00:00:00
I never used to think about it before, but now I think literally anything I write down somewhere the government might have.
00:00:05
You also shove everything into JBT. Serious. I don't do it at all, but Oh, I love Yeah, I'm in I'm definitely
00:00:11
in a very promiscuous with the information. I' got to be promiscuous somewhere.
00:00:23
Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisser
00:00:28
and I'm Scott Galloway. How you doing today, Scott? I'm good. I got a little bit of the the
00:00:34
uh the Xbar hangover. Did at Xandy last night 4 a.m. Couldn't sleep. What
00:00:39
are you having trouble sleeping when you're old? I'm getting I am. I I wake up at 48 every night.
00:00:44
I'm turning into one of those people that just like a ghost walking around the house. I used to be such a good sleeper. Yeah, you're supposed to do that. You're
00:00:50
supposed to get up and walk around, just so you know. Not not try to go to sleep lying there. Yeah. Uh what did I watch? I've been
00:00:58
watching, you know what? I'll watch anything with my favorite actor, Hitler. I just type
00:01:04
in World War II and I watch the Battle of the Bulgian color. Um, I'm obsessed
00:01:10
with World War II. I'm officially 100 years old. Not Rome. I usually men are Rome, but
00:01:15
Rome or Hitler usually seems to be things men of your age like to watch. No. No, I don't.
00:01:21
Not Rome. Why don't you ask me what I did this weekend? Oh, I'm sorry. What did you do this weekend? I had a mermaid party.
00:01:28
Oh yeah. So that obviously was for Lucky, not for one of your kids. No, it was for Clara. It was like So it
00:01:35
was so interesting cuz all the girls showed up in mermaid outfits. Every single one of them. And they were fantastic, let me just say, versions of
00:01:42
mermaids. All kinds of spangles and this and that. All the guys, all the boys,
00:01:47
many showed up in superhero costumes. Interesting. Yeah. If if anyone wants to believe
00:01:53
gender is not a thing, just have a party and invite boys and girls over and see what they do. Put a room full of dolls
00:01:58
and cars and see what happens. Yeah, it was interesting. It was They looked fantastic. Claire had a great
00:02:04
time. We had a treasure hunt. Amanda baked the cake. It was beautiful and delicious. Um and it was fun. It was
00:02:11
good. I cleaned the yard with my power washer. That was fun for me. That part. We really have gender. Speaking of
00:02:16
gender roles, that's a flex. I know. She baked a cake and you did the
00:02:21
power wash. So if it's a really difficult parking spot, you handle it. Is that what you're saying? Yes, that's correct.
00:02:27
That's what's going on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And in fact, I get handed like this morning Saul handed me
00:02:33
one. Every time he has something broken or needs a battery, he hands it to me. Mom will fix it. Yeah. I We are in a
00:02:40
gender role. I hate to say it, but it's true. The best alliance in history is the alliance between masculine and feminine
00:02:46
energy, I guess. I don't know. I'm good at fixing things. I really am. That's true. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, um it was a fun
00:02:52
weekend. It was really nice. It was It was lovely. So, is it is there a specific mermaid
00:02:58
piece of IP? What is it? Oh, yeah. Little Mermaid. Yeah. Well, they loved Listen, everyone likes
00:03:03
K-pop Demon Hunters still. This is like a crazy trend happening. Um but, uh among boys and girls, by the way. Um but
00:03:11
uh Mermaid, Little Mermaid, that's the the Disney mermaid. My my favorite kind
00:03:17
of mermaid IP is Bill Bellich's Instagram of his 22-year-old mermaid. I
00:03:23
love the thought I love that they planned that they thought this will be a big hit. This is a really good idea.
00:03:30
Have you Have you seen that Instagram of them? Yes. Yes. Oh my god. I know. I know. I'm so here for it.
00:03:36
Are you Is that going to be you someday? Do not You best wife. Let's hope so. I I need to get much
00:03:41
richer. Why do you think I'm doing this? value that lady of yours. She is a same. I should do the same. But let me just
00:03:47
say your lady is fantastic. My lady. Your lady. My as Robert Redford. As Robert Redford
00:03:54
said when he was accepting lifetime and my lady friend. My lady must make her
00:03:59
feel good. I like that. I like that. My lady friend. Yeah. I often call men ladies. Like I go, "Hey ladies, let's go." And it it
00:04:06
annicy of which, what are you dressing up for Halloween? Oh, I'm got I'm so excited.
00:04:16
I'm so excited. I am. Again, my assistant, who is usually in charge, wanted me to go as Larry David. And I'm
00:04:23
like, that's just No one's going to invite me into the bathroom to do ketamine when I'm dressed like Larry David. Okay, you're right. You're right.
00:04:28
No, like hot women are going to come up to me and say, oh, you know, hey, what can I get your can I follow you on? That would work. Larry David would work,
00:04:34
but go ahead. Oh, 100%. I'm bringing out I'm bringing out the the one that works. I'm going as
00:04:40
Deadpool again. Oh, but I'm going as Deadpool. I'm going as Deadpool after the fire, so
00:04:45
I have to get a makeup artist to put all these scars all over my head. Oh, wow. Okay. But I don't know which private members
00:04:51
club to go to. There's a lot of competition this year cuz they're all they're all compet it's it's crazy. If
00:04:58
you think the competition between AI is intense, it's nothing compared to the private
00:05:03
membership bloodbath that is taking place in make it right. Oh, no. There's what happened was I'm
00:05:12
fascinated with the economics of this. Okay. Um, basically there's been public. Can you Which one's Soho House?
00:05:18
Soho House is public. It just got taken private. Right. It's a It's a fantastic deal. It's a great idea. It doesn't make money. It
00:05:24
spends too much money. Shouldn't have been a public company. It's been taken private. But that's sort of like a Toyota, like
00:05:29
good value for the money. Young. And then this really talented entrepreneur, this guy named Scott Sartiano, who's a lovely guy, started
00:05:36
Zero Bond. He came in with a Mercedes offering and everything's demographically driven. There's there's just so much money now at the top 1%.
00:05:45
And it was a huge hit. And I'm not exaggerating. And about 36 months or 24 months later, these things just started
00:05:51
popping up everywhere. Literally everywhere. And the bummer is I mean, if
00:05:59
you have money, great. The bummer is is that where do where do young people go
00:06:04
who don't have the money to get into? That's an opening. That's an opening in those kind in that area is cheaper and
00:06:10
but then again if it's too cheap then it's everyone can go. You know it's interesting. There's the same phenomena
00:06:15
here in DC. There's the Ned and then there's this one the Trump people opened up with Chimath Polyhapatia and the
00:06:21
whole gang. But that one a Trumper just told me they're all dropping in price especially the Trump one. Like it was
00:06:27
started at like $500,000 now it's down. No, no one wants to go hang out with those guys. And also you're
00:06:33
but I'm just saying it dropped. you're ignoring a basic truth and that is or we're not talking about basic truth. The reality is all these things are driven
00:06:39
off of two things. They're driven off of rich men and the hot women that like rich men. There's some there's some fun
00:06:46
cool stuff that's creative on the Lower East Side, but the reality is these private members clubs, they price
00:06:51
discriminate, which they should uh for younger people, but basically it's a bunch of 40some year old dudes and a
00:06:57
bunch of hot 20some year old women. When I moved, I I remember going there's such
00:07:02
a weird p like power dynamic in terms of the mating market. When I first moved to New York, I just came out of UCLA where
00:07:10
I was not a big deal, but I was young and good-looking and finally coming in my own and dating a lot of very highc
00:07:16
caliber women. I got to New York at the age of 22, was a Morgan Stanley analyst.
00:07:21
I couldn't get arrested because any of the women who used to date me at UCLA were dating 35-year-old hedge fund
00:07:26
managers that could take him to the Hamptons. So, if you're a guy in your 20s in New York, you might as well be
00:07:33
invisible. At the same time, if you're a woman going into her 30s who's nice and attractive, but not crazy hot, you might
00:07:39
as well be invisible. New York is America. It's optimized for two people, wealthy men and hot women. And for
00:07:45
everybody else, it's a soul crushing experience. And these clubs are that on steroids. I would agree. I don't, you know, I
00:07:50
don't drink and I I but I've started going to bars with Amanda. Just the idea of going to bars now is more appealing
00:07:56
than a club to me like with other people. Are they lounges or bars? Well, this one was this little thing
00:08:01
called a fountain in and it was just it's just an old Georgetown house that they redid. Wait, did you have a pimp's cup with
00:08:07
Chuck Todd? No. No, I didn't. There's no Chuck Todd. Jesus. The other one is more like a bar
00:08:13
and it was full of young people but older people because they had games, they had uh pingpong, they had um it
00:08:19
just was lovely food but not too fancy just it was full of young people playing
00:08:24
games which I loved like and not just young people it was like a mix. It was really It was Can't imagine anything lame or I just
00:08:31
did I just ordered Negronis with George Stephanopoulos. I didn't It wasn't those people. It was
00:08:36
not fancy. I'm just saying that I'm not I'm not exaggerating. I avoid DC cuz
00:08:41
there's like I've never found the only late night drinking spots Yeah. are like interns and you feel like a
00:08:48
perve. There's like no cool lounges or places. Well, I'll take you I don't belong to the Ned, but we'll go to the Ned. Ned is
00:08:53
actually kind of nice. It's Oh, it's a membership club. Yeah, it's a membership club. It's right across from the White House. It's on top of Rigs Bank. It's actually my neighbor
00:09:00
belongs. So, we'll have I'll have her drag us there. We'll go there. Okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That sounds great.
00:09:06
You're never coming here. Oh, no. The night we have our show. That's where we're going to go. Okay. All right. We have a show here in DC, by the way. Um,
00:09:12
anyway, we got to get to stuff. The tour is going great. It's selling great. So, buy your tickets. We're sold out.
00:09:17
Are we? Are we? We're sold out. No, we're sold out in uh the city. We're sold out in Toronto and San Francisco for sure.
00:09:24
We're sold out in Toronto. I heard. And San Francisco. I had lots of And San Francisco.
00:09:29
Yeah. Now, just don't tell anyone the venue is 12 people. We're doing it in Ly's old old basement apartment.
00:09:36
Anyway, we've got a lot to get to today. Um, including Open AI backtracking on copyrights. What a shock. And Elon Musk
00:09:43
pushing for a Netflix boycott. Oh, good god. But first, President Trump's immigration crackdown is escalating.
00:09:49
Actually, this is quite troubling. Over the weekend, he authorized the deployment of 300 Illinois National Guard troops to Chicago. Uh, Governor JB
00:09:56
Pritsker is warning that federal agents and raids are turning the city into a war zone. He's creating problems. Trump
00:10:02
also keeps trying to send National Guard troops into Portland. He first attempt to send Oregon national troops in. It was blocked by a federal judge whom he
00:10:10
appointed. He then tried to deploy troops from California, was blocked by the same judge who was really pissed
00:10:16
off. So, he keeps trying to find National Guard. This judge is going to block it completely. National uh uh
00:10:22
Texas National Guard troops are also in the mix for Oregon and Illinois with Governor Abbott's blessing. By the way,
00:10:27
he is saying some things that are incredibly inflammatory, saying maybe Portland should be gone. Um all this
00:10:33
none of your [ __ ] business, Greg Abbott, like sit down. I shouldn't say that, but all this uh as protests
00:10:39
intensify in Chicago and Portland over these ICE raids. Um, I don't know what
00:10:44
you thought, um, what you've seen, but it seems like a really truly demented escalation. And Homeland Secretary
00:10:51
Christy Gnome is also saying ICE agents will be all over the Super Bowl where Bad Bunny is the halftime headliner. Um,
00:10:59
I don't I don't know who, as who can afford, as you noted, uh, going to the Super Bowl, but it's very expensive for
00:11:05
people to know. So, any thoughts on all this? Cuz it's truly troubling what's happening here. It's all led by Steven
00:11:11
Miller, obviously. Well, there's two things here. The first is I I just think
00:11:16
this whole thing is such manufactured division. And that is if you think about socialism
00:11:23
is supposed to be is about equality, right? That we should have, everyone should have the economy, the spoil
00:11:30
should be, you know, William Gibson said the future's here. It's just not evenly distributed. You could say the same thing about capitalism if it's left
00:11:37
unchecked. The prosperity happens. It's just not evenly distributed. Socialism is a means of correcting that by the
00:11:44
government owning the means of production. By the way, this is hands down economically the most socialist government America has ever had.
00:11:50
Correct. Nearly liberalism is the idea that everyone should be free to pursue liberty even if
00:11:56
it means no search, you know, very strict private property and search and seizure laws where you may know that
00:12:02
that house there's crime in it, but if you don't have a warrant, a search warrant approved by a judge, you're not
00:12:07
allowed to go in. We believe in gun rights as a form of liberalism to a certain extent because we believe it's
00:12:13
worth a certain amount. I don't want to protect gun rights, but the whole idea of a liberal democracy is
00:12:19
the pursuit of liberty. Fascism, the juice of fascism is trying to convince people that the enemy is within
00:12:26
attacking attacking and threatening the chosen way of life. And that's what this is. This is fascism
00:12:35
on any metric. the idea that crime is out of control. If that were true, then
00:12:41
it was way more out of control several years ago. And also, if you were really
00:12:46
serious about reducing crime, you wouldn't be sending in federal troops who don't know how to conduct crime investigations, don't know how to
00:12:52
collect evidence, don't know how to arrest people. They're just to there to intimidate people. I believe I I am a
00:13:00
believer that if you're going to spend now over a trillion dollars in the military, you should be proactive around
00:13:06
the use of the military. I would rather see these guys and gals in Ukraine
00:13:14
supporting long-range missile missile launches to destroy oil
00:13:19
infrastructure. I would rather see them as a peacekeeping force in Gaza.
00:13:24
They are ineffective and all they do is tear at the fabric of society and make us hate each other. And here's the
00:13:30
bottom line. We're not that divided. No. What we have is an administration
00:13:38
and godlike technology dividing us. Yeah. Creating tension. I mean, it was interesting because there's still a few
00:13:44
troops around DC and I went by one last night and and I I was trying to be nice
00:13:50
and I I was like, "You guys should go home." Like I was very nice about it and they're like don't you think we want to
00:13:55
go home? This is ridiculous. They were like they were like not wanting to be there either. It's so they
00:14:01
were standing on the corner and then do you see the picture from Portland? They were at Voodoo Donuts. There were all these these troops at
00:14:07
Voodoo Donuts which are like delicious donuts, may I add? I mean what do you think about the the everything's
00:14:13
performative whether it's Christy Gnome or Steven Miller who I think is a committed fascist actually. The others I think are very performative. uh looking
00:14:21
at you know Pete Hex has one to run. I bet Christy Gnome wants to be president. Um but it's really it creates if you
00:14:28
create enough problem with these people there you will have a clash which is I think what they
00:14:33
want. That's what they're looking for. That's what they're looking for a fight. Now one of the things that's been and this is in our wheelhouse big tech is
00:14:40
getting involved in all this. Apple and Google have pulled several apps that let users flag sightings of ICE agents
00:14:45
including a widely used app called Ice Block. Uh, the move comes after Attorney General Pam Bondi pressed Apple to
00:14:51
remove IceBlock, claiming it puts federal officers at risk for doing their jobs. The app's creator slammed the
00:14:56
decision, accusing Apple of bending to what he called an authoritarian regime. Meanwhile, ICE is hiring contractors to
00:15:01
scan Facebook, Tik Tok, and YouTube to find leads for enforcement raids and also monitor people's social feeds.
00:15:07
Again, communist. This is what the authoritarians do. What do you think of
00:15:12
And we have given so much of our information over to these companies and they don't deserve the trust we have
00:15:17
given them in lots of ways. I I I I'm of mixed mind on the ice block and at the
00:15:23
same time I'm kind of like well this is what happens when you do things like this like people get creative. There's
00:15:30
one in San Francisco is showing where parking meter people are which the the city got mad about so you could move
00:15:35
your car in time. I mean it it seems like when you do one thing and people take a action against the other, guess
00:15:42
what's going to happen? What do you think about the tech companies?
00:15:47
I'm on the tech company's side of this. If you get a letter from the attorney general telling you to take an app down, I I just think you have to comply with
00:15:52
the law. I don't I don't I don't fault them for doing that. What what I think
00:15:58
this shows though is that we need more diversity of platforms. I also I do like the idea of encryption,
00:16:07
but at the same time, I like the government's ability. We're better at spying than anyone else in the world.
00:16:13
And America and the Israelis have basically developed technology where they can
00:16:18
essentially hack almost any phone. I quite frankly like that because I do think of us at the end of the day as the good guys. At the same time, you said
00:16:25
something that's really stuck with me and that is people should have the right to have secrets. I really like that. I
00:16:33
like the idea. I never used to think about it before, but now I think literally anything I write down
00:16:38
somewhere the government might have or that you also shove everything into GPT. Serious. I don't do it at all, but
00:16:44
Oh, I love Yeah, I'm in I'm definitely in a very promiscuous with the information.
00:16:50
Got to be promiscuous somewhere. Anyway, so but I find that fascinating. I just I'm curious how it comes back with
00:16:56
stuff. But so I don't I don't think you can fault tech for taking down these
00:17:02
platforms. I the the the images of
00:17:08
American cities and ICE agents and masks. Oh, they're terrible. I think it I think that will go down as
00:17:15
a pretty I mean not not on the same level as the interament of Japanese families, but
00:17:22
kind of the same flavor. Yeah, absolutely. Did you see that one where the guy was just standing there on the sidewalk? He was close to him and
00:17:28
the guy was like off and he like he wasn't close enough to have what they did to him. He was
00:17:35
near him, right? He was a tall guy near an AIDS agent and he he goes back off
00:17:40
and he was like, "I'm standing on the sidewalk." And then the guy took him to the ground and beat the living [ __ ] [ __ ] out of him. It was crazy. It's
00:17:47
crazy. Well, there's there's tests. A lot of police forces have tests and I say, "Okay, we understand that people who
00:17:54
might like the idea of having a gun and a badge sometimes might have a background
00:18:00
might have a background where they want to be in a position of authority and we got to be clear that they're going into that position for the right reasons."
00:18:06
And it strikes me that if if you are signing up for ICE right now, and I
00:18:12
realize people have an obligation to make a living, you're not doing this to protect and serve. you're doing that. I think
00:18:19
there's a decent chance that you have some underlying hostility towards immigrants that is not is not befitting and the
00:18:27
fact that you can wear a mask. Yeah. Judges make really dangerous decisions every day. They put very dangerous
00:18:34
people behind prisons. They don't wear masks. Yeah. So the fact that these we have decided to normalize the idea that
00:18:41
certain uh certain people in the of the government on on the street can wear a
00:18:47
mask. What that means is we want to give them license and we want to give them the confidence to engage
00:18:54
in depraved uh vile behavior. If I if if we trust
00:18:59
our society enough that someone can put a mobster, a murderous mobster in prison
00:19:06
and the jurists and the judge don't get to wear masks. Y then why on earth would we let people
00:19:13
who supposedly are legally deporting people here illegally wear masks? Why? because the way they are engaging in it
00:19:19
is a form of of of violence, of a violation of people's rights, of an
00:19:26
activity that makes you feel really bad about America and humanity and does nothing. I was with someone who's a
00:19:33
fairly famous anchor and their partner has left the country, their partner is legal, but because
00:19:41
they're non-white, they can't relax. They're worried about they know that if they don't want to be incarcerated
00:19:47
incorrectly for 72 hours or whatever. Yeah, exactly. Let me say speaking of judges not wearing masks,
00:19:53
the the per people are now under attack are the judges. Steven Miller started to call judges insurrectionists now for
00:20:00
doing their job. And one of the judges who pushed back on one of Trump's many
00:20:05
violations of the law had her house burned down. They don't know what happened, but the house was burned down.
00:20:11
Stephen Miller right now I if this man doesn't go to jail someday for what he's in what he is creating here creating all
00:20:19
kinds of anger or down in shame. If you notice one of another one of his relatives said he he's a heinous piece
00:20:24
of [ __ ] used to be normal and now is we don't know what's happened to him. The whole family but um but the judges are
00:20:32
the ones under siege. You're right. They don't get to wear a mask. They they stand they write long rulings and if
00:20:38
these thugs that's what they are. If they're wearing masks, you're a thug. If you want to do it, you don't need to have your identity protected. What are
00:20:45
you like a like a delicate flower? If judges don't, which who don't have guns,
00:20:50
if uh if other pe juries don't, they don't have guns to protect them, you should not have a a mask on your face.
00:20:57
That to me is it says everything. Let me just say the the one thing that was really heartening to hear is the pope uh
00:21:04
who has been talking about this during a mass this past Sunday. Pope Leo urged Catholics to open their hearts and arms
00:21:10
to migrants. This came after he referenced the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States while speaking to reporters last week. Press
00:21:17
Secretary Carolyn Levit as usual because she's a mouthpiece pushed back on those comments. And Mag influence also voiced
00:21:22
their unhappiness with the Pope. Um, I thought what he said was really strong, was a very strong. He spoke out on
00:21:28
immigration. He spoke on a lot of things. This guy is just as sharp as attack. And I like that he's sort of entering the picture for decency. I
00:21:36
guess that's what I would say. He's I don't think it's left or right. It's like don't be indecent. I don't know if
00:21:41
you have any thoughts on that. Look, the the term undocumented
00:21:46
worker is a misnomer because here's the thing. These people have documents. They have
00:21:52
phone contracts. They have driver's licenses. They have social security cards. They have W2s.
00:21:59
They have all sorts of documents to ensure that US corporations can can
00:22:05
build them. They have uh bank accounts so they can wire money home so banks can get the float. They have all sorts of
00:22:11
documentation such that we can make money from them. And the notion that
00:22:16
they're okay, I get it. If you're here illegally, you should be asked to leave.
00:22:22
I I I I understand that. Now, at the same time, and it all comes back to the
00:22:28
same thing, if we were serious about this problem, we would find the employers. I mean,
00:22:35
if they're not here because they like the weather, they're here because there's jobs. Because a lot of domestic workers will
00:22:41
not take these jobs. They will not wipe your grandmother's ass or build your house for 15 bucks an hour. Nope. And if we want to have cheaper
00:22:49
houses, cheaper health care, better services, better restaurants, we have
00:22:54
for the last 40 or 50 years turned a blind eye to this. We have done it intentionally on both sides of the administration. We didn't wake up with
00:23:01
tens of millions undocumented workers. Did Democrats and the Biden administration probably let it go too
00:23:06
far? Yes. But this notion of like turning into a police state and
00:23:11
demonizing these people and taking our eye off the ball off of real security threats. Also, I am somewhat
00:23:19
empathetic to the notion that Democratic governors invited an an overcorrection
00:23:26
by virtue signaling all the [ __ ] time instead of actually cleaning up their own cities that they're governing. True, but Scott, that's like taking a a
00:23:33
sledgehammer to a fly, right? I 100% agree. Right. It's a total overreaction. And
00:23:39
the thing that's most depressing is I shared a clip. I believe it was from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie with the
00:23:44
ship blowing up around the sky. And it had this caption, "This is how it feels to be a centrist in the US." And I
00:23:50
wrote, "No, it's worse." And the comments were like, "Uh, centrists are
00:23:56
fascists, centrists are enablers. We are just so divided and angry right now."
00:24:03
Tom Thomas Freriedman had something I thought he had something very cogent or on
00:24:08
on Mar he said we're not that divided we're just being divided. Yeah. And everyone says come together and
00:24:15
everything and we need to turn the heat down. I'm telling you folks it's not about a politician trying to cosplay
00:24:21
Obama and turn down the political heat. These we have connected 40% of the S&P
00:24:27
to rage and sequestering us from one another. Yep. And what hap I am I don't know
00:24:32
about you. I go on social media now and I see these videos of these kids and these women being
00:24:40
separated from their husbands on social media and I [ __ ] hate America for
00:24:46
about 30 seconds. And I'm not saying it's not important that we don't see that, but when you have an administration and algorithms
00:24:53
that say, "Oh, we're going to this is going to make us so much money. We're going to have so many Nissan ads from this." Yeah.
00:24:58
So, we have this onetwo punch of an administration that conflates masculinity and leadership with
00:25:04
coarseness and cruelty and algorithms that make a [ __ ] ton of money from it. And the result is I if you were to go
00:25:12
out today, ice raids and all, and I'm not in any way accepting or or or
00:25:19
diminishing the the ugliness of these ice raids, but if you go out in Portland, if you go out in Paripony, New
00:25:26
Jersey, or you go out in in Province Town, you're generally going to find
00:25:31
Americans from all political spectrums are generally speaking really lovely
00:25:37
people. No, you're right. I would agree. I I would agree with you. I just think one of the issues is this is an attempt
00:25:42
to divide and create anger and it works. And I think what's really nice is to see everyone coming around to something you
00:25:49
and I have been going on about forever. Uh you saw Mcronone talk about social media. You talked you you see everyone
00:25:56
is now on this bandwagon. And we these people should not be trusted with our
00:26:01
information or decision-m about our society. It's enough with them deciding what we should do. Look, we're willing
00:26:08
addicts to these people, but is heroin. And it will not end well if we don't take some control of this. And what the
00:26:15
Trump administration has done to take control is to get bribes from them. And that's what they are. These these
00:26:20
payouts and let them do whatever they want. They need to be drastically regulated in many many ways or taxed
00:26:28
either way. Uh you know, they need to be pulled back in ways that shouldn't be making decision-making. And that that
00:26:33
will get us to our next thing when we get back. Um, OpenAI uh does an about face on copyright policy for Sora 2.
00:26:41
Scott, we're back with more news. OpenAI has backtracked and will give copyright holders more control over how their
00:26:46
characters are used on Sora, its new AI video generation app. Uh, as a reminder,
00:26:52
leading up to the launch, the company has said copyright holders would have to opt out of having material appear in
00:26:58
videos. Scott that made excellent points last week. CEO Sam Alman said the company would have to quote somehow make
00:27:04
money from the app to offset costs. Oh well don't make it if you can't make money Sam and would try to share some of
00:27:10
the revenue with rights holders who opt in. We'll try to share. Thanks. Sora is
00:27:15
a top a free app in Apple's app store at the time of the taping. It's an interesting app. Um uh by the way open a
00:27:22
chip designer uh AMD have announced a multibillion dollar partnership uh to collaborate on AI data centers. This is
00:27:28
Lisa Sue. I just recently interviewed her actually. Um, but the fact of getting away with anything they want is
00:27:35
just they still think that. Um, and by the way, OpenAI's dev day will be happening after we tape today. We'll
00:27:40
talk about that more on Friday. But thoughts on this turnabout. I mean, they must have heard holy hell from
00:27:46
everybody. That's my assumption. Well, I've hired hackers and and AI engineers to reverse engineer everything
00:27:53
that Open AI spend money on. I'm calling it closed AI because they have not opted out. They have not opted out. closed.
00:27:59
I mean, you like that they haven't. And by the way, I've disassembled my iPhone. I'm I'm I found
00:28:06
Foxcon in China and I found assemblers because Tim Cook has not opted out. Yeah, he hasn't opted out. I can
00:28:12
I mean, that is just so [ __ ] ridiculous. Shoplifterss. And the notion that
00:28:19
I mean, if they were really Adobe did this the right way. Adobe basically started a generative AI, a design AI,
00:28:26
whatever they're called, and said everything on here we've had, we've developed agreements with the initial IP
00:28:33
creators, and it's probably not as complete as a wild west, but you know, everything here the you know, the people
00:28:40
have have agreed to license it to us. And this is this is a moment in time
00:28:47
where absolutely they should hit back hard. But unfortunately the smart economic
00:28:53
um decision is just to just to steal from people. But I think this is
00:28:58
absolutely a moment to push back. The the other thing I got additional hate
00:29:03
from this. I've been getting a lot of hate this week or I'm very sensitive. I don't know. Maybe it's Sanic speaking. Not sure. Anyways, the I put out a thing
00:29:11
showing a graph. LA is LA is basically turning into the next Detroit with
00:29:17
better weather. Yeah. And they sent you that story. Yeah. In the times what the Japanese did to Detroit u
00:29:24
essentially Netflix and now AI as which you had been very vocal about
00:29:31
the strike FYI saying this is going to cause untold damage. So it was the strike Netflix and AI but go ahead.
00:29:38
Yeah, I I won't even go there. That literally the the the stupidest people in corporate America ever elected a
00:29:45
position as the WGA who decided I know let's transfer wealth from actors and
00:29:50
workers to Netflix and make things worse for us and keep people out of work for
00:29:55
five month five months so they can come back with with no negotiating leverage. Anyways, I if you've seen the numbers,
00:30:03
LA has had a vibrant creative middle class driven by Hollywood and it's not.
00:30:09
People think it's Brian Cranson or Tom Cruz. It's not. It's caterers. It's makeup artists. It's lighter. It's
00:30:16
gaffers. It's sound people. People making 80 to 250 grand a year as
00:30:22
animators, as costume designers. Yeah. And it's all being cleaned out.
00:30:29
out first by Netflix who moved the majority of the production overseas or to the places with the biggest tax credits.
00:30:35
That's economic arbitrage based on geography. Atlanta, New Jersey are doing Vancouver, Budapest.
00:30:42
The Marvel films. Can you think of anything more American than the Marvel films? You know where they're being filmed? Budapest.
00:30:47
Pinewood Studios outside of England. Los London, too. Yep. Mhm. So, okay. You can't get in the way of
00:30:53
that. It's important geographies. Wait to see what AI does to these guys, right? Because all of a sudden,
00:31:01
all these guys. So, this is LA, San Francisco, the transfer of wealth,
00:31:08
there's literally a sucking sign of capital and opportunity from LA to San Francisco right now. And that is those
00:31:15
3,400 people that worked on uh just as as Bezos said, your margin is my
00:31:20
opportunity. the the credits in movies are AI's opportunity right now. They're
00:31:27
looking at that and thinking, "Oh my gosh, it's going to be fun." Having said that, I went and saw last night one
00:31:34
battle after the other with with Leonardo DiCaprio, Leo DiCaprio, and
00:31:39
I was really mixed on it. These guys, Benio Del Toro and Leonardo DiCaprio and
00:31:45
his daughter, the woman who plays his daughter, who's just so beautiful and such an a good actress. There's so much
00:31:52
talent in it. You can't kind of turn your eyes away from the screen. But it felt to me like an independent movie
00:31:57
that if it didn't had three superstars in it, could have done a half a million dollars after premiering at Sundance to Applause. It didn't feel like
00:32:04
quite frankly, I thought it's I think it's hugely overrated. Yeah. You were looking forward to that. I was really excited about it.
00:32:10
Yeah. But it's just so strange. I don't know if it's I'm aging out. I think literally the big screen is just going to go away.
00:32:17
Yeah. Yeah, I think it's going to be kind of an event thing like going ice skating or rolling. You did well this weekend. We didn't
00:32:22
talk about her album just cuz I was being respectful. But guess who killed it at the box office? Guess who killed
00:32:28
it? Taylor Swift is the number one box office hit with her on She did a deal
00:32:34
with AMC. They are raking in the [ __ ] dough. Thank you. Go Taylor.
00:32:39
I'm happy for her. Showgirl, she's so good. Come on. Just think she's good. She's good.
00:32:44
She's an inspiring young woman. I'm happy. But I'm just saying that's who killed it at the box office this weekend. You're Oilia. You are Oilia.
00:32:51
Yeah. Can't believe you haven't listened to it. There's a whole I've had a nickel for every time I've heard that. Um I'm just saying there's there's a penis
00:32:57
song in this album, but go ahead. Uh anyways, um name one thing Taylor
00:33:02
Swift doesn't have in her purse. What? Her boyfriend's phone number. Oh, you're funny. She's getting married
00:33:08
in case she's happy ending for Taylor Swift with By the way, the album is excellent and it's killing it. She's
00:33:14
killing it. I'm just saying go back to the box office. Go ahead. Go ahead. So, DiCaprio fails, but Taylor kills it.
00:33:19
Go ahead. Okay. I I just think movies are becoming something like ice skating a Rockefeller Center. You'll do it every couple years
00:33:25
with your kids. Events. Events is right. It's just not and and I remember
00:33:30
thinking or if I become so extremely online, I can't sit still for 150 minutes. But there's there's definitely
00:33:38
something very Governor Nuomo either needs a couple things need to happen. I do think Governor Nuomo needs to
00:33:44
supersize the film tax credit or the motion picture tax credit for California to 750.
00:33:50
It was sort of a mini size. It wasn't. It's 750 million bucks for an economy
00:33:55
that big. I don't know. For me, I if I were him and I don't know if you could do this, some sort of tax above a
00:34:02
certain amount, i.e. AI that funds the creative community in California because I do think the creative community in LA
00:34:08
is a really valuable part of that fabric. And so the LA, which hasn't been
00:34:13
competitive with other regions for 10 or 15 years, is really suffering. And I'm
00:34:18
telling you, they got to call Barry Diller. They got to get lawyers. They have got to go after these guys early
00:34:23
and often because the fact that the head of OpenAI would even suggest people need to opt out. They need to op So let me
00:34:30
get this. There's a there's a there's a house next to me. They look rich. Do they need to purposely opt out of me
00:34:37
breaking in and stealing their [ __ ] Do they do they need to say to me, "No, do not come over and take our shit." I mean
00:34:45
that's that is such that gives you insight into the mentality of these folks that the president basically says
00:34:51
they can molest the other 490 uh companies of the S&P 500 of anything
00:34:57
they want and they are protected because what they've decided is what he's decided is that people who come meet
00:35:03
with me who I adore who might be trillionaires and who can turn up or down the algorithms to get me reelected
00:35:09
and I think they will want to get me reelected if they see I let them run unfettered and become worth 400 100
00:35:14
billion instead of 300. He he's just and everybody else I was at
00:35:20
this one, you know, this quoteunquote big conference that shall go named a head of a huge athletic brand stood up
00:35:26
and said, "I'm [ __ ] I I can't figure out. We've been diversifying out of
00:35:32
China. We we we take our products to Vietnam and Malaysia and then we find out after rrooting our supply chain that
00:35:40
Vietnam's getting hit hard with these new tariffs, right?" and someone stood up and said, "I can coach you around how
00:35:46
to communicate with the White House." And a very, very intelligent journalist said, "This is where America
00:35:54
is." Right. Really, rich people have to coach less rich people on how to get favors from
00:36:01
the White House. That's right. That's exactly where we are. That's where we are. Yep. That's exactly where we are. Let me just say one more. The numbers are
00:36:07
really interesting. Um, so John Dwayne Johnson also opened a movie called Smashing Machine. It's $6 million is all
00:36:15
he made. And Showgirl, which was a cinematic experience. It was not a concert film. It wasn't a dock. It was
00:36:21
just a promotional stunt. Took in $46 million across uh the globe and she gets
00:36:28
a whole chunk of that. So I mean things are at you have to have events there ways to supersede these people who are
00:36:35
stealing your stuff. um or the White House that is trying to [ __ ] you by doing favors is is is a really bad
00:36:42
economic environment unless you have an event or something so good that people or a fan base so big that it's going to
00:36:49
make you money. It's really something. It really is. I have I listen I had a friend who's like I want to get on the
00:36:55
Tik Tok deal and that I after telling me how dirty it was, it's like I still want to get in on it. Like
00:37:01
I would have asked I I I said the same thing at this conference. So I raised my hand and said, "Can you give me advice on how Democratic professors can invest
00:37:07
in this Tik Tok deal? How do I get in on TikTok at 60% off?" Yeah, I'm in.
00:37:13
Yeah, exactly. This guy was like, "It's dirty, dirty, dirty. I want in." That kind of Oh, 100%. I don't want to disarm
00:37:19
unilaterally, but what's happening there's I mean, Hollywood's being so reshaped. And I was
00:37:25
thinking, I was adding up our numbers because I love to talk about how awesome we are. We get 400,000 downloads after a
00:37:31
month. We have 70% of the core demographic. The people are still in their mating ears and spending money on
00:37:37
stupid [ __ ] So that's 280,000 280,000 people in the core demographic.
00:37:43
Do you know what CNN prime time gets in the core demographic on average? 26,000
00:37:48
87,000. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, we're getting triple the number of people in the core demographic. Granted,
00:37:54
it's only for an hour and 10 minutes, and they're on for 4 hours. But what do you think the cost of the means of production is for four hours of
00:38:00
prime time CNN? Got it. We're not nearly as good-looking. We don't have nearly as good of makeup. The
00:38:05
sets aren't as good. Fine. But this is you are going to see cable
00:38:11
news. Cable news and the big screen, quote unquote TV, are going to be companies owned by billionaires. And I
00:38:18
keep meeting documentary filmmakers. And I'm like, "Oh, that means your husband's rich." which does not go over well.
00:38:24
doesn't um it means you're married to someone very wealthy and but the the big screen
00:38:32
going away and I do think that there is something there is a social
00:38:40
there's a social need the the the middle class creative community in Southern
00:38:45
California is a really valuable important part they've made so much magic they have
00:38:51
just as we bailed out the automobile companies I I think we should be thinking about a thoughtful means of
00:38:56
transferring some capital back from Northern California to Southern California. They're not going to do that. They're not going to do that. Well, they don't have any political
00:39:02
power. David Zazlov and Bob Iger aren't aren't having aren't aren't giving the rubbing tug to
00:39:09
President Trump. They're not invited. All he does is get angry at him and they bend over and give
00:39:14
him 14 million bucks. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll see. All right. Uh, let's go on a quick break and when
00:39:21
we come back, Elon's Netflix boycott. Uh, Scott, we're back with more news. Let's talk about what Elon has been up
00:39:27
to lately. First off, Netflix stock is down 4% in the last 5 days at the time of this taping after Elon urged followers to cancel subscriptions over
00:39:34
animated show that features a trans character. The show Dead End Paranormal Park was cancelled in 2023 after two
00:39:41
seasons. Um, you know, again, it was also over the over the over the threat
00:39:46
by Trump to uh tax um to tariff uh movies. Uh but you know, he's carrying
00:39:52
on his little boycotts all over the place. Secondly, meanwhile, uh newly unveiled testimony revealed that SpaceX
00:39:58
took money from Chinese investors despite having close ties to the US military. A major SpaceX investor said
00:40:03
in a deposition that some of the Chinese investors are listed as shareholders. In March, ProPublica reported that SpaceX
00:40:09
allows Chinese investors to buy a stake in the company as long as the funds are rooted through offshore hubs. Um, they
00:40:15
also, one of the things that I want to add, now these are three different things. SpaceX acquisition of Telecom,
00:40:20
Echo Stars, Spectrum writes, a recent Washington Post opinion piece highlights how the deal could change between state
00:40:26
and citizen citizens. The buy allows for direct satellite to smartphone connectivity without terrestrial in
00:40:32
infrastructure. with the acquisition, SpaceX now controls enough spectrum to supply commercial uh mobile services
00:40:38
globally. Uh they're very good at that as you have pointed out. So start with the first one, the transing. I just
00:40:43
think he's a terrible person and he should be call and apologize to his daughter. That's he's just a terrible
00:40:50
person and a terrible parent and he's obsessed with trans issues in a way that's makes JK Rowling look reasonable.
00:40:57
Uh this the second one of course he's taking money from Chinese investors because well and the last one I think is
00:41:04
a really important story but go ahead you go first. Well I just I don't remember the last one but I take money from you know how I
00:41:10
feel about this. I think I I think that I I opt for the material and
00:41:17
psychological well-being of Americans above almost everything else. And I like
00:41:22
taking capital from almost anybody. And as long as you put in a place that they can't control stuff, I I think the
00:41:29
Americans don't realize the connection between their prosperity and the fact that our cost of cap you can't get a
00:41:35
mortgage in Argentina. You just there's no such thing as a mortgage market in Argentina. You can't buy a h so how many
00:41:41
people can buy a house when you can't borrow to b to buy a house because there's no capital flowing into Argentina.
00:41:47
So I'm kind of like cash their check, put in safeguards such that they can't control the media. But I like the fact
00:41:52
that we have huge capital inflows and I find that a lot of times people on the left are not focused enough on our
00:41:58
economic well-being and want to virtue signal. Having said that, let's go to the the one of the greatest exports
00:42:05
unfortunately now, not the greatest, the biggest exports of the United States is American citizens like Elon Musk
00:42:12
exporting political division. Yeah. There was a rally here in the UK and
00:42:18
and Elon Musk shows up. I want Britain to be great again. It's like Jesus Christ, we're we're exporting this
00:42:23
[ __ ] right? I think the commercial opportunity, the Chevrolet Equinox EV is the third
00:42:30
bestselling. If I were Chevrolet, I would be making lie to this and say, "Buy any Chevrolet EV. Free lifetime
00:42:36
subscription to Netflix." Oh, yeah. I would just I I would
00:42:42
I like targeted economic strikes. I'm a fan of it now over political issues. I I
00:42:48
just think that's that's what he says he's doing. I assume, right? Correct. Yeah. Uh more power, you know, fine. I
00:42:54
don't believe I don't believe in why he's doing it, but I think that Chevrolet and Netflix should strike back. I think Ted Sando should say,
00:43:01
"We're offering free Netflix for anyone who buys these the other seven bestselling EVs." He's smarter than
00:43:08
that. He's not going to weigh into this. He's just gonna ignore it. Because I'll tell you one thing, uh people may love
00:43:13
their Tesla, they love their Netflix more. They do. I mean, it's like I do love my Netflix.
00:43:20
Oh, it's fantastic. I do love my Netflix. It's fantastic. Unfortunately, I've been subject to Wednesday. God, that's a lot
00:43:25
a lot of talent in that. Yeah, a lot of talent in Wednesday. Anyways, um I I don't I I think that
00:43:33
also I think for the most part Elon Musk has only been in the news like every 48
00:43:38
hours, and I think he hates that. So, I think this goes nowhere. I think this is a bit of a non-event.
00:43:43
Yeah. And what about the um what about the Echoar thing? That to me was really interesting. The ability to offer cell
00:43:49
phones, big deal. I think it strikes me that I would hate to be
00:43:55
Verizon or AT&T right now. So I'm an investor in Andrew Yang's MBNO,
00:44:00
Noble Mobile, but basically essentially since the cost to build out and this is
00:44:06
good. I think this is good regulation. the cost to build out a cellular network and broadband is so expensive that these
00:44:14
companies convinced regulators to say there's going to be a small number of them and they said fine but they said if
00:44:21
there's only going to be two or three global national networks you have to be able to lease them out at competitive
00:44:26
rates to MBNO so Mint Mobile is basically renting the same network that
00:44:32
that Andrew is at noble mobile and they come up with different features different like Andrew's company is
00:44:39
saying, "We'll give you money back if you're not on your phone." Like, "Get off your phone." And I think that's the
00:44:45
way to do regulation. I would hate to be AT&T and Verizon right now because
00:44:51
whether it's WhatsApp, which is now I think the largest telco in the world and the ability of new technologies to
00:44:57
communicate kind of seamlessly using ubiquitous technology and not I mean
00:45:03
carrot my AT&T bill I'm not I'm not exaggerating here. my AT&T bill each
00:45:09
month and I'm switching to Noble next week. Of course, I've got to find someone young to help me actually figure out how to switch my phone service. It's
00:45:16
four to I know. Well, here I am. Here I am. Call me. It's I I don't I I'm scared of my
00:45:23
microwave. Anyways, it's $4 to $600 a month. I'm spending $400 to $600 a month
00:45:28
on AT&T. Yeah. And And Andrew called me and said, "I think we can get you down. I have to get
00:45:34
the international plan and all that." It thinks I think I can get it down to 70 or 80 bucks. And by the way, it's going to rest on the same network. Well,
00:45:40
actually, it'll rest on the T-Mobile network, not the AT&T network. So, AT&T and Verizon have been terrible
00:45:46
performing stocks because they have a cost infrastructure and overhead that just doesn't recognize what's happened.
00:45:52
I do cuz I have all my kids on mine and it's a lot of money. It's a lot of [ __ ] money. Like, it really is. I'm
00:45:58
like, what am I paying for exactly? There's there's a huge Speaking of opportunity, there's a huge opportunity. I think this is a really smart thing.
00:46:05
The thing the thing is it's attached to Elon again and even but then Starlink does really well even though it's attached to Elon because it's a superior
00:46:11
product and Tesla is no longer a superior product is the is the issue and when you have a choice
00:46:17
uh you you go with the one who doesn't irritate you hugely. Um but you're right you're right this is interesting one
00:46:23
quick thing I think we have to talk about Instagram safety measures for kids uh are woefully inadequate according to
00:46:28
a new report from former Meta whistleblower along with nonprofit groups. The report evaluated 47 of
00:46:34
Meta's 53 safety features for teens and found a majority were no longer available or ineffect or they were
00:46:40
ineffective. Meta has called the report misleading and dangerously speculative. Um, you know, I'm going to hear from
00:46:46
them after we talk about this, but um, uh, you know, are they this is I think
00:46:52
it goes to the heart of what Scott and I talk about is they are going to make things safe for kids. It's almost
00:46:57
impossible to make them safe for kids, but from a cost perspective, they cannot like there's so many holes in all these
00:47:04
things. Um that it's I I think it's an impossible thing. And as Scott and I have talked about, they should not be
00:47:10
serving young people. They have no responsibility. They've shown themselves not to have responsibility. And even
00:47:16
when they're trying, it's hard to do. So, I I I just it creates a really bad
00:47:21
situation for young people on these social media networks, which are pound-for-pound negative uh for our
00:47:26
kids. They're not very positive for us either. Um in some cases they are um to
00:47:32
be fair. Uh your thoughts um about their ability to make things safe for young
00:47:37
people? Well, to me that this is pretty simple. No one under the age of 16 should be
00:47:44
allowed on a social media platform. And if it we find out that your agegating isn't I I can be talking about our pivot
00:47:52
tour and I get served an ad for our pivot tour, but they claim they can't they can't agegate. No one under the age
00:47:58
of 16 on a social media platform. No one under the age of 18 can engage in a synthetic relationship. Full stop. Let's
00:48:05
not no more safety protocols. No more technology. No more no more parental
00:48:10
controls. These things are we agegate alcohol, pornography, the military, motorcycles, R-rated content,
00:48:18
the damage these things have done. And the unfortunate thing is that you say, well, they come in with the argument
00:48:24
around parenting. Well, this is about good parenting. You don't want your kids on screens, don't let them on it. Here's the problem. If you take your kid off a
00:48:32
snap and every other kid is still on SNAP, that kid actually ends up more depressed because he's isolated. Unless
00:48:37
this is collective action from the government or from schools, it's not going to work.
00:48:43
Yeah. And there's just evidence everywhere showing that when social went on mobile, things got worse for teens,
00:48:49
right? So, this is an easy one. If if we outlawed if we made it such that
00:48:54
you kids I mean the reality is kids smoking if you quit smoking by the time you're
00:49:00
30 you're okay. Your rates of cancer are the same as someone who never smoked. But the
00:49:06
problem is you can get addicted. A 15-year-old smoking cigarettes that is less dangerous than a 15-year-old in my
00:49:13
view on Instagram. Yeah. And so, all right, look what we did to cigarettes. Why is it taking us so long
00:49:19
with social? And typically, I think it's about to happen. And it is happening, I think, largely because of Jonathan
00:49:24
Height's book, The Anxious Generation. But generally speaking, society takes 20 years. It takes it took us 20 years with
00:49:30
cigarettes. It took us 20 years with opiates. And it feels like the iPhone has taken us about 20 years.
00:49:37
Yeah, I agree. But I think it's happening. But all this nonsense around parental controls and parenting, no, no, no. Easy. Under the
00:49:44
age of 16, no social media. Under the age of 18, no synthetic relationship. They're always going to get caught out on these things. It's And parental
00:49:50
controls. I am really good at it and they're not good. And let me say, there was a great piece actually on CBS this
00:49:56
morning on uh on on schools without phones. They are happier. They are happier. Everyone's happier without
00:50:01
them. Actually, one of my sons, I'm not going to say which one, wrote me and and was being a little crazy on the phone about some topics and and he was and he
00:50:09
wrote me a little bit later. He texted me. He goes, "You know, I'm on this phone too much. It's making me crazy."
00:50:14
Like, and I was like, "Yes, thank you." Like, he he self- diagnosed himself and he's older. Um, but he was uh it got him
00:50:22
all going, right? It got him all like like that kind of thing. And so, you
00:50:27
can't help but doom scroll and be angry. And it happens to all of us, including
00:50:32
me. I actually have, interestingly enough, my threads is so full of like cooking and ASMR that I hardly ever see
00:50:40
news on it, which is interesting. Um, which I which I like, right? It's actually very calming and I don't ever
00:50:46
see angry stuff, but Scott and I are pretty clear on this. And by the way, Jonathan Hate's book is
00:50:52
uh I think is critically important to this, but your book we'll be talking about a lot on the tour, so we'll be talking about these topics. Uh, notes,
00:51:00
notes on being a man. Is that correct? Notes on being a man. Uh, thanks for that. Yeah. Yeah, we'll be talking. It's during
00:51:05
Scott's uh uh debut week and we hope to get it to the number one on the New York Times bestseller list with our tour and
00:51:11
everything else. Care, I don't I don't give into the commercial metrics of a modern day. I still want it's my personal
00:51:17
I just hope that I just hope that people find some reward in it. All right, Scott, one more quick break.
00:51:23
Uh, we'll be back for wins and fails. Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails.
00:51:29
Um, I just wanted to try and wrap a win and fail into discussing a little bit
00:51:34
about um Trump's quote unquote compact that offers preferential treatment to
00:51:41
compliant colleges. First off, that's a bit of a misnomer. What they're threatening to do is take away federal
00:51:46
funding from universities that don't sort of sign up for certain
00:51:51
um sign up to certain protocols. and I'll go through each of them just sort of quickly and provide a viewpoint. The
00:51:58
first is I think I depart a little bit from some of some of the uh responses from
00:52:04
the last and that is I do think generally speaking that if the federal government is going to give you billions
00:52:09
of dollars they should have input. However, that input needs to be discussed in Congress and passed as laws
00:52:15
that apply to all colleges because at a minimum in 3 years and two months a lot of this [ __ ] just might be reversed. So
00:52:22
this is just darting back and forth trying to figure out what to do. Also, there's a lot of evidence showing that
00:52:27
the funding that these universities get for research has been arguably the best investment in the history of the planet
00:52:33
around pharmaceuticals and technology. But anyways, having said that, uh some of the things they want to do, they want
00:52:39
to make uh admissions basically um gender, ethnicity, race, and political
00:52:46
view blind. And I don't have a problem with that because basically the Supreme
00:52:51
Court has already said that's that's what's that's what it has to be. Um I do
00:52:56
believe in affirmative action but I believe it should be based on income not based on any observable
00:53:02
um characteristic or uh sexual orientation to marketplace of ideas and civil
00:53:08
discourse. They're forcing them to commit to fostering a vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus requiring an intellectually
00:53:15
open campus environment with a broad spectrum of ideological viewpoints present and no single ideology dominant
00:53:21
both along political and other relevant lines. I want to acknowledge that universities have done a really poor job
00:53:30
of fmenting and supporting ideological diversity. Having said that, I don't see
00:53:35
how you legislate any attempt to legislate it really is thought control. And just as the cops, police forces, and
00:53:42
the military probably lean conservative, universities are always going to lean progressive. That's just the way it is.
00:53:49
Now, should 90 plus% of your faculty be Democrats, that probably says you need
00:53:54
to broaden the spectrum a little bit. I've also seen some bullying on campus where anything outside a certain
00:54:01
narrative is really frowned upon. But I don't see how you implement this sort of thought control. Non-discrimination in
00:54:08
hiring institutions will not be allowed to consider factors such as sex, ethnicity, race, national origin,
00:54:13
disability or religion. I'm I'm quite frankly I'm comfortable with that. I think that that universities what I've
00:54:21
seen in terms of promotions and faculty is that it is not it is not strict it's
00:54:27
mostly merit but a lot of times it's not merit and but again there's a better
00:54:35
solution here and the solution quite frankly would be getting rid of tenure because the biggest problem is we don't have enough room for young faculty to
00:54:41
come up through the ranks because old inefficient faculty uh will not leave
00:54:47
student learning learning universities must must commit to combating grade inflation. I don't even know what that means. Student equality institutions
00:54:53
must commit to defining and otherwise interpreting male, female, women, and men. You know, people ask me all the
00:54:59
time if I'm Jewish and I because they say you're an atheist and I say I'm Jewish. I'm like, "Well, you're bar mitzvah." No. And they say, "Well, are
00:55:04
you really Jewish?" I'm like, "Well, I get to present as whatever the [ __ ] I want." And my view is anyone if you want
00:55:10
to present people should be able to just present as they want. So, I don't I don't understand why what the big deal is
00:55:17
around not letting people I've always said with respect to pronouns, I do
00:55:22
think it's a little bit stupid, but if you want me to call you they, I have no problem with that. That's it's not a big
00:55:28
give. I'll be just fine. You're not infringing on my rights. Then the the
00:55:34
big one the one that bothers me the most is that foreign entanglements one of the
00:55:39
conditions is that uh the compact requires that no more than 15% of a university's undergraduate student
00:55:45
population basically shall be foreigners. Okay, that actually won't have that much effect at the
00:55:50
undergraduate level because most universities are not above 15%. It will have a huge impact at the graduate schools where we get a lot. And this is
00:55:57
so contrary to everything they're trying to do because the ultimate luxury item in the world is
00:56:06
not a Rolex watch. It's not a Ferrari. It's sending your kids to an elite university. Well, you will pay, no joke,
00:56:12
between housing and tuition, a half a million dollars into the American economy to send your kid to a foreign
00:56:19
university, an American university where he or she will love America and go back and create connective tissue between us
00:56:25
and foreign nations. And at 90 points plus of gross margin, this is the
00:56:31
ultimate high margin export and our ability. Just as I was saying, I love the idea of
00:56:36
foreign capital coming into the US. I love the idea of human capital coming into the US a bet. And then the final
00:56:43
one is they've said they can't raise their prices for five years. I hate price controls from mom dami. I hate
00:56:48
price controls from Trump. There a lot of this in my opinion gets it the right
00:56:55
idea. But as as always, it is the wrong execution with a secretary of education
00:57:00
who ran a [ __ ] wrestling league. If you want to bring prices down, you break
00:57:06
the cartel. For example, early decision should not be allowed because if someone goes ed in hopes of getting a higher
00:57:13
chance of being admitted, once they're admitted, they have no ability to shop around and shop for prices. Universities
00:57:20
should not be raising their tuitions in lock step. Universities should not be sharing information on financial aid
00:57:25
because all they're doing is transferring leverage from the consumer, the parents, and the kids such that they
00:57:31
can't shop around and get the best price. If you are not growing your freshman class faster than in population
00:57:36
growth, you lose your taxfree status because you're no longer a public servant. You're a hedge fund of the class. There are easier ways, better
00:57:43
ways, more competitive ways to get it bringing the prices down than price
00:57:48
caps. We want as many as full freight paying foreign students as possible.
00:57:54
This is the be one of the highest margin exports we have. And the idea of thought
00:57:59
control, I just thought, it just goes to weird places. And by the way, if this isn't done through
00:58:04
Congress, guess what? President Moore, President Nuome,
00:58:10
President Basher, they're just going to dial all this [ __ ] back. Right. Exact. It's useless. It's
00:58:15
useless. And it's such This is their shot, I think. All right. Do you have a Oh, was that the win or fail? We have to
00:58:20
get moving. So Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Your turn. What is What is your Is that your win and fail? Yeah, I just I wrapped them. I wrapped
00:58:27
them. Okay. I have I have uh two. Obviously, speaking of thought control, I think my
00:58:32
fail is watching um watching what Open AI did here with this back and forth on
00:58:38
copyright. What a mess. What a ridiculous thievery. I'm sorry. I accused Facebook of it. I've accused uh
00:58:44
Google of it. Same thing. This is just ridiculous. You respect copyright. You do not try to build a business up of
00:58:49
other people's things and then act like it's no big deal. It is a big deal. You're stealing other people's things
00:58:55
and the things that are most attractive on your site are copyrighted material that you didn't make. If you want to
00:59:00
make new things, good for you. That's great. But otherwise, you're thieves. You're, as Walt Mossberg says again and
00:59:07
again, they were rapacious information thieves. You don't own this. Get your dirty mitts off of it or pay the people
00:59:12
who made it in the first place. You're killing people's jobs. you're also not going to take their seed corn at the
00:59:18
same time. Um, and I hope that I hope there's all kinds of lawsuits um to do so. And unfortunately, people have to
00:59:24
sue and that puts them at on their back feet, especially when their industries are dying. Um, for my win, obviously
00:59:31
Taylor Swift, I I would recommend watching the Fate of Oilia official music video. It's fantastic. It's a
00:59:37
really great album. I know a lot of white guys are like, "Okay, it's really great, but like they all the reviews are
00:59:43
like you and your identity politics." Ridiculous. They write this. They're like, "This woman is spectacular." And
00:59:50
yet and yet they can't possibly just give her a win. And by the way, 46 billion million dollars at the box
00:59:56
office. That's all I have to say. And in that reign of winning, I also love this guy. There's two things. One is the
01:00:02
Pope. Fantastic winner. um is is this YouTube greeter guy named Troy Hawk who
01:00:08
goes around and compliments people and he's built a huge following. I would recommend you watching him. It is so
01:00:14
enjoyable. If I had ankles like that, they would also be on full display. You know what I'm talking about. I love
01:00:20
your shades. You're like a benign motorcycle cop. And I like the way that you're embracing unlikely concepts and
01:00:26
conversations seamlessly just jumping on board my train. This is where social media shines, where
01:00:32
people like this are there. Like whether it's Taylor Swift providing great content, whether it's the YouTube
01:00:37
festival greeter guy, whether it's the Pope. Let me tell you, there's a quote I'm going to read to you, Scott
01:00:42
Galloway, that is very it's probably a little over your head, but I'm I'm going to read it anyway. Where is it? Um uh
01:00:49
there is not any advantage to be won from grim lamentation. That's from
01:00:55
Homer. Let's not be grim lamentators here, guys. I don't think that's a word.
01:01:00
Make things win at win at the bottom. Is that something you talk about at your favorite bar in DC? No. No. I'm just saying don't be [ __ ]
01:01:07
grim about it. This ICE people fight back. Be don't sit around. Can we go from Taylor Swift to Ice? What
01:01:13
are we doing here? I am just saying lament. Make things that matter that people buy that do well
01:01:18
economically. Say things that are are lovely to people. Make them feel better. Win by hope. That's all I'm saying. Win
01:01:25
by being great. That's what I would say. Win. Win by being great. Word sister. Word sister. No lamentation. We are not
01:01:33
going to do that. These ice people, [ __ ] them. Let's figure out a way to win.
01:01:38
Okay. Reminds me of my favorite poem. There once was a girl from Nantucket. Oh, wait. Never mind. Never mind.
01:01:44
Grim lamentation. We shall not have it. Um I I I noticed you didn't mention your former firm getting dumped by Cracker
01:01:50
Barrel, which is your firm. I forgot about that. Profit, right? I forgot about that. So, well, I came
01:01:57
very quickly tell the story rather quickly. I went to work with Morgan Stanley. Hated it and they hated me. Well, I did
01:02:04
okay there. So, I went back to business school. Business school is for the elite and the aimless. And my second year, I took this course called Brand Strategy
01:02:10
with David Aer. Changed my life and I decided in my second year of business school to start a business called Profit
01:02:15
Brand Strategy and was there for 10 years. Sold my stake. Very proud of it.
01:02:20
It's now I think 6 or 700 people and it ends up they were the brand strategy firm who recommended the logo change
01:02:27
and now they're the sacrificial lamb. They just got fired by Cracker Barrel cuz how does a logo become politicized?
01:02:33
I'm not entirely I don't know what happened there but everyone was emailing me based on you the Cracker Barrel guy I
01:02:39
guess cuz he's bald. Yeah, it was clearly it was clearly a nod to me. I'm like at that firm I'm like Trosky. The CEO was a difficult
01:02:47
person and and basically got killed. You got like my name shall not be mentioned at
01:02:52
profit anymore. They had a 30-year re get this. They had a 20-year reunion and then they didn't invite me. I started it
01:02:58
when I was 20 and now it's a Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel. Now it's been fired by
01:03:03
Cracker Barrel, which is a unique designation for a company. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your
01:03:08
question about business, tech, or whatever is on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show or
01:03:14
call 85551 pivot. And reminder, we're going on tour. We're going to be in Toronto. sold out. Sorry.
01:03:20
Toronto, Toronto, Toronto, Boston, New York, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and LA. Visit pivot
01:03:27
tour.com for tickets. Our show, our tickets are being scalped. They went for 65 bucks. Now they're
01:03:32
going for scalpers and third party sellers. We should have added more nights in certain cities. It's Canadian, so it's like eight bucks.
01:03:38
We're not fans of scalpers. Uh but uh but we we're going to sell out. We are going to sell out, so buy soon. Um, and
01:03:44
elsewhere in the Carara and Scott universe, this week on On with Cara Swisser, I spoke with makeup mogul Bobby
01:03:50
Brown. Let's listen to a clip where she talks about the running of her company. I used to interview every single person,
01:03:56
you know, not every person, but most of the people I would interview. And when all of a sudden these people started
01:04:01
showing up and like, "Hi, I'm your new head of international. Hi, I'm this." And I'm like, "Excuse me?
01:04:07
I didn't meet them. Well, we we we think they're going to be the best for the brand. We think this.
01:04:12
we think this. So I wasn't included in what to me was important which you know
01:04:19
was running and growing the brand and when I left it was a billion dollars. It was a growing growing brand. She sold
01:04:26
her her company to Estee Lauder and then eventually after decades lost control of it and then started Jones Road. She's a
01:04:33
really interesting entrepreneur. It's a great discussion. Uh okay that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be
01:04:38
sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday. Scott, read us out.
01:04:43
Today's show was produced by Lara Neman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie or Todd engineered this episode. Jim ML
01:04:50
edited the video. Thanks also to Dubose, Miss and Dan Shalon, the Shock Karas, Vox Media's executive producer of
01:04:55
podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York
01:05:00
Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com/pod.
01:05:06
We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Carol, I'll see you later in the week.