:54:01
of young men and women's well-being as it intersects with some of the most
00:54:06
complicated supply chain technology, geopolitics in the world. And these people figure out a way to do it. From a
00:54:12
young age, I I one of my roommates was Rosi. by the, you know, I'm 24 doing
00:54:19
[ __ ] PowerPoint decks talking, you know, PowerPoint deck decks talking about taking over some some
00:54:25
refrigeration company in Wisconsin and my friend was commanding, 1200 19 year olds. I mean, the these people,
00:54:34
they one demonstrate competence and then the second key feature which these people do not demonstrate in any fashion
00:54:40
on stage is humility. They don't brag. They don't They don't, you know, and and
00:54:47
the other thing that the armed services represents, and it's not to say it hasn't had it problems around racism,
00:54:52
but it's been an enormous means of lifting up people based on character and competence. There's nothing that there's
00:54:59
nothing that melts away racism and homophobia like being in a foxhole where
00:55:05
both of your lives are under threat. All you care about is the competence and the character of the man or the woman next
00:55:11
to you. You're not thinking, "Well, I don't like Puerto Ricans." And so, the armed services have been an amazing
00:55:17
means of creating equality and progressive advancement. And then when you have these guys up there with this
00:55:23
sort of like this you need to be fit and you can't have they bring out, you know, I said fat boy
00:55:29
and little man bombed, right? I I do I I got to be honest. I do agree with one thing. I think in combat the
00:55:36
standard should be gender gender neutral. I think if you're applying to be in a combat position, you have to
00:55:41
qualify be able to by being able to drag somebody 90 ft if they're wounded. I get that. But the reality is today's combat
00:55:48
happen is more about it's like I think I would bet less than 2%
00:55:53
of our armed services. And you know who are also warriors? The man or the woman that agrees to get in
00:55:58
the driver's seat and drive a [ __ ] fuel tank across a highway of IEDs. That's correct. I mean, the whole thing
00:56:04
is it was such an embarrassment. And listen, President Pete, you're not going to be the Pete that's president. It'll
00:56:10
be Oh, let's hope he's the Republican nominee. Let's pray that he's the Republican. If he runs president on the
00:56:18
Republican side, I will donate money to his campaign. Oh my god. Cuz that means the next president is
00:56:24
going to be literally he makes Sarah Palin look smart. Anyway, lastly, he it was such a disaster of you, Pete, and I you got
00:56:30
totally they they shoved other people who don't agree that you should get this little fancy shine up shoved. There was
00:56:37
a whole mination happening among Republicans on how Trump ended up there, who also, by the way, when he said
00:56:43
cities should be used as training grounds, that is dangerous and scary and ridiculous. And I'm sure those military
00:56:50
people all thought that. Um just as long as he doesn't use the N-word. Oh, I know. Yeah. Don't use the god.
00:56:57
Um, YouTube, uh, lastly, YouTube will settle a lawsuit over banning President Trump's account for over $24 million.
00:57:03
YouTube banned Trump's account in 2021 after January 6 and reinstated it, uh, later. Uh, the settlement funds will go
00:57:10
to building the new White House ballroom, which so ridiculous. As a reminder, other big tech companies have done the same with similar lawsuits with
00:57:17
Meta settling for 25 million and X settling for 10 million. Um, oh god, why
00:57:22
are they settling? They did nothing wrong at the time. It was very dangerous and they reinstated. It was the right
00:57:27
decision at the moment. Uh they shouldn't be paying off these bribes. That's what they are. They're bribes. I
00:57:32
don't know your thoughts. Yeah, I keep waiting for someone just to hold the line and say no. I mean, all it
00:57:37
means is they're going to they're going to come back again. You're setting a really terrible precedent. I don't I
00:57:44
mean these companies are the same companies that fight people tooth and nail when their 15year-old gets uh gets
00:57:53
serve content that encourages suicidal ideiation and self harm. They'll go to the mat for that [ __ ] But when it comes
00:58:00
to the president being butth hurt about something that was said, they'll settle for tens of millions of dollars.
00:58:05
Ridiculous. They look like such toadies. They look like toadies. These anxious right down to Cindar Pai. I like Senator
00:58:12
Pai, but Sindar, you're an embarrassment at this moment to me. I have to say, I've known you for many years, and I
00:58:18
know you don't care what I think, but gh just really I I get your little pro. You should have held out. You'd have looked
00:58:24
smarter. Um, all right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.
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00:59:17
Okay, Scott, let's hear that prediction. I'm curious who you think's going private. How interesting. What's a fallen angel?
00:59:23
Well, we we talked about this. My picks were, and this isn't my prediction, but there's just some really big iconic
00:59:30
companies that have a lot of IP and revenue that probably should be either acquired or taken private. Bo, my
00:59:36
favorites were Boeing, Intel, and Target. But I think
00:59:41
you're about to see, and we predicted this, uh, by the way, the our prediction at the end of beginning of this year was
00:59:47
that M&A was about to boom again, and it was in a deep thaw at the beginning of the year. What do the investment banks
00:59:53
announce? Record M&A. So the universe of companies that Palunteer can potentially acquire right now has gone up a
00:59:59
thousandx. Yeah. It's if you don't do it, you're stupid, right? Their banker can show up. Well, when you're trading at 100 times revenues,
01:00:06
anything you acquire that's trading at less than 100 times revenues, which is every company on the planet, is accreative to your earnings. The way I
01:00:12
would describe it is if your stock doubles, then effectively everything else has become 50% less expensive.
01:00:19
And I think we're gonna see a titanic acquisition
01:00:25
or merger from Netflix. I think there are so many existential threats clouds
01:00:32
forming around Netflix right now with some of this. I mean Sam Alman putting
01:00:37
out these um kind of AIdriven videos and saying it's so you can communicate with
01:00:44
your friends and family. Yeah, that is a lie. He's doing this and trying to pretend it's friendly such
01:00:49
that every Hollywood producer starts going Jesus Christ why can't we start producing films for 3 million instead of
01:00:56
300 million. Yeah. So, I think there's some real existential threats to a stock that is
01:01:03
now worth, you know, I don't know, 440 billion or it that stock uh by the way,
01:01:09
one of my great investments, I bought Netflix at um 12 bucks a share. Um it's now at
01:01:16
1146. The part of the story I left out is I sold it at $10 a share to take the
01:01:21
tax loss and never bought back in. But basically Netflix now has a four almost
01:01:26
a half a trillion dollar market cap and I think they face some real threats. They need to do something. Yeah.
01:01:32
Well, the merger the gangster merger of the ages would be the following. Tell me.
01:01:38
Uh Netflix and Disney. Oh, I love because look at it's very synergistic.
01:01:44
First of all, and Ted could run Disney. How fantastic. Ding ding ding ding. Yeah. So there's this co-CEO,
01:01:51
this guy named Greg Peters. I saw him speak at Canon. I thought, Jesus Christ, this guy is so bright. He is bright. So, by the way, let me
01:01:58
note a woman who's at the top of that business. Bella Bajario is doing all the programming. Amazing.
01:02:04
They have an outstanding and then Ted Sarandos is like built in a factory of lesser
01:02:10
from parts of lesser CEOs. He is so good. I I saw him on stage recently and
01:02:16
they asked him these really pointed questions. Yeah, I like Ted. Well, first off, he has the primary
01:02:21
competence of any great CEO and that is he has outstanding hair. Yeah, he has good hair. He has very good hair.
01:02:27
Good with talent. He's good with talent. Good with talent. Smart. Not afraid of anybody. Any question, he handles it.
01:02:33
The guy literally reeks a plume. Anyway, Disney
01:02:39
Disney's leadership right now is Neville Chamberlain in a cashmere sweater minus the dignity, right? That's their and who
01:02:46
the [ __ ] And then the number two is a woman who's gotten dragged down by the Kimmel [ __ ] They are desperate for
01:02:51
leadership. What does Netflix what is what does Disney have that is
01:02:56
absolutely singular and can't be threatened by open AI? has the parks and cruise lines, but the IP at the parks,
01:03:04
Cinderella and Darth Vader are getting tired. Stranger Things Wednesday. Can you
01:03:12
imagine a Stranger Things ride at Disney? Amazing. Hunting wives, the whole
01:03:17
lesbian ride for me. Yeah. G the streaming market. Yeah.
01:03:22
You have Netflix and Disney. It's over. Hulu's in there. Remember,
01:03:27
you have you have Disney geographic is in there. It's over. Over. I love it. It would give them such
01:03:33
heft. They own They would own place-based entertainment and they would own streaming media.
01:03:38
Yeah. They would own cruises, parks, and and also Netflix is going into live events, too. Also comedy. Comedy. They
01:03:45
own comedy. It solves it solves their leadership problem. Yeah. We love this would be anyways 220 210 billion or
01:03:53
200 billion Disney 450 billion Netflix. Netflix would own, call it, 70% of the
01:03:59
combined companies. This would be the first trillion dollar play entertainment. Will it get passed by by
01:04:06
Well, that's the thing. It might now. It might now. Yeah. Or maybe my point is they can't if there's a they
01:04:11
couldn't have done it seven months ago. Pretty democratic. Remember, Ted's pretty like down Democratic highway. So,
01:04:17
but my point is as soon as there's under Biden, it couldn't happen. And if there's another Democratic
01:04:23
administration, it won't be allowed to happen. Can I add something to you? This is the window. Let me add something to your deal. Snapchat.
01:04:29
Pick up Snapchat. Snap's Snap's probably more trouble than it's worth. Not really. It's like a great system. They could shove all kinds of [ __ ] on
01:04:35
it. Like, why not own it? Like the way Ellison owns Tik Tok. Kids and it's I don't It is. So is Disney.
01:04:42
No, but there's not a feature. There's not a feature. Put it on your on your in your saucepan.
01:04:48
There's not a feature on on Disney Channel that lets you see people around you. The drug users the drug dealers are
01:04:53
using. Just telling you it's it's the it's the cleanest of all of them. People don't people don't go on the matter horn and start self cutting. Snap
01:05:00
is Snap has got real issues. I don't think they want near it. I don't think Ted Sarandos would want anyone. I'm just
01:05:06
saying they'll get on a social platform, too. Okay. All right. I'm just saying put it put it in the popcorn maker.
01:05:11
Think about it. Think about Tesla and Snapchat. Um Okay. Uh that was a great prediction. This feels like your Whole
01:05:17
Foods one. I like it. I love it. And I think it's has to happen. I'm going to tell Ted to do it. Okay. Um, we want to
01:05:23
hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech, or whatever is on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot
01:05:29
uh to submit a question for the show or call 8551 pivot. And don't forget, we're going on tour. We'll be coming to
01:05:35
Toronto, Boston, New York, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and LA. Visit visit
01:05:41
pivotour.com because we hate Arizona. We hate Arizona. We don't. We love Arizona. We'll go there sometime. Um,
01:05:48
but anyway, we're very excited to see the fans. We are going to be there for you. We're going to try to put on our best show. We're going to dress up.
01:05:54
Scott's going to do a strip tease. I have some surprises for Scott that he doesn't know about.
01:06:00
Um anyway, before we go, I just want to mention legendary conservationist Jane Goodall, who died this week at age 91. I
01:06:07
had the opportunity to speak to her back in 2020. Let's listen to a brief portion of that interview. I will never ever
01:06:14
believe that the way for change is confrontation and aggression because
01:06:20
people change when you reach the heart and so you know when people ask me what
01:06:26
do you do when you meet somebody who's behaving in a way that you really dislike or something try and find a
01:06:33
connection maybe they have a dog or a cat or a horse or a child or something
01:06:39
just for one minute if you have a short time to talk to them. Event stories tell
01:06:45
stories. Oh, what a what an amazing woman. What an amazing life. What an amazing life. Be Jane Goodall,
01:06:52
everybody. She just was I love that interview. It was fantastic. Anyway, Scott, by the way, you've been fantastic
01:06:58
today. I don't know what's in your wedies, but very fine. Yeah,
01:07:03
lots lots of stuff. You're not Jane Goodall, but you're on your way. and and and again, send me Scott AI because I'm
01:07:10
gonna I'm gonna have some times with him. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll
01:07:17
be back next week. One special thing, Clara Joe, uh Swisser Cats, happy sixth
01:07:22
birthday this weekend. We're very excited to have a fantastic mermaid party. And now, read us out.
01:07:28
Today's show was produced by Larara Neon, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kate Gallagher. Ernie and Todd
01:07:33
engineered this episode. Jim M edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Burroughs, Miss Severo, Dan Shalon, and
01:07:38
Anakah Robbins. Nishak Kuras, Vox Media's executive producer podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite
01:07:45
podcast platform. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at
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01:07:56
business care. Have a great weekend.